Top 10 Mass Makers for Lanky Lifters

You know the typical mass building advice: emphasize big compound lifts and progressive overload. However, using exercises you’re not structurally suited for can quickly turn you into a non-gainer. This is especially true for lanky, long-limbed lifters. If you want build muscle, you need to make every exercise count. Use these effective and structurally-friendly variations of the classic exercises. 1. Safety Bar Squat, Holding Rack For building mass, squats are king. However, when long-limbed hardgainers try to back squat, if often looks like an ugly good morning. Switching to a safety squat bar (holding the squat rack) is a game changer. Benefits The padded yoke takes stress off your shoulders. The bar design moves the weight forward like a front squat. This means less stress on your spine and more on your quads. Holding the rack helps you keep a more upright torso. This makes your squat look more like the pretty squats of someone with a good squat structure. It also adds some extra stability to the lift, which lets you lift more weight for more reps. Tips For big legs, don’t sit back like a powerlifter. Instead spread your knees and sit down. Drive your traps into the bar pad as you come out of the hole. If you start leaning forward to recruit more low back and hips, use your hands to push the weight back over your feet and make your quads do the work. Don’t cheat with your arms. You’re trying to build your legs, not your ego. Good alternatives: Machine squat, leg press, Zercher squat, hip belt squat. 2. Romanian Deadlift with Hook Grip While regular deadlifts are fantastic for building overall strength, Romanian deadlifts rule for packing mass onto your posterior chain. Use a hook grip or straps for this. Benefits EMG research shows it’s one of the best hamstring exercises (1). It’s hard to do, but easy to add 5 pounds a week on for a long time! Great for building your upper back and traps. Keeps continuous tension on the muscles. It’s easier on your lower back than the traditional stiff-legged or straight-leg deadlift because you maintain a neutral low-back position. By starting from a rack at the top, your body structure doesn’t matter. Tips Use straps or a hook grip so you can focus on your hamstrings, use more weight, and get more reps. Take the weight from a rack (or deadlift the first rep if no rack). Unlock your knees, then push your hips back until you get a good hamstrings stretch. Stop the downward movement just before you have to bend at your spine. Resist the urge to let your knees go forward at the bottom. This takes tension off your hamstrings and turns the lift into a quarter-squat holding a barbell. Don’t overdo the hip lockout at the top unless you’re trying to make this a glute exercise. Good alternatives: Trap bar deadlift (touch and go), back extension (45 degree), glute-ham raise. Notes: Using a trap bar for deadlifts will hit your hamstrings less, but they’re still a great total-body mass builder. Back extensions and glute ham raises are also excellent hamstring builders, but they won’t have a huge impact on total-body muscle growth. 3. Chest Dip On Rings With long arms, most hardgainers find that bench presses beat up their shoulders long before they build up their pecs. Chest dips are an amazing mass builder and they can be even better when you do them on rings. Benefits The rings allow you to have the perfect hand position for your individual structure, which reduces shoulder stress. Your chest has to work even harder to keep the rings from moving out. It’s not as unstable as you might think. Because your arms are on the straps, they’ll provide some stability. Tips Wear a long sleeve shirt so the ring straps don’t shred the skin on your upper arms. Test your natural range of motion by standing sideways to a mirror. Lean forward like you’re doing a chest dip. Now bring your elbows back as if doing a dip. Stop when you run out of range. That’s your natural range. Keep the ring height lower so you can bail yourself out with your feet if something goes wrong. At first you’ll be really shaky with these. Don’t worry, your body will quickly figure it out. Just go extra slow while you’re learning the movement. Lean forward as you come down to emphasize your pecs. Squeeze your pecs as you press down on the rings to raise your body. Dips aren’t for everyone. If they bother your shoulders, explore other alternatives. Good alternatives: Chest dip on V-bar setup, dumbbell bench press (flat, low incline or slight decline), weighted push-up. 4. Trap Bar Bent Over Row Bent over rows are a classic upper-back mass builder and they work even better with a trap bar. Benefits The trap bar moves the weight from in front of you back to your midline, which takes stress off your lower back. Because your knees don’t get in the way of the bar, you can use more legs and less low back to support the weight. The neutral hand grip of the trap bar brings the elbows closer
Origin: Top 10 Mass Makers for Lanky Lifters