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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

Tri-sets allow you to train multiple muscle groups back-to-back while allowing each muscle group to recover while you’re working another area. Not only is this a great way to build size and work capacity, it also helps maximize training time. The upper-body tri-sets here have been designed with the big-box gym member in mind. Each one uses the same piece of equipment, which makes it a useful option when you’re training at a crowded gym. Sets and Reps Since these tri-sets tend to involve isolation-type exercises, stay above 5 reps. Anything heavier than that makes it tough to avoid cheating. Do 2-3 sets of 6-15 reps per exercise in any given tri-set. Also, do tri-sets towards the end of your weight-training workout, which of course should include compound lifts. Dumbbell Tri-Set 1 These exercises go well together because they’re each performed back-to-back with a pair of dumbbells while lying on a flat bench. A – Flye B – Dumbbell Skull Crusher C – Dumbbell Pullover You can perform these exercises in any order of your choosing. That said, the order listed has a nice flow to it because finishing the last rep of the chest flye puts you in position to begin doing the skull crushers. Then, the final rep of the skull crushers flows right into doing the pullovers. Since the idea is to perform all three of these exercises back-to-back while lying on the bench, use a higher number of reps for the easier exercises (the ones you’re strongest at) and use a lower number of reps for the most difficult exercises (the ones you’re weakest at). Perform the pullovers holding two dumbbells parallel to one another instead of using both hands to hold one dumbbell. Holding two dumbbells should be more comfortable and less awkward on the shoulders. Dumbbell Tri-Set 2 A – Dumbbell Biceps Curl B – Triceps Kickback C – Shoulder A’s Since these exercises are performed standing, switching out dumbbells between exercises doesn’t interfere with the flow. You can grab a heavier set of dumbbells for the easier exercises (the ones you’re strongest at) and use a lighter set of dumbbells for the most difficult exercises (the ones you’re weakest at). Although you can perform this tri-set in any order you like, the order here works very well because it usually only requires you to change dumbbell loads once. You start off using the heavier dumbbells to perform the biceps curls and then switch to a lighter set to perform both the kickback and the A’s. Dumbbell Tri-Set 3 This one is also performed standing, so the same guidelines provided for the previous tri-set also apply here. A – One-Arm Overhead Triceps Extension B – Dumbbell 45-Degree Shoulder Raise C – Rear-Delt Flye The 45-degree shoulder raise serves as a nice middle ground between the conventional lateral raise and front raise. The order of the exercises is the preferred order for most people because it usually only requires them to change dumbbell load once. Start off with heavier dumbbell to perform the triceps extensions and switch to a lighter pair to do both shoulder movements. Cable Tri-Set 1 This tri-set involves rope handles attached at the top of a cable column (above your head). Perform the following exercises back-to-back: A – Rope Face Pull B – Rope Triceps Extension C – Compound Straight-Arm Pulldown Instead of performing the rope triceps extension, you can perform overhead rope triceps extensions (facing away from the cable column). Also, instead of doing the compound straight-arm pulldown, you can substitute straight-arm pulldowns with a rotation. Cable Tri-Set 2 This one involves a D-handle attached at the top of a cable column. A – Lateral Straight-Arm Pulldown B – High to Low Cable Chop C – One-Arm Triceps Extension Keep your torso fairly perpendicular to the cable column; don’t rotate your torso away from the cable column more than a few degrees as you reach the bottom of the range of motion. Doing so greatly reduces the rotational tension on your torso. For both of the cable tri-sets, switch the pin placement to use a heavier load on the easier exercises and use a lighter load for the most difficult exercises. Medicine Ball Tri-Set You’ll need a 6-12 pound rubber medicine ball (well-inflated) for this one. A – Medicine Ball Walkout B – Close Grip Push-Up on Medicine Ball C – One-Arm Medicine Ball Plank When performing the walkout, roll the ball out in front of you as far as possible without allowing your lower back to extend, or as far as possible without feeling discomfort in your lower back. When doing the close-grip push-ups, turn your hands outward so that your fingers point down towards the floor. Your elbows should be against your sides at the bottom of each push-up. When performing the one-arm plank, don’t allow your shoulders or hips to rotate, or your head or belly to sag towards the floor. Stability-Ball Tri-Set This one has a very intensive abdominal element to it. A – Stability-Ball Arch B –
Origin: 7 Tri-Sets For Mass