Focus on the Best Muscles to Target for Mass

When designing the right mass gaining routine for you, it’s important to hone in on the best muscles to target for mass. In my post Training for Massive Gains: Really Powerful Tips, I laid out a framework to select the right exercises. Consider the following if you want to really gain that massive look.

Nothing wrong with targeting show off muscles

You might call them the show off muscles, or maybe beach muscles or vanity muscles. Skinny people dream about having bulging biceps and a beefy wide chest one day. There’s nothing wrong with targeting those muscles when building mass. In fact, it’s a great thing to do, because those are major muscle groups meant to grow and add tons of quality gains to your physique. In addition, when starting out a training program, your biceps and chest will start to take shape quickly, which will give you that early confidence boost to keep going.

Don’t neglect other muscles for quick gains

Sure, the vanity muscles are fun to build and where we all probably start. However, think yin and yang. Everything needs balance and opposites. When you’re thinking of the best muscles to target for mass, you want to make sure your body is getting a complete workout.

For example, you may jump to bicep building as the best way to get sleeve stretching arms. Well, that would be leaving a ton of potential gains on the table. Biceps only make up a portion of your upper arms. In fact, the exact opposite muscle makes up a large portion of your arms and is absolutely necessary to fill your sleeves. Focus effort on getting massive triceps and you’ll see a major difference in your goals to gain mass.

Continuing on with the idea of building legendary arms, make sure deltoids are part of your training program. Your shoulders give you an overall frame. Big massive shoulders will give you that perfect super hero look. Small undeveloped shoulders, on the other hand, will make you look odd and weak, despite huge biceps.

Just as triceps provide a counter to biceps, so that you can fill a sleeve quickly, target back muscles to supplement your chest training. While your pecs grow in the front, your lats and traps will add thickness and width that will make you look like a beast even when you’re wearing a shirt. This is the same concept to grow your body in both directions at once. Personally, one of the best compliments I received when I was on my mass gaining journey was someone telling me my back looked massive in my dress shirt.

Your Body Wants to Go Proportionally

It’s true. Let’s say that you decide to train only your biceps and chest. You will probably start to see improvements relatively quickly. Both will get a little bigger and start to take on a more ideal shape. However, you will definitely hit a plateau and your growth will slow down significantly before you build the mass you are looking for. Your body thinks it only faces stresses on the muscles you train, and so it grows where it needs to, up to a limit, and stays stick skinny every where else.

Squats and deadlifts must be part of your training to hit the best muscles to target for mass. There are very important large muscles that need to grow if you want to gain mass overall- hamstrings, quadriceps, glutes. All of the information above focused on the upper body. If your body is looking to grow evenly throughout, you have to hit the lower body hard to signal to the body to grow everywhere. Leg workouts are shown to release growth hormones that trigger muscle building gains. This means working out your legs will actually pay dividends by helping you grow your chest, back, and arms way faster.

Take a look at the idols that you see with physiques that inspire you. Even the photos above show balanced frames with overall growth. No one actually looks like Popeye in real life. If you want to go from skinny to massive, it’s important to stimulate overall gains throughout your body. In my journey, I hated leg day, so I often skipped it. Learning to prioritize the power of leg training and what that does for my body helped me take my gains into overdrive.

What are your thoughts, questions or comments? Let me know!