Best exercise for mass?

ok heres the beef. First, the weakest link will always be grip. Then, If you are doing deadlifts with a made up eccentric (as it inherently does not really have one), you have 2 options. the Stiff legged way is dangerous at high loads, plus you now have a very smal group of musculature that you are working, hams and glutes and lower back (and remember, the eccentric is what causes a majority of muscle catabolism), so that is no longer an option. Look, i will get back to you on the “regular” eccentric. BTW if you want something that is kinematically the same as a deadlift, but on your back— its a good morning, not squat. In the end, back squats recruit and “work” more large muscles than the deadlift at a very high load.

Deadlifts hands down. Dman, if you don’t think that deads work the legs, then you’re not using proper form. Stay back on your heels, squeeze your tris before pulling, and keep your lower back in a tight arch. It will do the trick.

Dman, unless you drop the bar out of your hands when you reach the top of the concentric portion of the lift, it has an eccentric portion. The eccentric portion is where you lower the weight. It simply comes after the concentric portion in a DL, which is the reverse of a squat. The back squat may tax the leg muscles more than a DL, but the DL uses more overall muscle than a back squat because much of the upper back musculature is involved. So, in my opinion, it’s the DL, followed closely by the back squat. Kind of a weird question though, considering most people do both squats and deadlifts, so it’s not like you’re limited to one exercise.

Hell Yeah boys, Deads are where it’s at, because as someone else mentioned, it has a very similar basic movement to the squat, but you are also recruiting a lot of other muscles because you’re holding the bar. I would suspect that a lot of the Squat advocates don’t Deadlift, give it a shot, I think I about double in size after a Deadlift workout.

The movement that heats me up the fastest is heavy dumbell squats with shoulder rolls.

Probably tricep kickbacks errrrrr…For me personally, I get the best results from heavy stiff-legged deads/ good mornings as it hits the entire posterior chain from head to toe. However, if I was going to tell a newbie what the best exercise for muscle growth is, I would have to say squats and deads.

I’d say Trap Bar deads. Squats work more quads, but deads work more of the upper back as was mentioned. Since you are in the middle of the contraption, you get the best of both worlds-pretty equal stimulation all over.

Nothing gets me like deads and power cleans. - PJ

Just a reply to the “grip being the limiting factor” in deads: You can keep the involvement of the upper back and eliminate the grip limitation by using either an opposed grip (one hand pronated, one hand supinated), or straps. If using the opposed grip, be sure toswitch hands from one set to the next (or one workout to the next). I’ve used both methods on various cycles. Straps aren’t legal for competition, but I think the opposed grip is.

The Snatch. I’ve actually read that it is one of the best exercises for your entire body. It requires explosive power, speed, strength, flexibility and coordination. Poliquin recommends it as one of the best ways to test someone’s athletic skill. In addition to the snatch, you have squats, deads and clean & jerks as some of the best overall mass and power builders. If you want to get specific, you can break things up into upper and lower body. But the question is which is the SINGLE best exercise.