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There are hundreds of different exercises you can do with free weights and resistance machines or with just your body weight to build muscle mass. You should include mainly multi-joint compound exercises in your workout as they build muscle fastest. The most popular and effective of these are: dead lifts, squats, bench press, pull ups, shoulder presses and rows.

Whilst they are very effective your body needs to be constantly challenged in new and different ways if your goal is building lean muscle mass. Here are a few awesome exercises that are often overlooked yet work really well. From time to time try and include these exercises in your workouts. new reasons for your muscles to grow and the prevention of boredom setting in are achieved by adding variation to your workouts.

For skinny calve muscles have a go at skipping with a jump rope, donkey raises and running on the beach to trigger muscle growth. making use of ajump rope for skipping and also running on a sandy place bear foot will place great pressure on your calves to grow. Calf muscles tend to respond better to sets in the higher rep ranges as they are used a lot everyday for walking. donkey raises involves placing your feet on the edge of a block of wood, weights disc or step bending over at the waist to 90 degrees and resting your hands on a solid surface for support. A training partner or two then jump on to your back and you raise your body up and down by flexing your calf muscles. This exercise is more difficult than the usual machine calve exercises as you have to use stabiliser muscles to keep you steady whilst performing them.

When was the last time you did dips for your chest muscles? A great mass builder for the chest muscle is dips which are great for triceps also. For this exact exercise many older gyms have parallel bars. Different grips can be experimented with as they often form a v shape. This means that you can effectively target different areas of the chest and trciep muscles effectively.

What about doing stiff legged deadlifts to really punish your hamstrings. This exercise is really effective for the hamstrings yet used very little. The motion is the same as deadlifts but you must maintain straight legs throughout by bending at the waist, keeping a straight back and lifting the barbell upwards. Keep control of the weight by ensuring that it is close to your legs whilst raising it and be warned that this exercise can make your hamstrings very sore for the following day.

Experiment with hammer curls for bicep growth! These are the same as regular dumb bell curls only you keep the palm of your hand facing in towards the body throughout. This places great stress on the inner bicep muscle that gives it thickness and size throughout called the brachialis muscle whilst also still developing the main bicep too. Stand with your back straight and flat against the corner of a wall to prevent yourself from using moment to assist the movement for a real burn.

When was the last time you noticed anyone hitting their quads with lunges in the weights room? These are awesome for your quads providing both mass and shape. With a dumb bell in either hand take a good stride straight ahead and then bend both knees down to around 90 degress, step backwards returning to the start position and repeat on the other side. A great alternative to squats.

For developing muscle definition and for a great cardio workout how about trying boxing padwork great for the upper body or uphill sprints for your legs or hitting an exercise bike for uphill intervals after a leg workout. That is a real killer of a mass builder!

so go ahead and switch your workout around a little to include some of these great exercises for building lean muscle mass.