Shaping Muscle
A term commonly used amongst most fitness amateurs is "Shaping Muscle". Well, can you really shape a muscle? No, you cannot. You can make a muscle grow, but you can't shape it as if it were a piece of clay. The structure of your muscle is all genetic and cannot be manipulated. Sure, it's important to do exercises that target all of the different angles of a muscle, but the shape of your muscle is genetic and you're stuck with what you have. So instead of using the term "Shaping muscle" or "Shape a muscle" use the more correct terminology, "Building muscle".
Targeting Every Area of a Muscle
The diversity of your exercises that you choose for each muscle group is an important aspect of building muscle. For example, if you want the best chest possible, you wouldn't only do flat barbell press. You need a variety of exercises that will fully work every aspect of the muscle, every bit of muscle fiber. There are many different exercises to choose from for each muscle group. Here is a useful list of the best exercises for each bodypart:
Chest- Flat Barbell Press
- Incline Barbell Press
- Decline Barbell Press
- Flat Dumbbell Press
- Incline Dumbbell Press
- Decline Dumbbell Press
- Flat Dumbbell Flies
- Incline Dumbbell Flies
- Fly Machine
- Cable Flies
Back
- Deadlifts
- Barbell Rows
- Dumbbell Rows
- Lat PullDowns
- Pullups
- Seated Cable Rows
- Seated Machine Rows
Shoulders
- Dumbbell Shoulder Press
- Barbell Shoulder Press
- Side Lateral Raises
- Front Lateral Raises
- Bentover Lateral Raises
- Upright Rows
- Reverse Fly Machine
- Arnold Press
Biceps
- Dumbbell Curls
- Barbell Curls
- Preacher Curls
- Reverse Curls
- Hammer Curls
- Cable Curls
Triceps
- Skull Crushers
- French Press
- Close-Grip Bench
- Kickbacks
- Dips
- Cable PushDowns
- Rope Extensions
Legs
- Squats (Deep, Parallel, Front)
- Leg Press
- Hack Squats
- Barbell/Dumbbell Lunges
- Leg Extensions
- Leg Curls
- Seated Calf Raises
- Standing Calf Raises
Now these are just the primary exercises and are more than sufficient to help "Shape Muscle", oops I mean, build muscle! You should generally aim to train atleast two and no more than four to five of these exercises per body part. The amount of sets and reps depends on the type of muscle fiber you have. There are two distinct versions of muscle fiber which are slow twitch and fast twitch. Fast twitch fibers are good for explosive strength (low sets, low reps, few exercises, less frequency, and heavy weight), the opposite applies to those who are slow twitch. If you have great endurance, you can consider yourself a slow twitch person, therefore you'd operate at 55-70% of maximum weight and with higher reps, etc...
If you have no idea what most of those exercises are, or how to perform them, we offer over 60 different video clips with step by step instructions. We can also help prepare a suitable workout plan and a diet plan as well. Interested? Start here to recieve an instant free physical analysis.