The Big Lifts!

One of the biggest mistakes I made early on when I started lifting is that I focused a lot of my time on isolation exercises. Things like preacher curls, flyes, and others that really only target smaller muscles. After doing more reading and studying about what is the best way to gain muscle, I realized that I really was doing things wrong. But even then, it took a while for me to actually start doing those things!

So what are the big lifts that you need to focus on if you're going to gain muscle? Basically, you need to focus on what are usually called multi-joint lifts. The standard big lifts include the bench press (barbell), squats, dead lifts, and others that involve more than one muscle group at a time. Focus your time on these and you're much more likely to gain muscle faster and more effectively than you ever will just doing isolation exercises.

Just to give you an idea on how important this is, lets take a look at Arnold Schwarzenegger's Basic Workout from his book "The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bobybuilding". Here are some of the lifts that he recommends for the basic level (basic bulking):
Chest - Bench Press, Incline Press, Pullovers
Back - Chin ups, Bent Over Barbell Row
Legs - Squats, Lunges

Of course, he also includes in this some curls and other such exercises, but most of your time if you're really trying to put on some mass is with the bigger exercises.