Strength Training - Exercises For Specific Muscle Groups

Exercises For Specific Muscle Groups

Main article: Weight training exercises

Weight trainers commonly divide the body's individual muscles into ten major muscle groups. These do not include the hip, neck and forearm muscles, which are rarely trained in isolation. The most common exercises for these muscle groups are listed below. (Videos of these and other exercises are available at exrx.net and from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.)

The sequence shown below is one possible way to order the exercises. The large muscles of the lower body are normally trained before the smaller muscles of the upper body, because these first exercises require more mental and physical energy. The core muscles of the torso are trained before the shoulder and arm muscles that assist them. Exercises often alternate between "pushing" and "pulling" movements to allow their specific supporting muscles time to recover. The stabilising muscles in the waist should be trained last.

Strength training exercises
Quadriceps (front of legs) Squat (c) · Leg press (c) · Lunge (c) · Leg raise (c) · Leg extension (i)
Hamstrings (back of legs) Deadlift (c) · Leg curl (i)
Calves Calf raise (i)
Pectorals (chest) Bench press (c) · Chest fly (i) · Machine fly (i) · Push-up (c)
Lats and trapezius (upper back) Bent-over row (c) · Chin-up (c) · Pulldown (c) · Pullup (c) · Seated row (c) · Shoulder shrug (i) · Supine row (c)
Deltoids (shoulders) Front raise (i) · Handstand push-up (c) · Lateral raise (i) · Military press (c) · Shoulder press (c) · Upright row (c) · Rear delt raise (i)
Biceps (front of arms) Biceps curl (i)
Triceps (back of arms) Close-grip bench press (c) · Dip (c) · Pushdown (i) · Triceps extension (i)
Abdomen and obliques (belly) Crunch (i) · Sit-up (i) · Leg raise (c) · (any rotational movement will engage the obliques)
Lower back Back extension (i) · Deadlift (c) · Good-morning (c) · Hyperextension (c)
See also: · Calisthenics · Bodyweight exercise · Weight training (List of exercises) · Bodybuilding · Weightlifting · Gym
Legend: (c) - compound exercise, (i) - isolated exercise


Read more about this topic:  Strength Training

Famous quotes containing the words exercises, specific and/or groups:

    “Poetry, at all times, exercises two distinct functions: it may reveal, it may unveil to every eye, the ideal aspects of common things ... or it may actually add to the number of motives poetic and uncommon in themselves, by the imaginative creation of things that are ideal from their very birth.”
    —Walter Pater (1839–1894)

    “Most parents aren’t even aware of how often they compare their children. . . . Comparisons carry the suggestion that specific conditions exist for parental love and acceptance. Thus, even when one child comes out on top in a comparison she is left feeling uneasy about the tenuousness of her position and the possibility of faring less well in the next comparison.”
    —Marianne E. Neifert (20th century)

    “Belonging to a group can provide the child with a variety of resources that an individual friendship often cannot—a sense of collective participation, experience with organizational roles, and group support in the enterprise of growing up. Groups also pose for the child some of the most acute problems of social life—of inclusion and exclusion, conformity and independence.”
    —Zick Rubin (20th century)