With the amount of machines and contraptions found in gyms today, it may seem daunting trying to figure out which you should be using and which you shouldn't. Although the amount of gym exercises that may be performed is a little ridiculous, there's certainly something to accommodate every gym enthusiast's goals and aspirations.
Chest Exercises
The chest is one of the most popular areas for beginning weightlifters to work. The flat barbell bench press is often thought of as the sole chest builder, but a number of other movements are available. Exercise RX recommends dumbbell and machine flyes, decline bench press, incline bench press and dumbbell bench press (see ref. 2).
Arm Exercises
The arm category includes the biceps, triceps and forearms. The biceps may be trained with movements such as dumbbell curls, barbell curls, cable curls, pull-ups, chin-ups and rows. The forearms are often worked to some extent during most biceps exercises, but hammer curls target them directly. Although the triceps are often trained during pressing movements such as the bench press, they may be isolated with skull-crushers, push-downs and dips.
Shoulder Exercises
The shoulders, or deltoids, often come into play during pressing movements that utilize the chest and triceps. Bench press and overhead press are two common examples of this. Additionally, Exercise RX lists shoulder isolation exercises such as front raises, lateral raises, cuban press, upright rows and rear flyes, according to the Exercise and Muscle Directory.
Back Exercises
The back refers to a number of large and important muscles including the trapezius, latissimus dorsi, rhomboids and erectors. The trapezius is at the top of the back and is most often trained with barbell and dumbbell shrugs, according to the Critical Bench website. Just below the trapezius are the rhomboids. Train the rhomboids with various rowing movements including pull-ups, chin-ups, seated cable rows and dumbbell rows. The latissimus dorsi and erectors make up the upper, middle and lower parts of the back. Lat pulls, pull-ups and rows should be used to train the lats. The erectors often come into play during leg exercises, but may be targeted by hyperextensions and glute-ham raises.
Leg Exercises
The legs are made up of a number of muscles, with the quadriceps, hamstrings and calves are the major groups. The gluteus maximus will also be thrown into this category. The quadriceps, hamstrings and glutes are utilized during exercises such as squats, deadlifts, lunges and step-ups. The calves may be targeted with calf raises performed on the various implements available at the gym, according to the Critical Bench website.
Abdominal Exercises
Even though the abdominals are used during most other gym exercises, they should still be trained separately on a regular basis. Use movements such as dragon flags, leg raises, crunch twists, stability ball sit-ups and Russian twists to target the abdominals.
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