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Exercises for Your Weight Training Routine |
In structuring you weight lifting routine, it is helpful to know which weight lifting exercises to do, and in what order. The information below will walk you through how to build muscle effectively and in a balanced manner.
Lower Body Weight Lifting Exercises
It is best to start your routine with weight lifting exercises focusing on the lower body, because these larger muscles require more effort in your lifting exercises and more mental focus.
Quads are the muscles in the fronts of your legs. The common weight lifting exercises for quads are squats (squatting with a weight held across the upper back and then standing up again), leg presses, dead-lifts (squatting down, lifting a weight off the floor with the hands and moving back into a standing position) and leg extensions. All of these weight lifting exercises work the large muscles in the fronts of your legs.
Hamstrings are the large muscles in the back of your upper legs, and the best weight lifting exercise for hamstrings is the leg curl, which involves lying face down on a weight bench and raising a weight toward your buttocks with your feet.
Calves are, of course, the muscles in the back of your lower legs, and the weight lifting exercises for calves are standing calf raise and seated calf raise, both of which involve flexing the feet to stretch and strengthen the calf. Unlike most weight lifting exercises, calf raises do not actually require a weight in the proximity of your calf, but are isolation exercises.
Upper Body Weight Lifting Exercises
Most people think of the upper body when they think of “weight lifting.” Exercises for the upper body can create a well-toned upper body, if done well and within an overall weight lifting routine.
Weight lifting exercises for the chest, or pectoral muscles, include bench presses and the chest fly, which involves lying on a bench holding weights out to the side and bringing your arms together above your chest.
Upper back exercises for the lats include the pull-down and bent-over row, which involves leaning over at the waist with a weight in each hand and pulling them up toward your abdomen. These weight lifting exercises are great for the upper back, but also involve the biceps and the rear deltoid muscles.
When you’re ready to move to weight lifting exercises specifically for the deltoids, or shoulders, you’ll be doing the upright row, which is similar to the bent-over row but obviously performed standing straight up, and the shoulder press, which is a seated press and is also called the military press. Lateral raises, or shoulder flies, involve standing with your hands at your sides holding weights and then lifting the weights out to the side until they are just below your shoulders.
Weight lifting exercises for the triceps, the muscles in the back of your arms, include a pushdown, standing and pushing down on a bar in front of you, which is attached to weights, and the triceps extension, which involves lowering a weight held above the head and raising it again. This weight lifting exercise is also called a French curl.
Of all the weight lifting exercises, those for the biceps seem to get the most attention because people think of “biceps” when they think of muscles. The main exercise you’ll be doing for your biceps is the biceps curl, bringing weights held in front of you up to your shoulders. This is what many people think of when they think of weight lifting exercises.
Waist
Abdominal and lower back exercises are not really weight lifting exercises, but are resistance exercises that help you develop your muscles in the waist area. For the abdominals, you will be doing crunches and leg raises, where you sit on a bench and raise the knees toward the shoulders.
For the lower back, you’ll do back extensions, lying face down partway along a bench (flat or angled), with your heels under a bar so your hips are supported and you are in a stable position. You will bend down at the waist and straighten up again.
All of these weight lifting and resistance exercises, when combined into a healthy weight lifting routine, can help you build muscle and reach your weight lifting goal. |
