THE 10 BEST EXERCISES FOR EVERY MAJOR MUSCLE

Take the guesswork out of coaching and use these handpicked workouts to take your physique to the subsequent level.

The easiest way to make growth is to give up guessing about your training. Instead of flying blind, take the recommendation of these pinnacle health authorities we’ve consulted—10 specialists famend for their know-how about packing on muscle and remodeling bodies—and use the workouts they recommend to maximize consequences for any physique part.
Their tips will take your workout—and your body—from simply common to extraordinary.

1 OF 10

The Body Part: Back
The Best Exercise for Width: Wide-grip Pulldown


TWO-POINT PLAN

A barn-door-size again is constructed with two types of pulling exercises: horizontal and vertical. The former encompasses all rowing variations, whilst the latter covers pullups and pulldowns. You need to use each types of pulling regularly, says Jim Smith, founder of Diesel Strength and Conditioning.

WHAT TO DO

The dumbbell row focuses on your lats, traps, and rhomboids, growing the thickness of your back. This ought to be your staple horizontal pulling movement. For vertical pulling, use the wide-grip pulldown. It recruits the lats and teres important muscles, which, when developed, provide the look of larger width, says Smith.

BONUS TIP

Try this method from Smith, referred to as the Diesel Mass method: Do a heavy working set (six to eight reps) of wide-grip overhand pulldowns, then 15 to 20 reps with a lighter load and a unique grip, such as a wide-grip underhand pulldown.

2 OF 10

The Body Part: Quads
The Exercise: Front Squat

A SAFER SQUAT

The lower back squat is broadly recognised as the king of leg exercises, however setting the bar throughout the the front of your shoulders hits the quads even higher due to the fact it forces you to preserve your torso upright, says Ben Bruno, a energy teach in Los Angeles.
 

WHAT TO DO

If you don’t have the wrist flexibility to use a smooth grip, use the “cross arm” grip or lifting straps to serve as handles.

BONUS TIP

Keep your elbows pointing straight beforehand in the course of the set. Once they drop, your higher returned will round, and the bar can fall.

3 OF 10

The Body Part: Hamstrings
The Exercise: Romanian Deadlift

TRUE FUNCTION

These days you hear a lot about “functional” exercises, however there’s nothing extra useful than an old-school Romanian deadlift. 

WHAT TO DO

To function an RDL, maintain your knees barely bent. Instead of questioning about decreasing your shoulders towards the floor, assume about using your hips backward, which will purpose them to hinge, says Tumminello. RDLs switch to all field, court, and fight sports activities due to the fact the motion carefully suits the force-generation patterns worried in sprinting, jumping, and rotating. They’re additionally high-quality for constructing better-looking glutes and hamstrings.

BONUS TIP

Romanian deadlifts make contributions to fats loss due to the fact they’re a compound exercise, so they burn greater energy as they recruit greater muscles.

4 OF 10

The Body Part: Calves
The Exercise: Calf Raise

DOUBLEHEADER

The gastroc receives labored with the aid of standing calf raises, and the soleus bears the brunt of the load all through seated raises. “Optimal calf improvement requires bent-knee and straight-knee positions for maximal growth,” says Brad Schoenfeld, creator of The M.A.X. Muscle Plan.

WHAT TO DO

Avoid bouncing out of the backside of your reps on both exercise. The calves are regularly tight due to strolling and running, so keeping the backside of your reps for a 2d or two builds stretching into your exercising and encourages extra long-term growth.

BONUS TIP

There’s some proof that turning the toes in at some point of a standing calf increase will goal the lateral head of the gastroc (it’s a two-headed muscle, simply like the biceps), and that turning the toes out will goal the medial gastroc. You can alternate your foot placement every set or commit one month to education the calves the usage of one foot function and then switching it. You can do the identical with seated calf raises for the soleus.

5 OF 10

The Body Part: Glutes
The Exercise: Barbell Hip Thrust

JACKED ASS

Your glutes are the most effective muscle groups in your complete body. And in accordance to Bret Contreras, a glute-training specialist in Phoenix, the majority of humans overlook them. Build them up with hip thrusts.

WHAT TO DO

The barbell hip thrust maximizes gluteal muscle activation. Strengthening your bottom with this motion has been proven to switch to the squat and deadlift and make for a rounder, fuller-looking butt.
Use a load that permits you to reap somewhere between eight and 15 reps, says Contreras. Push thru your heels and elevate your body to full hip extension, and maintain the contraction at the pinnacle of the motion for a one-second count. Perform the motion off the flooring to begin and, when you can, off a bench that’s about sixteen inches high. (See the photograph at left.)

BONUS TIP

Hip thrusts are satisfactory used as an help exercising on a lower-body day—after units of squats and/or deadlifts.

6 OF 10

The Body Part: Chest
The Exercise: Dumbbell Flye

OAK CHEST

While the bench press is outstanding for constructing strength, the dumbbell flye is a top of the line go for concentrated on pec growth. It lets in you to maintain anxiety at once on your pecs for longer durations of time, wholly arduous the muscular tissues so they have to develop and taking them via a fuller vary of motion.

WHAT TO DO

The secret sauce is in the vary of action and the squeeze at the top. “Take your flyes all the way down as some distance as you can,” says Arnold Schwarzenegger, “and inhale to increase the chest. Feel the ache and growth.” Then strive to speed up up as quickly as you can and decelerate as your fingers come together. Squeeze your chest at the top. The aggregate of shifting as quickly as feasible and then having your muscle fibers work to sluggish down the motion and squeeze will end result in a higher muscle contraction. In different words: extra anxiety on your muscles, much less anxiety on your tendons, and a ideal aggregate for growth. We can’t assurance pecs like the Austrian Oak’s, however you’ll simply see an enchancment over what you have now.

BONUS TIP

Use flyes at any factor in your exercise or at the establishing to pre-exhaust your chest earlier than you hit the bench. Prioritizing your pecs is the first step in boosting pec gains.

7 OF 10

The Body Part: Shoulders
The Exercise: Barbell Overhead Press

HEAVY DUTY

No different shoulder workout lets you go as heavy as the overhead press, which is exactly why it’s the first-class way to push growth, says Martin Rooney, C.S.C.S., founder of Training for Warriors.

WHAT TO DO

Try the use of a “false grip,” maintaining your thumb and fingers on the equal facet of the bar. This will permit for a little action at the wrist and shoulder to make the raise greater comfortable.

BONUS TIP

That potential controlling each the up and down components of the lift.

8 OF 10

The Body Part: Traps
The Exercise: Rack Deadlift

NICE RACK

Deadlifts from the ground are great, however rack deadlifts are extra fantastic for constructing hulking traps. You don’t have to raise round your knees in the eccentric (lowering) phase, so they’re much less demanding to your physique and hence less complicated to get better from, says Jason Ferruggia, proprietor of Renegade Strength & Conditioning.

WHAT TO DO

Set the bar barely above knee height. (Having the bar on mats, if available, or plates is higher than pins.) Keep a impartial backbone and get down in role by using pushing your hips again and compressing your hamstrings, says Ferruggia.

BONUS TIP

You don’t want to go heavy to make rack deadlifts effective. Start via the use of eighty percentage of your one-rep max deadlift. “You can nevertheless get insanely sturdy and set new PRs with that,” Ferruggia says.

9 OF 10

The Body Part: Biceps
The Exercise: Chinup

ARM YOURSELF

Curls are fine, however the gain of chinups is that they let you work your biceps the use of your full physique weight, says Dan Trink, C.S.C.S., founder of Trink Fitness. It’s that kind of overload, instead than 30-pound dumbbells, that leads to new biceps growth.

WHAT TO DO

Grasp the bar with an underhand grip (palms going through you). Start from a useless grasp with your hands utterly extended; force your chest all the way up to the bar and squeeze your biceps at the pinnacle as if you’re flexing. Then take 4 seconds to decrease your physique returned to a lifeless hang. You won’t be capable to do many reps, however you’ll see your hands grow.

BONUS TIP

Avoid immoderate biceps work. You don’t want to do direct arm coaching extra than twice a week if your application already consists of chinups and row variations—that’s overkill. Also, curls ought to be carried out light. Never go under six reps per set. Save heavy masses for chinups. (They can cope with it.)

10 OF 10

The Body Part: Triceps
The Exercise: Decline Triceps Extension

CRUSH ’EM

Lying triceps extensions (aka cranium crushers) construct the best horseshoe triceps, says Trink. But performing them on a decline bench takes it up any other notch. The decline bench places a larger stretch on the triceps, forcing them to contract tougher and recruit greater fibers. The attitude additionally makes it extra challenging for the weight to relaxation on your elbow joints. Having your hands factor in the back of your head continues the anxiety the place you choose it—on the triceps themselves.

WHAT TO DO

Set the bench to a 30-degree decline and tightly closed your feet. Have a companion hand you the bar and preserve it in the back of your head. Keep your top palms in this position. Lower the bar to the area between your eyebrows and hairline, taking three to 4 seconds to do so. (Don’t sling the bar lower back at the back of your head or slam it into your forehead—neither is precise for your fitness or your performance.) Then press the weight again to the beginning function and flex your triceps at the top.

BONUS TIP

Keep reps on the greater facet to guard your elbows, and use an EZ-bar to take stress off your wrists. Another option: Use dumbbells.