Week 3.2 - Exercise Selection
Now that you know the training split that works for you, we need to discuss the exercises that will build the workouts.
Today we will cover the following:
. What muscles groups in each split?
. Types of exercise
. How to build your session
. How many sets in a week?
. Major muscle group exercise examples
- Quadriceps
- Hamstrings
- Calves
- Glutes
- Core/abdominal
- Lower back (Erector and lower lats)
- Upper back (Upper lats, rhomboid and traps)
- Chest
- Shoulder
- Biceps
- Triceps
What muscles are in each split?
Each split has certain muscle groups involved, I have listed the major and minor muscle groups. When designing your program you should have an exercise for each of these:
As you will see some of these have less muscle groups in comparison to others, this means the workouts are more specific. To fill a workout and get the full benefits, you may need to do 2 or more exercises per muscle group.
Types of exercise
There are two main forms that you should focus on:
. Compound exercise
- An exercise that involve multiple joints and muscle groups
- Examples are squats & bench press
. Isolation exercise
- An exercise that involves one muscle group with minimal joint recruitment
- Examples are bicep curl & lateral raises
How to build your session
You should focus on the following order:
- Compound on major muscle groups
- Isolation on minor muscle groups
- Isolation or additional exercise on weak areas
We will have a look at total sets but you shouldn't over-train per session, a good example would be full body sessions. Doing 5 compound exercises on the 5 major muscle groups would be too much so you may have to change the exercises/muscle groups per session.
How many sets in a week?
I will now lay out the target range of sets per muscle group:
Major muscle groups
. 9-15 weekly sets
Minor muscle groups
. 0-9 weekly sets
Note - This would be the ideal set range for each muscle group, if you can only do 1 or 2 sessions a week this will very tough to achieve so you may have to reduce the target set range.
Note - At the start, try the lowest set range and build up slowly. We will cover this more in week 4.
Major muscle group exercise examples
Note - these are example exercises. You will also notice some compound exercises train multiple muscle groups so they will come up multiple times.
I will now list the muscle groups with an example of the following:
C - Compound exercise
I - Isolation exercise
B - Beginner exercise
E - Expert exercise
- Quadriceps
C - Squat
I - Leg Extension
B - Leg Press
E - Pistol Squat
- Hamstrings
C - Deadlift and Romanian deadlift (RDL)
I - Hamstring curl
B - Romanian deadlift
E - Nordic Curls
- Calves
C -
I - Calf Raise
B - Calf Raise
E - Single legged calf raise
- Glutes
C - Glute bridge
I - Hip Abduction
B - Floor glute bridges
E - Single legged glute bridge
- Core/abdominal
C - Most compound exercises, especially squat & deadlift
I - Plank & dead bug
B - Plank
E - Plank twists
- Lower back (Erector and lower lats)
C - Deadlift
I - Hyperextension
B - Back extension
E - Good mornings
- Upper back (Upper lats, rhomboid and traps)
C - Pull Up
I - Lat pulldown
B - Seated row machine
E - Pull Up
- Chest
C - Bench Press
I - Chest fly
B - Chest press machine
E - Plyometric press ups
- Shoulder
C - Standing shoulder press
I - Rear raise/lateral raise
B - Seated shoulder press machine
E - Single arm shoulder press
- Biceps
C - Row or chin ups (back exercise)
I - Bicep curl
B - Supported bicep curl machine
E - Chin up
- Triceps
C - Bench press with a narrower grip (Chest exercise)
I - Tricep extensions
B - Seated tricep extensions
E - Dips with narrower grip
Note - Minor muscle groups like bicep & triceps are worked in compound exercises so unless you want to increase strength/growth these will be trained by compound exercises
Be your best!