It's important to work every area of the body during your workout, but it can be hard to know what exactly will yield the best results for each body part. That’s why we’ve compiled this list of exercises that are the most effective in training various areas of your body! These combined with a few familiar exercise will help you get into better shape as efficiently as possible! We’ll go from the top of the body down.
- Shoulders - Overhead Barbell Press: This exercise works out many of the key muscles in building shoulder strength. Doing a standing press, rather than a seated one, helps to activate and work muscles all over your body as an added bonus.
- Chest - Dumbbell Bench Press: Using dumbbells in your bench press help you get a greater range of motion, which is key in building muscle and strength. Using dumbbells also makes it easy to adjust weight as you go, so you can always keep pushing yourself!
- Back - Pull Ups: Pull ups in general are great for your back, since they work out nearly all the major muscles at once. If these get too easy, consider trying weighted pull ups (basically just normal pull ups, but with a weight hanging from your waist) to add more resistance and build more muscle!
- Biceps - Curls: A classic for this area, bicep curls are one of the most efficient ways to work out your upper arms. It can be easy to go overboard with curls though, so make sure you’re not using your hips to get the weights up! If you are, you should probably take it down a couple of pounds.
- Abs - Russian Twist: This one is absolutely killer, and will definitely have you “feeling the burn”! From a seated position, hold your arms together in front of you. Lift your feet from the ground, resting on your backside, and twist your core from side to side. If this is too easy, take it up a notch with a medicine ball. We promise, once you get the right weight, you’ll feel it!
- Legs - Running: Without going too much into the different areas of the legs and muscle groups, running hits them all. It can suck, it can be exhausting, but it is ultimately one of the best ways to work all of the muscle groups in your legs. As a bonus, it’s great on your abs too!