Which muscles to work on which days

You must train both intelligently and intensely, with the goal of doing a week's worth of work in a single session. So ask yourself: Are you really ready to show up 5 days per week and bring the intensity? If you're not sure, use my article The Ultimate Guide to an Effective Training Split to figure out what's best for you. A five-day split isn't a protocol for most beginners to jump right into. If you're only a year or two into lifting, you need to gradually increase training volume over time.

In that case, beginner-focused workouts are your best bet. The most popular ones I've created for Bodybuilding. Going straight from to sets for a given body part could cause serious nervous system fatigue and a wallop of DOMS that can border on unhealthy. Especially if you don't have your nutrition dialed in at an advanced level, it's a recipe for burnout or injury.

Instead, make gradual upticks in your training volume over time, and only pick a five-day split if it really is the best option for you. The delayed-onset muscle soreness DOMS and extended recovery that accompany higher volume training mean you need to be strategic about what you train and what you let recover.

For example, training chest on day one, shoulders on day two, and triceps on days three is a bad choice. Those are all pushing muscle groups, meaning they hit some of the same muscles, namely the upper pecs, anterior delts, and triceps. Doing them on consecutive days defeats the purpose of building in additional recovery time and will limit how hard you can work.

You'll want to be similarly careful about arranging your pulling workouts. Just because today is "chest day" doesn't mean you need to do all the chest exercises you've ever seen on Instagram—even the ones that are basically the same as each other, but with a tiny twist.

Instead, the exercises you choose should complement rather than repeat one another. An example would be doing dumbbell incline presses after doing some type of flat-bench presses. After that, you could do a move focusing on the decline position, like decline dumbbell flyes.

Why not simply pile on the volume? For one, it's difficult to maintain peak energy levels throughout numerous exercises. As fatigue grows, each successive exercise is likely a little less effective than the one before it. Also, levels of the growth-busting hormone cortisol rise the longer you train. A well-established "sweet spot" is to set a minute time limit on the length of your training session.

This forces you to prioritize your exercises and allows you the time and peak energy to hit just one or two body parts on most training days.

Many popular split workouts specify 3 sets of 10 reps for each and every movement. Yes, this can work well. But another time-tested approach, which you'll see in the workouts below, is to challenge yourself with slightly heavier sets at the beginning of your training session when your strength levels are highest, and over the course of the workout opt for relatively lighter loads to finish with a pump.

In action, that means you'll be using RM weights early on, and RMs later, meaning the latter exercises are using relatively lighter loads.

A 6RM load is one in which you reach muscle failure at about 6 reps. As you get stronger and can do more reps, increase the load to again ensure you're working in the suggested target rep range. Follow a program as close as possible to "as written" for at least weeks to give your body a chance to progress at the movements. Working out different body parts on different days gives your muscles more rest between workouts and helps you prevent overtraining.

There are three types of muscles in your body: cardiac, smooth, and skeletal. Cardiac muscles are the muscles that control your heart. Smooth muscles control involuntary functions like constricting your blood vessels. Skeletal muscles are the muscles that you target in the gym that help your body move. They make up about 40 percent of your body weight. Few exercises truly isolate only one muscle group. For example, the biceps curl is one of the most common exercises to strengthen the biceps in the front of your upper arm.

However, several other muscles also help your body flex at the elbow including brachialis, which is beneath your biceps , and brachioradialis, which is a large muscle in your forearm.

Other stabilizer muscles need to brace your shoulder and core so you can efficiently lift the weight. When designing your program, you may find some exercises fit into more than one category. You may want to experiment with a few different pairings until you find one that works best for you.

Many people find it helpful to pair muscle groups that are close together. For instance, you may want to pair your shoulders and arms together since many exercises, such as rows, use both body parts. The primary benefit of splitting different muscle groups onto different days is your ability to give each muscle more rest. For example, squatting uses your:. The American Heart Association recommends taking at least two days between lilting sessions to give your body time to recover.

Many people find they like strength training three times a week. When you think of strength training, you may think you need dumbbells or barbells. However, resistance training comes in many forms such as:. As you get stronger, you can lower the number of reps and increase the weight. A personal trainer can show you how to perform exercises with proper technique so you can safely do them on your own later.

The push-up is the holy grail of strength moves. The push-up targets several muscle groups all in one efficient exercise. Arms are in front of the body holding dumbbells at hip height with palms facing the ceiling. This targets the shoulders and triceps muscle group. Did someone say leg day?! The goal of this workout is to target the quad and hamstring muscles together and to find fatigue in your lower body.

And finally if you come to the last couple of reps and feel like you could do more, pick up heavier weights! Equipment : You will need a set of medium-to-heavy dumbbells.

Also I would personally grab a set of 12 or 15 lb dumbbells but anywhere between 8 lb and 20 lb dumbbells would be advised depending on your level of fitness. Instructions : This workout will consist of 6 total lower body movements 3 focused on the quads and 3 focused on the hamstring, the back side of your leg. Complete 12 repetitions per exercise and repeat the entire workout a total of 3 times!

In this upper body HIIT workout, I am going to show you how quickly and efficiently you can work your upper body. These target muscle groups like back, biceps, and abs in one efficient training program. Equipment : A light to heavy set of dumbbells.

I would use anywhere between lb dumbbells. Choose a weight that you can hold onto for a second interval. Instructions : For each of these exercises you are going to go as hard as you can for a working interval of 20 seconds, then rest for 10 seconds before going into the next move. Repeat the entire training sequence again for a total of 5 intervals for a minute workout.

Complete the total circuit 5 rounds and you will have completed a minute upper body workout toning the biceps, triceps, and shoulders all together! Glutes and Abs are two of the most popular muscle groups to train together. Instructions: The workout consists of 6 total exercises — 2 glute focused movements and 2 abdominal focused exercises.

You will alternate between the lower body focused movement and the abdominal focused movement and finish with two burnout movements that combine core and legs together! Circuit — you will complete each of the below movements for 30 seconds each completing the full circuit 4 times through!

Want to pair all of these groups together?