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If you're new to the gym, it's easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of machines and options. After all, there are countless exercises and variations for every single muscle group.
On Instagram too, you see influencers performing all kinds of different exercises, swearing that they hit the muscle effectively. So where should you even start?
In this guide, I want to cover the most important exercises for every muscle group. The list is based on my own experience and the feedback I get from clients. That way you can be sure this list only includes the exercises that really matter. This lets you make your gym sessions efficient and train each muscle group in a targeted, optimal way.
A quick note beforehand: in this post I'll list the exercises and give a few tips along the way. I haven't added detailed execution instructions. If you want to learn more about how to perform an exercise correctly, feel free to contact me. My name is Marco Laterza and I'm a personal trainer from Zurich. I help people train both their body and their mind.
How many exercises per muscle group?
First, let me clear up a question: how many exercises should you actually train per muscle group? Well, unfortunately there's no one-size-fits-all answer to this. The number of exercises depends both on how much time you want to spend at the gym and the type of training plan you're following.
Roughly speaking, you should ideally train each muscle twice a week. In each session you should then do between 2 and 3 exercises per muscle group. If you focus on these exercises during training, work with a weight that's right for you, and challenge your body, you'll get the best results this way.
If you train your whole body twice a week, for example, 2 exercises would probably be the better choice. If you're doing a push/pull/legs split, though, you can also fit 3 exercises into your training plan.
1. Legs
Your legs are one of the biggest muscle groups in your body. That said, the legs are made up of several individual muscle groups, such as the hamstrings, quadriceps, adductors, abductors and calves. Of course you don't need to do an exercise for every single group, since many leg exercises engage all the muscles.
The best exercise here is probably the squat. There are many different variations, but the standard version is the most effective. For correct form, keep your back straight and go down until your legs and calves form a right angle. With this exercise, you'll definitely see good results.
If squats are too demanding for you, the leg press is a good alternative. The machine is self-explanatory and also challenges all the muscle groups in your lower body.
Both of these exercises, however, still mostly target the quadriceps. That's why you can add isolated exercises for the hamstrings and calves. There are also machines you can use for this.
2. Back
Your back is also one of the biggest muscle groups in your body. If you want to train it efficiently, you should engage the lats, the trapezius and the lower back. The following exercises are the most efficient here.
The lats give you a wide back. The best exercise here is the wide-grip pull-up. If the exercise is too difficult for you at first, you can also use a lat pulldown, since it's very similar in execution.
For the trapezius, you should include a rowing exercise. There are various options here: barbell rows, dumbbell rows, or even rows on a machine. With the trapezius, the point is to focus on the muscle and not swing the weights too much. Ideally, you should therefore use a machine where you can rest your chest.
For the lower back, you can either do an isolated exercise, like hyperextensions, or deadlifts. With deadlifts, though, keep in mind that this exercise engages several muscles at once, including your legs. Here you should keep your back straight and not go overboard with the weight, to prevent injuries.
3. Chest
Many people think you need lots of different exercises for the chest. In reality, this muscle group isn't all that big and can be effectively stimulated with just one or two exercises.
The bench press is best suited here. If you train the chest muscle properly with correct form, that alone can be enough for muscle growth. Your back should form a slight arch, your shoulders should be fixed, and you should lower the weight slowly on the negative.
The fly is also a good exercise, since it puts the chest muscle into a good stretch. The exercise is most efficient on the cable machine, because unlike with dumbbells, you keep constant tension on the muscle throughout.
4. Shoulders
The shoulder is made up of three different muscle areas: the front shoulder, the lateral shoulder and the rear shoulder. Since you already train the front shoulder with most chest exercises, you should focus on the lateral and rear shoulder.
A great all-rounder exercise is the military press. Standing or sitting, you rest a barbell on your chest and press it overhead. To avoid injuries, you should perform this exercise seated.
Lateral raises are a very good isolation exercise for the lateral shoulder. Make sure you don't swing too much here, so the muscle is trained efficiently. If you do the same movement as the lateral raise but bend forward, you can train your rear shoulder effectively.
5. Biceps
Like the chest, the biceps is often overtrained. In reality, the biceps is one of the smallest muscle groups in the body and isn't even the biggest muscle in the arm. You already engage the biceps in most back exercises, but an isolation exercise doesn't hurt if you have enough time for it.
The biceps has two heads, the long head and the short head. If you want to train the long head, you should do hammer curls. If you want to train the short head, you should rotate your wrist as you curl up to achieve a stronger contraction.
6. Triceps
The triceps is the most important muscle in the arm, since it makes up two thirds of its total area. Here too there are three different heads, the long head, the medial head and the lateral head. So you should include exercises that engage all the heads.
The long head is trained mainly in exercises where the weight is above your body or head. French press or an overhead cable extension is very effective here.
For the lateral and medial head, on the other hand, you can do a regular triceps pushdown on the cable machine or dips. Dips, by the way, also train the shoulders and partly the chest, so it's a great exercise for multiple muscle groups.
7. Abs
Last but not least, we can't forget the abs. A six-pack is, after all, a goal for many people. First, though, I want to say one thing: ab exercises alone won't magically give you a six-pack. For that, you mainly need to reduce your body fat percentage, which you achieve through a healthy diet.
Still, ab exercises never hurt. Regular sit-ups are certainly proven here. This exercise mainly targets the upper part of the six-pack. To also train the lower abs, you can do, for example, lying leg raises.
While you'll certainly come across plenty of routines for efficient ab training with lots of different exercises, don't forget one thing: your abs are a muscle group just like any other! You don't need an overly long routine, just two to three efficient exercises, ideally done with weights too, in order to really challenge the muscle.
Conclusion: exercises for every muscle group!
The exercises listed above are tried and tested and definitely deliver results. If you build them into your training plan, you'll certainly see results early on. That said, you should also increase the intensity over time. This can mean more reps or more weight.
You can also try and test other exercises to see how your body responds. But you should never think you need overly exotic exercises to make your muscles grow. Because with the basics alone, you can already achieve a lot!