Main muscle groups to train the chest and back together. To maximize growth, it's best to focus on a single major muscle group in each session (chest, legs, or back). Complement your workout with exercises that focus on two smaller muscle groups (biceps, triceps, hamstrings, calves, abs and shoulders). Have you ever wondered why so many strength training programs divide major muscle groups in a similar way? While this isn't the only way to approach resistance training (and it may not even be the best way), bridging major muscle groups together is a time-efficient approach that can help maximize fatigue by pairing muscles that overlap or work together, says Lance Goyke, M., S.
the same day “can be a smart strategy for bodybuilders, since that classic training division helps maximize the training volume of each muscle group and the variation of exercise, which are key to growth,” Thieme explains. By working different major muscle groups on different days (and pairing groups that are together or working together), each group can get the best results and maximum rest and recovery time. But there are many other ways to train the main muscle groups. Depending on your training goals (whether it's hypertrophy, strength, or weight loss), as well as how many days a week you can devote to the gym, there are different ways to divide your training.
Try to hit one major muscle group (chest, legs and back) per workout and supplement this work by dividing the rest of the session into movements aimed at two smaller muscle groups (biceps, triceps, hamstrings, calves, abs and shoulders). This resistance is what prevents the resistance in this exercise from pulling the body up, which would not allow the body to develop stronger muscle fibers like it does during resistance training. Combining complementary muscle groups will result in the activation of more muscle fibers and, as you continue, you will equate to more strength and more muscle. This training division trains each key muscle group once over a week, for 5 days of training.
Here, Emma Vincent, PT of PureGym, discusses why clumping muscles can be beneficial, and some of the best muscle group splitting combinations to try. However, chest training does not properly train the other two deltoid heads, so it's best to include some additional exercises that also train the lateral and posterior deltos. In many cases, when starting out, it may be best to simply target a couple of muscle groups each day and focus on a few simple exercises aimed at them. In addition, this unique approach to training a muscle often results in muscle imbalances in which certain muscles are disproportionately larger than others.
More combinations can be made by combining that group with muscles that often work in conjunction with the arm, such as the muscles of the shoulders and chest. If you have fully trained the first muscle group during the first round, you will not be able to do it again with the same intensity for a different muscle group in the second round. That's why I've created 12 weeks of free training schedule to optimally train all six major muscle groups. Combining several muscle groups in a single workout can be a great way to achieve your goals, whether they are strength, hypertrophy or mobility.
As long as you train the six major muscle groups listed above, all of these minor muscle groups will also develop well. If you don't want to train five days a week, you have a few more options to make sure each muscle group gets the attention it deserves. .