Even the most disciplined gym goer with their routine down pack once had to figure out which muscle groups to work on which days to find a good balance between making sure you work out each muscle group enough to get stronger but not so much that you get injured or overuse the muscle.
On top of figuring out which muscles to work out on which days you need to figure out which exercises you want to incorporate into your routine to get the most out of your time at the gym. For each of these exercises, you want to do 3-4 sets and between 12-15 repetitions.
Monday will be the day that you work out your lower body and abdomen. It’s often said that you shouldn’t skip a leg day. Leg workouts are important for several reasons, yet they are sometimes neglected in favor of upper-body workouts. Instead, you should follow an exercise routine that supports a balanced body, which includes having a strong, stable foundation.
Leg workouts are an important aspect of a balanced, whole-body fitness routine that builds strength, speed, and stability. It’s important to stay consistent with your leg workouts since these large muscles are an integral part of your overall fitness. Plus, it’s easier for your body to adapt to the workouts and develop good habits that will help you to meet your fitness goals. Strong leg muscles keep your body balanced, which isn’t possible if you focus solely on your upper body.
Working your glutes, quads, and hamstrings with exercises such as deadlifts, squats, and lunges helps to maximize and boost athletic performance. Avoid overtraining your quads and balance your routine to target your glutes and hamstrings as well.
Likewise, core exercises improve your balance and stability. The stomach muscles sometimes are called abs. Core exercises train the muscles in your core to work in harmony. This leads to better balance and steadiness, also called stability. Stability is important whether you’re on the playing field or doing regular activities.
Weighted squats
Legs press
Leg extensions
Walking lunges
Bridge kickback
Glute kickback
Crunches
Leg raises
Bicycle crunches
Plank
Tuesday will incorporate another abdomen workout but alongside that, you will work out your upper body. For your upper body, you will want to work out all the muscles in your arms but different exercises work different muscles. Upper body resistance or strength training has a long list of benefits. It helps you boost muscle strength and endurance in your arms, back, chest, and shoulders. It also helps you burn calories, reduce your risk of injury, and build stronger bones.
For best results, try to do an upper body workout a few times a week.
Skull crushers and tricep extensions will work the triceps (the muscles in the back of your upper arm) and the bicep and hammer curls will work your biceps. It’s important to have both of those types of curls in your routine because there are two different bicep muscles and these two different exercises work both of those muscles.
For your abdomen, it’s important to mix up the exercises to prevent any plateau in your progress. For your exercises this day will be regular planks which will work out your entire abdomen, side planks will work your obliques, and bicycle crunches will work your lower abdomen.
Bicep Curls
Hammer curls
Preacher hammer curls
Tricep extensions
Skull crusher
Plank
Side plank
Russian twist
Bicycle crunches
Wednesday is when you will come back to work out your lower body and alongside that, you will target your chest area. In addition to your back and shoulder muscles, your pecs help to stabilize the shoulder joint. Better Breathing: In addition to improving your posture, strengthening and lengthening chest muscles helps to support deeper breathing. That’s because the pecs are attached to your ribs, which expand with every breath.
Again, it’s important that you mix up the types of exercises for every muscle group. Chess, bench, and dumbbell presses are great ways to work out your chest along with dumbbell flies and cable crosses.
For your lower body, you’ll be doing frog jumps which will work on your endurance as well as lower body strength. You also have deadlifts to cable kickbacks and leg lifts.
Chest Press
Bench press
Dumbbell Flies
Cable Cross
Dumbbell Press
Front Squats
Leg Curls
Stiff Leg Deadlift
Weighted Curtsy Lunges
Frog Jumps
Glutes Cable Kickbacks
Side Cable Leg Lifts
Thursday will come back around to work the upper body and abdomen. Side lateral and front raises, and v-bar cable rows will work on your shoulders while the lat pulldown, Arnold, and military presses will work your back muscles.
After that, the abdomen workout will consist of planks, crunches, plank jacks, and leg raise.
Lat Pulldown
One-arm dumbbell rows
V bar cable rows
Arnold Press
Military Press
Side Lateral Raises
Front Raises
Deadlift
Planks
Crunches
Plank Jacks
Leg Raises
Lastly, for Friday you will come back to a lower-body workout. Weighted close squats, hip thrusts, sitting calf raises, hip extensions, and hyperextensions are good exercises to put into the cycle of exercises for the week.
After all your workouts, you want to make sure you stretch to lessen any soreness you might feel afterward. Saturday and Sunday are the days for rest and light cardio before you start all over on Monday.
Weighted close squats
Step up lunges
Side-to-side walking squats
Walking lunges
Calf raises
Sitting calf raises
Hip thrust
Hip extensions
Hyperextension
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