The type of exercises you perform will depend on a number of factors.
- Limitations you may have due to injuries, posture, flexibility or mobility. We should do exercises that help improve postural issues and that might help strengthen areas of weakness we may have.
- Your experience and knowledge with strength training.
- The equipment you have available to you
- How strong you are, your age, your goals and what you enjoy!
A quality training program with the focus to build muscle will include variations of the following exercises:
Legs & Glutes: Squats, lunges, dead lifts, hip thrusts, leg press, step ups, kick backs
Shoulders: Dumbbell & barbell press, lateral raises, rear delt exercises, upright row, wide grip rows, high pulls, single arm press/rows/ lateral raises.
Chest: Incline dumbbell & barbell press, flat dumbbell and barbell press, barbel bench press, chest fly’s, push ups, dips, pullovers.
Back: Seated row, bent-over row, single arm row, ring/bar rows, pull up’s, chin ups, pulldowns, straight arm pushdowns, pullover
Arms: Seated and standing curls, pushdowns, tricep extensions
What to avoid:
- Lifting to heavy too early
- Poor technique
- Not warming up properly
- Over training
- Performing the exercises to fast
Lack of flexibility/mobility and hypermobility can also lead to injuries.
We should never perform exercises that put our bodies into a dangerous position and therefore increase the risk of injury.