For anyone that just wants a well-balanced workout plan I highly suggest checking out this guide: https://www.julian.com/guide/muscle/intro
MuscleWiki: Find exercises that work specific muscles
21–30 of 67 posts
Re: MuscleWiki: Find exercises that work specific muscles
#22I see a lot of recommendations in this thread already, but any specific suggestions for a beginner whole body routine using bodyweight/dumbbells that also can help with stretching/flexibility? Edit: And also free. Not that I am opposed to people getting paid for putting out quality health education content - but free is preferable.
I just started gmb.io they have several programs similar to this
+1 for gmb.io - it's the only program(s) that i ever paid for - they are that clever. (i am athletic, walk my dog daily, have access to crossfit gyms etc). gmb.io "fills the gaps" of daily movement deficits and is for everyone.
Re: MuscleWiki: Find exercises that work specific muscles
#23As someone who knows almost nothing about muscle building, why would I want to work specific muscles? How do I know which muscle I should want to work? Do I look at a particular muscle and feel it's too small and that's how I choose? Do I target specific muscles that feel sore after I do some other activity that is the real activity I value? I'm genuinely curious. If this website is giving the "how", I want to know t…
Broadly speaking:
1. Aesthetics - you want to change some part of your physique by targeting certain muscles. Think doing curls for bigger biceps.
2. Performance - you want to get stronger/improve mobility by targeting muscles or groups of muscles associated with a movement. Think doing hamstring curls to improve one's vertical jump or deadlift.
3. Therapeutic - you want to gain/regain/prevent the loss of capability. Something like deadlifts for back pain and posture or band pull aparts for shoulder pain.
More specifically:
Most strength and bodybuilding programs follow a template where each session has a main compound movement followed by accessory movements that target a handful of different muscles, usually split by upper/lower body or by type of movement (pushing/pulling) with the intent of working most of your muscles. Many non-compound movements for any given muscle are more or less interchangeable if you want variety in your program, have something that prevents you from doing a particular movement or just don't have access to the required equipment.
For instance, overhead dumbbell tricep extensions give me elbow pain, so I do cable tricep extensions or skullcrushers if I don't have access to a cable machine.
Re: MuscleWiki: Find exercises that work specific muscles
#24As someone who knows almost nothing about muscle building, why would I want to work specific muscles? How do I know which muscle I should want to work? Do I look at a particular muscle and feel it's too small and that's how I choose? Do I target specific muscles that feel sore after I do some other activity that is the real activity I value? I'm genuinely curious. If this website is giving the "how", I want to know t…
I’m formally trained in this subject and I find parts of replies to you as correct, while most are just outrageous.
First, you should define your goal. Do you want to be generally fit, or do you just want larger biceps? Can’t force you to be well-rounded and ask you to change your perception of beauty, so if you just wanted bigger biceps then go ahead and just do curls. Be warned though: other fit people are going to notice the imbalance in your body such as skinny legs, underdeveloped forearms, bad upper body posture, etcetera; and even your perception of beauty will change as you progress, so I strongly suggest that you do not train for just one muscle.
If you go for general fitness, start with the most basic compound lifts: barbell bench presses, either squat or deadlift, and then barbell rows (funny how no one mentioned this exercise, lol). These are the most essential movements involving the largest and most essential muscle groups that are used in any other exercise. And note how I speak of muscle groups — in order to perform a muscle contraction, you’re actually not just using a single muscle. You have prime mover muscles, and others are stabilizers, and you want to train the whole group by doing exercises in full-range of motion so that they are all developed, because that will keep you safe from injury when doing more challenging exercises with them.
If you want to know more about the whys, the subject that you want to study is called exercise physiology.
Re: MuscleWiki: Find exercises that work specific muscles
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
In my experience, I’ve received answers to these questions working with a physical therapist. I’ve sustained several injuries partly due to muscle imbalance (that led to poor walking mechanics due to glute imbalance). So we try to correct that imbalance with strengthening exercises that target the glutes.
I've been dealing with similar issues. Can I ask how long it took for you to start seeing results from the strengthening exercises, both just in strength and your injuries going away? It's easy to see progress in weightlifting etc, but bands or body exercises for small muscles (adductors, in my case) just always feel hard.
I had issues with pain from squatting not because my glutes were too weak but because I was not activating them properly as stabilizers, AKA dead butt syndrome. From that perspective the main importantce of bands, or bridges or whatever is to teach the body to properly use the small stabilizer muscles that can get inadventently inhibited due to injury or underuse, not get them super huge or much stronger so it really shouldn’t take long, weeks to a month I’d say.
Re: MuscleWiki: Find exercises that work specific muscles
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
If said newbie only wants bigger biceps then training only biceps isn’t a bad plan.
Maybe... I would hate for it to lead to more rounded back because they didn't do exercises to create requisite support in their back. If they can maintain good posture while doing curls it's probably fine.
Having some balance between a joint's flexors and extensors is a good idea, fair enough. I've never heard of too much curling precipitating a rounded back. Even training everyday you're not going to be hunched over for that long.
Re: MuscleWiki: Find exercises that work specific muscles
#27As someone who knows almost nothing about muscle building, why would I want to work specific muscles? How do I know which muscle I should want to work? Do I look at a particular muscle and feel it's too small and that's how I choose? Do I target specific muscles that feel sore after I do some other activity that is the real activity I value? I'm genuinely curious. If this website is giving the "how", I want to know t…
We are building some tools around our exercise library. One being a "workout generator" you tell us what equipment you have, what your goals are and we'll generate one for you.
Edit, this is my website.
Re: MuscleWiki: Find exercises that work specific muscles
#28I was hoping this would be a lot more targeted. What if I want to focus on my rear delts? Subscapularis? Serratus anterior? Yes, I have bad posture.
An "advanced" bodymap is coming soon.
We are just figuring out the best way to do it on mobile.
Re: MuscleWiki: Find exercises that work specific muscles
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
>why would I want to work specific muscles As a beginner, you would not. You want to work the whole system, and to do that, you only need a handful of compound movements: squat, deadlift, and overhead press. Once you slow down in progress on these bigger compounds, that's when you would want to start doing more targeted or more specific assistance exercises, in addition to the compounds. Starting Strength is a good e…
How about bench press?
You could do bench press instead of overhead press. They have a fair amount of overlap. Some beginning strength programs alternate between them.
Re: MuscleWiki: Find exercises that work specific muscles
#30Would be awesome if you included stretches as well, like yoga-esque postures
we have stretches.
https://musclewiki.com/stretches/
However, we are filming Yoga on Thursday this week.