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Weight Training Exercises: Part 1

Credits: T-Nation

Now that you've decided to embark on the journey of getting fitter and stronger, it's time to learn about what types of exercises to perform. Just doing 100 push-ups, 100 crunches, 100 squats and running 10 kilometres everyday isn't going to get you significantly stronger or looking like a Greek god. One Punch Man lied to you.

In this article, rather than talking about exercises to target specific muscle groups, I'll talk about compound exercises and functional movements. In my next article, I'll talk about isolation exercises for every major muscle.

Compound exercises are multi-joint exercises that use multiple muscles/muscle groups. It is possible to use significantly higher loads for these exercises due to the fact that larger and more muscle groups are involved in moving the weight.
Isolation exercises are those that target a specific muscle. They are usually lighter and are done in order to further stimulate muscle growth in that particular muscle.

Starting off your workout with one or two compound exercises, followed by isolation exercises is what I find to be optimal. Since you'll need more energy for the heavier loads used in compound movements, it is better to finish them first.

If we could classify exercises in terms of “functional” movement patterns for strength/weight training, it would probably be these six movements:
  • Vertical Push
  • Vertical Pull
  • Horizontal Push
  • Horizontal Pull
  • Squat/ Lunge
  • Hip Hinge
Pushing movements tend to utilize the chest, anterior delts (front part of the shoulder) and triceps to a fair extent.
Pulling movements tend to utilize the back, biceps and posterior delts (rear part of the shoulder) to a fair extent.
Any form of a hip hinge or a squat tends to utilize the lower back (erector spinae) and legs to a fair extent.

Of course, I don't mean to say that they only work those muscle groups; just that they are the prime movers, which do a majority of the work.

A combination of exercises which perform these movements are probably your best bet.  For your average Joe (Ashok in India) looking to get fitter and stronger, they would work almost all the major muscles. Athletes, on the other hand would need a lot more of rotational and plyometric training than what I've mentioned here.

The main reason why compound exercises are great for beginner lifters is that it can be easily progressively overloaded. That is, you can increase the weight on these exercises every once in 1-3 weeks, thereby building more muscle as you lift heavier weights. Obviously, you will plateau at some point, and will have to jump onto a more intermediate program. But this will generally take about 4-6 months.

So now that you know all this, what are some of the compound exercises that train the above mentioned movements?

In the following list, I have only mentioned some of the most popular exercises. There are many other exercises that can be performed. However, it would probably be just a different variation of whatever I've listed below.

  • Squat/Lunge
    • Barbell back squat
    • Barbell front squat
    • Dumbbell/barbell lunge
    • Split squat
    • Goblet squat
  • Hip Hinge
    • Deadlift
    • Romanian deadlift
    • Straight leg deadlift
    • Good morning (I'm not kidding. This is the name of an exercise)
  • Vertical Push
    • Barbell/dumbbell shoulder press (also known as military press or overhead press)
    • Seated military press
    • Arnold press
    • Handstand push-up
  • Horizontal Push
    • Barbell/dumbbell bench press
    • Push-up
    • Dumbbell/cable flye
  • Vertical Pull
    • Pull-ups
    • Machine/cable lat pulldown
  • Horizontal Pull
    • Barbell/dumbbell row
    • Cable/machine row
A typical program which is made based on movements would be a PPL (Push-Pull-Legs) routine. The push movements (both vertical and horizontal) are done on one day.
The pull movements (both vertical and horizontal) are done on the second day.
The leg movements (squat/lunge and hip hinge) are done on the third day.

This routine is typically done twice a week (6 days in total), although it can be done once a week (3 days) too.

In my next article, I'll talk about which muscles these compound exercises hit and how to target smaller muscles.

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