In partnership with
Method 1:Targeting the Right Muscles
1. Get the most out of your workout with compound exercises. Exercises that work the main muscle groups (compound exercises) will give you the most significant gains in muscle mass and boost your metabolic rate. For instance, the bench press works your pectorals, your triceps, and your deltoids in a single exercise. An isolated exercise like a tricep kickback will work only your triceps.
Compound exercises hit more muscle fibers with each lift, so you get a lot of bang for your buck.
Try creating a compound exercise routine with a 4-day upper/lower split or a 3-day full body split to avoid overworking your muscles, which often happens with isolated exercises.
Use isolated exercises to tweak your muscle growth and appearance once you have already met your goals.
Back squats and Bulgarian split squats are other great compound exercises that you can try.
2. Build the muscle in your legs and buttocks. To add muscle mass to your lower body, you need to do exercises that target the large muscles in your thighs, calves, and hips. When it comes to building muscles, heavy weights (or high resistance) and low repetitions are the key (while the opposite is true if you are trying to improve your endurance).
To build the muscles in your thighs, you need to do exercises that focus on the hamstrings, quadriceps, and hip adductors, such as different variations of lunges, squats, and step-ups. Back squats, front squats, and Bulgarian split squats are some excellent thigh-strengthening exercises you can try during your next workout.
Deadlifts and glute bridges are great ways to strengthen your glutes.
To build the muscles in your calves (gastrocnemius, soleus, and tibialis anterior), do standing or seated calf raises.
The muscles in your hips and buttocks (gluteus maximus, abductors, flexors, and deep external rotators) are engaged with some of the same exercises as your legs (such as squats and lunges), but to add more specific exercises to target these muscles, try hip extensions and leg presses.
You should do these exercises using resistance that is heavy enough that you can only do 4 to 8 repetitions max. If you can easily do 8 or more reps, you are probably using too low resistance and are building endurance instead of bulking up your muscles.
Note for teens: always consult a trainer and a pediatrician before engaging these exercises. Your body is still growing and developing, so avoid high intensity and weights.
Ad break
The article’s primary sponsor: 1440 Daily Digest is a popular daily email newsletter from the American company 1440 (Chicago), which has been in operation since 2017.
Smart starts here.
You don't have to read everything — just the right thing. 1440's daily newsletter distills the day's biggest stories from 100+ sources into one quick, 5-minute read. It's the fastest way to stay sharp, sound informed, and actually understand what's happening in the world. Join 4.5 million readers who start their day the smart way.
… back to the articleу 👇🏻
3. Strengthen and build the muscles in your back. To build the muscles in your back, focus your training on the latissimus dorsi, teres major, trapezius (upper, lower, middle), levator scapulae, rhomboids, infraspinatus, teres minor, and subscapularis muscles.
There are a vast variety of exercises you can choose from to build these muscles. Try the different rows (such as bent-over rows, lying rows, and seated rows) or do pull-ups, chin-ups, pulldowns, and shrugs.
These exercises can be done using free weights and exercise machines or even just rubber bands or body weight.
Strengthening your back muscles can help improve your posture as well.
Pull-ups and chin-ups are some of the best exercises for strengthening your back, but if they're too difficult for you right now, start with a dead hang; grip the pull-up bar, lift your feet off the ground, and hang with your arms straight for 10 seconds.
4. Strengthen your core to get strong abs. To build muscle in your abdomen, focus your training on the rectus abdominis, transverse abdominus, obliques, quadratus lumborum, and erector spinae muscles.
When it comes to abdominal muscles, you can use your body weight and do crunches, sit-ups, and leg raises, or you can try something different and use free weights, cables, or levers to add some extra resistance and really work those abs.
5. Build the muscles in your chest. Women might overlook training the muscles in your chest, but you shouldn’t. Working the muscles in your chest helps maintain muscular balance, especially if you are building your back muscles; focusing on just one side of the body can lead to bad posture.
To target the muscles in your chest, focus on exercises that work the pectoralis major, pectoralis minor, and the serratus anterior muscles.
Choose two to three different exercises, such as chest dips, bench presses, power lifts, chest presses, and/or flies.
Women can perform upper-body workouts without putting on a lot of bulk. Female clients sometimes worry that certain workouts will make their bodies "bulky", or less feminine. However, due to biological factors, it's hard for females to put on the same amount of muscle mass as males. It's unlikely you'll achieve a bulky look unless you're overdoing it at the gym.
6. Strengthen your arms and shoulders. Many women want slim and muscular arms and shoulders. To make this happen, target the deltoids (anterior, lateral, posterior) and the supraspinatus in your shoulder, and the triceps brachii, biceps brachii, brachialis, brachioradialis, and the wrist flexors and extensors in your arms.
To build your shoulders, do shoulder or overhead presses, front raises, upright rows, or reverse flies, which can be easily done with cables, barbells, or dumbbells for added weight.
When working your arms, use dumbbells or exercise machines to do exercises such as triceps dips, kickbacks, triceps extensions, biceps curls, wrist curls, and rollers.
In this method, I described the physical effects on the female body and which muscles should be improved. See you soon in the next article.
Artemus Vazhui