Your success and making your body as good as possible, so that it better serves your needs is within your reach. It is yours to attain providing you follow the means to success and the selection of exercises as follows.
YOUR SELECTION OF EXERCISES.
The meat of your program is the selection of exercises you select and organize into your workout program. If you are tall and have long legs and find it very difficult to perform barbell squats, you may be better suited to trap bar deadlifts. The trap bar deadlift is a fine exercise and will work the legs, gluts, lower and upper back. I once trained a hard gaining footballer who was six feet six inches in height, who found it difficult to squat. I changed him to trap bar deadlifts, overhead press, lat machine pulldowns, bench press using dumb bells, and curls all for on hard set. and he progressed. This exercise selection was productive for him, it took time to find the right selection of exercises. Once it was found, his effort improved greatly as he was making gains in strength and size. There will be exercises that work you hard, but unfortunately do not give you the results you are looking for.
To determine what exercises to use and exercises which work the major muscle groups first break down your body into the following muscle groups:
Arms --Barbell curls, dumb bell curls, alternate dumbbell curls standing dumb bells incline dumbbell curls there are lots of varieties one can use to build and strengthen the arms. My arms grew most when I did not curl just dumb bell row and press. Triceps make up most of the size of the arms, but triceps can be worked indirectly from all types of pressing movements. Triceps push downs or extensions are not basic exercises, they are shaping exercises.
Shoulders---Overhead presses using Barbells or dumbbells whether standing or sitting build and strengthen shoulders. I preferred the seated press behind neck, it never injured my shoulders, there are seated shoulder press machines which mimic this movement of behind the neck press.
Chest--- For chest expansion light barbell or dumb bell pullovers. For chest development and strength building bench press barbell or dumbbells, flat, incline or decline. I also enjoyed and got benefit from weighted dips, the dips strengthened and built chest, shoulders, and triceps. Primary basic upper body builder dips done with great form and focus. Research and view Marvin Eder and you will fully understand the value of dips.
Upper Back ---- Barbell cleans, Dumbbell rows, barbell rows ensuring to keep a strong and fixed in position lower back. Lat machine pulldowns, machine rows. I had remarkable success using the dumb bell row, it was a good arm builder for me, as well as building and strengthening my latissimus dorsi muscles and trapezius muscles to a lesser degree.
Lower Back ---- Stiff legged deadlift, Deadlifts good mornings, barbell cleans and hyper extensions. I used hyper extensions at times to strengthen and rehab my lower back after injury from football and it worked fine.
Thigh Quadricep and Hip Area -----Squats, back or front squats. Trap bar deadlifts from a parallel position.
Calves ---- Calve raises standing or sitting, using a machine or one leg at a time using a dumb bell is quite effective.
Abdominals--- Sit ups and leg raises. Side raises with heavy dumb bells for the side obliques.
Select one exercise from each muscle group, the exercises listed are basic compound exercises which have a rebound effect upon other smaller muscles.
Or another straightforward way to determine what exercises to use to work the whole body is as follows:
Pick one basic exercise which benefits you for vertical push, and vertical pull.
Pick one exercise for horizontal push and horizontal pull.
Pick one compound exercise such as the deadlift and squat done on alternative days.
A curling exercise.
Add 1 abdominal exercise, 1 grip or forearm movement and a calve movement. And if you play contact sport add 1 neck strengthening movement. Having a strong neck can be the difference between becoming a paraplegic or not.
A smart trainer will use one basic exercise for each major muscle and train hard on it at each workout. I see at times in the gym where I train, some trainees are using 4 exercises to work their back for instance. They use dumb bell rows, lat machine pulldowns, machine rows and shrugs. All for 3 sets each giving them a total of 12 sets, too much work for my likening. If they concentrated and performed, lat machine pulldowns for 2 work sets and machine seated rows for 2 sets, using total concentration, good form and focus with lots of effort, they would gain and benefit. That is a total of four work sets plenty for the non-drug using trainees. Or if they still find it hard to gain size and strength just perform one basic movement for the upper back at each workout performed twice a week.
DRUG FREE WE ALL SHOULD BE.
