Fitness exercises are exercises that you can combine to complete a workout in the gym, at home or other gym. They can actually be divided into three categories. Exercises that you can perform with machines, free weights or with your own body weight. Then you can further divide them into compound and isolation exercises. A healthy mix of all these types of exercise is essential, as each type has its own benefits.
If you go for a split schedule, it is important to take a good look at which muscle groups there are and which muscles you train at the same time. When determining which muscles will be trained together, it is best to distinguish between large muscle groups and small muscle groups.
Major muscle groups: chest, back, leg.
Small muscle groups: shoulders, biceps, triceps, abdomen, buttocks, calves.
There are many fitness exercises that are very useful and effective in building strength and muscle mass. We have classified them below into the different muscle groups. Choose which muscle you want to train per category and train your strength and muscle mass in a targeted way.
It is recommended to focus each training on one large muscle group and to train smaller muscle groups with it. Training a large muscle group takes a lot of energy. Your body does not have enough energy to train several large muscle groups in one workout. In addition, there are various strength exercises that do not train just one large muscle group. With many strength exercises you train a primary (large) muscle group and a secondary (smaller) muscle group at the same time.
For a number of muscle groups, you can easily train them in isolation. These are, for example, your core, your abs and your calves. You can therefore train these muscle groups whenever you want. For other muscle groups, it is not recommended to train them together in a combination other than that discussed above. For example, if you train the biceps together with the pectoral muscles, your biceps will also be loaded during the next training (with the back muscles). As a result, your biceps do not get enough rest and there is a high risk of overload.
Chest, shoulders and triceps
Your chest muscles are a large muscle group. Training your chest muscles is done with ‘press’ exercises. These are exercises where you push your weight away from you, such as the bench press, but also push-ups, for example. With these press exercises you never train purely your chest muscles, but you also use your shoulder muscles and triceps. It is therefore best to expand your training schedule with a few other exercises for your triceps and shoulders.
Back, biceps and core
The same applies to the back muscles and biceps as to the chest muscles, shoulders and triceps. The back is a large muscle group and can be divided into upper back and lower back muscles. You train the largest back muscles using pull-ups or row movements. These exercises not only train your back muscles, but also use the biceps. You can therefore train the biceps well together with your back muscles.
With heavy exercises for the back muscles, it is important not to skip your lower back. To make sure your back stays balanced, your lower back shouldn’t become the weak link. It is therefore best to train your lower back with core stability exercises. Although you could train abs at any time, this is a good time to train the abs together with the core exercises.
Legs, butt and calves
The leg muscles are the largest muscle group and therefore require the most training. Your leg muscles consist of the quadriceps (thigh at the front), hamstrings (thigh at the back) and calf muscles. With various exercises for the leg muscles you train both the hamstrings and the quadriceps. With a well-known leg exercise such as the squats, you also train your glutes. In addition, there are specific exercises for the glutes that also train your hamstrings. For that reason, it is best to train the leg muscles and buttocks together.
