Gym exercises by muscle group

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Browse our exercise library organized by muscle group. Each exercise includes correct technique, muscles worked, recommended sets and reps, and alternatives, whether with free weights, machines, cables or your own bodyweight.

Popular exercises

• EZ bar skull crusher
• Cable glute kickback
• Machine glute kickback
• Neutral-grip lat pulldown
• Landmine rotation
• Paused hip thrust
• Lateral plank walk
• Low-to-high cable crossover
• Band pull-apart

Abs

• Ab Wheel (kneeling)
• Bicycle crunch
• Cable crunch
• Reverse crunch
• Dead bug
• Hanging leg raise
• Hollow hold
• Landmine rotation
• Pallof press
• Lateral plank walk
• Plank
• Side plank
• Ab wheel rollout
• V-sit

Biceps

• Bayesian cable curl
• Zottman curl
• Spider curl
• Barbell curl
• EZ bar curl
• Alternating dumbbell curl
• Concentration curl
• Band concentration curl
• Resistance band biceps curl
• Preacher curl
• Overhead cable curl
• Low cable curl
• Incline dumbbell curl
• Reverse barbell curl
• Hammer curl
• Band hammer curl

Quads

• Box jump
• Leg extension
• Single-leg leg extension
• Hack squat
• Leg press
• Bulgarian split squat
• Banded squat
• Back squat
• Paused squat
• Cyclist squat
• Front squat
• Goblet squat
• Sumo barbell squat
• Dumbbell step-up
• Static lunge
• Dumbbell lunges

Back

• Pull-ups
• Weighted pull-ups
• Lat pulldown
• Neutral-grip lat pulldown
• Straight-arm pulldown
• Conventional deadlift
• Cable pullover
• Gironda row
• Meadow row
• Seated band row
• Barbell row
• T-bar row
• High cable row
• Single-arm dumbbell row
• Machine row
• Hammer Strength machine row
• Seated cable row
• Inverted row

Glutes

• Hip abduction machine
• Seated hip abduction
• B-stance hip thrust
• Cable pull-through
• Cable hip extension
• Frog pump
• Hip thrust
• Banded hip thrust
• Paused hip thrust
• Kettlebell swing
• Cable glute kickback
• Machine glute kickback
• Sumo deadlift
• Sumo goblet squat
• X-band walk
• Dumbbell lunge

Shoulders

• Band pull-apart
• Front raise
• Lateral raise
• Band lateral raise
• Cable lateral raise
• Machine lateral raise
• Face pull
• Pike push-up
• Arnold press
• Z-bar overhead press
• Seated dumbbell press
• Overhead press
• Bent-over reverse flye
• Cable upright row
• Turkish get-up

Hamstrings

• Band leg curl
• Standing cable leg curl
• Seated leg curl
• Lying leg curl
• Glute-ham raise
• Nordic curl
• Single-leg RDL
• Romanian deadlift
• Band Romanian deadlift

Lower back

• Bird dog
• Good mornings
• 45° back extension machine
• Back extensions
• Reverse hyper on bench
• Superman hold

Calves

• Isometric calf raise on step
• Barbell calf raise
• Kettlebell calf raise
• Dumbbell calf raise
• Standing calf raise
• Single-leg calf raise on leg press
• Donkey calf raise
• Leg press calf raise
• Single-leg step calf raise
• Seated calf raise
• Jump rope

Chest

• Dumbbell flyes
• Decline dumbbell flyes
• Pec deck flyes
• Cable crossover
• High-to-low cable crossover
• Low-to-high cable crossover
• Push-ups
• Ring push-ups
• Parallel bar dips
• Barbell bench press
• Dumbbell bench press
• Incline dumbbell bench press
• Decline bench press
• Incline bench press
• Machine press
• Dumbbell pullover
• Weighted push-up
• Svend press

Traps

• Low cable shrug
• Band shrug
• Dumbbell shrugs
• Barbell shrugs
• Band face pull
• Farmer carry
• Dumbbell upright row
• Machine shrug
• Band Y-raise

Triceps

• Overhead cable triceps extension
• Triceps pushdown
• Seated overhead dumbbell triceps extension
• Overhead dumbbell extension
• Bench dips
• Weighted parallel bar dips
• JM press
• Triceps kickback
• Close-grip bench press
• Diamond push-up
• EZ bar skull crusher

Multi-joint or isolation exercises? What a ten-week trial measured

When choosing gym exercises for a routine, the same blunt advice always appears: only the multi-joint basics count and isolation exercises are filler. That is a claim that can be measured, and someone measured it.

Gentil, Soares and Bottaro published a ten-week trial with untrained young men in the Asian Journal of Sports Medicine in 2015. One group trained only with the lat pulldown, a multi-joint exercise in which the elbow flexors work alongside the back; the other only with the biceps curl, which isolates them. They measured precisely those elbow flexors.

Both groups finished almost exactly the same, and the authors concluded that both exercise types are equally effective for gaining upper-body strength and size in beginners, recommending a choice based on available equipment, preference and time.

The limits are clear and should not be stretched: untrained men, a single muscle group and ten weeks. It does not say multi-joint exercises are unnecessary — they work several muscles at once, which saves time in any routine — it says isolation is not filler. That is why the library below mixes free weights, machines and cables, and also has a separate list of bodyweight exercises for anyone training without equipment.

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