A Weight Lifting Workout for Opposing Muscle Groups

The type and order of your muscle group split is extremely important for making the best gains possible. Your routine should allow you to work all the major muscles relatively equally each week without working the same muscles on successive days. This is because weightlifting causes damage to your muscles, which then need a few days to sufficiently recover. By adhering to a weightlifting routine for opposing muscle groups, you will find it easier to schedule your workouts and avoid overtraining the same muscles on a weekly basis.

  1. Torso Workout

    • The chest, back and shoulders are the largest muscles of your torso. When working these muscle groups in the same weightlifting session, focus on the larger chest and back muscles first. You must perform two types of weightlifting exercises: chest presses and back rows. Examples of these are the incline bench press, flat bench press, lying incline row and bent-over row. Once you do these exercises, you can then shift your focus onto the front, side and rear shoulders. To focus on the front shoulders, do the standing front raise. Then, to work on your rear shoulders, do the bent-over lateral raise. It is fine to only perform two shoulder exercises to finish off this workout because the shoulders are also worked during the chest and back exercises.

    Arms Workout

    • The pairing of biceps and triceps is a favorite amongst weightlifters and other gym-goers. This workout really pumps your arms up. Any exercise in which you bend your elbows while your forearms are internally rotated allows you to target your biceps. These weightlifting exercises include the standing biceps curls and incline biceps curl. As for your triceps, you need to do exercises that involve elbow extension, such as the triceps pushdown and the incline triceps extension.

    Core Workout

    • Your core is mainly comprised of the abs and the erector spinae muscles. Crunches and situps, which you have likely performed at one point or another, are excellent movements for the abs. However, many people neglect the erector spinae in the back. To work these muscles, do back extensions and hyperextensions. These are actually the exact opposite movements of crunches and situps.

    Leg Workout

    • The meat of your thighs is made up of the quadriceps in the front and hamstrings in the back. These muscles work in opposition: The quads straighten your leg while the hams bend it. Two of the best weightlifting exercises for the quads are squats and seated leg extensions. As for the hams, you can do standing leg curls and seated leg curls.

    Tips

    • Do two exercises per muscle group, except for the front and rear shoulders that you also work with other exercises. Perform each workout once a week, taking a rest day each time you do two consecutive workouts. Start off each workout with a 10-minute light jog to warm up your body. Then do three sets of eight to 12 repetitions per exercise using the maximum weight possible. Once you do all of the exercises and required sets and reps, then finish off your workout with a 10-minute slow walk too cool your body down.