Lifting: how do I know what exercises to do?

For someone starting out a new lifting routine, or even for someone who just needs to change things up, knowing what exercises to pair together can be overwhelming.

Generally, as long as you are pairing exercises together in a safe manner, you’ll be ok. If you want to pair arm exercises with glutes, have at it. Just make sure you account for enough rest days for those muscles to recover adequately before hitting them again.

Things get more involved when you are training for specific goals. Are you trying to add muscle mass? Working on leaning out? Training for a competition? There can be a lot of variables at play. You can encounter a number of people who have trained in different ways for these different situations and had success. The best plan is one you can stick to and get knowledge and experience from.

I personally train legs, back, shoulders, arms, and chest with core integrated in on various days. I also do hip specific work on alternating days to strengthen my hips as I’ve identified some imbalances I have and want to improve on. I typically comprise my workouts with 6 exercises that alternate between muscles within that group. For example, my leg days consist of two glute moves, two quad moves, and two hamstring moves. I do a rotating order to break them apart further so it looks like quad, hammie, glute, quad, hammie, glute.

There are a wide variety of exercises you can do for every part of your body. Working with a fitness professional who can provide you with a workout that is structured in a way to ensure your safety and well-being while providing progress and growth is the best way to tailor your workouts. Anyone can make a physically exhausting workout that taxes you; a fitness professional can develop a workout that moves you closer to the person you are building.