Muscle Groups for Mass

By Daniella Lindsey

Once you’ve lost a lot of body fat, you’ll start to notice other bulges beginning to grow. Muscles.

A lot of people who go through and successfully complete a weight loss program start to enjoy the exercise routines and want to take it to the next step.

So begins muscle building programs or strength training.

A lot of programs talk a language that’s straight out of the gym and not easy to understand at first, so I’ll go through the muscle groups that strength training focuses on and then the language of body building.

The Major Muscle Groups 

Strength training exercises are carried out to keep a balance in muscle growth and to avoid injury.

Some of the exercises for each muscle group are included here with the name of the body muscle group.

Gluteals – This group of muscles (commonly called ‘glutes’) includes the gluteus maximus, which is the large muscle covering your butt.

Exercises include squats and leg press machine. The glutes also come into play during lunges and box step ups.

Quadriceps (or Quads) – are the muscles that make up the front of the thigh. Exercises include squats, lunges, leg extension machine, and leg press machine.

Hamstrings – The muscles down the back of the thigh.

Exercises include squats, lunges, leg press machine, and leg curl machine

Hip abductors and adductors – These are the muscles of the inner and outer thigh. The adductors are on the inside and pull the leg across the centerline of the body.

This group can be worked with a variety of side-lying leg lifts, standing cable pulls, and multi-hip machines.

Calf – The calf muscles are on the back of the lower leg and are made up of the gastrocnemius and the soleus.

The gastrocnemius is what gives the calf its rounded shape.

The soleus is a flat muscle running under the gastrocnemius.

Standing calf raises give the gastrocnemius a good workout, while seated or bent knee calf raises place emphasis on the soleus.

Lower back – The erector spinae muscles extend the back and aid in good posture. Exercises to build strength in this group include the back extension machine and prone back extension exercises.

These muscles are exercised by performing squats and dead lifts.

Abdominals (or Abs) – These muscles include the rectus abdominis, a large flat muscle running the length of the abdomen, and the external oblique, which run down the sides and front of the abdomen.

Exercises such as standard crunches and curls target the rectus abdominis.

Reverse curls and crunches (where the hips are lifted instead of the head and shoulders) work out the lower portion of this muscle.

Crunches that involve a twist work the external oblique muscles.

Pectoralis major – Large fan shaped muscle (or Pecs) that covers the front of the upper chest. Push-ups, pull-ups, regular and incline bench press are the exercises for this group.

Rhomboids – Muscles in the upper back between the shoulder blades. They’re worked during chin-ups and other moves that bring the shoulder blades together.

Trapezius – Upper portion of the back, sometimes referred to as ‘traps.’ The upper trapezius is the muscle running from the back of the neck to the shoulder.

Exercises include upright rows, and shoulder shrugs while holdind some weight.

Latissimus dorsi – Large muscles of the mid-back.

These muscles create the V shape of the back.

Exercises include pull-ups, chin-ups, one arm bent rows, dips on parallel bars.

Deltoids – The cap on the end of the shoulder.

This muscle has three parts, anterior deltoid (the front), medial deltoid (the middle), and posterior deltoid (the rear).

The anterior deltoid is worked with push-ups, bench press, and front dumbbell raises. Standing and doing side dumbbell raises target the medial deltoid.

Rear dumbbell raises (done while seated and bent at the waist, or lying face down on a flat bench) target the posterior deltoid.

Biceps – The front of the upper arm.

Exercises are biceps curls done with a barbell or dumbbells.

Other pulling movements such as chin-ups and upright rows also build up the biceps.

Triceps – The muscle at the back of the upper arm.

Exercises include push-ups, dips, bench press and military press.

Correct workout of these muscles groups should be done with a proper program not just grab and lift. Damage can happen easily without the correct technique.

Read here for more information on programs that will build muscle fast and smoothly

Speed and Sequence

When doing a series of exercises, you’ll generally want to start with the larger muscle groups and finish with the smaller muscle groups and isolation movements. This allows you to do the hardest moves when you’re at your best.

For example, you’re less likely to lose your balance during a lunge if you do the lunges before exhausting the muscles of quads and hamstrings with machine exercises. You’ll use better form on your push-ups if you do them before fatiguing the triceps with presses.

The speed of the movement is an important element of each exercise.

Fast, jerky movements should be avoided as they place undue stress on the muscle and connective tissue at the commencement of the movement, increasing the likelihood of an injury.

Fast lifting or jerking also cheats you out of some of the strength benefits.

When lifting at a fast pace, momentum (not the muscle) is doing a good deal of the work.

Sets and Reps 

"Sets" refers to an exercise carried out a number of times without pausing and a “rep” is the number of times that move is repeated in each set.

So if you were to do 3 sets of 10, you would carry out an exercise 10 times, take a short rest and then carry out another 10, rest and finish with another 10 reps of the exercise.

Resistance and Range 

Resistance refers to the amount of weight you’re using and will regulate the number of times you can lift that weight.

Maximum resistance is the heaviest weight you can correctly lift once. Strength training with more than 85% of your maximum resistance weight can easily lead to injury and should be avoided.

Range is the movement through the exercise and should be taken through the full extent of joint movement in a slow controlled motion for full benefit.

If you find you need to jerk or swing to start the motion, move to a lower weight as you are probably too near your full resistance weight.

Full range movement in a controlled motion gives maximum benefit to both the stretching and the opposing contracting muscle, while assisting with joint flexibility.

Progression and Frequency 

As muscle mass grows through strength training, you will move on to either heavier weights or more reps with further gains through this progression.

Muscle mass actually increases between workouts not during the exercise period and the recovery takes around 48 hours so most programs will have at least 1 day off between sessions.

These are the expressions you'll read about in different muscle building or strength training programs.

It's all straight forward and they'll become part of your vocabulary too as you gain the body shape you want.

If you add a correct diet to your exercise program you'll see great results and feel energised straight away.

For more information visit  Muscle Building and Weight Training Programs

Back to Top