Have you ever wondered what movements can best sculpt your body when you’re working out? One key point on the best workouts for each muscle group is warming up, mind to muscle connection is vital when trying to work out isolated parts of your body, and the best way we have found to do this is by warming up that specific muscle group before we start working out. This can be as easy as starting the exercise with no weight, just body movement, or some activation exercises beforehand. We interviewed Angharad Saynor, master trainer at Infinite Cycle, to teach us more about what workouts are the best for all the different parts of our body. Keep reading for more!
The Best Workouts for Your Arms, Chest, Glutes, and Abs
Glutes
To start, glute bridges with no weight, squeeze at the top of your glute bridge and hold for 3-5 seconds on each rep. If you have time, compliment this with either banded, or un-banded crab walks. The key with this one is to stay low and control the movements. The best exercises for glutes are single leg step ups (weighted if preferred), weighted glute bridges, and squats. I also recommend hill runs & cycling/spin classes, these are killer on your glutes, and really build up strength and stamina, especially if you have a heavily seated job or lifestyle.
Arms
Pull ups are one of the best exercises for your arms even, to warm up I suggest 20 – 30 second bar hangs. Then either banded or unassisted pull ups or chin ups. Chin ups allow you to lift more weight than a usual bicep curl as you are usually lifting your whole bodyweight, or at least a large percentage of it. More weight
Chest
Start either on your knees or in a full push-up position, make sure especially if you are not used to doing push-ups that you start with the basics. Even just committing to doing 10 push ups every morning will help strengthen your chest. If you are a push-up-pro though, maybe look into incorporating more of the eccentric contraction into your normal concentric contraction push ups. You can achieve greater growth by focusing on the eccentric contraction (the point of a rep in which your muscles lengthen) combined with a powerful concentric action immediately afterward. For this, try a power push up, which elevates your hands, and you move from the elevated platform to the floor and back.
Abs
Your ab warm up can be sit ups, Russian twists or a good old-fashioned plank. Apart from jumping on one of Infinite Cycle’s moving bikes which is a killer core workout, the best way to work your abs is through heavy compound movements. Big lifts will strengthen your core muscles just as much as the focused area of the lifts. One way I love to compliment big lifts for my core though, is by practicing yoga. Not only will this help you connect to your body more through practice, but it’s honestly been the most amazing way to work on core strength and tone.
