What muscles to train together?

Most people who go to the gym or train from home do so without a personal trainer. However, many people do not know how to start, what routines to follow or what exercises are suitable for exercising the muscles they want. We can make several combinations depending on the days we exercise, yes, it is as important to exercise the muscles as to let them rest, since a good combination helps us prevent injuries. Therefore, in this article we will give you the guidelines to know what muscles to train together and thus be able to establish your own exercise routine.

Large and small muscles

Before doing any exercise we have to know a little about our body and the muscles in it to know how they work and, in this way, to be able to exercise them in the best way without causing injuries. We can differentiate two types of muscles in our body: large and small.

Large muscles are those that occupy more, that is, they have more amplitude and therefore contain more fibers. They are muscles such as pectorals (chest), dorsal (back) and legs. These muscles are more resistant and withstand more exercise, but we should not overload them either. When the muscles rest they grow, so you have to let them rest and since they are bigger the rest has to be greater. Depending on whether we want to gain volume or just be fit the exercise will be different. Of course, as we have said, it is not advisable to overload these muscles and, therefore, it is convenient to let them rest for at least one day, although it is better if they are 48 hours between training and another in this area.

Small muscles are those that have less amplitude and less fibers. In this category are the biceps, triceps, twins and forearms. They are muscles that endure less exercise but also need less rest. We can exercise them day by day, but without going over.

And what about the shoulders? The deltoids (shoulders) would not be classified as large or small, so it is said that they are intermediate. We can make combinations of large and small muscles along with these.

Agonist and antagonist muscles

The agonist muscles also called motors produce, by their contraction, the force necessary to initiate a movement. The opposite muscle is your antagonist that will stretch when the agonist contracts. For example, when we bend the elbow, the biceps contract as an agonist muscle and it’s opposite, the triceps, is stretched, this being the antagonistic muscle. Other antagonistic muscles are the chest and back, when we stretch each other it contracts and vice versa, or the quadriceps and the femoral legs. Most exercises train both muscles at the same time.

Combination of muscles for training

Once we have seen all the necessary information we will see what is the best combination of muscles to train together.

It is convenient that in each training session we combine large and small muscles and let them rest for the necessary time. If what you want is to gain volume or train more one area than another then you can perform antagonistic training, making the area of ​​the body you want to exercise be trained to a greater extent. We are going to propose a routine to exercise all the muscles, from Monday to Friday, freeing the weekends also so that our muscles can rest and we do not overload:

• Monday: Webegin with an exercise to train pecs and triceps. For the first we will perform three sets of ten, eight and six repetitions of chest press. For the triceps area we will use a pulley exercise, for example. It is a good tool to exercise this area. If you do not have a pulley at home you can perform other exercises for the triceps.
• Tuesday:this day we will do exercises for the back area and biceps. To exercise the dorsal the most used are the weights. However, we can also do it if we do not have these or we exercise from home, with any of the alternatives to exercise dorsal without weights. To train the biceps we can use dumbbells, or using a bench or chair if we want to exercise the biceps at home.
• Wednesday: we willexercise the legs and shoulders. To exercise the legs there are many exercises, including squats. In the case of the shoulders we can take a dumbbell and do several exercises such as side lifts or Arnold press.
• Thursday:buttocks exercise. There are many exercises to exercise this area, such as half squats. Find out here how to do gluten squats correctly.
• Friday:we end with a small area since the accumulated fatigue of the week is noticeable and so we can rest. For example we can exercise biceps and triceps with some antagonistic series or the abdominal area.

If, for example, you want to exercise your ass, abs and buttocks you can change the routine so that instead of chest and back you exercise more legs and buttocks. Of course, leaving at least two days of rest between exercises in the same large area (legs or lutes).

A variation of this routine could occur if you want to hypertrophy or exercise an area, for example legs, torso or altogether. In this case you can establish an antagonistic routine. For example, a combination would be training Monday chest and back; on Tuesday something softer like the shoulders along with the biceps and triceps; on Wednesday another large area such as the legs exercising femoral and quadriceps, on Thursday for example buttocks and again biceps and triceps, and on Friday return to the back and chest. In this way we let the large muscles rest two days and the small ones somewhat less. It is a more intensive but at the same time healthy routine, without forcing too much. You could follow that routine of chest back and legs alternating with a day of small areas, in this way you let the muscles rest and exercise more those you want.

However, it must be said that depending on the organism of each one, the illnesses that it suffers or the needs it is advisable to consult a coach to advise us in any case what are the appropriate exercises for us.