Best Exercises for Each Muscle Group

Your biceps have two distinct heads – the long head and the short head. The short head is located on your inner upper arm and adds width and density to your biceps. Your long head bicep is on the outer side of your arm and gives your upper arms an impressive peak that adds height and looks great in shirts (or out of them).

If you want a higher bicep peak, focus on including some of the most effective long head bicep exercises. You can train your long head biceps with cables, barbells, kettlebells, resistance bands, and even your own body weight for movements like chin-ups and pull-ups. 

What if you are stuck in a small hotel gym with minimal equipment? Or maybe you’re training from home or while on the go.

We’ve got you covered.

We review the best long head bicep exercises using only dumbbells so that you can keep effectively training your biceps peaks anytime, anywhere.

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Do you want to fill out your shirt sleeves with thicker, broader biceps? The classic bicep curl is among the most popular upper body exercises, but bicep training doesn’t stop there. Your biceps brachii comprises two distinct muscle heads, the short head, and the long head. The long head creates height, or the ‘peak’ of the bicep, while the short bicep head gives the muscle its breadth and thickness. You can’t wholly isolate either of the muscle’s two heads, but you can make some tweaks to emphasize the short head of your bicep muscle.

Many popular bicep exercises focus on building a higher muscle peak while neglecting the short bicep head. Check our definitive list of the most effective short head bicep exercises. Read on for some simple but effective exercises for building bigger biceps using dumbbells. 

1. Dumbbell Preacher Curls
2. Lying Bicep Curls 
3. Dumbbell Spider Curls 
4. Dumbbell Concentration Curls
5. Zottman Curls
6. Dumbbell Reverse Curls
7. Wide Grip Dumbbell Curls 
8. Upper Range of Motion Dumbbell Curls 
9. Incline Supinating Curls 

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Your latissimus dorsi (lats) are the widest muscle in the human body, fanning across your mid-to-lower back. The lat muscles’ essential functions include stabilizing your spine and shoulders and supporting better core strength. Your lats also assist with several shoulder movement patterns, such as internal rotation, extension, abduction, and adduction. Building your lat muscles creates a thicker, wider back and helps achieve a “V” shaped torso. 

Unfortunately, many popular lat exercises focus on the upper lats. Lifters also often fail to move through a full range of motion, leaving potential lower lat gains on the gym floor. Some tweaks to popular back exercises improve their ability to train your lower lats, making you a stronger and more functional athlete at a reduced risk of injury.

We’ll focus on the best dumbbell lower lat exercises. While we all would prefer to have constant access to a broader range of equipment, in reality, there are times you can’t access a lat pulldown machine or lack the time needed to set up barbells and bumper plates. If you have a pair of dumbbells at your gym or home, you can do these fantastic lower lat exercises to build bigger, stronger lower lats.

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You can’t afford to neglect your rear deltoids if you want to build bigger, more muscular shoulders. The rear delts stabilize your shoulder joint for pulling and pushing exercises. Building thicker rear delts makes your shoulders look bigger and improves your posture and shoulder joint mobility.

But can you effectively train your rear delts using just your body weight? Some of the most popular rear delt exercises require equipment, such as dumbbells, machines, or a cable pulley. If you’re traveling or working out from home, you need effective bodyweight alternatives. 

Below, we’ll review some of the best bodyweight rear delt exercises, so you can continue to make gains even when you can’t get to the gym. 

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Do you want to build bigger, stronger shoulders? Have you been training your upper body and getting frustrated with lagging delts? The deltoid is a muscle in your shoulder that has three heads – the anterior (front), medial (side), and posterior (rear) delt. Each head is important for your shoulder joint’s overall strength, stability, and functionality. 

Unfortunately, some of the most popular and effective front delt exercises require a lot of equipment and a complex setup. On days when you need to get in and out of the gym quickly or are training with limited equipment, it’s helpful to have some go-to exercises you can do with only a set of dumbbells.

Here is our list of the seven best dumbbell-only front delt exercises. We’ll review each one in detail, explain their benefits, and show you how to perform them correctly so you can start building bigger, more muscular front delts.

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You shouldn’t neglect direct rear delt training if your goal is to get stronger, bigger, and rounder delts. The rear delts, also known as the posterior delts, are often underdeveloped, whereas the front delts are often overdeveloped. This muscular imbalance leads to an asymmetrical physique, poor mobility, instability, and increased risk of injury.

If the front delts and chest are overpowering the rear delts, you’re going to end up with what’s known as “forward shoulder,” which puts your shoulder in a suboptimal performance position, especially on pressing movements.

The rear delts are involved in a lot of back movements. Most people would benefit from doing more direct rear delt exercises because bigger muscle groups, such as the lats and traps, take over the movement.

Most fitness enthusiasts fail to grow and strengthen their rear delts because they let their ego take control, use too much weight, and lack a good mind-muscle connection. To target the rear delts, you need to perform very specific exercises with proper form. 

In this article, we will be covering the top 8 exercises you can perform to grow your rear delts, reduce injury risk, and improve your posture!

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While most gym-goers focus on building the muscles they can see (e.g., chest, biceps, quads), they are missing out on several major muscle groups that play an important role in performance and aesthetics, such as the hamstrings. The hamstrings consist of 4 muscles located on the back of the upper legs. Along with the quads, the hamstrings add shape, size, strength, and stability to your legs.

Having underdeveloped and/or weak hamstrings negatively impacts your physique and performance and increases your risk of injury, especially to the knee. Since the hamstrings cross the knee and hip joint, it’s important to do a combination of exercises that involve knee flexion and hip hinging to fully develop the hamstrings.

Using cables is a good idea because you can do a wide variety of exercises with a few attachments. Cables place constant tension on the muscle, providing a new stimulus for muscle growth. Since there are countless hamstring exercises you can do with cables, we’ve decided to highlight the top ones so you don’t waste your time on ineffective exercises.

If you’re looking to build and strengthen your hamstrings, you’ve come to the right place! Keep reading to find out what cable hamstrings exercises are worth doing.

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The glutes are one of the largest and strongest muscles in the human body. They play a major role in maintaining an upright posture through hip extension. Whether you’re a guy or a girl, having bigger and stronger glutes is important for aesthetics and performance.

People tend to be quad-dominant, which means their quads and hip flexors are much stronger than their glutes and hamstrings. Being quad-dominant can increase the risk of injury, negatively affect performance, and lead to poor movement patterns.

One of the only ways you can address and prevent this issue is by consistently performing glute exercises. You can do several exercises to build and strengthen your glutes; however, some are better than others.

In this article, we will share with you some of the best glutes exercises that use cables as opposed to free weights or machines. Cables are very effective for hypertrophy because they are incredibly versatile, accessible, and place constant tension on the target muscle.

In fact, the cable machine made it onto our list of the best gym machines for glutes.

If your goal is to build, strengthen, and add more shape to your glutes, keep reading to see which exercises you should consider doing!

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Whenever you pick something up or grab onto something, you engage the forearm muscles. With the forearms being so involved in daily tasks, they get quite a bit of work already. However, in order to make your forearms bigger and stronger, they require progressive overload, like any other muscle.

Although direct forearm training isn’t the most popular topic in the fitness industry, there are several simple, yet effective, exercises you can do to see significant gains in your forearms. And in this article, we are going to cover the best cable exercises you can do for bigger and stronger forearms.

Cables are extremely versatile and place constant tension on the working muscles, making them ideal for hypertrophy training. With a few attachments, you can train all of the actions of the forearms to yield the best results. When most people train the forearms, they typically just do wrist curls, but there’s so much more you can be doing!

Keep reading to find out the best cable forearm exercises!

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The rear delts are a key muscle group that surrounds the shoulders. While most people emphasize training and developing the front and side delts, they often miss out on the rear delt.

Increasing the size and shape of your rear delts will help you achieve rounder and fuller shoulders. Developing the rear delts will give you the 3D appearance that’s often seen in top-level physique competitors.

Although the rear delts are involved in several back exercises, if rear delt growth is your goal, then specifically training the rear delts is necessary.

The problem with most rear delt isolation exercises is that if you use free weights, there are various points during the movement where there’s little to no tension placed on the rear delt. Also, if you go too heavy, the traps take over the movement.

The best way to get around those two issues is to use the cable machine instead of free weights, which is why we recommended it as one of the best gym machines for the back.

But which cable exercises are the most effective for developing your back muscles?

In this article, we are going to cover the top 6 cable rear delt exercises, so you don’t have to waste your time doing ineffective exercises.

Keep reading to find out which exercises made our list!

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The trapezius muscle is divided into three main regions, the upper traps, middle traps, and lower traps.  Since they are visible from the front, most people focus on building the upper traps, which leaves the lower traps undeveloped and overpowered by the lats and upper traps. 

However, the lower traps are an important muscle to target because they add size definition to the middle back. What’s more, the lower traps play an essential role in maintaining shoulder health and good posture.

Various back exercises involve the lower traps, but they can be further emphasized through direct lower trap training. The primary action of the lower trap is scapula depression. There are a few specific exercises that primarily include that action, and it’s not your typical shrug.

In this article, we’ll cover the best exercises you can perform to get stronger and bigger lower traps. Keep reading to learn more!

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When most people think about the best shoulder exercises, they often prioritize movements that work the front (anterior) and side (medial) deltoids. However, focused attention on the posterior (rear) delt is equally important for building strong, well-rounded shoulders.

Strengthening the rear delts will improve your ability to pull your shoulders back, and improve your strength and posture in and out of the gym. You can target your rear delts using cable machines, barbells, resistance bands, or even your own body weight.

In this article, we’ll focus on ways to target the posterior deltoid using only dumbbells for an accessible, convenient way to train this often neglected muscle.

Here is our list of the nine best dumbbell exercises to target your rear delt and help you build broad, strong, and stable shoulders.

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Love it or hate it, leg day is an essential part of any dedicated lifters’ training plan. Your legs have several different muscle groups, an important one being the quadriceps. The quads are located on your thigh’s anterior (front) and are composed of four different muscles, including the vastus lateralis, also known as the outer quadriceps.  

The outer quad is the largest of the quad muscles and also generates the most power out of the four quadricep heads. The outer quad helps extend your knee, absorb impact when running and jumping, and stabilize the thigh, hip, and kneecap. Building your outer quadriceps also creates more muscular, fuller-looking legs that can lift heavier weights in the gym. Here are the seven best exercises for targeting your outer quads.

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While often neglected in favor of the biceps, the triceps are the biggest muscle group in your arms. The tricep has three muscle ‘heads’, which explains their name (tri meaning three and ceps meaning heads). 

The long head tricep is the largest of the three tricep heads. Due to its size and potential for growth,  it is worth giving it some extra attention in the gym. Your long tricep head is located on the inner side of your upper arm, running across the elbow joint to the shoulder joint. Here, we’ll go over the eight best exercises to target your long tricep head and help you achieve stronger, more muscular upper arms.

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If you want to build powerful, strong arms that perform well in the gym, you can’t forget the triceps. The triceps brachii makes up about two-thirds of your upper arm. It is a muscle with three heads – the long head, the lateral head, and the medial head.

The medial head is the smallest and least visible of all the tricep heads but still warrants focused attention.

The medial tricep head plays a vital role in stabilizing the elbow and supporting elbow extension. It is located at the back of the arm just above the elbow.

You can’t isolate the medial head of the tricep entirely, but you can give it extra emphasis by choosing the right exercises.

We’ll go over the seven best exercises to target your medial tricep to build balanced, strong and muscular-looking upper arms.

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Are you looking for the most effective way to build your bicep peak? If so, then you should primarily be focused on increasing the size, density, and strength of the long head of the biceps. The bicep is composed of two heads, the long head, and the short head. The long head is a bigger muscle and forms the bicep peak.

There are numerous bicep exercises, but specific ones target the long head of the biceps more than others. With that said, you cannot isolate the long head or the short head of the biceps, you can only emphasize one more than the other, and it’s all about your exercise selection.

In this article, we’re going to cover the top 8 exercises that target the long head of the bicep. If you start performing the movements listed below, you’ll soon develop an impressive, stage-worthy bicep peak.

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Cables are one of the most useful machines that you can have because they are so versatile and provide constant tension to whichever muscle you’re targeting. Cable machines are particularly great for shoulder development since they increase the stability of the shoulder joint in addition to size, shape, and strength.

With a few modifications, cables can be used to target all three heads of the deltoids, giving you 3D shoulders. Whether you’re looking to step on stage, compete in powerlifting, rehab from an injury, or enhance athletic performance, it’s a good idea to include cable-based exercises in your routine.

Although there are several cable exercises that engage the shoulders, some are better than others. Here’s our definitive list of the cable shoulder exercises that are worth doing regardless of your goal or experience level.

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Building muscular, strong, and aesthetic arms goes far beyond doing a few bicep curls. Two heads make up the biceps — the short head and the long head. While they both contribute to elbow flexion, one creates the height or peak of the bicep, whereas the other creates the width and density of the bicep.

In this article, we will focus on the width and thickness portion of the bicep, which is attributed to the short head. If you want to learn what the best exercises are for the long head, check out this article: Most Effective Long Head Bicep Exercises.

Even though you can’t isolate a particular head of the biceps, altering your grip, width, and elbow position allows you to target one more than the other. For the short head, doing exercises that use a wider grip and/or place your elbows in front of your body will be the most effective.

If you want to add more width, thickness, and density to your biceps, try out the top 8 short head bicep exercises below!

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Many fitness enthusiasts are on a mission to build bigger and stronger arms. While most gym-goers focus on growing their biceps by endlessly doing curls, they are missing out on what the triceps have to offer.

If you want big arms, growing your lateral head tricep muscle is a must.

Afterall, the triceps make up two-thirds of your arm, while the bicep only makes up one-third.

There are numerous tricep exercises to choose from; however, some are better than others, especially if you want to target a certain area of the triceps. Although you cannot directly isolate a specific head, by changing your elbow positioning and grip placement, you can emphasize one more than the other.

In this article, we are going to highlight the best exercises that target the lateral head of the triceps based on safety, efficiency, and effectiveness.

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Nothing says “I lift” more than three-dimensional shoulders. A lot of gym-goers are after cannonball shoulders and if that’s you, then you’ve come to the right place! In this article, we’re going to cover the top 10 exercises for bigger and stronger front delts.

A common debate in the fitness industry is whether or not front delt isolation exercises are necessary. Many argue that if you already do pressing movements consistently, such as the bench press and shoulder press, then front delt isolation exercises are unnecessary.

The front delt is one of three major muscles that surround the shoulder joint. Compared to the side (lateral) delt and rear (posterior) delt, the anterior delt is oftentimes overdeveloped. Since a major component of aesthetics is symmetry, if one area of the delt is more developed than the other, it’s not very appealing to the eye.

But if you’re one of the few that has lagging anterior delts, keep reading to learn how to train them in the most effective, safe, and efficient way possible.

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