Main Muscle Groups from a Bodybuilding Perspective

Before I get to the muscle groups I want to make sure we are on the same page. I want you to know how to detect which muscle does what. Each muscle is connecting bones around a join to control the movement of these bones.

Take your elbow as an example. There is a muscle that extends the elbow (the triceps) and there is another one to curls it (the biceps). In order to grow a strong triceps you need to extend your elbow joint against a resistance (weight), and in order to grow a strong biceps you need to curl your elbow against a resistance.

So, here are the main muscle groups in the body (bottom to top):

1. Calves: Calves are the most used muscles all day long. The whole time when you're on your feet you are using your calves to support your whole body weight. Because they are always working it's not easy to make them grow. To exercise your calves you need to lift your body on your toes while your knees are locked extended. A resistance of your body weight could be enough at the beginning, but soon you'll need to add some more resistance.

2. The Thighs: There are two main muscles in the thighs that control the knee joint movement: the quads and the hamstrings. The quads work on extending the knee while the hamstrings work on curling it. The quads are composed to 4 muscle "heads" and it's important to know that because you need to balance the strength of your quads in order to keep your knees working properly. A stronger side over the other can easily cause terrible pain when you move your knee in the future (I know this first hand). Squats exercise the quads, while curling exercises the hamstrings.

3. The Glutes: The glutes are the muscles around the bottom of your body (aka: butt). This group of muscles is not only for looking good, it's main function is to balance your body while standing (together with the lower back muscles) and to support your legs and hips while doing movements like walking, running, and climbing. Weak glutes might cause your legs to bend to the inside to make it up, stressing your knees probably to the point of injury. To exercise this muscle group you want to involve hip extension to the back and to the sides.

4. The Back: It can be divided into three main zones; the lower back, the latts and the traps. The lower back  muscles are involved in erecting to back to the upright position. You can exercise this small group of muscles with the dead lift. Be extra careful with this exercise and this group of muscles. Any injury in this area might cause you a life-long suffering from the consequences. The lats are covering most of the back and they can be exercised by rowing (depth) and pull ups (width). The traps are on top of your shoulders and they extend to the first third of the back in a diamond shape. To exercise this group you simply curl your shoulders trying to touch your ears with them.

5. The Abdominals: The abs can be divided into two groups: the front (six-pack) and the sides (the obliques). In addition to looking good, the abs protect most of your visceral organs (liver, stomach, pancreas, spleen, intestines, kidneys, and female reproductive organs). Strong abs also help balancing the body so that the back can stay erect without compromising the posture. To exercise the abs you need to bring your legs to your chest (leg lifts) or bring your head to your knees (set ups) while lying on your back.

6. The Pectorals: Chest muscles attach to the chest and to the humerus bones. The involved join here is the shoulder. Pecs work on bringing your arms to the front. To feel it really well lay in your back and flap your arms like a flying bird. To exercise this group of muscles you can use the bench press and flapping with a resistance. This is for the sake of simplicity, as you'll see in future posts there are different angles for exercising each group of muscles and different movements as well.

7. The Deltoids: The delts attach to your scapula (the colar bones) and the outer side of your humerus bones. The work on extending your arms side-wise up. To exercise this muscle you can extend your arms to your side with a resistance.

8. The Arms: There are two big muscles here: the biceps and the triceps. The biceps curls the arm and the triceps extends it. To exercise the biceps curl your arms with a resistance and to exercise the triceps extend your arms with a resistance.

9. The Wrist (Forearms): The wrist muscles control your grip and rotation of your hand. Do both movements with a resistance to make your wrist grow stronger. It's hard to grow this group of muscles because, as in the case of the calves, they're involved in everything you do with your hands.

10. The Neck: The neck muscles protect your vital blood vessels, your trachea, and the top of your backbone. They also control the movements of the head, which can be divided into two kinds of movements: tilting and rotating. To strengthen this group of muscles do the usual head movements but with a resistance. PLEASE DON'T TRY TO MAKE UP RESISTANCE, WEIGHT UNTIL YOU SEE THE EXERCISES ILLUSTRATED BY VIDEOS AND/OR DIAGRAMS.