Which Muscles Groups Should You Work Together for Weightlifting?

Full-body workouts have an undeniable benefit: They can efficiently strengthen every muscle from shoulders to calves. But if you're looking to strengthen and build specific body regions, you may want to break up your workouts by muscle group(s).

Learn the best muscle group combinations for your weekly workout schedule and how to structure your training sessions.

Combining specific muscles into workout groups helps keep extra blood flowing to the same area of the body as you exercise, according to Carolina Araujo, CPT, a California-based strength coach. This encourages muscle growth and can make your workouts more efficient — particularly if you're in the gym and have to transition between different equipment.

It's not a hard-and-fast rule, but there are a few muscle groups that work best when combined. Ultimately, though, it comes down to your training schedule, exercise experience and fitness goals. For instance, those who want to strengthen their upper body, a split that involves more upper-body workouts is ideal.

"Personally, I like to split my week of workouts up by upper-body push muscles, upper-body pull muscles and then two leg days," she says. "But if you're training for a specific sport or event, the ideal combinations may vary."

Here are a few common muscle group combinations you can use to split up into your workout sessions each week:

A push-pull split works similarly to upper-lower body splits, but divides exercises by whether they're pushing or pulling movements.

On push days, lifters perform pushing movements — horizontal upper-body pushes like bench press, vertical upper-body pushes like shoulder presses, lower-body presses like leg press and squats and accessory pushes like triceps pushdowns.

On pull days, they do pulling moves — horizontal upper-body pulls like barbell rows, vertical pulls like pull-ups or pulldowns, lower-body pulls like deadlifts, and upper-body accessory pulls like curls.

For people who want to train six times per week, a "push-pull-legs" split is popular. In this version, the "push" and "pull" days focus only on upper-body pushing and pulling movements, with a third workout that's all leg work. In this split, trainees usually work out three days in a row — push, pull, legs — then rest for a day before starting again.

• ​Upper-body push muscles:​ chest, shoulders and triceps
• ​Upper-body pull muscles:​ back and biceps
• ​Lower-body muscles:​ quads, glutes, hamstrings and calves

This split is just what it says: It alternates upper-body and lower-body workouts, making it ideal for four-day-a-week trainees.

An August 2019 study from the ​Journal of Human Kinetics​ found that experienced male lifters gained more muscle with this type of training four times a week compared to three full-body workouts. That's with the same number of sets done for upper and lower body — meaning the upper-lower split workouts were shorter but more frequent.

As with full-body training, organize upper-lower workouts around movements that use lots of muscles at once — squat and deadlift variations on the lower-body day; and bench presses, overhead presses and rows on the upper-body day. This will make sure you overload lots of muscles in your main working sets.

In a split like this, Nick Tumminello, a personal trainer in Florida and author of ​Strength Zone Training​, suggests a rest day between the upper- and lower-body days. So you'd lift upper body on day 1, legs on day 2 and rest on day 3 before starting again on day 4.

You can do at least one upper-body and one lower-body workout per week or do up to three of each (upper, lower, upper, lower, upper, lower), leaving a day for rest.

• ​Upper body:​ chest, back, shoulders, biceps and triceps
• ​Lower body:​ quads, glutes, hamstrings and calves

This split involves targeting the muscles that work together to flex and extend a joint (ex. biceps and triceps both work on the elbow).

• Back and chest
• Biceps and triceps
• Glutes, hamstrings and quads

A more advanced option, this type of split emphasizes one large, main (primary) mover and a secondary (synergist) muscle that supports the other.

• Back and biceps
• Chest and triceps
• Glutes, hamstrings and quads

In these training splits, certain body parts are targeted on certain days — if you've ever heard someone talk about "chest day" or "leg day," they're talking about a body-part split.

"If you're training five or six times per week, a body-part split is best in order to allow sufficient recovery of each muscle group between workouts," Tumminello says. You want to train each body part at least two times a week and get 10 to 20 sets per muscle group per week for best results.

For a split that has three days of training, one day of rest, then three more days of training, try:

• ​Day 1:​ Shoulders, chest and triceps
• ​Day 2:​ Legs and abs
• ​Day 3:​ Back and biceps
• ​Day 4:​ Rest
• ​Day 5​: Start back at day 1

For people who want to train even more, a split of four days of training with one day of rest can work. Tumminello suggests this type of organization:

• ​Day 1:​ Shoulders, chest and triceps
• ​Day 2:​ Quadriceps, calves and abs
• ​Day 3:​ Back and biceps
• ​Day 4:​ Hamstrings, glutes and abs
• ​Day 5:​ Rest
• ​Day 6:​ Start back at day 1

And finally, with this advanced split, you'll only focus on one upper-body muscle group per workout, then end the week with leg day.

• ​Day 1:​ Chest
• ​Day 2:​ Back
• ​Day 3:​ Shoulders
• ​Day 4:​ Rest (schedule this wherever works best)
• ​Day 5:​ Arms
• ​Day 6:​ Legs
• ​Day 7:​ Rest or start again at day 1

Similar to the above, with this advanced split, you'll only focus on one lower-body muscle group per workout, then end the week with and upper-body workout.

• ​Day 1:​ Quads
• ​Day 2:​ Chest and shoulders
• ​Day 3:​ Hamstrings
• ​Day 4:​ Rest
• ​Day 5:​ Glutes
• ​Day 6:​ Back and arms
• ​Day 7:​ Rest or start again at day 1
  

It's also best to put together a weekly workout schedule, involving workouts with the above-mentioned muscle combinations. You want to train each muscle group at least once per week, focusing on heavy weights to build strength, according to the American Council on Exercise (ACE).

No matter how you decide to set up your split, make an effort not to perform too many redundant exercises for the same body part, Tumminello says. "For example, [the barbell bench press, dumbbell bench press, pushup and dumbbell fly] all work your pectoral muscles in their lengthened-to-mid-range strength zone."

That is, all of these moves are hardest when your chest is stretched out, like at the bottom of a push-up or chest fly, and easiest when the arms are together. "They're basically the same exercise when it comes to how they load your pecs."

So if you're doing more than one chest exercise, think about where you feel tension in the move and choose exercises that challenge the muscle differently. For example, a cable fly is hardest when your arms are closest together, unlike a dumbbell fly.

While you train, aim to do each exercise for at least 6 to 12 reps, 3 to 6 sets, recommends the ACE. You also want to rest for about 30 to 90 seconds between sets.

You can choose exercises depending on your available equipment. And if you're training at a gym, consider a workout that mixes different tools, including dumbbells, barbells, cable machines and even your own body weight or resistance bands.

Over time, gradually increase the amount of resistance you're using for each exercise (aka progressive overload). In order to keep building strength, you need to keep challenging your muscles.