Welcome to Training Tip Tuesday, where I explore a different training focus each week—from strength and cardio to flexibility and balance.
Today’s Training Tip
How to Use Body Sections to Build Your Workout
What Are Body Sections?
I’m frequently asked what my own strength training routine looks like, so I thought today would be the perfect time to share a little secret with you. Before I ever pick up a dumbbell or choose an exercise, I break my body into sections.
Think of it as laying out a map. Without a map, it’s easy to get lost or keep revisiting the same landmarks while ignoring others. My personal map looks like this:
- • Chest
- • Back
- • Shoulders
- • Arms
- • Upper legs/Glutes
- • Lower legs
- • Core
You might choose to divide your body differently, but this is the framework that works for me. The goal is to ensure you aren’t leaving anything behind.
How to Apply the Section Method
Once you’ve established your body sections, choose exercises that work those sections. Remember, you only need to choose one exercise per section per workout; although I usually do two and for reasons I’ll go into in another post. In order to avoid your body adapting to set exercises, mix up what you do. Below, I’ve listed several exercises for each body section. You can choose from them or find your own online – mine are based on exercise moves I can do in my home gym with the equipment I have on hand.
Chest:
• Pushups
• Chest press on a Swiss ball with dumbbells
• Incline or decline chest press with dumbbells
• Benchpress with barbell (I rarely do this because I normally don’t have a spotter)
• Fly with dumbbells or tube
Back:
• Lat pulldown
• Seated row
• Bent over single-arm row
• Rear delt fly with dumbbells or tube
• Dumbbell pullover
Shoulders:
• Upright row with dumbbells, cable, or tube
• Military press
• Arnolds
• Forward raises
• Lateral raises
Arms:
• Bicep curls
• Hammer curls
• Triceps press
• Triceps extension
• Skull crushers
• Dips
Upper legs including Glutes:
• Squats
• Sumo squats
• Lunges
• Reverse lunges
• Side lunge slides
• Bulgarian split squats
• Leg extension (machine)
• Leg curl (machine)
• Prone leg curl with leg weights
• Supine ball roll outs
Glutes:
• Clamshell with circular tube around knees
• Lateral walk with circular band around ankles
• Lateral step-ups
• Hip extension
• Fire hydrants with leg weights
• Donkey kicks with leg weights
• Single-leg bridges
• Hip thrusts
Lower legs:
• Straight leg calf raises
• Bent knee calf raises
• Foot flexion with weight hanging on toes
Core:
• Plank
• Crunches
• Pilates swimmer
• Bird dog with opposite elbow/knee tap
• Dead bug
• Single arm row stand on opposite leg on pad
• Single leg timed stand on pad or BOSU
Pulling it all Together
The beauty of the section method is that it takes the anxiousness out of your gym session. You don’t need a complex, two-hour plan to see progress; you just need a roadmap that ensures you’re challenging your body from every angle. Try picking one move from each list for your next workout and see how much more focused your training feels. Consistency is built on simple systems—so grab your map and get moving!
Questions
- • Which of these body sections do you find most challenging to train?
- • For strength training, do you design your own workouts, use an app, or have a trainer?
- • Do you have a specific fitness goal you’re working toward?
I love the idea of mapping body sections so nothing gets neglected and the decision fatigue disappears.
The timing of your post made me smile too, I have back squats at CrossFit today, so upper legs and glutes are very much on my mind!
Simple systems like this really do make consistency easier and training more intentional.
I find that so many people tend to overthink their strength training and then give up because they get overwhelmed.
I hope your back squats were all you dreamed they’d be. 😉
I love it! I’m one of the people who has asked you to go into more detail about your strength sessions. I “design” my own workouts usually, but I need to be more thoughtful about it. The problem with designing my own program is that I tend to do more of the things I like- and the things I don’t like are probably the things I need to work on most.
I’m enjoying this Training Tip series!
Yes, you and Cari were the two that asked me what my own strength training workout looks like so I thought of you two while writing this. We all tend to do the things we like first, and you’re right, we should spend more time on the things that are tougher. Glad you’re enjoying the series. 🙂
I also choose to plan my workouts this way. The past few years I’ve relied on specific peloton programs that alternate lower and upper body to make sure that I hit all the muscle groups. some months I do more split training and sometimes more full body workouts.
Sounds like you’ve got a great approach to your strength training!
Oh what a great way to look at it! I love having new plans of attack to keep things from getting boring, and to force me to hit all the exercises, instead of just my favorites!
I hope this helps when you’re planning your workouts.