Exercises by muscle

Pick a muscle to see the exercises that train it most, with home options where there are enough.

Abs exercises

Your abs brace your trunk so you can lift, carry and twist without your spine taking all the strain.

Adductors exercises

The adductors pull your legs together and help steady your hips when you walk, change direction or stand on one leg.

Biceps exercises

Your biceps bend your elbow and turn your palm upwards, which is what you use to lift a bag, open a jar or pull a door.

Calves exercises

Your calves point your foot and push you off the ground with every step, jump and stair.

Chest exercises

Your chest pushes things away from you and brings your arms across your body, as when you push a heavy door or get up off the floor.

Forearms exercises

Your forearms control your grip and wrists, so they matter whenever you carry shopping, open jars or hold a heavy bar.

Glutes exercises

Your glutes straighten your hips and keep your pelvis level, so they power climbing stairs, standing up from a chair and walking uphill.

Hamstrings exercises

Your hamstrings bend your knee and help straighten your hip, which matters for sprinting, bending to pick things up and slowing your leg when you run.

Lats exercises

Your lats pull your arms down and back towards your body, the movement for climbing, swimming or pulling yourself out of a pool.

Lower Back exercises

Your lower back muscles hold your spine upright and stop it rounding when you bend, lift or carry.

Obliques exercises

Your obliques rotate and bend your torso to the side, and just as often stop it rotating or bending when it should not.

Quads exercises

Your quads straighten your knee, so they get you up from a chair, up the stairs and back up from a squat.

Shoulders exercises

Your shoulders lift your arms forwards, to the side and overhead, for everything from reaching a high shelf to putting a case in a luggage rack.

Traps exercises

Your traps move and steady your shoulder blades: lifting them in a shrug, drawing them together in a row, and rotating them upwards when you reach overhead.

Triceps exercises

Your triceps straighten your elbow, so they push you up off the floor, push a heavy door open and lock out every press.