8 ms·
MuscleWiki: Find exercises that work specific muscles
- Pelayu 4y agoI’ve used https://exrx.net/Lists/Directory https://exrx.net/Lists/Directory for years. I find it the most comprehensive directory for exercises on the internet.
- ravedave5 4y agoAs someone who has been working out for a year this is great. I still don't know all the muscle names and I am still exploring and finding exercises that work for me.
- LoveMortuus 4y agoWould be nice if for muscles where there are multiple excercises listed, if it would also state what are the functional differences between them.
- tennisflyi 4y agohttps://exrx.net/ https://exrx.net/ is generally the go-to.
- terrycody 4y agolooks very messy though I understand its 90s style website.
- User23 4y agoThis. It’s built by a bodybuilder and not a techie and that shows, but it’s entirely serviceable.
- mherrmann 4y agoRyan (the founder of MuscleWiki) used to be a body builder. Iirc, he's also an accredited personal trainer.
- SomewhatLikely 4y agoAs someone who knows almost nothing about muscle building, why would I want to work specific muscles? How do I know which muscle I should want to work? Do I look at a particular muscle and feel it's too small and that's how I choose? Do I target specific muscles that feel sore after I do some other activity that is the real activity I value? I'm genuinely curious. If this website is giving the "how", I want to know the "why".
- meken 4y agoIn my experience, I’ve received answers to these questions working with a physical therapist. I’ve sustained several injuries partly due to muscle imbalance (that led to poor walking mechanics due to glute imbalance). So we try to correct that imbalance with strengthening exercises that target the glutes.
- hn_user82179 4y agoI've been dealing with similar issues. Can I ask how long it took for you to start seeing results from the strengthening exercises, both just in strength and your injuries going away? It's easy to see progress in weightlifting etc, but bands or body exercises for small muscles (adductors, in my case) just always feel hard.
- meken 4y agoIt's hard to separate actual progress from placebo so hence hard to give a good time estimate, but I'd say 3 months in I was at my peak (I've fallen off since then and ultimately "failed" PT in terms of it helping to address my specific issues).
- porknubbins 4y agoI had issues with pain from squatting not because my glutes were too weak but because I was not activating them properly as stabilizers, AKA dead butt syndrome. From that perspective the main importantce of bands, or bridges or whatever is to teach the body to properly use the small stabilizer muscles that can get inadventently inhibited due to injury or underuse, not get them super huge or much stronger so it really shouldn’t take long, weeks to a month I’d say.
- komali2 4y agoI really like some of the accessibility and usability features here, like having a "copy" button right next to the exercise! I'm confused why it's called a "wiki" though, I didn't see how to contribute? Was that just a funsies name? Wiki to me means something that's editable by the community. I'm also not quite sure the audience here, because it seems to indicate "find exercise by muscle group" to be the way to use the site, but that's not really... useful... to people that don't know proper form for some of these basic exercises. If I view the site like this: https://musclewiki.com/directory https://musclewiki.com/directory then it makes sense, like, ok, I set up a training regime for myself, or I'm looking at the one set up for me by my trainer, and I forgot cues and good form for a given exercise, lemme just look it up real quick in this really light weight, functional website. Boom, GIF, cues as bullet points, done. That is a great use case. What I'm worried about is a noob will come here, hit "biceps," then have a workout day of five kinds of curls. Which I guess to many is obvious why this is bad but just in case: broad strokes, if you're lifting, especially as a noob, it's better for your health, strength, and long term safety to be doing workouts that work your entire system, rather than "targeted" exercises only, such as curls. A good noob exercise plan is some combination of barbell squats, deadlifts, bench press, rows, and overhead press, or for bodyweight, pushups, dips, pullups, and squats.
- andreareina 4y agoIf said newbie only wants bigger biceps then training only biceps isn’t a bad plan.
- komali2 4y agoMaybe... I would hate for it to lead to more rounded back because they didn't do exercises to create requisite support in their back. If they can maintain good posture while doing curls it's probably fine.
- andreareina 4y agoHaving some balance between a joint's flexors and extensors is a good idea, fair enough. I've never heard of too much curling precipitating a rounded back. Even training everyday you're not going to be hunched over for that long.
- canadiantim 4y agoWould be awesome if you included stretches as well, like yoga-esque postures
- w0ts0n 4y agowe have stretches. https://musclewiki.com/stretches/ https://musclewiki.com/stretches/ However, we are filming Yoga on Thursday this week.
- freetime2 4y agoI see a lot of recommendations in this thread already, but any specific suggestions for a beginner whole body routine using bodyweight/dumbbells that also can help with stretching/flexibility? Edit: And also free. Not that I am opposed to people getting paid for putting out quality health education content - but free is preferable.
- cpfohl 4y agoI just started gmb.io they have several programs similar to this
- lanamo 4y ago+1 for gmb.io - it's the only program(s) that i ever paid for - they are that clever. (i am athletic, walk my dog daily, have access to crossfit gyms etc). gmb.io "fills the gaps" of daily movement deficits and is for everyone.
- TedDoesntTalk 4y agoHow do you track your reps and weight per exercise? My trainer wants me to use paper. There are too many apps for this, and most of them are adware or junk. A glorified spreadsheet is what I’m looking for (mobile).
- kjerzyk 4y agoI use Stacked. But only because I enjoyed books & content written by the creator. It's not as easy to adjust as other apps, but it's totally free and I think it's visually pleasing.
- lanamo 4y agoif you start tracking reps and weight, i guarantee you will loose interest fast. while tracking might certainly be useful for muscle building, gmb.io has a different approach and focuses on movements that are safe and help you in real life (mobilise wrist / shoulders, prevent back pain improve posture etc). A lot can be done without fancy equipment.
- carabiner 4y agoSS + GOMAD
- theboat 4y agoI was hoping this would be a lot more targeted. What if I want to focus on my rear delts? Subscapularis? Serratus anterior? Yes, I have bad posture.
- Zaheer 4y agoFor anyone that just wants a well-balanced workout plan I highly suggest checking out this guide: https://www.julian.com/guide/muscle/intro https://www.julian.com/guide/muscle/intro
- User23 4y agoWorking specific muscles is a terrible idea for the typical person looking to improve general fitness. The major compound movements are almost always what you want: barbell squats, overhead press, bench press, deadlifts, barbell rows, chin/pull ups, and dips[1]. Those will fix your posture problems among other things. From there you can work your way up to showing off on rings, glute ham raises, standing back bends, and even a planche progression if you really want to break the ice at parties. I mean sure, if you’ve got the genetic gifts, the drive, eight hours a day to spend in the gym, and probably the gear to be the next Mr Olympia and you just need some hypertrophy on those posterior delts to put you over the edge then by all means target specific tiny muscle groups. On the other hand if you just want the usable strength to handle life’s unexpected challenges then compounds all the way. Edit: If you're a true beginner, get a good coach. Frankly I think beginners would be better served by a site on how to identify a good coach than one on how to do the movements. [1] If you're a beginner you likely won't be able to do pull ups or dips unassisted, so either find a gym that has a machine that can give you assist, or use rubber bands. In fact if you're truly out of shape you might not even be able to do a proper bodyweight squat. If so, no problem, you can either assist by using rings, or progress with a leg press machine.
- mattbaker 4y agoThis site is about finding specific exercises for specific muscles though, and I think it works really well for that, I’ve used it off and on for years. There are plenty of reasons an individual may be looking for exercises to hit a specific muscle. I agree compound lifts are great for people interested in pursuing general fitness but there are plenty of people who can benefit from this. I’ve used it because I needed to strengthen specific muscles after injuries or to protect from re-injury and wanted to explore options. I’ve also used it to mix up lifting routines by having multiple exercises I can rotate through that hit the same muscles. Clearly I’m a fan :) Just like being in the gym, it’s important not to judge how others are working on their bodies^. You never know the story behind why someone is doing what they do. ^unless they’re putting themselves in honest to god danger of course!
- User23 4y ago
- lysozyme 4y agoDiscussed last year too (329 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25854523 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25854523
- dirtyid 4y agoStill hard to top exrx.