When you are looking at selecting exercises don't base it on muscles that are being trained, rather look at movement patterns. For too long the industry has been influenced by old school bodybuilding training ideas.
Here is a list of movement patterns that you should be thinking about.
Upper Body
1. Horizontal Push
2. Horizontal Pull
3. Vertical Push
4. Vertical Pull
Lower Body
Quad Dominant
Hip Dominant
Knee Dominant Flexion
Knee Dominant Extension
There needs to be a balance between all theses movements. However in many cases with people who have been training for some time and have created imbalances in some of these movement patterns then the training need to be temporarily adjusted to correct these imbalances.
Here's a breakdown using some of the more traditional exercises.
Primary Movement Patterns:
Horizontal Push:
Bench Press, Standing Cable Chest Press, Incline DB Press
Horizontal Pull:
Bent Over Barbell Row, Seated Cable Row, Bent Over DB Row
Vertical Push:
Military Press, DB Shoulder Press, Push Press
Vertical Pull:
Chins, Pullups, Lat Pulldowns
Quad Dominant:
Squats, Single Leg Squats, Front Squats, Bulgarian Squats
Hip Dominant:
Deadlifts, Romanian Deadlifts, Good Mornings
Knee Dominant Extension:
Split Squats, Lungs
Knee Dominant Flexion:
Reverse Leg Curl, Slide Board Leg Curl
Planes of Movement
The second thing to consider when looking at movement patterns is the planes of movement.
Sagittal Plane movements should be first mastered before moving onto Coronal Plane (Frontal Plane) movements then further progressing to Transverse Plane movements.
