• Give a Gift
  • Customer Service
  • Promotions
  • Videos
  • Blogs
  • Win
  • Free Games

How to Design Your Own Workout

woman in black swimsuit

Photo Credit: Philip Gay

Special Offer

1. Divide your muscles into two groups:
- Back, biceps, glutes, hamstrings, oblique abs
- Chest, shoulders, triceps, quadriceps (front of the thigh), ab muscles that run down the center of your body, transverse abs (abs that run across your body, very low in your pelvis)

2. Work each muscle group only twice a week; wait 48 hours before working the same muscle group again.

3. Work the big muscles before the smaller ones (e.g., work out the chest before the triceps).



4. Change it up every two weeks. Alter the weight, the number of sets, or the type of exercise.



5. Try new exercises, and don't let yourself off easy. If you continue to demand new things from your muscles every week, your body will continue to improve.


Advertisement
Giveaway-a-day
Velvet Plum Eye Palette

Velvet Plum Eye Palette

Enter Now
Latest blog entries
Marie Claire On The Go
  • Start receiving the day's headlines from topics you choose and get the latest posts from our bloggers. Sign up for RSS feeds now.

  • Take Marie Claire with you everywhere you go. Our mobile site has the latest 'it' items of the season. Including: Blogs, Hair & Beauty, Nutrition, Health & Fitness, Horoscopes and so much more!

    Here's how:

    1. Start a mobile session on your phone
    2. type m.marieclaire.com into your browser
    3. that's it!

  • In Every Issue:
    The one-stop shop
    for the very best in
    fashion & beauty


    Give a Gift
    Customer Service
    Marie Claire Magazine
Answerology
More From Health & Fitness Articles
pink ribbon with dart through it
Q&A with Founder of Susan G. Komen For the Cure

MC talked to Nancy Goodman Brinker, founder of Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation named in honor of her sister.

woman doing cross over lunge and bicep curl with hand weights in front of window with view of new york city
How To Build More Muscle

Get the most out of your strength training.

woman drinking juice from a straw
5 Health Move Musts

Follow these tips for a better lifestyle that will improve your health now and in the future

Special Offer