To obtain a total body makeover, you must choose a combination of weightlifting exercises that will work on each of the muscle groups. Your major muscle groups are the back, the chest, the shoulders, the biceps, the triceps, the quadriceps, the abdominals, and the legs.

Before commencing the weight lifting exercises, make sure that your daily workouts do not last beyond 45 minutes - as weight lifting for long hours can have negative effects.

• The squat is a simple and yet an important exercise performed by squatting down with a weight held across the upper back and standing up straight again. If need be, you may use lifting belts to help support your lower back.


• The next significant weight lifting exercise should be the leg press that is performed being seated by pushing a weight away from the body with the feet. It is preferable you use the leg press machine – but, you have to be cautious as overloading the machine can result in serious injuries.


• You should include the commonly practiced deadlift into your list of exercises. The deadlift is performed by squatting down and lifting a weight off the floor with the hand until standing up straight again. You can use athletic equipments like dumbbells, barbell, trapbar or Smith machine.


• The leg extension exercise is performed while seated by raising a weight out in front of the body with the feet. The legs extension serves to also strengthen the muscles around the knees and is an exercise that is recommended by physical therapists. You can use the leg extension machine for quick results.


• The leg curl is performed while lying face down on a bench, by raising a weight with the feet towards the buttocks. This is an isolation exercise focusing on the hamstrings. It is preferable to use a leg curl machine.


• The snatch is widely practiced and it is one of the two current Olympic weightlifting events. The nature of this exercise is to lift a barbell from the platform to locked arms overhead in a free flowing movement. The barbell is pulled as high as you can manage.


• The hip abduction exercise is an extremely helpful exercise that is performed by opening the legs while sitting, thereby pushing a machine's pads resting on the outside of the hips apart. The hip abduction exercise can form part of squat and lunge exercises. The hip adduction exercise is performed by closing the legs while sitting, thereby pushing a machine's pads resting on the inside of the hips together. There are hip abduction and hip adduction machines available in the market.


• The chest fly is performed while lying face up on a bench or standing up, with arms outspread holding weights, by bringing the arms together above the chest. You can use either dumbbells or cable machine.


• The pull down can be a rewarding exercise and it is performed in a sitting position by pulling a wide bar down towards the upper chest or behind the neck. You can use cable machine or the pull down machine.


• The Pull-up exercise is performed by hanging from a chin-up bar above head height with the palms facing forward and pulling the body up so the chin reaches or passes the bar. There are equipments like chin-up bar or chin-up machine to practice this exercise.


• The bench press is another rewarding exercise that is performed lying face up on a bench, and pushing a weight away from the chest. The bench press is recognized as the king of all upper body exercises and it is universally accepted as the best chest exercise.


• The crunch is performed while lying face up on the floor with knees bent, by curling the shoulders up towards the pelvis. You can use either a dumbbell or crunch machine.

There are many other weight lifting exercises like the shoulder press, dumbbell lateral raise, lying dumbbell triceps extension, the preacher curl, seated leg raise etc.

Weight lifting can be a challenging and yet an interesting sport. Weight lifting exercises can be done by any healthy individual. Weight lifting is essentially meant for strength training and it can enhance the muscle tone and muscle strength, add to muscle mass and help lose fat and improve the bone density.