Building overall strength in the body allows you to move how you want and need to move, increasing your quality of life! Overall, strength can help decrease your risk of injury and prevent degeneration in the body, like osteoporosis. Here are ten exercises that can help build total body strength and that can be modified for any fitness level.
Push-Ups
Push-ups are a great bodyweight exercise to work the chest, core, shoulders, and arms. There are also so many different variations to match your strength level and change the targeted muscle groups.
— To adjust the difficulty, change your incline.
— You can do incline pushups against a wall, using a countertop or using a bench, and you can do decline push-ups by elevating your feet on something like a step or a bench.
— To adjust targeted muscle groups, change your arm position. For a classic pushup, place your hands just outside your chest, about mid-chest level, with your body in a plank position.
— Lower your body down by bending your arms, maintaining the plank position.
— The elbows should move out at approx—a 45-degree angle.
— Use your chest and arm muscles to push yourself back up into a plank position.
— If you want to target your triceps more, you can have your hands closer to your chest and keep your elbows tight to your body as you lower yourself down.
Bear Plank
Bear plank is a great core exercise and shoulder exercise. I like the bear plank better than a standard plank because it is easier for most people to find proper alignment and to feel their core.
— Start in a tabletop position (quadruped) position.
— Hands directly under shoulders and knees directly under hips.
— Make sure the spine is in a neutral position.
— Push through the shoulders and hover the knees off the ground. You can hold this, you can lift and lower.
— To increase the difficulty, you can do alternating shoulder taps or you can start crawling in this position. Forwards, backward, and side-to-side crawls work!
Squat
A squat is a must in any movement practice. It is great for the lower body (quads, hamstrings, glutes) and core. Plus, it is so functional (we all have to sit down and get back up all the time!) There are so many ways to do a squat so it can always be modified to fit your goals, your anatomy, and any mobility restrictions.
— For a classic squat, start with the feet about hip distance with the feet slightly turned out.
— Hinge at the hips as if you were sitting down in a chair and bend the knees until your thighs are parallel with the ground (or as far as you can go).
— Push through the ground, engaging through the glutes, quads, and hamstrings, and come back up to a standing position. The core should be engaged the entire time and the back should stay in a neutral position.
— You can target the quads more with a narrower stance, feet sitting bones distance apart and feet facing forward.
— You can target the inner thighs and glutes more with a wider stance in a sumo squat position or second position squat.
Calf Raises
Calf raises are great for ankle stability, balance, and lower leg strength. Calf raises are easy to do while doing something else, like drinking coffee, brushing your teeth, etc, so they are easy to integrate into your day. Try performing calf raises in a variety of different ways.
— Start with the classic. Stand with feet sitting bones distance apart.
— Make sure the spine is neutral, and the core is engaged.
— Lift the heels off the ground, hold at the top for a few seconds and slowly lower down.
— Try this in external hip rotation (turnout) by starting with the heels touching and the toes apart (created through turning your hips out, not just your feet) and pressing up and down through there. -You can try calf raises in hip internal rotation as well which would be a pigeon toe position. You can vary your calf raise by changing the distance apart your feet are.
— You can also try any of these positions with bent knees instead of straight.
— And you can make calf raises even harder by trying single-leg calf raises.
Pilates Heel Taps
This is one of my favorite core exercises because it targets the deep abdominal muscle, your transverse abdominis.
— Start in a supine tabletop position (on your back with your thighs perpendicular to the ground, and shins parallel to the ground).
— Keeping the 90 degree bend of the knees, lower one leg down slowly until your heel touches the ground (or until your back starts to lift off the ground) and lift back up.
— Repeat on the other leg.
Good Morning (arms)
Good Mornings are the bodyweight version of a deadlift, which is an amazing exercise for the hamstrings, glutes, and spinal extensor muscles.
— Start with the feet and bones distance apart. Hinge at the hips, bend the knees slightly, sending your butt backward, keeping the back straight and the core engaged.
— Use the hamstrings and glutes to drive your hips back forward, straightening the knees as you do, coming back to a standing position.
— You can vary the amount of knee bend you have depending on how much you want to involve your quads.
— To make this harder, you can bring your hands behind your head or fully outstretch your arms over your head (keeping them in line with your back).
Lunges (front, reverse, side, curtsy)
In any strength training routine, it is important to include unilateral exercises to ensure that each side of your body is balanced. Lunges are great at strengthening the lower body, and I love how many variations there are. My four favorite lunges are a forward lunge, reverse lunge, side lunge, and curtsy lunge. With any lunge, it is important that you feel it in the muscles and not in the knee joint.
Side Plank (knee, full, up/down, hold)
The side plank helps to strengthen the obliques, shoulders, and glutes.
— You can do side planks with a straight arm or on your forearm and you can do them with the bottom knee down or fully extended.
— You can hold side planks or you can move up and down.
— Whichever variation you choose, make sure not to collapse through the bottom shoulder.
— You can also do a Copenhagen plank to work the inner thigh muscles as well!
Bridge (flat, shoulders elevated, feet elevated)
A bridge is a great way to work on glute and hamstring strength as well as pelvic stability.
— You can do a bridge flat on the floor by being on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Push through the feet and engage the glutes to lift the hips off the floor.
— The further away your feet are from your glutes, the more hamstring action you will get.
— You can modify this bridge by elevating your shoulders or your feet. I
— I love using a bosu ball or an ottoman/couch for this.
— A shoulder-elevated bridge acts more as a hip thruster and will target your glutes a little more, whereas a foot-elevated bridge will target your hamstrings more.
Prone Back Extension
This exercise helps strengthen the posterior chain which is crucial in supporting upright posture. lying prone (on your stomach) with your arms down by your sides.
— Using your back muscles, lift your chest off the ground, keeping your neck in line with the rest of your spine.
— To make this harder, you can bring your hands behind your head or fully outstretch your arms overhead.
— You can also play around with lifting your lower body off the ground as well, recruiting your entire posterior chain, not just the upper half. And if you enjoyed this article, don’t miss How Long Your Walking Workout Should Be To Shrink Belly Fat.
