It goes without saying that exercising daily does a world of good for your fitness and physical shape, but more than that, it also helps with your brain health, memory and energy levels, while reducing the risks of you getting chronic illnesses. The best thing is, you don’t require any access to gyms or tons of weights in order to do a complete full-body workout!
Below are 4 of the best daily bodyweight exercises, in no particular order, that just about everyone can do for conditioning or to enhance their full-body strength and reap in the health benefits! These exercises can be modified to become easier or harder based on your present level of fitness, simply by changing some of the training factors such as number of reps, amount of rest time, or the use of resistance bands.
1) Glute Bridges
What it does: The glute bridge is superb for strength work and activating your glute (buttock muscles), as well as working your hamstrings, core, abs, lower back, hip flexors and oblique muscles.
How to do it: For the classic glute bridge, lay down flat on the ground with your feet planted apart about hip distance, knees bent. Push through your heels to raise your hips upwards, squeezing your glutes at the top position while keeping a neutral spine. Hold that position for about 2 to 3 seconds before lowering yourself back to the floor. Repeat 10 times.
There are also many variations of this exercise so you can switch between each variation if you ever find yourself getting bored after a while. These include adding a resistance band around your thighs, doing single-leg bridges, holding at the top for a longer duration, or changing your tempo of raising and lowering the bridge.
2) Lunges
What it does: The lunge helps to improve your strength, mobility and stability, and should form a part of your lower body routine for a well-rounded workout.
How to do it: From a standing position, bring one foot forward till your leg is bent at an angle of 90 degrees, without letting the knee of your back leg touch the ground. Bring your front lunging leg back to your original standing position. Switch to the other leg and do the same movement. Repeat 10 times for each leg.
You can perform variations like walking forward lunges, reverse lunges (step backward instead of forward), and step down reverse lunges (with starting position on a raised box or platform).
3) Squats
What it does: The squat effectively works your full body from the legs to core, and back again.
How to do it: From a standing position with feet about shoulder width apart and arms by your side, lower your body while keeping your back upright by moving your hips back and bending your knees till your thighs are about parallel with the ground, and arms stretched out forward parallel with the ground as well. Push yourself back up to the standing position. Repeat 10 times.
Once you are proficient with this classic bodyweight squat, you can try for greater control and balance, increasing the time under tension, the time you hold the squat at the bottom position, and the time you push yourself back up.
4) Step-Ups
What it does: Step-ups are not just a wonderful workout for your lower body, ie glutes and quads, but can also serve as an excellent cardio exercise based on your tempo!
How to do it: Place one foot on an elevated platform, such as a stair or steady bench, then push through the heel of that foot to lift your whole body up onto the platform. Moving in a slow, controlled motion, lower your body back down to your starting position. Repeat 10 times for each foot.
You can complete the reps on one side before going on to the other leg, or alternate legs each time you move up and down the platform.
So do give these 4 bodyweight exercises a go every day at your own pace, and slowly work your way up to better fitness and health! The main thing is to get started, so make that happen today!
