4 Basic Exercises that Target the Whole Body

There are many ways in how people prefer to do their weekly workouts. There are some who dedicate a day to target specific body parts; for example, Wednesday is glute day and Thursday is arm day. There are others who go full-out in a day and work on many body parts in one gym session. Exercises are described this way, according to what particular body part they tone or shred the fat off. But there are also exercises that work different muscle groups in one motion. They will work out parts of your upper body, core, and lower body in a single move. In exercising, you should have at least 20 to 30 minutes of aerobic activity—that is according to the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion cited by Medical News Today. You may combine these with exercises that strengthen the muscles by doing exercises that target the full body.

So before you start, do you know the difference between reps and sets? You will hear this every day when you start getting into fitness and working out. Rep is short for the word repetition and it means each move or repetition of a certain exercise. Combine all your reps, then you have what is called a set. You could do as many reps and sets as you can in a workout session; this depends largely on your goal and your fitness level. The more you exercise regularly, the more reps and sets you could do. When your goal is to build muscle mass, your goal must not be to do more reps but to carry a bigger weight. Either way, you should exercise consistently and you’ll get better at it! We listed down some full-body exercises that you could try to make sure that every part of your body is worked out.

1. Pushups

Some people might think that push-ups are just for the upper body because you put your palms on the floor and under your shoulders with your arms extended. Not everyone realizes that you will also need to engage your lower body when doing a pushup in proper form. You have to extend your legs at the back with your weight on the balls of your feet. The body should be in a straight line when you bend your elbows to lower your body. The chest must be close to the floor. Push back up and do as many reps as you can. Of course, you may insert rests in between. This ensures that you do every rep of a pushup in proper form. You could also bend your knees instead of stretching your legs to make one pushup a tad bit easier to do.

2. Burpees

A lot of people dread doing burpees because they catch their breath a lot with just a few reps of it. The burpees combine a squat and a pushup, so you could just imagine how it works out your whole body. If you’re feeling lazy and tired to do a pushup, remember this so that you’ll be motivated to finish at least one set of 10 reps. How do you do a burpee? You start with a standing position, some raise their arms, some don’t. You jump and then drop down into a squat before moving into a plank position. For an extra challenge, do a full burpee by doing a pushup then going back to the starting position. Do another rep until you finish an entire set you would determine how many you could do. You could remove the pushup in the end if it’s still too hard for you. Remember you will progress sometime in the future, the more you do this and don’t give up!

3. Squats

Squats are a favorite and almost everyone knows how to do one. In proper form is questionable but the bottom line is, people, know what and what a squat looks like. What most don’t know is that it doesn’t only work on your glutes, it is a full-body exercise. It targets your legs, hamstrings, glutes, and core. If you’re carrying weight, it could also help work out your arms. Basically, what you do is start from a standing position. You crouch down into a squat and then slowly go back up. You will repeat this as much as you can but again, don’t forget to breathe and rest. You could do another rep more properly and with more difficulty if you do squats regularly.

4. Lunges

People also mistake this move as targeting your lower body only. In fact, it also targets the upper body and your arms if you’re working with weights. What you do is to start with one leg in front of your body. You extend the other leg backward. Your knee should be above the floor and you rest your weight on the ball of your foot. You will move up and down then switch to another leg. Do as many reps as you can before you rest and start again. All these exercises, except for burpees, may be done with weights. Adding resistance will increase the level of difficulty. The number of reps doesn’t matter anymore; what you should take notice of when you reach this point is how heavy are you carrying? When you do an exercise regularly, the movement becomes second nature to you and you lose any level of resistance. This is when you should start incorporating weights into your fitness routine. It makes you stronger, builds muscle, loses fat, and leads a healthy life at your age. If your worry is where to store weights in case you buy, then you just have to look at the garage because it’s for you. Install smart storage solutions from FlexiMounts such as overhead storage racks, wall shelves, and hooks. In this way, you are taking items off the floor and leaving precious space for the garage to accommodate other hobbies. With other belongings out of the way, you may install racks in the garage and line your weights on them. Voila, your very own gym right at the comfort of your home!