Best Exercises
In today’s post, I share the 15 best exercises of all time.
These are the simple, basic exercises that will challenge you no matter your fitness level. They will grow and progress with you as you improve your strength, muscle endurance and overall fitness level. These moves will improve your body composition as well as muscular balance and symmetry. With enough external weight, these exercises will challenge you whether you are a beginner or advanced trainee.
Without further ado, here are the exercises:
Squats
Squats really are the king of all exercises. They strengthen your legs, glutes, and improve the mobility of your hips, knees and ankles, build posture and core control and burn a ton of calories. Add weight on your back or in your hands to improve the challenge and improve the bone density of your spine, hips and leg bones.
To perform this simple move, stand with feet roughly hip to shoulder width apart. With feet slightly turned out and back straight, sit down and open up hips slightly so that knees track towards the center or outside of your feet. Stand up forcefully, straightening your legs at the top.
Pull ups
Pull ups strengthen your back muscles and improve your grip strength and core control. This exercise also rewards you for getting leaner and improving your relative strength.
Hang from a bar with an overhand grip and hands about shoulder width apart. With core tight and feet dangling, pull your shoulders back and elbows back and down until your chest touches the bar. Slowly return to the start position.
Walking Lunge
This exercise improves your cardiovascular fitness as much as it strengthens your legs and butt. The lunge movement also helps you tackle imbalances between sides and improve your stability and balance.
To lunge properly, stand up tall with back straight. Step forward with one foot in front of your hip. Bend both legs until your back knee is nearly touching the ground, then push through both legs to return to the start position. Step forward with the other leg and repeat the next lunge.
Dumbbell Neutral Grip Chest Press
This is an excellent exercise that strengthens the chest, shoulders and triceps.
Position yourself flat on a bench with shoulder blades retracted and chest tall. Feet should be under the bench with knees out. Position weights over shoulders with palms facing each other. Pull elbows down by your sides and then press up to start.
Split Stance Romanian Deadlift
This exercise strengthens your hamstrings, glutes and core. This exercise strengthens each leg independently, but also allows you to have a little assistance with your balance.
To do this move, position one foot flat and the other foot on your tip toes. With weights in both hands, keep hips square and push hips to the wall behind you while performing a hip hinge. Keep legs about 90-95 percent straight. Return to start.
Bent over Row
This exercise helps you build a beautiful upper back. It can also help you to improve muscular balance and shoulder stability.
Position yourself in a wide split stance. Hinge at your hips, keeping shoulders and hips square. Keeping back straight, hold a weight with a straight arm. Pull your shoulder back and bend at the elbow, pulling your weight into your rib cage.
Hip Thrust
This exercise will strengthen your glutes while also improving your core control. Unlike the floor version, this exercise incorporates a greater range of motion for more glute strengthening.
Position your upper back on a bench with feet in line with hips and knees. Keeping chin tucked down and back straight, lift hips until you reach a tabletop position. Squeeze your glutes and then return to the start position.
Push up
This chest, shoulder and triceps exercise builds healthy and strong shoulders. It also strengthens your abdominals and hip flexors. Like many of the others on this list, it also rewards you as you get leaner.
Position yourself in an all fours position, with shoulders over hands and knees under hips. Kick back one foot, then the other. Keep abdominals and glutes tight. Pull your body down by bending your arms to a 90 degree bend. Push back to the start position.
Step ups
This exercise builds lower body strength and cardiovascular capacity. High rep sets are a great way to build endurance.
Position yourself in front of a bench. Step up with foot positioned facing forward, with hip, knee and foot in alignment. Push off of top leg to stand on top of the bench, before lowering down to the start position.
Planks
This back-to-basics exercise improves your core stability and abdominal strength.
You want to keep your back straight, shoulders over your elbows and glutes tight.
To do this simple move, set up in an all fours position on the floor. Place elbows on the ground under your shoulders, push one foot back and then second foot until you are in a plank position. Keep abdominals, hip flexors and glutes tight throughout.
Bird Dogs
This seemingly simple exercise can improve the muscular endurance of the muscles of the trunk, which may even reduce back pain.
Set up in an all fours position on the floor. Keeping back straight, push one leg back straight, while lifting your opposing arm up until it is level with your body. Hold 5 to 10 seconds before switching to the other side.
Glute Ham Raise
This fantastic advanced exercise strengthens the hamstrings and glutes. Additionally, the heavy eccentric/lowering component helps make it an excellent choice for muscle hypertrophy, as well as potential injury prevention for runners, sprinters and team sport athletes.
Use a glute ham developer and position yourself face down on the machine, with feet hooked behind you. Start in a bent knee position, tall kneeling and back flat. Keeping back straight and glutes tight, use your hamstrings to slowly straighten your legs, descending into a face-down, straight body position. Then use your hamstrings to return to the tall kneeling position.
Dumbbell Neutral Grip Overhead Press
This excellent exercise strengthens the shoulders and triceps. Due to the neutral grip and use of dumbbells, it is also very easy on the shoulder joints.
Hold one dumbbell in each hand, at shoulder height. Keep elbows in front of shoulders, palms facing eachother. Press overhead and then return to the start position.
Bulgarian Split Squat
This is a tough exercise that you will love as much as you hate. This one trains each leg independently, and it does not require much additional load to be tough and effective. You should expect to really feel your quadriceps and glutes if you do it correctly.
Position yourself in front of a bench and face away from it. Place back foot on the bench with hips and knees aligned. Keeping back straight, bend both knees and sit down deep until your back knee nearly touches the ground.
One Arm Side Hold
This is an interesting alternative to the boring old side plank. With enough load, you can also strengthen your grip and forearm too.
Hold a 30-70 pound dumbbell in one arm. Keep body upright and shoulder back. You should feel your opposite oblique. Hold 20-30 seconds and then switch sides. You can also do this exercise with a barbell in one hand.
Best Exercises of All Time
I hope you enjoyed this list of the best exercises of all time. Please consider adding these exercises to your routine for better results.
