With these multifunctional exercises in your back pocket, you’ll be able to get a full-body workout in anytime, anywhere.
Getting a full-body workout is much easier than you think and doesn’t require hitting up every weight machine at the gym (or even going to the gym). While weightlifting is the golden standard for muscle-building, there are numerous other exercise moves and routines you can do just about anywhere (and without any equipment) to strengthen and activate your entire body.
When building a full body routine, aim to train each major muscle group at least two times a week, says certified Pilates teacher and trainer Pamela Paley. She recommends choosing compound movements that engage multiple muscle groups at once in addition to a few isolation movements.
When you’re ready to get moving, try these trainer-approved exercises for the ultimate full-body workout.
Squats
Squat Benefits
Squats are a tried-and-true strength exercise that’s especially beneficial for building leg and glute strength. They’re also an important functional exercise, as being able to do squat-like movements in everyday life (like bending to pick up toys, boxes, kids, and luggage) is key for staying injury free and moving with ease. This exercise can help you build speed as well, according to Travelle Gaines, CPT, the sports performance coach and head of athletic performance at Blocks Nutrition.
How to Do Squats
Squats are a simple movement, but they’re also easy to do with improper form—and poorly executed squats can lead to injury or unnecessary aches and pains. The simple solution: Learn and master safe squat form. Here’s how to do a squat correctly,
Start by standing with your feet directly under your hips. Hinge at the hips and sit back like you would into a chair until your thighs are parallel to the floor, or until your legs are at “no less than a 90-degree angle,” Gaines says. Next, stand up again quickly, engaging your core and glutes as you rise. “You can either use your body weight or add more resistance [with weights].”
To maintain proper form, Gaines recommends keeping your toes pointed straight and hip-width apart (toes pointed outwards can lead to knee pain). In addition, your knees should never come in front of your toes.
Squats can also be modified if a traditional squat is painful to do. Doing a squat against a wall can help give your back support and also promote proper form, alleviating knee pain.
Push-Ups
Push-Up Benefits
The famous push-up works a variety of muscle groups, including your shoulders, chest, upper arms, trunk, glutes, and legs, says Greg Robbins, CrossFit L2 trainer and owner of Feast Fitness + Nutrition. However, push-ups aren’t just great for building and toning muscles. They can actually lower your risk for heart disease, according to research. Robbins says that doing push-ups can also help you better complete everyday activities like pushing kids on a swing or pushing a grocery cart.
How to Do Push-ups
“To maximize a push-up’s effectiveness and safety, get into a [high] plank position with your arms extended, and try to maintain that long, straight body position as you allow your arms to lower your body to the floor and press back up,” Robbins says.
Push-ups are one exercise that you can slowly build your strength up with over time, so don’t be discouraged if you can only do a handful of push-ups or need to modify your push-up form at first (here’s how to progress from push-up beginner to push-up pro). Prioritize proper, safe form over everything.
For example, if your chest and arm strength don’t yet permit pressing up off the floor, here’s a smart alternative from Robbins that can achieve similar results: “Find a sturdy, elevated surface such as a table [or counter], and do your perfect form push-up at an inclined angle,” he explains. “You’ll put your hands on that elevated surface instead of the floor.”
Lunges
Lunge Benefits
Lunges are an excellent addition to a full-body workout regimen and can boost lower body strength, especially in the hamstrings and quads.
How to Do Lunges
As always, to maximize lunge benefits and reduce the risk of injury, it’s important to maintain a proper form.
“For lunges, start in a neutral position with your hands on your hips, feet directly under your hips, and toes pointed straight,” Gaines says. “Step out with your right or left leg, drop your back knee in a 90-degree angle, and explode back up to a neutral position.”
Some tips to master the lunge technique: Keep your chest up and shoulders back throughout the process, Gaines says, and “make sure your front knee doesn’t cross over [cave inward or fall outward] or go in front of your toe.”
Planks
Plank Benefits
Planks are an excellent way to activate and strengthen your core muscles, which is essential for good posture, spine and pelvic stability, back pain prevention, and many more healthy benefits.4 “This strengthens your abdominal muscles, oblique muscles, and lower back,” Gaines explains.
As you practice and build core strength, you can start holding your plank position for longer periods of time. Depending on your core strength level, you can either do planks on your elbows (easier) or on your hands (harder).
How to Do Planks
To do a proper plank, Gaines says to place your elbows or hands directly under your shoulders and extend both legs back behind you with toes flexed. The weight of your body should now be fully supported by your hands (or elbows) and toes. Squeeze your glutes, engage your core, and hold this position for as long as you can, or for a set period of time, such as 30 to 60 seconds.
Burpees
Burpees Benefits
Burpees are a staple of boot camp-style exercise programs and are also effective for muscle-building and a serious full-body workout. “Burpees work by developing upper body strength with explosive hip and core strength,” Robbins says. They can also increase speed and power, and they’re “an amazing way to improve your all-around endurance.”
How to Do Burpees
Here’s how to do a perfect burpee: Think of it as a four-part exercise, moving fluidly from a jump, to a squat, to a plank, to a pushup, and then back up the chain again to make one burpee rep.
“Stand tall with your feet shoulder-width apart. Do a partial squat, then lean forward to place your hands on the ground. [Jump] your legs out behind you [into a high plank], then lower yourself to the bottom of the push-up position,” Robbins explains. “Then push your upper body back up with your arms” and jump your thighs and knees back under you, which should get you back up to the partial squat position. “Stand tall or give a little jump to finish the repetition,” Robbins adds.
Drop Lunge to Lateral Curtsy Lunge
Drop Lunge to Lateral Curtsy Lunge Benefits
This is a great full body exercise that helps improve balance, which is a skill that can diminish with age, explains Paley. “This exercise challenges balance requiring you to shift your weight and engages your core to maintain proper alignment,” she says. In addition, you’ll also target the adductors (inner thighs), abductors (outer thighs), glutes, hamstrings, and quads, Paley explains.
How to Do the Drop Lunge to Lateral Curtsy
Start by standing with your feet hips width apart, says Paley. Then, lunge to your right side while lowering your hips back and keeping your right leg bent at about 45 degrees. You’ll want to keep your left leg straight. Make sure your chest is lifted. Then, return and step back. “Push off your right foot to return to standing but as you come up, step your right foot behind and to the outside of the left foot,” Paley instructs. “Lower both knees as much as possible. Keeping your back knee just above the floor. Return to the starting position by stepping out with the right foot to the side.”
If you have trouble balancing, you can use a chair for support. To make this exercise harder, you can add weights. “Add dumbbells and as you step to the right, extend your arms straight out in front of you at shoulder height. During the curtsy lunge, keep your chest lifted, hips and chest stacked, arms reach straight up for an overhead press keeping your chest lifted and hips aligned,” Paley explains.
Perform 15 reps before switching sides.
Single Leg Hip Lift
Single Leg Hip Lift Benefits
“This bodyweight exercise targets the posterior chain or backside of the body, which are often neglected muscle groups,” says Youssef Elkorchi, NSCA-certified strength and conditioning specialist and performance coach at Future.
How to Do the Single Leg Hip Lift
“Begin lying on your back with arms out to the side for support, one knee bent, keeping that foot flat on the floor, and the other leg raised in the air,” Eklorchi says. “Brace your core and dig your heel into the floor to raise your hips up high while maintaining a neutral spine.”
To modify this move, you can change how close your foot is to you in the starting position, or start with two feet at a time instead of one.
Bird Dog
Bird Dog Benefits
The bird dog move works all the key muscle groups, says Elkorchi. “This exercise is great for balance, core stability and posture by targeting the muscles in your upper back and glutes.”
How to Do the Bird Dog
Start in a tabletop position, with your hands and knees on the floor, Elkorchi says. “Then, simultaneously reach your opposite hand and foot out as far as you can while maintaining a neutral spine. Return both hands and feet to the ground, then repeat with the opposite sides. To stay stable, visualize balancing a cup of water on your back and avoid spilling.”
