Exercising regularly benefits your energy levels, physical endurance, and mental health. But, with the hustle and bustle of everyday life, it can be hard to find time to get active, especially when it comes to a workout that targets your whole body. Workouts don’t have to be time consuming to work your whole body and show real results. As a matter of fact, working out for too long could hurt more than it helps. “One hour, 4-6 days per week is ideal—having days in there to rest is crucial so that your nervous system has time to heal. If you work out past the hour mark you can get diminishing returns, keeping it under an hour is actually better for seeing lasting results.” Says Jason Kozma, a certified fitness trainer. Kozma and Denise Cervantes, a sports performance and fitness specialist, shared with us what exercises you should be doing to work out your whole body when you’re pressed on time.
Squats: Kozma recommends this as a workout to target your legs and glutes. “Hold the bar on your upper back just below your neck. Feet slightly wider than shoulder width stance and the toes pointing out slightly. Lower your weight (hinging at the hips) back towards your heels until you get your upper legs parallel with the floor ideally. Keep your lower back slightly arched, don’t allow it to round. Drive back up to the standing position. Make sure your toes and knees are pointed in the same direction and moving in the same direction.”
Deadlift: Start with feet shoulder width apart and with the bar touching the shins. Squat down keeping the lower back straight hinging at the hips. The torso should be tilted forward about 45 degrees to the legs. Grab the bar just outside your legs. Pull the bar up driving from the hells and don’t allow the lower back to round.
Kozma shares some important things to keep in mind when doing this exercise, “Deadlifts can be dangerous for taller people. The most dangerous part of the deadlift is the 2 inches to the floor. One can get about 90% of the benefits of deadlifts and eliminate much of the risk by having the bar sit on some Olympic 45 lb bumpers or some sort of platform to start from a slightly higher position. Bodybuilders commonly do this using the power rack. We call them rack pulls. You can also use the smith machine, hex bar, or dumbbells.”
Bench Press: “Lying on the bench with the lower back slightly arched grab the bar with whatever width grip that feels most comfortable. Bring the bar to the chest, touching it and driving the bar straight up over the chest. The elbows should be tilted slightly in towards the body. This will target the chest. If you keep your elbows completely perpendicular or to your body it will target the deltoids instead of the chest. In a pinch you could do push ups, and everyone should be able to do them. If you train on the bench press or some variation of it like an incline press with dumbbells or machine versions you should be able to do push ups.”
Jump Rope: “This exercise works the entire body and is a great and easily accessible workout. All you need is a rope. It improves balance, power, agility and you can do it anywhere, even on vacation!” Cervantes says, “Aim to get in 5 to 10 sets of 30 seconds to 1 minute of jumping rope. You can do these up to 3 times a week depending on your fitness level. Start out slow if you are just starting and then you can increase your volume and intensity as you get better. All you will need is 10 minutes.” All of these are exercises you can do to get your body working in a short period of time. Try them during your next quick workout to get your heart rate up and build strength.
