The best home exercises you can do everyday to improve your overall functional strength. This daily strength training workout consists of bodyweight exercises that will strengthen and tone every major muscle group in your body. This is a great daily routine for functional strength training at home.
DAILY STRENGTH TRAINING ROUTINE
Scapula Pinches: 3 sets of 10-20
Prone Scapular Retraction: 3 sets 10
Wall Angels: 3 sets of 10-20
Push Ups: 3 sets of 10
Planks: 3 reps of 20-60 second holds
Squats: 3 sets of 10-20
Bridges: 3 sets of 10-20
Keep reading below for video instruction on how to perform each of these exercises!
As a doctor of physical therapy, the majority of patients I see fall into one of two categories – those who need to stretch and those who need to get stronger.
In my video last week, I presented 7 of my favorite stretches to help improve your flexibility and mobility; in my video this week I wanted to share 7 of my favorite body weight exercises to improve your strength and function right at home.
These exercises are actually ones that I recommend the most to my patients as “homework” or as part of their “home exercise program”. We’ll address every major muscle group in the body to make a great tote body strength training routine.
I JUST WANT TO GET STRONGER, NOT BIGGER OR BULKIER
The caveat to this video is that we’re not going to show you anything to pack on muscle or build mass. We’re not going to be using any weights or equipment, so we don’t have the option to “progressively overload” the muscle to cause it to hypertrophy.
SHOULD I EXERCISE EVERYDAY?
For the majority of workouts I post here on my site, I would recommend you give yourself 1-2 days rest before performing those same exercises. It’s important to give your body and those muscles adequate recovery time before performing those activities again.
However this workout is a little different. Since we’re not working these muscles to fatigue and even failure, we eliminate (if not significantly shorten) recovery time. Therefore, the exercises in this daily strength training routine should be safe for most of you to do everyday (at least 4-5 days/week).
Keep in mind that if any of these hurt or if over time you start to experience soreness you don’t recover from before performing these again, that’s an indicator that you may need to slow down to 2-3 days/week until you build up adequate strength.
A TOTAL BODY STRENGTH TRAINING ROUTINE
I wanted to share at least one exercise for every major muscle group in the body. I’ll run you through a “top-down” approach where I’ll share exercises for your neck and upper back, chest and arms, core, hips, and quads and hamstrings.
Strength in each of these areas is crucial to proper function in performing many tasks that we undertake everyday. So let’s get started and see what we can do!
BELOW YOU WILL FIND A LIST OF THE EXERCISES PERFORMED IN THIS VIDEO
The timestamp indicated is where the demonstration of each exercise takes place in the video.
1. SCAPULA PINCHES (2:29): Great for neck and upper back pain and posture problems. The focus is on squeezing your shoulder blades together and tuck them down into your back pockets.
2. PRONE SCAPULAR RETRACTION (3:23): Works your spinal extensors in addition to your rhomboids, traps, and external rotators. Great for neck and upper back pain and correcting your posture. I love this one because you’re pulling back against gravity – it works the muscles a little harder.
3. WALL ANGELS (4:31): Great for postural muscle activation and even muscle knots! Great postural cuing while activating these important muscles. Check out wall angels in action in some of these other T&T videos
HOW TO CORRECT YOUR POSTURE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5R54QoUbbow
ELIMINATE MUSCLE KNOTS FROM YOUR NECK AND SHOULDERS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PC9Mn0VO00
4. PUSH UPS (5:45): My favorite bodyweight strength exercise of all time! Great for your chest, shoulders, and triceps, but works a lot of core muscles also. If full push ups are too difficult, perform them on your knees for a modified version.
5. PLANKS (7:02): My favorite core exercise because it effectively activates all four core muscles. Hold your plank static, keep your back flat and your pelvis “tucked under” yourself. Draw your navel in towards your spine to activate your deepest abdominal muscle layer.
8-MINUTE TOTAL PLANK WORKOUT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lfR4sl0ZCE
6. SQUATS (8:38): My favorite lower body exercise of all time. There’s not an exercise that activates more lower body muscles as effectively as this weight bearing anti-gravity exercise. Focus on squeezing your glutes and your quads and you’re well on your way!
7. BRIDGES (10:03): One of my favorite recommendations for those of you who might be experiencing pain in your lower back. Oftentimes glute weakness can be a major contributor to lower back pain; this is a great exercise to tone and strength.
There you have them! Seven of my favorite bodyweight exercises in one convenient strength-training routine that you can do everyday. Performing these exercises daily will help improve your strength and function and can even help to decrease pain.
I hope you guys found this useful; if you did please leave the video a “thumbs up” above.
HERE ARE SOME MORE TOTAL BODY WORKOUTS YOU MIGHT ENJOY
Make it happen,
Jared