Full-body functional exercises -
Related story A 7 Minute Arm Workout That'll Make You Feel Like A Superhero. The bonus is that functional fitness has tons of benefits for your body.
For example, if you have a six-floor walk-up apartment, or have a chronic knee injury, functional exercises can help you cope with both. And it can do wonders for your balance and agility, which is especially important as you age, per the Mayo Clinic.
You may see a noticeable difference in your balance, posture, strength, and agility once you complete just a few sessions of functional exercises. And because you have to use your brain to do the moves, time goes by faster than regular workouts.
Here are 10 of our favorite functional exercises to give you a full-body workout. Functionality: Even though you lift your kids and groceries with your arms, your legs and back are also key players.
This exercise strengthens your legs, glutes, lower back, arms and shoulders. Exercise: Stand with your feet wide apart, holding a light medicine ball in front of you with both hands. Squat down, making sure your butt is back, and keep your knees over your ankles. Return to the start position, and lift the medicine ball over your head.
Repeat the squat, and lower ball to the ground. Perform three sets of 10 repetitions. Increase the weight of the ball as you get stronger.
Functionality: Whether you have stairs at your house or have to climb them elsewhere, using stairs as part of your fitness program will keep your legs conditioned and toned.
This exercise will also boost your cardiovascular fitness. Exercise: Stand at the bottom of a flight of stairs, holding a 5- to 8-pound dumbbell in each hand. Climb the stairs while performing bicep curls.
Repeat five to 10 times. Increase the dumbbell weight as your arms get stronger, and mix up your climbs by taking two steps at a time for a flight or two. Functionality: This exercise improves your balance and coordination as well as strengthens your upper, mid and lower back, shoulders, glutes and legs.
Exercise: Stand tall, holding a 5-pound dumbbell in each hand. Extend your right leg back, and place your toe on the floor, keeping your right leg straight. Lean forward slightly at the hips. Lift your right leg behind you as you bring your chest toward the floor and lift your arms straight out, forming a T at your shoulders, squeezing your shoulder blades together and keeping your head in line with your neck.
Return to the start position. Repeat 10 to 15 times for each leg. As you get stronger, increase dumbbell weight, and strap 2- to 5-pound weights on your ankles. Functionality: When you reach for your boots on the top shelf of your closet, pay attention to how your body moves — one arm reaches up while the opposite leg slightly lifts to the side.
This exercise works all the muscles — arms, shoulders, legs — involved in lifting something diagonally overhead as well as lowering it.
Exercise: Stand tall, holding a medicine ball at your chest with both hands. Lift the medicine ball diagonally overhead to the right, straightening your arms while extending your left leg to the side, making a diagonal line from the medicine ball to your toes.
Lower to the start position. Increase the weight of the medicine ball, and strap 2- to 5-pound weights on your ankles as you get stronger.
Functionality: This exercise will improve your posture by strengthening the muscles in your upper and mid back, shoulders and arms while also toning and strengthening your legs and improving your hip flexibility.
Exercise: Holding an 8-pound weight in each hand, step your right foot forward and your left foot back, keeping both heels on the floor and feet pointing straight ahead.
Bend your right knee until it is over your right ankle. Straighten your right leg, row your elbows back, and squeeze your shoulder blades together, keeping your torso angled slightly forward.
Increase the weight of the dumbbells as you get stronger. This exercise can also be done with a resistance band looped underneath the front foot. Functionality: This exercise improves your core strength and balance as well as strengthens and tones your shoulders.
Exercise: Stand tall with a 5-pound weight in each hand, arms to your sides. Hold for two seconds, making sure your belly button is pulled back toward your spine, and then lower to the start position.
Functionality: This exercise strengthens your chest, shoulder and arm muscles primarily triceps as well as your core muscles and glutes. Exercise: On your hands and knees, place your hands wider than shoulder distance apart.
Extend your right leg straight back, and pull your belly button up toward your spine, tightening your core muscles. Keeping your leg lifted, lower your chest to the ground until each of your elbows is at a degree angle, then push up. As you get stronger, increase the angle of your hips, increasing the distance of your knees from your hands.
Eventually perform the exercise with straight legs: one leg lifted, the other positioned on your toes. Since deadlifts are so fatiguing, this is a good one to do throughout the day. SPARTAN Helmet Kettlebell 2. Kettlebell swings are a high-speed exercise that work the biceps as well as the entire posterior chain — everything from the upper back down to the hamstrings and even the calves a little bit.
Squats are an excellent exercise for your quads, glutes, and — to a lesser degree — your back. Kettlebell squats are an easy way to squat at home, but the range of motion can be limited by the kettlebell hitting the floor. The sumo squat avoids this by having you hold the kettlebell up rather than dangling it between your legs.
Single-leg deadlifts use lighter weights, working the same muscles as a normal deadlift, but for endurance rather than strength. They also bring the oblique abdominals into action to help prevent torso rotation.
Note: Do every rep on the same leg; do not alternate legs within a single set. This is a single-arm shoulder press variant that uses momentum to help you get over the lowest, hardest part of the movement.
It brings the lower body slightly into play, but mainly works the medial deltoid outside of your shoulder and triceps. SPARTAN Hex Steel Dumbbell. Reverse flys are an excellent upper back, chest, and triceps exercise. The banded version can be done anywhere — even while traveling — because bands are so light.
Add this one to your travel workouts. SPARTAN by Power Systems Strength Band. The dumbbell bent-over row is an excellent middle back and biceps exercise.
Bending over allows you to row at the same angle with dumbbells, while also requiring the lower back to hold your torso in place, as with a deadlift. The single-arm dumbbell plank row not that you could do it with both arms combines the palm plank, row, and an element of balance a la the bird dog, all in one exercise.
The dumbbell lat pullover is an easy exercise to do at home that primarily works the latissimus dorsi middle back and secondarily works the upper back and triceps. The dumbbell chest press is simply the dumbbell version of the common barbell chest press.
It works the same muscles and is, in some ways, superior since it allows more freedom of movement albeit at the expense of generally not being able to use as heavy of a weight. It works the pectorals chest , triceps, and — to a lesser degree — the anterior deltoids front of the shoulders.
Forward lunges are a good resistance exercise for the quads and glutes, and a good stretch for the hamstrings. Adding a rotation adds an extra element of stretching the back, biceps and abdominals. The lateral bound is a jumping movement that provides a modest explosive workout for the quadriceps and calves.
More than anything however, it builds your balance by practicing hopping from one foot to the other. The broad jump to backpedal is a combination of two exercises: The broad jump is essentially a standing long jump which builds explosive strength in the quads, calves, and glutes, and swinging power and coordination in the shoulders.
The backpedal is a simple cardio exercise that builds calf endurance and bodily coordination. Close drawer Item added to cart. Close drawer. Orders DEKA Help. Facebook Share on Facebook Tweet Tweet on Twitter Pin it Pin on Pinterest Whatsapp Share on Whatsapp Email. The Best Functional Strength Exercises 1.
Bodyweight Squat Squats primarily work the quadriceps, which straighten the legs, and the gluteus maximus, which push the hips forward. This exercise simply combines both. Grab a pair of dumbbells and hold them over your shoulders, oriented front to back.
Sit on the floor with your knees bent and your feet on the floor. Perform the concentric upward half of a sit-up, holding the dumbbells at your shoulders and keeping your feet in place. At the top of the sit-up, press one arm straight overhead while holding your torso upright.
Functoinal the right Full-body functional exercises exsrcises the Mental focus and nutrition in sports discipline, you tunctional get seriously shredded in Full-body functional exercises exervises days. Exercisws age 62, Immune-boosting mental health Bill" shares his wisdom to dominate one of the ultimate strength marks. Follow these fit women we're crushing on for inspiration, workout ideas, and motivation. Working with Chicago-based physical therapist David Reavy, Gross has created a functional routine that kicks your butt while helping keep you mobile. Do these exercises as a circuit in the order given. For the first set, focus more on the movement pattern than the weight used. Crossfit and cable rows? Flipping tires and pulling Full-body functional exercises Yes, functionall are functional exercises. But believe it or not, so are planks. And sit-ups. And push-ups. Push-ups are actually far more complex than most people would think.
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