New Delhi, Apr 18 (IANSlife): Workouts should be designed in order to make you feel energized, capable, and strong. Your reason to exercise should be that it makes you feel great.
Your mental health is just as important as your physical health and this full body workout with Zoe Modgill, Brand Ambassador, Under Armour India, is going to get you both. More energy, better health, and the motivation to keep challenging yourself further. This routine will help get you closer to your physical goals, but it's the invisible changes that will be your secret to long lasting results.
Exercise 1: Lunges
Description: A lunge is a unilateral single-leg bodyweight exercise that works your hips, glutes, quads, hamstrings, and core along with the hard-to-reach muscles of your inner thighs. Lunges can help you develop lower-body strength and endurance. They're also a great beginner move.
Muscles it works: Glutes in your hips and butt along with the hamstrings and quadriceps, calf muscles, abdominal muscles and your back muscles as stabilizers during this exercise.
How to do it: Keep your upper body straight, with your shoulders back and relaxed and chin up (pick a point to stare at in front of you so you don't keep looking down). Always engage your core. Step forward with one leg, lowering your hips until both knees are bent at about a 90-degree angle. Make sure your front knee is directly above your ankle, not pushed out too far, and make sure your other knee doesn't touch the floor. Keep the weight in your heels as you push back up to the starting position.
Reps: 10 (each side) x 3 sets
Exercise 2: Hamstring walkouts
Description: Hamstring walkouts is a very effective movement and is the best way to work your Hamstrings when you're not in the gym. It works the posterior chain in a unique way and helps tone legs and glutes!
Muscles it works: Glute Max, Hip Flexors, Hamstrings, Lower Back
How to do it: Begin in a supine position on the floor. Bend both knees, placing your feet flat on the ground with your feet close to your glutes. This will be your starting position. Initiate the exercise by extending the hips, driving your hips from the floor to perform a glute bridge. At the top of the motion, begin taking short, alternating steps. Continue until your legs are fully extended and your weight is supported on your heels. Hold the walkout position briefly, and then alternate steps back in to return to the bridge position.
Reps: 15 x 3 sets
Exercise 3: Squat calf raises
Description: Adding in a calf raise after every squat rep is a small tweak that can make a big change to the intensity of your squat workouts through lower-body muscle involvement.
Muscles it works: Quadriceps, glutes, hamstrings, calves.
How to do it: Stand with your feet shoulder width apart. Make loose fists with both hands and bend your elbows. Move your body into a squatting position while keeping your back as straight as possible. Continue squatting as low as you can until your knees are bent at 90 degrees. Do not go any lower. Stand back up into the starting position. Stand on your toes as you move past the starting position and hold for one second.
Reps: 15 x 3 sets
Exercise 4: Pushups
Description: Perhaps one of my fav movements and a must do, the push up activates nearly every muscle in your body and does so much for toned muscles and increased overall endurance. It's a good full body workout - working on many muscles in your body, push-ups help tremendously for a fitter you. Push-ups help you focus on your arms, abs and your lower body, all at the same time. They train your muscles to work together and become stronger
Muscles it works: Pectorals, triceps, biceps, shoulders.
How to do it: Start on your hands and toes, in full plank position, with your hands slightly to the sides of your shoulders. Engage your core muscles by trying to bring your belly button toward your spine, then slowly lower your body toward the ground while keeping your neck and spine aligned -- no drooping allowed. When your chest is about the size of a fist away from the ground, slowly press back up to full plank position.
Reps: 15 x 3 sets
Exercise 5: Army planks
Description: A Strong Core - Army crawl is, first and foremost, a core body exercise. This move gets your body to tighten and stabilize all core muscles whilst working multiple muscle groups at once!
Muscles it works: Core, arms, and chest at the same time.
How to do it: First, come into a full plank position with your shoulders tracking over your wrists. (If you need a refresher on how to do a proper plank, click here.) Come onto your toes and keep your spine nice and long. Come down onto one elbow, then lower onto the other elbow as well, then up one at a time. Chris will show you how you can also put your knees down as a modification for this move. The whole time you perform an army crawl plank, keep your abs nice and engaged and your hips and shoulders facing the floor.
Reps: 10 (each side) x 3 sets
Exercise 6: Superman Burpee
Description: Burpees are an awesome, calorie-torching, strength-building, full body exercise.
Muscles it works: The burpee is a full body strength training exercise and the ultimate example of functional fitness. With every rep, you'll work your arms, chest, quads, glutes, hamstrings, and abs plus your lower back as you add the superman at the end of the movement.
How to do it: Lower your body to the floor, quickly punch your legs back behind you into a push-up position, space. After you land your Burpee drop your body to the ground lift your chest arms and legs into a Superman position then dry your legs back underneath your hips and explode upward in the air land with your nice soft and immediately go into your next repetition
Reps: 15 x 3 sets