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August 04, 2021 10 min read
When youโre justย starting out in training, thereโs no need for fancy exercises that target every specific part of your body.
On the contrary, for the person new to training, exercises that hit most of your major muscle groups are arguably the most effective way to both increase your strength while at the same time improving your cardio capacity, athletic ability, and coordination.
But you don't need to be a beginner to see incredible improvements in your physique and strength from full-body functional exercises that translate to every day life.
In addition to being a great foundation for all of your training, full-body exercises are efficient. Rather than focusing on one part of your body, compound exercises that hit several muscle groups at once give you a bigger bang for your buck.
A full-body workout routine will also have the benefit of training different parts of your body to work together, which useful for athletic and functional performance.
Remember to warm up and cool down for optimal workouts. If doing an exercise for the first time, itโs best to use lighter weights until you get the form down perfect.
Here are 10 of the most 'functional' exercises you can add to your weekly program:
No full-body exercise list would be complete without including burpees. Being a simple, bodyweight exercise, the burpee challenges your body in a way that backs up its popular reputation.
The burpee is basically just a combination of a squat jump and a push-up, but itโs easy to modify it if youโre looking to make it easier or more difficult. But since itโs a bodyweight movement, it also means that youโll need to attack them with intensity of effort if you want to reap maximum benefits.
For example, burpees are a terrific exercise to include in a high-intensity interval training (HIIT) routine, since they get you sweating and heart racing. On top of providing a cardio workout, youโre also going to be activating pretty much every muscle in the body.
When it comes to activating as many major muscle groups as possible,ย the deadlift is one of the best lifts you can do. It's effective for improving explosive power as well as brute strength. This incredible exercise trains your entire posterior chain including the glutes, lower back, hamstrings, upper back, and also your core. Your forearms and stabilizing muscles are also forced to perform their fair share of work.
The Romanian deadlift (or, RDL) is a unique deadlift varation in that your hips arenโt mean to go as far down as in a conventional deadlift. This is particularly useful for those looking to emphasize their hamstrings over their quads. Dumbbells are good if youโre just starting out or if youโre trying to correct a muscle imbalance, but a barbell will allow you to move more weight and reap greater hypertrophy and strength gains.
The overhead lunge is useful as a stability exercise since youโll be engaging your quads and hamstrings to keep your upper body in control of the weight above you.
The primary muscles worked in the overhead lunge are the quads and the glutes, but youโll be feeling the tension everywhere. This includes your feet, knees, core hips, and shoulders, as you drive the weight upward while also challenging the lower body with lunges.
Other stabilizers include the traps and the abdominal muscles. All in all, the lunge with an overhead press is guaranteed to pack a punch.
Along with the deadlift, the squat is a juggernaut of a movement when youโre trying to develop your lower body muscles. But much like the deadlift, the squat works a lot more than just your legs. Along with your quads, calves, glutes, and hamstrings, also expect a good core and back workout.
Bulgarian split squats ramp up the difficulty by destabilizing you during the movement, which helps to develop balance and core strength. Itโll also help you improve athletically, since driving off only one leg is a cornerstone of most athletic movements (for example, running).
The Bulgarian split squat is also more beginner-friendly, even though slightly more difficult with a weak core. This is because a lot of the stress is taken off the lower back, and your leg and core muscles get to shine instead.
Pull-ups are one of the greatest (and most difficult) measures of upper body strength. Itโs aย notoriously difficult (and beneficial) movement to include in your training routine that primarily hits the upper body in your traps, rhomboids, biceps, lats, and core.
Include these into your routine, and youโre bound to see fantastic full-body results.
The back squat is widely considered to be the king of total-body exercises forcing nearly every muscle in your body to engage to lift the weight. This includes all of the lower body: the glutes, hamstrings, quads, adductors, hip flexors, and calves, and also your shoulders, arms, core, and back to stabilize the weight.
This is another fantastic explosive training exercise. Not only is it guaranteed to challenge every muscle in your body, but youโre also going to be working up a sweat and getting an incredible cardio workout too.
If youโre looking for a high-intensity exercise to finish your workouts with, look no further than the kettlebell swing.
While form is always important, it's critical to the kettlebell swing. In order to ensure your safety, you need to be doing the movement correctly and engaging the correct muscles.
When it comes to training the back muscles, rows are the go-to exercise. Theyโre a fundamental pulling movement that youโll be using in your day-to-day life and/or athletics regularly, so itโs a good idea to include some sort of row variations in your training.
While there are all sorts of rows, the renegade row really shines when it comes to engaging more of your musculature. It specifically engages much more of your core, to the point where the weight you use will be significantly less in order to mainatian optimal form and engage all of the muscles in the movement.
Opt for lighter dumbbells than youโre used to!
When it comes to working out your whole body unilaterally, the Turkish get-up takes the cake. It invloves you laying on your back in a prone position, getting to a standing position on both feet and back while holding the weight above you the entire time.
While it seems simple, itโs a complex movement, and with this complexity comes a range of benefits and muscular development.
The key to this exercise is to take it slow and treat each part of the movement as its own separate exercise.
Turkish get-ups are particularly useful for those looking to develop their shoulder mobility and strength, or for those going through rehabilitation. Itโs usually done with a kettlebell, but bodyweight will work as well.
The farmers walk might have a humble name, but it was originally popularized by competitive strongmen. As a strength and conditioning exercise, this movement loads every major muscle group in the body: including the calves, lats, quads, hamstrings, glutes, arm muscles (including biceps and triceps), the upper back and traps, neck, and several other stabilizers.
In addition to it being a great strength training exercise that hits pretty much your entire body, the farmers walk can also provide a great cardiovascular workout. Pair it with a couple of heavy dumbbells, and youโll be giving it all you got before long. Itโs also a functional exercise, meaning fewer shopping bag trips from the car to the kitchen.
The exercises discussed above are great places to start if youโre looking to get bigger and stronger, but also have a great foundation of general physical preparedness (aka GPP).
Each exercise above provides a great bang for your buck, and they all tranalste to real-life.
However, full-body workouts expend a lot of calories since youโre using so much energy, and you need to properly resupply if you want consistent and significant development. While all macros are important, protein is the key.
If youโre looking to turbocharge your gains in this department, consider using aย protein powder to bring your physique to the next level.ย