Health and Beauty

Story by Kera Kester, NASM Certified Personal Trainer/Contributing Writer

Part two of our series is here! We’ve been discussing fundamentals of putting together a great and well-rounded workout routine. For part one, we discussed how beneficial choosing a workout split is, along with some good options. How we split a weekly routine helps us navigate different schedules while avoiding overexertion. This is a major topic for a good, structured plan so go check it out if you haven’t yet! For this article, we will be discussing our second important fundamental – exercise selection! My go to exercise example is the push-up so do not be surprised if you see it come up a couple of times. Alright, let’s jump into it!

First, it is a good idea to think about specific muscles within our body. Making sure that we don’t neglect musculature that needs developing is something to keep in the forefront of our minds. Our larger musculature includes our legs, back, chest and shoulders. Our smaller muscles are the biceps, triceps, rear delts, hamstrings, calves and core. Compound movements recruit multiple larger muscle groups. These will enhance your session and pay off very nicely. Although smaller muscle groups are also recruited during compound movements, it is beneficial to give them special attention through isolated exercises. For instance, your triceps are recruited during a push-up. But incorporating a triceps specific exercise, such as a triceps extension, is a good idea for optimal development.

There are certain movements that are insanely necessary to include within each session. These include:

1. Squat If you want one of the absolute best compound exercises in your routine, make sure to add a squat variation. You could go with a barbell front squat or a goblet squat, to name a few. It is easy to see that your lower body gets quite the challenge during this movement. However, your core musculature is also very much so engaged.

Important side note – Strengthening your core is of utmost importance for stability and avoiding harmful compensations during lifts. Incorporate movements like leg raises, planks, anti-rotation for your TVA and crunches to ensure a well-rounded and safer routine.

Additionally, say you turn a regular squat into an overhead squat, now you’re working muscles in your shoulders, arms, back and chest to make this squat a full body exercise in one go!

2. Hinge This movement, coined the athletic position, emphasizes the glutes and hamstrings. Some examples would include goodmornings and deadlifts. When a hip hinge is done correctly, you are generating power through your hips while simultaneously protecting your spine.

3. Push and Pull Push and pull exercises emphasize your upper body musculature. We use different muscles to push as opposed to pull and vice versa. For pushing, we mainly use chest, shoulders and triceps. An example of this would be a push-up. For pulling, we mainly use back, biceps and forearms. A pulling exercise would be a seated cable row. Including both movements into a routine ensures that all upper body muscles are strengthened.

4. Unilateral A unilateral exercise is a single leg or single arm movement. This would include exercises such as a box step up, reverse lunge or a single arm dumbbell shoulder press. Unilateral movements are amazing for training balance, rehabilitation, isolating muscle imbalances or dealing with overuse of a dominant side. Side note : When it comes to utilizing supersets, a nice beneficial pairing selection is a unilateral exercise with a bilateral exercise!

5. Transitional Transitional exercises are amazing for providing rest for a muscle group while putting demand toward different muscle groups. It is a good idea to pair this kind of movement with a compound exercise that most usually requires longer periods of recovery. For example, following a barbell reverse lunge with a transitional exercise, such as a push-up, would ensure continued work output during the recovery time for your legs. It’s a good idea to incorporate a transitional exercise that challenges muscle groups you have previously worked within that same session. This is especially optimal when sticking to a specific workout split.

Again, I wholeheartedly believe in incorporating the above movement patterns within each single session. Making sure all these movements are well developed enhances daily activities and living, such as lifting something onto a shelf, bending to tie your shoes, playing hopscotch with your nephews. Not to mention the benefit of helping to avoid injury as bone density decreases with age. We utilize these movement patterns every single day, so we might as well strengthen them. Go be great and remember – it’s not just about working harder, but also working smarter! Like always, I’m always here for you should you have questions or comments. Happy March!