What are some good ways to exercise?

7 Most Effective Exercises

Exercise is straightforward: you only get what you put into it. However, you do not have to exercise for hours every day. All you need to do is plan ahead. Not all exercises are created equal.  Some are more efficient than others, whether they target multiple muscle groups, are OK for various fitness levels, or help you burn calories more effectively.

 So, which exercises work best? We asked this to four fitness experts and selected our favorites from their responses.

1. Walking

Cardiovascular exercise, which strengthens the heart and burns calories, should be part of any exercise program. Additionally, the majority of people can walk at any time, anywhere, and with only a good pair of shoes. 

Walking is not just for beginners; even those who are extremely fit can benefit from it. 

According to Robert Gotlin, DO, director of orthopaedic and sports rehabilitation at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York, "doing a brisk walk can burn up to 500 calories per hour." If you did nothing else, you could expect to lose a pound for every seven hours you walk because it takes 3,500 calories to lose a pound.

 However, Richard Cotton, a spokesperson for the American Council on Exercise, advises beginners to begin by walking for five to ten minutes at a time, gradually increasing to at least thirty minutes per session.

 "Don't add more than 5 minutes at a time," he says.  Another tip: As you get fitter, it's better to add more time to your walk before boosting your speed or cranking up the incline on your treadmill.

2. Interval training

You can improve your fitness and possibly lose weight by incorporating interval training into your cardiovascular workout, no matter how experienced you are or how long you have been exercising.

According to Cotton, "changing your pace throughout the exercise session stimulates the aerobic system to adapt." "The capacity to burn calories increases the more power the aerobic system has.

" The way to do it is to push the intensity or pace for a minute or two, then back off for anywhere from 2 to 10 minutes (depending on how long your total workout will be, and how much time you need to recover).  Continue doing this throughout the workout.  Ask a trainer what an appropriate interval is for you.

3. Squats

Additionally, strength training is essential. Cotton asserts, "The capacity you have to burn calories is greater the more muscular fitness you have."

 Strength-training exercises that target multiple muscle groups were generally favored by the experts interviewed for this story. An excellent illustration is the squat, which targets the hamstrings, glutes, and quadriceps. According to Oldsmar, Florida trainer David Petersen, "they give you the best bang for your buck because they use the most muscle groups at once."

Form is everything. According to Petersen, "how you perform the exercise is what makes an exercise functional." "If you have bad technique, it's no longer functional."

Keep your back straight and your feet shoulder-width apart when performing squats. Lower your rear and bend your knees. Cotton advises, "The knee should remain over the ankle as much as possible." "Think of how you sit down in a chair, only the chair's not there," Gotlin says.

Physical therapist Adam Rufa of Cicero, New York, claims that practicing with a real chair can be beneficial. "Start by working on getting in and out of a real chair properly," he says.  After you have mastered that, you can simply tap the chair with your bottom and then rise again. After that, repeat the motion but without the chair.

Gotlin sees a lot of people with knee pain, and most of the time, the problem is weak quadriceps. He suggests strengthening your quads with squats if you experience pain when going down stairs.

4. Lunges

Like squats, lunges work all the major muscles of the lower body: gluteals, quadriceps, and hamstrings.

 A lunge is a great exercise because it mimics walking, only exaggerated, Petersen says.

 Cotton points out that lunges are a little bit more advanced than squats and that they also help you improve your balance. Take a big step forward while keeping your spine in a neutral position to perform them correctly. Bend your front knee to approximately 90 degrees, focusing on keeping weight on the back toes and dropping the knee of your back leg toward the floor.

 Petersen suggests that you imagine sitting on your back foot.  "The trailing leg is the one you need to sit down on," he says.

 

Rufa suggests trying to step backward and out to each side to make a lunge even more effective. "Life is not linear, it's multiplanar," Rufa says.  Additionally, the more useful the exercises are, the better they prepare you for the various positions you'll move into throughout the day.

5. Push-ups

The push-up can simultaneously strengthen the chest, shoulders, triceps, and even the core trunk muscles if done correctly. "I'm very much into planking exercises, almost yoga-type moves," says Petersen.  "You have to rely on your own adherent strength to stabilize yourself whenever you have the pelvis and the core [abdominals and back] in a suspended position." Any fitness level can perform push-ups. Cotton advises, "For someone at a more beginning level, start by pushing from the kitchen-counter height." "Then work your way to a desk, a chair, the floor with bent knees, and, finally, the floor on your toes."

 From a face-down position, place your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart to perform a push-up. Try to make a perfect diagonal with your body from your shoulders to your knees or feet by placing your toes or knees on the floor. Engage the abdominals and glutes (the muscles in your rear end). Then lower and lift your body by bending and straightening your elbows, keeping your torso stable throughout.

 There are ways to make it more difficult. Once your form is perfect, try what Rufa calls the "T-stabilization" push-up: Get into push-up position, then do your push-ups with one arm raised out to the side, balancing on the remaining three limbs without rotating your hips.

6. Abdominal Crunches

When done correctly, the familiar crunch (along with its variations) is a good choice to target your ab muscles.

 Cotton recommends starting the crunch on your back, with your feet flat on the floor and your fingertips supporting your head. Press your low back down and begin the exercise by contracting abdominals and peeling first your head (tucking your chin slightly), then your neck, shoulders, and upper back off the floor.

 

To keep your chest and shoulders open, keep your elbows out of your line of vision and breathe normally to avoid pulling your neck forward. Petersen instructs his clients to perform crunches with their knees bent and feet off the ground. He says that with feet kept on the floor, many people tend to arch the back and engage the hip flexors.

 According to Petersen, crunches "can be excellent, but if they're done incorrectly, with the back arching, they can actually weaken the abdominals." To work the obliques (the muscles on the sides of your waist), says Cotton, take the standard crunch and rotate the spine toward one side as you curl off the floor.

 

"Twist before you come up," he says.  "It's really important that the twist comes first because then it's the obliques that are actually getting you up."

 But keep in mind that you won't get a flat stomach with crunches alone, says Cotton.  Burning belly fat requires the well-known formula: using up more calories than you take in.

 He states, "Crunches work the ab muscles; [they're] not to be confused with exercise that burns fat over the abdominals." "That's the biggest exercise-related myth."

7. Bent-over Row

This exercise targets the biceps as well as all of the major upper back muscles. Here's how to do it with good form.  Stand with feet shoulder-width apart, then bend knees and flex forward at the hips.

(If you have trouble doing this exercise standing up, support your weight by sitting on an incline bench, facing backward.)

  To provide additional support, tilt your pelvis slightly forward, engage your abdominals, and extend your upper spine. Hold dumbbells or barbell beneath the shoulders with hands about shoulder-width apart.  Flex your elbows, and lift both hands toward the sides of your body.  Pause, then slowly lower hands to the starting position.  (The move should be done without weights for beginners.)