The Only 4 Exercises You’ll Ever Need

Exercise is complicated, isn’t it? From spin to zumba to pilates and even the weight room, society tells us that exercise costs time, money, and energy to do it right.

What if I told you it can be easy?

When we think about the goals of exercise, let’s go back to basics. Exercise should strengthen your muscles and raise your heart rate. That’s really it!

If there is a method you love helps you to do those things, keep doing them! However, if you feel lost and confused when approaching exercise, look no further for the only four exercises you need to get you started.

The Only Four Exercises You Need

These four exercises don’t require any equipment, can be done anywhere, and when done together hit every muscle group as well as raising your heart rate. So what are they?

Squats

Squats target your lower body, including your glutes, hamstrings, quads, and calves. Further, they can be modified to target different muscle groups simply by the positioning of your feet.

Move your feet further apart to target your inner and outer thighs and glutes, and move them closer together to target your hamstrings and quads.

Add weight to make them more challenging or add a jump to help raise your heart rate.

Pushups

Pushups work your entire upper body including your chest, shoulders, biceps, triceps, and back. They even work your abs by keeping them engaged through the entire movement.

Just like squats, you can move your hands to target different muscle groups, bringing them closer together for triceps and further apart for chest and back.

If you can’t do a full pushup, start with your knees on the ground and work up to a full push up position, lowering all the way down, releasing onto your stomach, and pushing up again. Eventually you’ll be a pushup machine!

Sit Ups

Sit ups work your core in addition to your chest and neck. Your core is so important to strengthen, improving your posture, supporting your full body, and protecting your back from injury.

There are about a million variations of sit ups and crunches you can do, working your abs from every angle. But before you get overwhelmed, start with the basics. Lift your full upper body in one motion, without moving your feet and trying not to rely on momentum.

Burpees

Experts say that getting up and down off of the floor is the best thing you can practice as you age. It requires full body strength and protects you from scary falls as you age. Burpees replicate this movement with the added benefit of raising your heart rat through vigorous cardio exercise.

Get into plank position and hop your feet up towards your shoulders, rising to a squat position and standing all the way up. Repeat this a few times and you’re doing burpees! As you progress, you can add a push up to your plank and a jump to your squat for a more challenging exercise.

No gym membership? No equipment? No problem.

The best thing about focusing on simple exercises like these, you break down so many barriers to getting your workout in. Repeat each exercise for 10 reps to do a full set, and repeat as many times as you have strength or time for (I recommend two or three rounds.)

Be consistent to get the full benefits of a regular exercise routine by repeating this circuit three times per week. It really is that easy!