Most Effective Exercises
During your exercise routine, you may find yourself wasting time and sitting around on occasion. At other times, you're focused and working nonstop. Whatever kind of day you're having at the gym, it's important that the exercises you perform do their job well. Otherwise, you could spend countless hours without ever getting the full benefit you seek.
To help your routines always leave you with results, be sure to include some of the most effective exercises ever created. Without further ado, please welcome the best exercises your body will ever perform.
# 5: Cross-Country Skiing
Pushing your entire body to its limits, cross-country skiing develops the muscles in nearly ever region of your person, while challenging your will to either grow stronger or die. As useful as cross-country skiing is, there is a downside: it is only possible in certain areas of the world and can't be replicated well in the gym. Because of this, cross-country skiing will never be top on the list.
Any Exercise Is Good Exercise. If you prefer to avoid the most effective exercises, don't give up on exercise altogether. After all, any exercise that doesn't hurt your body is better than no exercise.
# 4: Elbow and Toe Planks
Recommended by many and given the golden thumbs up by research, performing the plank exercise on your elbows and toes is an extraordinarily effective exercise. Working the back and abdominals and building endurance in both, planks will get your muscles in great shape, without you even having to move a muscle. If you're unfamiliar with planks, the first step is to get on the floor facedown. With your forearms resting on the ground, support your weight with your elbows and your toes. The rest of your body should be in a straight line, from your shoulders down to your feet. Try to hold the position for up to one minute and repeat three to five times. It may sound simple, but the burning sensation that accompanies this exercise tells another tale.
# 3: Squats
Coming in at number three are squats. Yes, they're old-fashioned, they don't require high-tech equipment, and they look kind of funny. In spite of this, squats are one of the best exercises available for your body. The benefit of squats comes because of the range of muscles the exercise works out. Whereas many weight-lifting exercises focus on a single muscle, squats pull in multiple leg muscles, including the various muscles in the buttocks, hamstrings, and quadriceps.
#2: Push-ups
Like squats, push-ups can build many parts of your body at one time. From your biceps and chest to your shoulders and triceps to your core, push-ups give your upper body a workout that cannot be matched by other more specific exercises. In the event you find regular old push-ups a little too elementary for your taste, you can always up the difficulty level by performing them with only one hand on the ground or by doing them in a handstand position, resting your feet on the wall overhead for balance. For an even greater challenge, have someone sit on your back while you perform push-ups.
#1: Walking
Taking the top spot of the most useful exercises you'll ever perform is the tried-and-true (and rather simple) exercise of walking. Easy for beginners and beneficial for the healthiest of health nuts, walking gets your body moving and can result in the loss of as many as 500 calories during an hour-long walk. As if that weren't enough to convince you of its efficiency, walking can be done anywhere, any time, in any kind of weather. Simply provide the walking shoes and the will to get a little exercise, and walking will take care of the rest.
