What are 10 Physical Activities for a Comprehensive Workout?

With people spending more and more of their time at home sitting at the table texting their friends, sitting at their desk working or sitting on the couch to binge-watch the newest TV show, making time for physical exercise has become more important than ever before.

Regardless of where you live and your budget, getting a comprehensive full-body workout regularly is key to maintaining your fitness as well as experiencing a wide array of benefits for years to come.

The Benefits of Regular Exercise - Physical and Mental

When starting out your fitness regime, people’s goals tend to fall into one of a few categories: 1) losing weight, 2) gaining muscle and 3) gaining confidence in your body image. Thankfully, regular exercise done right achieves just that.

1. Weight Loss: While it may seem obvious at first, the reasons behind this are more complex. Exercise not only burns calories but also better manages your body’s hormones, including ones that regulate your appetite. Through regular workouts, you can not only lose weight but also find it easier to keep yourself from gorign yourself afterwards.

2. Cardiovascular: One of the biggest benefits related to regular physical activity is the reduction of risks of conditions such as diabetes and angina as well as heart attack and stroke later in life.

3. Stronger, Healthier Bones: By training your body, all the bones and tendons included, you manage to strengthen them through exposure. This helps to obviously strengthen your muscles from the outside but also helps stabilize your body by reducing risk of falls and helping it better recover from injuries. Finally, it can also help reduce the risk of late-onset osteoporosis.

The benefits of regular physical exercise (i.e. at least 3 days/week) have been shown to translate outside of just the physical.

1. Reduced Anxiety/Stress: Regular exercise works to regulate the body’s hormones which includes the body’s stress hormone, cortisol. When this hormone is properly controlled, you get to wake up to brighter and more beautiful days than ever before without even realizing it.

2. Better Sleep: Another huge impact is the improved length and quality of sleep reported amongst participants in exercise studies with rates of insomnia also decreasing among regularly exercising participants.

3. Stronger Motivation: In general, regular exercise, particularly in mornings has been found to improve one’s mood by increasing production of dopamine, the body’s main happiness hormone. It also has been shown to improve concentration, motivation and memory while even reducing symptoms of conditions such as ADHD.

Top 10 Physical Exercises for the Perfect Full Body Workout

The full body workout is the first key stepping stone on your journey towards a healthy and fit body, as well as mind. Fitness experts in general recommend starting out with full body workouts for beginners and even for intermediate and advanced gym-goers and athletes, it never hurts to try.

Activities Without Exercise Equipment

1. Pushups: The universal exercise, pushups can be done anywhere at any time. Their versatility also comes into play with your muscle groups. A pushup is able in one rep to work out not only your biceps and triceps, but also your shoulders, pectorals and core. In short, a comprehensive workout for the whole upper body.

2. Squats: Once again, we can turn to old faithful once again. Working as the counterbalance to the push up the squat strikes all of your core lower body muscle groups including abdominals, quadriceps, hamstrings, abductors, glutes and calves. Make sure to have a proper mat out and keep your feet planted and hands across your chest.

3. Burpees: Surely everyone’s favourite exercise, the burpee is the perfect combination of the pushup and squat by taking everything you hate from both and combining into one. Although not a fan favourite, the burpee works in its sheer effectiveness and impacts everything from biceps and triceps to quadriceps, hamstrings and core to virtually every other muscle in the body.

4. Lunges: A slow but steady lower body workout, the lunge works in its steadiness by not being as physically exerting while also targeting various muscle groups. With one motion, you not only work on your flexibility, but also work out your glutes, hamstrings, quads and more!

5. Running/Cycling: there is no better environment for exercise than the great outdoors. Simply take the rime out of your day to go for a brisk walk or jog through the local trail or streets. If you have a bike, even better, there’s no reason to shell out on exercise equipment when you already have your perfect get-fit device at home.

Activities with Exercise Equipment

1. Barbell Bench Press: One of the most well-known exercises at the gym, this involves holding a barbell above your chest with two arms while laying face up. As a strength-based upper body exercise, this is perfect for increasing shoulder/deltoid strength, pectoral strength as well as biceps and triceps strength.

2. Barbell Back Squat: The equivalent of the squat with exercise equipment, the barbell back squat involves holding the barbell with two arms slightly above your soldiers behind your head and then squatting down with the extra weight. Work out your glutes, quadriceps, hamstrings and core with the extra weight of a barbell for the most effective performance.

3. Kettlebell Snatch: As a very useful but often overlooked piece of exercise equipment, the kettlebell gets a bad rap. Fortunately, the kettlebell snatch works as the perfect well-rounded exercise with it impacting various muscle groups across the body including hamstrings, quads, back, shoulders and core.

4. Pull Ups: Once you've built up enough strength in your upper body, this exercise is perfect for the intermediate and advanced crowd. Make sure to lift your chin above the bar for the best performance. With its simple, yet effective routine, work out your various back muscles from top to bottom alongside arm muscles, shoulders and more!

5. Deadlift: Another exercise that requires precise technique to avoid unnecessary injury, the deadlift is generally done with a barbell but can also be done with 2 dumbbells. The deadlift’s versatility is stunning with its uses extending from hamstrings and glutes to abdominals, chest and arm muscles.

What Next?

For top quality exercise equipment to help achieve your fitness goals, look for local. At Fitness Avenue, we work to bring our customers across the GTA with the best of fitness and exercise equipment. Visit our online fitness store at www.fitnessavenue.ca today to learn more!