There are two schools of thought when it comes to exercise, one is that you need to go at it 7 days a week, for longer than everyone else, doing planks for 45 minutes, and doing hundreds upon hundreds of press ups.
The other is that you need to put your body under a certain amount of tension, and that’s all that’s needed. In fact, both have their benefits, but when you are looking to use the most impactful exercises for the best results, there are a handful you should have in your arsenal. Here are a few…
Deadlifts
This is one of the most difficult exercises, because it requires your whole body to do it properly. From the looks of it, deadlifts are all about using the power of your legs, but in fact this is incorrect. Do it correctly, and you can only do one short set. If you’re looking for proper form, popsugar.com has a useful guide.
Pull-ups
If you don’t have this as part of your workout routine, it’s time to integrated. Pull-ups are a fantastic way of gaining overall strength because you are lifting your body weight. The wonderful thing about pull-ups is that there are so many different variations, that if you really wanted to, you wouldn’t need to have many other exercises in your workout routine to feel the benefits.
Farmers Walk
A lot of workouts have refocused back on the idea of strength, as opposed to cardio and basic weights. A farmer’s walk is a perfect way for you to stabilize your core, but also lift heavy, while also incorporating motion into the exercise. For something like this, where you are lifting heavy, but also moving, this is where the importance of appropriate gym footwear comes into play. There are various resources, like biopods.com that provide insoles, but if you don’t have the appropriate footwear in the first place, it’s going to make for an extremely uncomfortable exercise experience. Not in the fact that you are struggling with the weight, but the fact is that if you have improper footwear, especially when it comes to physically moving a heavy item, you will nat compromise your form.
Squats
There is a reason that squats are a staple diet of the standard workout routine, they provide a lot of functional strength, but if you lift heavy enough, it forces your body to stabilize under the weight. If you don’t have squats as part of your workout routine, this will help you see sufficient gains in strength quickly. The important thing with squats is to make sure that your form is perfect first. If you, for example, squat with your knees protruding over your feet, this is going to cause a lot of knee injuries quite soon.
When it comes to quick and effective results, strength training is the way to go. Lots of new workout’s routines talk about the efficacy of cardio, or isolation exercises, but the fact is, compound exercises and good old-fashioned strength training are what you need to build functional strength. While you may be exercising for superficial reason, if you really want to see the results, strength is the solution.
