Read time: 5min
Sometimes it just has to be quick and easy.
Maybe you don’t have the energy to do a full workout or you are short on time.
Either way, you just want to move to feel like you did something.
Introducing a 4-exercise full-body workout
The easiest boxes to check for a workout are to get a little sweat going and to move through full ranges of motion.
This elevates our heart rate, activates our muscles, and lubricates our joints.
No need to worry about being explosive, going to failure, or mixing up a lot of different exercises.
Do each movement for 1 minute before switching to the next one, aiming for 4-5 rounds in total, giving you a 16-20 minute workout, warm-up included.
Hindu Push Up
The biggest bang for your buck exercise.
In the down-dog position, it is an excellent stretch for your shoulders, keeping you aligned and your posture upright.
Because we sit hunched over most of the day, our lower back muscles are stretched and start to get tight. In the cobra position, we allow them to fully contract and work with our glutes to make our spine feel safe.
- Start with your knees under your hips, your hands under your shoulders, and then push your butt back as high as possible.
A stretch in the back of the leg feels nice but for our purposes, it is better to bend the knees and increase the range of motion in the upper body, especially from pushing your chest through your stretched-out arms. - As a beginner, keep your arms straight and push your hips to the floor by tightly squeezing your glutes. When you are strong enough, you can bend your arms on the way down, sliding your face and chest closely over the floor.
Either way, let the tension radiate from your butt to your lower back, roll your shoulders back, and look to the sky. - Inhale going into the back bending position, opening your chest even more with your breath. Exhale while you are pushing your butt back and compress yourself into the upside-down V.
Hindu Push Up
Squat
One of our most basic movement patterns while at the same time being easily neglected. Start with a range of motion you can handle but at least bring your butt to knee height.
With a little bit of practice, you will be able to squat all the way down, greatly increasing the benefits for the hips.
Focus on keeping your chest up instead of leaning forward too much and push your knees outward to prevent them from collapsing in.
Squat
Towel Row
While Hindu Push Ups are great for mobilizing and stretching the upper back, we still need to strengthen it. This is where rowing exercises come in.
What you would normally do with a pull-up bar or a suspension trainer we can also achieve with a towel.
- 1. Grab the towel with your palms facing upward.
- 2. Start pulling the towel apart as if you were trying to rip it apart. Make sure to engage the muscles between your shoulder blades to generate that outward tension.
- 3. Keeping the towel taut, move your hands out in front of you and back to the height of your belly button.
Adjust the outward pull and the strength of your grip to change the intensity of this exercise.
Towel Row
Sit Out
The goal of this fun movement is to practice coordination and full-body engagement. This means you should slow down and ensure you can stop and hold still in any position, instead of being quick and relying on momentum.
To set up the starting position put your knees under your hips and your hands under your shoulders. Lift your knees from the ground and stabilize the posture.
- Lift the hand on one side.
- On the same side, leave the foot in place but turn it so you go from being on your toes to having the sole of your foot flat on the floor.
- Put the foot of the other foot out to the same side with a stretched leg and 90 degrees from your original position.
After returning to the starting position, you repeat on the other side.
Sit out
Keep moving!
Each of these 4 moves is a great movement snack in itself but you put them together in a short circuit and you have a solid, foundational workout.
Give it a try and put it in your arsenal.
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