Fitness trainer’s pick: 5 exercises that engage muscles throughout the body

The secrets of pumping up the whole body were shared with “Championship” by Nikita Bragin – a performing athlete of “Classic Physique” category, a trainer with experience (10 years) and a participant of the international festival of health and sports SN PRO EXPO FORUM.

“At training sessions I often hear questions from my charges about my favorite exercises. But, as a rule, the topic raised turns into a discussion of the most effective exercises for the entire muscular corset.

I was once asked, “If you could keep just 5 movements for your body, what would they be?” And you know what, none of my favorite exercises fit the bill. With only five exercises for my body for the rest of my life, it would hardly be all that effective for my body to do a one arm rope handle curl from behind my head or a standing dumbbell middle deltoid curl.

So what five movements would I choose for a lifetime of keeping myself toned, strong and tough? Of course, the ones that engage as large a map of muscles on the body as possible.

The Turkish Lift

The Turkish lift, done with weights or dumbbells, is a great exercise that engages muscles throughout the body, practicing coordination and balance. Performing the lifts will require basic fitness and some experience with weights.

The Turkish lift is a whole sequence of movements that you must do in order to get up from a lying position with a kettlebell in your outstretched arm, and then return to the same position. In different phases of the exercise, the muscles of the cortex, shoulders, legs and arms are included in the work. In other words, the main advantage of lifting is the load on the entire musculature. This makes the different muscle groups work in a coherent and coordinated manner.

Planke

This is a static exercise, which is performed in the position “lying down” or standing on the elbows at the expense of natural force resources. It maximally activates the human muscular system and involves even the deepest fibers. Since ancient times, such training has been widely used in professional sports, fitness and in the training of wrestlers in the East, practiced by yogis, supporters of Pilates and stretching.

Standing in the plank simultaneously develops the muscles of the abs, back, arms, legs, hips and buttocks. It has a complex effect on the body and allows you to achieve strength and slimness in a short time. You don’t need special premises and sports equipment. You can train whenever and wherever you want.

Squats

Legs? Glutes? No! The whole body is involved. During this movement, especially with weight on the shoulders or chest, in addition to the entire lower body, the back, abs, cogs, obliques, shoulder girdle and many stabilizer muscles are put to work.

Are the cardiovascular and endurance benefits worth mentioning?

Pull-ups on the bar

What are the muscles of the whole body, you may ask?
And where will you find such an effective “attack” for the entire back, but not in this movement? And also for the abs, biceps, forearms. Of all the “pulls”, i.e. movements towards yourself, this is the most natural movement for any person!

The ability to lift your body up, hanging on any support is a vital skill for everyone.

Push-ups from the floor

The final exercise that closes out this top 5 is the regular floor push-ups. In putting it on this list, as in the previous example, I relied on its naturalness and integrity more than on incorporating the maximum number of muscles into the work.
This movement, performed “away from yourself” just like the previous “toward yourself” movement, is a basic and vital necessity.

I am more than certain that if you leave these five movements to any person on earth for a lifetime, in addition to engaging the muscles of the entire body, you will have excellent health, develop body balance, endurance, static and dynamic strength.”