7 Exercises to Do Everyday – Introduction
What are the 7 Exercises to Do Everyday for Body Transformation?
If something is important, it’s worth doing it every day.
Common examples of this include brushing your teeth, drinking water, eating healthily, and getting enough sleep.
Skip any of these things for a day or more, and you’re bound to experience some ill effects.
And yet, when it comes to exercise, many people think that a couple of workouts a week is enough.
This is partly because, according to some fitness experts, you need to rest and recover between workouts.
They say that your body will quickly become overtrained if you do more than a couple of workouts in a row.
Another reason is that most people overestimate their workouts’ effectiveness and think 30 minutes of exercise is enough to burn lots of fat and build impressive fitness levels.
Sadly, both of these opinions are incorrect.
While it’s true you may need a few days to recover from a very long or intense workout; most people don’t actually exercise hard enough to need that much time off from exercise.
Similarly, even the most intense workout probably won’t burn more than 400-600 calories, and doing that 2-3 times per week will not have much of an impact on your weight.
Plus, given that there are 168 hours in a week, it’s very optimistic to think that 1-2 hours will greatly impact your fitness.
So, in the same way, that you brush your teeth and sleep every day, you should probably exercise daily, too.
After all, your body was designed to be active, and not just a couple of times a week.
In this article, we reveal the seven exercises you should do everyday to transform your body and provide you with a simple seven-day workout to follow.
7 Exercises to Do Everyday
Exercising daily means choosing movements you can do anywhere and anytime, preferably at home and without much, if any, workout equipment.
This gives you a large library of exercises to choose from.
Here are our seven top recommendations, variations, and alternatives to suit all fitness levels:
- Air squats
- Push-ups
- Single-leg Romanian deadlifts
- Pull-ups or Chin-ups
- Lunges
- Planks
- Burpees
Daily Exercise Routine – Descriptions
#1. Air squats
Muscles worked: Quadriceps, hamstrings, gluteus maximus, abductors, adductors.
The squat is the king of lower body exercises.
Often performed with a barbell, air squats use your body weight for resistance, so they’re the perfect home leg workout.
High-rep air squats are also an excellent conditioning and fat-burning exercise.
And contrary to popular opinion, squats are very good for your knees.
How to do it:
- Stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart, toes turned slightly outward.
- Brace your core, pull your shoulders down and back, lift your chest, and look straight ahead.
- Bend your legs and squat down until your thighs are at least parallel to the floor.
- Keep your upper body as upright as possible, and take care not to round your lower back.
- Stand back up and repeat.
Alternatives and variations:
- Half-squats
- Heels elevated squats – aka cyclist squats
- Narrow stance squats
- Wide stance squats
- Goblet squats – holding a dumbbell or kettlebell in front of your chest
How-To Air Squat: A CrossFit Foundational Movement
#2. Push-ups
Muscles worked: Pectoralis major, deltoids, triceps.
The push-up is probably the most widely performed exercise on the planet.
It’s great for developing all your upper body pushing muscles, especially your chest and triceps.
Requiring no equipment, the humble push-up is hard to beat, and everyone who works out should do them.
How to do it:
- Squat down and place your hands flat on the floor, fingers pointing forward and about shoulder-width apart.
- Walk your feet out and back so your legs and body are straight.
- Brace your abs and pull your shoulders back and down.
- Bend your elbows and lower your chest down to within an inch of the floor.
- Push yourself back up and repeat.
Alternatives and variations:
- Kneeling push-ups
- Incline push-ups – hands on a raised surface
- Decline push-ups – feet on a raised surface
- Diamond push-ups – hands close together
- Wide push-ups – hands more than shoulder-width apart
20 Types of Push-ups
#3. Single-leg Romanian deadlift
Muscles worked: Hamstrings, glutes, erector spinae, core.
While squats are an effective lower-body exercise, they don’t do a lot for your hamstrings.
Your hammies ARE working, but your quads do most of the work.
Doing single-leg Romanian deadlifts ensures that your hamstrings get as much attention as your quads.
This exercise is also excellent for your balance.
How to do it:
- Stand with your feet together, arms by your sides.
- Shift your weight over onto your right leg.
- Bend your supporting knee slightly for balance.
- Hinging from your hips, lean forward and reach down to touch the floor.
- Extend your left leg out behind you for balance.
- Try not to round your lower back.
- Stand back up and repeat.
- Do the same number of reps on both legs.
- Do this exercise next to a wall if you need help balancing.
Alternatives and variations:
- Romanian deadlift
- Prisoner good morning
- Hip bridge
- Single-leg hip bridge
- Nordic curls
The BEST Single-Leg RDL Tutorial (Squat University)
#4. Pull-ups/chin-ups
Muscles worked: Latissimus dorsi, biceps, forearms.
Where push-ups work all your pushing exercises, pull-ups and chin-ups do the same for your pulling muscles, i.e., your back and biceps.
While these ARE challenging exercises, there are ways to make them more accessible so that most people can do them relatively easily.
However, you will need an overhead bar to do pull-ups and chin-ups.
How to do it:
- Hang from an overhead bar using an overhand, slightly wider than shoulder width grip (pull-ups) or an underhand, less than shoulder width grip (chin-ups).
- Your arms should be straight.
- Brace your abs and pull your shoulders down and back.
- Without kicking or swinging, bend your arms and pull your chin up and over the bar.
- Descend under control and repeat.
Alternatives and variations:
- Band-assisted pull-ups and chin-ups
- Leg-assisted pull-ups and chin-ups
- Negative pull-ups and chin-ups
- Incline rows
- Resistance band pulldowns
How to Do Your First Pull Up | 0 – 20 Reps – Chris Heria
#5. Lunges
Muscles worked: Quadriceps, hamstrings, gluteus maximus, abductors, adductors.
While lunges work the same muscles as air squats, they do it one leg at a time.
This is useful for preventing left-to-right strength imbalances and also good for improving hip mobility and general athleticism.
Lunges are also very good for improving your balance.
How to do it:
- Stand with your feet together, arms by your sides.
- Take a large step forward, bend your legs, and lower your rear knee down to an inch above the floor.
- Push off your front leg and return to the starting position.
- Do your next rep leading with the other leg.
- Alternate legs for the duration of your set.
Alternatives and variations:
- Backward lunge
- Walking lunge
- Lunge with dumbbells
How-To Lunge
#6. Planks
Muscles worked: Core.
Core is the collective term for the muscles of your midsection.
Together, these muscles help support your lower back.
The core muscles include the rectus abdominis, obliques, transverse abdominis, and erector spinae.
A stronger core could help reduce your risk of back pain and will also improve your posture.
How to do it:
- Kneel on all fours and place your forearms on the floor.
- Walk your feet out and back until your body is straight and your weight is on your toes and forearms only.
- Tense your abs, legs, shoulders, and arms.
- Hold this position (but not your breath!) for the prescribed duration.
Alternatives and variations:
- Kneeling plank
- Side plank
- Dead bugs
- Hollow body holds
- Abs wheel rollouts
Never Do Planks Like This | 10 Most Common Mistakes
See Planks Muscles Worked: Benefits, Variations + How-To for a deeper dive into this fantastic full-body exercise.
#7. Burpees
Muscles worked: Full body
The burpee combines push-ups, squats, and planks to work all your major muscles.
Doing these movements together will burn a lot of calories and provide you with a great cardio workout.
If you are ever so short of time that you can only do one exercise, burpees should be it!
How to do it:
- Stand with your feet together, arms by your sides.
- Squat down and place your hands flat on the floor in front of your feet.
- Jump your feet out and back into the push-up position and do one rep.
- Jump your feet back up to your hands.
- Leap up into the air as high as you can.
- Land on slightly bent knees and repeat.
Alternatives and variations:
- Burpees without the push-up
- Burpees without the jump at the end
- Squat thrusts (no push-ups or jumps at the end)
- Jumping jacks
- Jump rope
100 Burpees for 30 Days – Here’s What Happened
Daily Workout Program
While daily workouts are a good option for most people, doing the exact same program every day will soon become boring and could leave you feeling tired and sore.
To get around this problem, this plan calls for the same exercises every day, but the number of sets (and therefore the level of fatigue) changes from one day to the next.
In short, you are going to do one set of each exercise each day, but a few extra sets of one exercise to push you a little harder.
Confused?
Don’t be; just follow the plan below!
Regarding the number of reps per exercise, that depends on your fitness level.
Just do as many as possible, stopping 1-3 reps shy of complete muscular failure.
Try and do more reps as the weeks pass and your fitness and strength improve.
If any of the exercises are too hard for you, simply select one of the easier alternatives listed above.
On the days when you do three sets, rest for two minutes between each one so you can catch your breath.
Each workout should take about 15-20 minutes to complete.
Add a brief warm-up before and a few cool-down stretches after, and you’ll be done in 30 minutes or less.
While you should be able to work out seven days a week without needing days off, feel free to take a break if you feel tired.
However, remember that, apart from one exercise per day, you’re only going to do one set of each exercise.
That should be manageable even if you are feeling a little tired.
Provided you get enough sleep, most people should have no problem recovering from such short workouts.
7 Exercises You Should Do Everyday – Bob & Brad
7 Exercises to Do Everyday – Wrapping Up
Contrary to what many fitness experts believe, you can exercise every day.
However, your workouts must be relatively short and not too intense.
Long, hard workouts take a lot out of you and necessitate long breaks for recovery.
Daily workouts are potentially better for general fitness, health, weight loss, and offsetting what is probably a sedentary lifestyle.
As an added benefit, working out daily provides you with plenty of opportunities to practice the exercises in your workout and will also immunize your muscles against post-exercise muscle soreness.
Yes, that’s right – training more often means fewer muscle aches and pains!
Combine this daily program with walking 10,000 steps a day, and you have the perfect no-frills, no-gym prescription for long-term fitness and health.
Rich is a NASM-CPT (Certified Personal Trainer),