7 Exercises to Do Everyday – Introduction
What are the 7 best exercises to do every day for body transformation?
If something is essential, it’s worth doing daily. Think of brushing your teeth, drinking water, eating healthily, and getting enough sleep. Skipping any of these basics, even for a day, can have negative consequences.
Yet, many people believe a couple of workouts a week are enough. This misconception stems from the idea that you need rest days to recover between workouts, a notion supported by some fitness enthusiasts and personal trainers.
They argue that overtraining happens quickly if you exercise more than a few days in a row.
Another misconception is that 30 minutes of regular exercise is sufficient to burn fat and build impressive overall fitness levels. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case.
While it’s true you may need occasional rest days after a very intense workout, most people don’t exercise hard enough to require extended recovery time.
Even the most intense workout likely burns only 400-600 calories, and doing that 2-3 times per week won’t significantly impact your weight.
Considering there are 168 hours in a week, expecting 1-2 hours of exercise to make a big difference in your physical fitness is overly optimistic.
Daily exercise should be as routine as brushing your teeth or getting enough sleep. Your body is designed to stay active, not just a few times a week.
This article introduces seven essential exercises you should do every day, along with a straightforward daily workout routine to follow.
7 Exercises You Can Do Everyday
Exercising daily involves selecting movements that are easy to do anywhere and anytime, preferably at home, and without needing much workout equipment. This flexibility allows you to maintain a consistent routine, even with a busy schedule.
Here are the top seven recommendations, with variations and alternatives to fit 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, glutes, lower back, core.
Air squats, a bodyweight version of the traditional squat, are an excellent lower body exercise that you can perform anywhere without equipment. They are a fundamental movement that helps improve lower body strength, mobility, and overall fitness.
How to do it:
- Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and your toes slightly turned out.
- Engage your core, keep your chest lifted, and look straight ahead.
- Begin the movement by pushing your hips back, as if you’re sitting into a chair, while bending your knees.
- Lower yourself until your thighs are at least parallel to the floor, ensuring your knees track over your toes.
- Keep your weight on your heels and maintain an upright torso.
- Push through your heels to return to the standing position and repeat.
Benefits of Air Squats:
Air squats are great for enhancing lower body strength, boosting cardiovascular fitness when done at higher intensities, and improving functional movement patterns essential for daily life.
Alternatives and variations:
- Half-squats (partial range of motion)
- Cyclist squats (heels elevated)
- Narrow stance squats
- Wide stance squats
- Goblet squats (holding a weight in front of your chest)
How-To Air Squat: A CrossFit Foundational Movement
#2. Push-ups
Muscles worked: Pectoralis major, deltoids, triceps.
Push-ups are probably the most widely performed strength training exercise on the planet. They are excellent for developing all your upper body muscles, especially your chest and triceps.
Requiring no equipment, push-ups are versatile and accessible to everyone who works out.
How to do it:
- Squat down and place your hands flat on the floor, fingers pointing forward and about hands 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 within an inch of the floor.
- Push yourself back up and repeat.
Benefits of Push-ups:
Push-ups provide a great full-body workout, focusing on your chest, shoulders, and triceps while engaging your core and upper back. They help improve muscle tone, build strength, and enhance overall fitness without needing equipment.
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.
Squats may work your hamstrings, but they primarily engage the quads. Single-leg Romanian deadlifts target your hamstrings more effectively, ensuring balanced leg development.
This exercise also enhances your balance.
How to do it:
- Stand with your feet hip-width apart, arms by your sides.
- Shift your weight to your right leg, bending your knee slightly.
- Hinge at your hips, leaning forward and reaching down toward the floor.
- Extend your left leg behind you for balance.
- Avoid rounding your lower back.
- Stand back up and repeat.
- Complete the same number of reps on both legs.
- If needed, perform this exercise near a wall for balance support.
Benefits of Single-Leg Deadlifts:
These deadlifts effectively strengthen your hamstrings and improve balance. They also engage your hip flexors and lower back, promoting better posture and reducing the risk of lower back pain.
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.
While push-ups target your pushing muscles, pull-ups and chin-ups focus on your pulling muscles, specifically your back and biceps.
These exercises can be challenging, but with modifications, most people can perform them.
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, narrower grip (chin-ups).
- Keep your arms straight.
- Brace your core and pull your shoulders down and back.
- Bend your arms and pull your chin up and over the bar without kicking or swinging.
- Lower yourself with control and repeat.
Benefits of Pull-Ups:
Pull-ups and chin-ups are excellent for building upper body strength, particularly in your back and arms. They also improve grip strength and can boost cardiovascular fitness when performed in higher repetitions.
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.
Lunges are similar to squats but focus on one leg at a time. This helps prevent muscle imbalances and improves hip mobility and balance. Lunges are also effective for working your entire body, targeting major muscle groups in your lower body.
How to do it:
- Stand with your feet together, arms by your sides.
- Take a big step forward, bending both knees and lowering your rear knee close to the floor.
- Push through your front heel to return to the starting position.
- Switch legs and repeat.
Benefits of Lunges:
Lunges are a versatile exercise that targets your quads, hamstrings, and glutes, working your entire body. They also improve functional fitness by enhancing balance, hip flexor flexibility, and movement patterns crucial for everyday life.
Alternatives and variations:
- Backward lunge
- Walking lunge
- Lunge with dumbbells
How-To Lunge
#6. Planks
Muscles worked: Core.
Your core muscles are crucial for supporting your lower back and maintaining good posture.
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 in a straight line 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.
Benefits of Planks:
Planks are a highly effective isometric exercise for building core stability and strength. They engage your abdominal muscles, lower back, and shoulders, improving posture and reducing the risk of injury during other exercises.
Alternatives and variations:
- Kneeling plank
- Side plank
- Dead bugs
- Hollow body holds
- Abs wheel rollouts
Never Do Planks Like This | 10 Most Common Mistakes
#7. Burpees
Muscles worked: Full body
The burpee combines push-ups, squats, and planks to work all your major muscle groups.
Doing these movements together will burn a lot of calories and provide you with a great 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.
Benefits of Burpees:
Burpees combine strength and cardio, making them ideal for burning calories and boosting endurance.
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!
The number of reps per exercise depends on your fitness level. Do as many as possible, stopping 1-3 reps shy of complete muscular failure.
Try to do more reps as the weeks pass and your fitness and strength improve. If any exercises are too hard for you, select one of the more accessible 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 you will only do one set of each exercise; apart from one exercise per day that you do three sets. That should be manageable even if you are feeling a little tired.
If you get enough sleep, most people will 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 counteracting the effects of inactivity.
As an added benefit, working out daily provides you with plenty of opportunities to practice the exercises in your workout. It 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 daily, and you have the perfect no-frills, no-gym prescription for long-term fitness and health.
What’s Next?
Now that you’re familiar with these essential daily exercises, why not take your fitness to the next level?
Check out How to Weight Lift for Weight Loss: A Plan That Works if you’re ready to build strength and see even more significant body transformation.
This routine complements your daily exercises by incorporating weightlifting, helping you progress and achieve your fitness goals. Consistency is key—whether you’re sticking to bodyweight exercises or adding weights, every bit counts toward a fitter you!
