5 Daily Bodyweight Exercises That Keep You Young After 40
Something as simple as training with your own body weight can get real results. In fact, bodyweight exercises are “more functional,” recruiting a greater number of joints and muscles simultaneously, channeling everyday movement. That’s why we spoke with an expert who shares five daily bodyweight exercises that keep your body young, fit, and strong after 40.
Keep in mind that “nothing changes without tension,” says Joy Puleo, M.A., NCPT, director of education at Balanced Body. “To create change and build muscle, you need to challenge the body by creating overload or tensioning the structure and it is the tension that leads to the desired adaptations, muscle strength and endurance.”
5 Daily Bodyweight Exercises to Stay Young After 40
These daily moves are effective because the way you position your body in relation to gravity promotes total-body toning and strengthening.
“For example, with a pushup, the body is roughly parallel to the ground,” Puleo explains. “As the body lowers toward the ground, the work to maintain the plank posture is challenged as ground forces transfer from the upper body through the core to the legs, creating full body tension and overload. The closer to the ground the body goes, the harder the push away from the floor becomes, the more force the body must overcome the more strength and endurance that is created.”
Plank Hold
“This is an isometric exercise—a static hold,” Puleo points out. “Studies are showing that isometric exercises build strength and endurance relatively quickly … Your posture is important here—your head, your ribcage, your pelvis through the legs to the heels should create a long, straight line. Maintaining this line is important to how the forces transfer from the upper body, through the core, to the legs.”
- Place your hands under your shoulders.
- Press into the pads of your fingers and hug your inner arm toward your armpit.
- Walk your feet out to hip-width.
- Engage your abs, squeeze your buttocks, and pull upward through your quads.
- Hold the position anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes.
Pushups
“Dynamic exercises like planks change the body’s relationship to gravity while also moving multiple joints, such as the shoulders, elbows, and shoulder blades,” Puleo notes. “This increases muscle strength around moving joints, changes the way forces are put into and need to be responded to and teaches the nervous system how to coordinate movement relative to gravity.”
- Start in a high plank with hands under your shoulders and your body straight from head to heels.
- Bend your elbows and lower your chest toward the floor.
- Maintain a long, straight body as you lower.
- Press back up, straightening your arms.
Side Planks
The side plank is similar to a classic plank, but because you’re balancing on one arm and facing the side, your obliques and side body muscles require strength, endurance, and stability.
- Sit side facing, placing one hand on the floor under your shoulder.
- Extend your legs and stack your feet.
- Lift your hips off the floor and activate your core.
Squats
Squats are one of the most practical and powerful bodyweight moves. “They build strength, endurance and neuromuscular coordination of the lower body while integrating the legs with the core,” Puleo says.
- Stand tall, feet shoulder-width apart on the floor.
- Extend your arms ahead of you or place your hands on your hips.
- Bend at the knees and hips as you lower into a squat.
- Descend until your thighs are parallel to the floor.
- Press through your heels to rise back up to standing.
Lunges
“The lunge is directly related to walking and functional reciprocal leg motion,” Puleo tells us.
- Stand tall, feet parallel, hip-distance apart.
- Step one foot forward.
- Bring your hands to your hips.
- Engage your core as you bend your knees, lowering to form 90-degree bends in both legs.
- Keep your upper body straight.
- Press through your front heel and the ball of your back foot to rise back up.
Looking for more easy ways to lose fat? Here’s How Long Your Walking Workout Should Be To Shrink Belly Fat.
