In this video, I wanted to go through the best bang-for-your-buck exercise.
You are probably busy, and if you are like most people, you struggle to find time to exercise. When you find the time to work out, you want to make your time as effective as possible or get the most bang for your buck [1].
Some exercises are much more effective than others. The exercise in this post, based on a yoga vinyasa, will work on your strength and mobility and even get your heart pumping.
CLICK HERE to watch the video
Buck Exercise
I will get Alix to demonstrate the exercise.
Start standing. Hinge forward at your hips to come into a forward fold. Keep your core engaged, and avoid rounding your spine. Move your hands forward or walk your feet back to come into the downward dog position, bending at the hips and working on hamstring flexibility. Bend through the hips, keeping everything in a good straight line. You want a long spine here, so bend your knees as much as you need to.
This is excellent for working on hip mobility, range of motion, core and shoulder mobility, and stability in the shoulders.
Move forward into a high plank position, then lower down into a narrow pushup position, keeping your elbows along your body. If this is too challenging, do the movement from your knees. When moving from the downward dog position to the end position where the hands dig into the mat, we activate the shoulder blade muscles. We are activating the muscles that stabilize the shoulders, making this an excellent exercise to build stability in the shoulder.
From the pushup position, press into your hand and come into upward facing dog, with your shoulders down from your ears and your chest forward.
Going through the downward dog movement and upward dog movement challenges the shoulder in different ranges of motion. The downward movement also challenges the core area.
The end position where we are arching back through is excellent for the back because most of us do a lot of sitting. Bending forward is great as we are reversing that movement we tend to predominate and live in.
Give that exercise a go. Go into the starting position, then move into the scoop position. Move your way towards the end position and back to the downward dog position. Go through 5 or 10 repetitions.
Final Word
Enter in your injury or pain. There’s a good chance I have an article, an interview, or a video to help you overcome injury or pain. Make sure to swing by ExercisesForInjuries.com.
Secondly, if you’re watching this on YouTube, head up above and hit subscribe. You will get a video like this where I talk about tips and tricks on overcoming injury or pain every couple of days.
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Take care!
Rick Kaselj, MS
Check out the Bodyweight Blender program here for your equipment-free workout to lose weight and tone your body!
