I use my android smartphone for this purpose. I do push-ups, pull-ups, squats, and sit-ups coupled with supermans in a four day cycle different muscle group every day. That’s less than 10 minutes every day. The smartphone apps calculate how much you should rest between sets and how many you should do the next cycle based on how many you did and how difficult it felt.
If you do every muscle group every day that might be better for your cardiovascular health, but expect to gain strength and muscle stamina much slower. Your muscles need to get some rest too. Most apps aren’t designed for no resting. The exercises don’t target every muscle group possible but if your goal is just to stay healthy I think they’re balanced enough for that purpose. If they start to feel too easy, add some free weights or make your posture more difficult. If you don’t have a pull-up bar home and don’t want to buy one, find one outdoors.
For cardiovascular benefits I would recommend aerobic exercise. It doesn’t really matter what it is, as long as you get your heart rate high enough often enough. If you want to make sure the exercise doesn’t become too anaerobic (would become more difficult to do often) but don’t want to buy a heart rate monitor, try breathing only through your nose and slow down if that becomes too difficult. You might start with brisk walking, but over time even running while breathing this way should become effortless.
That is a solid plan, but I’d recommend adding something for hip extension, like a deadlift or back bridge. That will hit most of what you’re missing in your routine.
Three days of rest for each exercise is likely too much to be optimal. Bodyweight exercises are very easy for the body to recover from, and don’t require that much time. If you paired an upper body, lower body, and core exercise (ie squat/pushup/situps and deadlift/pullup/super man) and did that on a two day cycle, you’d probably experience just as much benefits in a shorter time frame.
Thanks for those exercise suggestions! I’ll add back bridge to the routine coupled with squats so that I can still use the software. This is not completely necessary since squats and supermans target hip extensors a bit too if done correctly. Adding some calf exercise in the leg day might make sense too, and some flank exercise on sit-ups day.
I agree one rest day might be enough if you’re not a complete beginner, rest needs vary. The problem is, the exercises become longer, and I might have to eat more to recover faster. Doing one exercise a day just after waking up is so trivial the habit is easier to keep.
Do you know any good body weight exercises for deltoids?
Bodyweight squats really don’t have enough load on the hip extensors to work them adequately. Even the barbell squat mostly targets the quadriceps (full depth Olympic/front squats involves the glutes a lot, and squatting low bar powerlifting-style involves the hamstrings).
Incline pushups (ie with your feet on a box) will involve more deltoids and less pectoralis. By continually increasing the incline, you can progress the difficulty of the exercise until you’re doing handstand pushups.
The recommendation I make for folks is to buy an adjustable dumbbell set. Small cash investment, minimal space investment, and adds a bunch of exercises you can do. I’ve expanded the set with a pair of 10s and a quad of 25s, so the max weight I can put on a handle is 125lbs, and it holds up great.
I use calendar reminders to do them first in the morning. It’s important you keep techniques consistent so that you don’t fool yourself when measuring progress.
Pushups I do eyes straight ahead chest touching the ground, hand positioning I alternate a bit and push as high as I can. Pull-upps with just slightly bent elbows when down and go as high as I can, hand positioning alternating a bit but keep palms facing me. Don’t help with the legs.
Sit-ups neck straight, hands behind neck, knees 90 degrees, elbows and shoulder blades touching the floor and back as straight as possible when down and elbows touching the knees when up. Supermans I just do as high as I can.
Squats I don’t go lower than my butt on the knee level to avoid hurting my knees and don’t straighten my knees going up either. I keep my hands stretched in front and back straight.
I use my android smartphone for this purpose. I do push-ups, pull-ups, squats, and sit-ups coupled with supermans in a four day cycle different muscle group every day. That’s less than 10 minutes every day. The smartphone apps calculate how much you should rest between sets and how many you should do the next cycle based on how many you did and how difficult it felt.
If you do every muscle group every day that might be better for your cardiovascular health, but expect to gain strength and muscle stamina much slower. Your muscles need to get some rest too. Most apps aren’t designed for no resting. The exercises don’t target every muscle group possible but if your goal is just to stay healthy I think they’re balanced enough for that purpose. If they start to feel too easy, add some free weights or make your posture more difficult. If you don’t have a pull-up bar home and don’t want to buy one, find one outdoors.
For cardiovascular benefits I would recommend aerobic exercise. It doesn’t really matter what it is, as long as you get your heart rate high enough often enough. If you want to make sure the exercise doesn’t become too anaerobic (would become more difficult to do often) but don’t want to buy a heart rate monitor, try breathing only through your nose and slow down if that becomes too difficult. You might start with brisk walking, but over time even running while breathing this way should become effortless.
That is a solid plan, but I’d recommend adding something for hip extension, like a deadlift or back bridge. That will hit most of what you’re missing in your routine.
Three days of rest for each exercise is likely too much to be optimal. Bodyweight exercises are very easy for the body to recover from, and don’t require that much time. If you paired an upper body, lower body, and core exercise (ie squat/pushup/situps and deadlift/pullup/super man) and did that on a two day cycle, you’d probably experience just as much benefits in a shorter time frame.
Thanks for those exercise suggestions! I’ll add back bridge to the routine coupled with squats so that I can still use the software. This is not completely necessary since squats and supermans target hip extensors a bit too if done correctly. Adding some calf exercise in the leg day might make sense too, and some flank exercise on sit-ups day.
I agree one rest day might be enough if you’re not a complete beginner, rest needs vary. The problem is, the exercises become longer, and I might have to eat more to recover faster. Doing one exercise a day just after waking up is so trivial the habit is easier to keep.
Do you know any good body weight exercises for deltoids?
Bodyweight squats really don’t have enough load on the hip extensors to work them adequately. Even the barbell squat mostly targets the quadriceps (full depth Olympic/front squats involves the glutes a lot, and squatting low bar powerlifting-style involves the hamstrings).
Incline pushups (ie with your feet on a box) will involve more deltoids and less pectoralis. By continually increasing the incline, you can progress the difficulty of the exercise until you’re doing handstand pushups.
The recommendation I make for folks is to buy an adjustable dumbbell set. Small cash investment, minimal space investment, and adds a bunch of exercises you can do. I’ve expanded the set with a pair of 10s and a quad of 25s, so the max weight I can put on a handle is 125lbs, and it holds up great.
Thanks!
I’ll try alternating between those (I just installed the apps), and running back from work breathing through my nose.
I use calendar reminders to do them first in the morning. It’s important you keep techniques consistent so that you don’t fool yourself when measuring progress.
Pushups I do eyes straight ahead chest touching the ground, hand positioning I alternate a bit and push as high as I can. Pull-upps with just slightly bent elbows when down and go as high as I can, hand positioning alternating a bit but keep palms facing me. Don’t help with the legs.
Sit-ups neck straight, hands behind neck, knees 90 degrees, elbows and shoulder blades touching the floor and back as straight as possible when down and elbows touching the knees when up. Supermans I just do as high as I can.
Squats I don’t go lower than my butt on the knee level to avoid hurting my knees and don’t straighten my knees going up either. I keep my hands stretched in front and back straight.
Have fun! It’s almost as awesome as Anki.