Exercises You Might Be Doing Wrong

With many gyms and fitness centers closed or opened to limited capacity, you may find yourself doing your workouts at home. In order to reap full benefits and prevent injury, exercises at home should be performed correctly. Since you are not able to go to your trainer, we have provided the methods to performing common exercises correctly.

Push Ups

Correct push ups are performed when the arms are straight, and your abdomen and butt are tightly locked. The lowering should be in a steady manner, rather than quickly, and continued until your elbows are at a 90-degree angle or less. Once your chest, nose, or chin, touch the floor, or your arms go all the way down to a 90-degree angle, lightly pause, then push back up to the originating position.

Pull Ups

To perform a correct pull up, first make sure your bar has a grip that is barely wider you’re your shoulder width. With your hands facing opposite or away from you, engage in a complete surrender hang, then pull yourself up until your chin is above the bar. Pause for a moment, and then lower yourself back down to the surrender hang position.

Dips

Focusing on looking straight ahead and contracting your stomach muscles, lift yourself up using parallel bars or rings. Then, if necessary to gain stability, bend your knees.

With your elbows at your sides, lower yourself until your triceps are parallel to the floor. Once you hit parallel, push back up until just before you’re able to lock your elbows.

Deadlifts

To start, set under a barbell with your feet angled slightly outward, apart at about hip width. Then bend over to grip the barbell with both hands at shoulder width; and bend your knees until the bar nearly reaches your shins. Pick the bar up off the ground and press down with your legs until the barbell passes your knees. Then thrust your hips forward until you are standing up. Reverse your movement until the bar returns to its starting place on the ground.

Squats

Proper squats start with the correct stance. Stand with your feet slightly wider hip width and your toes pointed slightly outward. Holding this position, place your arms straight out in front of you, parallel to the ground. Your chest should be kept up and your spine in a neutral position. Your weight should be on the heels and the balls of your feet. Keeping your core flexed, break at your hip and push your butt back. Keep sending your hips backwards as your knees begin to bend. Squat low until your hip joint is lower than your knees. Then, to come back up, navigate through your heels and knees outward. In order to reap glute toning benefits, squeeze your butt in your top stance.

Inverted Rows

First, set your bar or rings near waist height. Lying under the bar in a face up manner, grab the bar with an overhand grip (meaning your palms face away from you) at a slightly wider than shoulder width. At this point, you should be contracting your abdomen and butt while keeping your body in a straight line. Pull yourself up to the bar until your chest touches the bar; and then lower yourself to the starting position.