Get Moving: Fitness Friday

While expensive fitness classes and extensive machine exercises may force you to focus on one area of your body, the importance of a full-body workout should not be overlooked. It may sound exhausting, but you can actually achieve great definition in your arms, abs, glutes and core with six simple exercises you can perform at home for fitness Friday!

Not only will this comprehensive full-body, fitness Friday workout sculpt and strengthen your entire body, but it can also offer additional health and fitness benefits. Information published in the scientific journal Circulation emphasizes the importance of full-body resistance exercises—as opposed to lower-body workouts—for healthy adults of all ages. The study goes on to explain how full-body strength training can contribute to an overall healthier lifestyle by offering positive effects for cardiovascular health, endurance, strength, metabolism and your mental well-being.

To incorporate these positive health effects into your life, all you need are some light dumbbells—whichever weight you feel comfortable with—and a place to stretch out to perform this fitness Friday resistance workout. Learn how to master each move and then try them all in succession, and repeat three sets of all exercises with a two-minute rest in between. After mastering this full-body, fitness Friday workout, you’ll tone and strengthen your whole body to benefit your healthy lifestyle!

Try these six basic strength training exercises for a fitness Friday workout:

1. Squat to Press

Grab your dumbbells and stand with your feet shoulder-width apart to prepare for a full-body burn. As you get into the squatting position, hold your weights at the sides of your head, with your arms bent at 90-degree angles and your wrists facing outward in front of you. Move your hips and butt back and downward until your knees are bent directly over your feet in the squatting position. As you come out of the squat to stand up, press your arms over your head until they are straight up in the air. Keep your core engaged to balance your body and return back to the squatting position while bringing your arms back down to their starting position. Complete 10 reps.

2. Front Lunge Twist

Stand straight with your arms down by your sides to start your front lunge twists. Take a step with your right leg and lunge forward. While lunging, simultaneously raise your arms out in front of you until your hands touch and your arms are parallel with the floor. Once you lunge forward, your knee should be bent directly above your foot. Brace your abs and rotate your core to move your arms outward toward the right before returning back to the center. Move your leg back and return to standing position. Start over with your left leg as you lunge your forward, raise your arms and twist your core. Repeat 10 reps on each leg.

3. Rear Delt Press

Stand with your knees bent and one foot slightly in front of the other to start these rear delt presses. Move your hips and butt backward and bend your torso forward as if you were about to get into squatting position. Hold your dumbbells in front near your knees with your arms bent and your wrists facing each other. Bend your arms outward and upward until they are at the same level as your shoulders. Squeeze your shoulder blades together and engage your core as you lower your arms back in front of you. Complete eight to 10 reps.

4. Shoulder Press

Grab your dumbbells and hold them towards the sides of your head with your elbows bent so your arms create 90-degree angles. As you stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, brace your core and raise your arms up and over your head until they are straight up in the air. Keep your shoulders and back straight throughout the exercise as you return your arms back to the starting position to complete eight to 10 reps.

5. Inch Worms

Start with your feet shoulder-width apart and bend down so that your hands are touching the floor in front of your feet. As you engage your core and keep your back straight, walk your hands out one in front of the other until your body is fully stretched out in a straight push-up position, parallel with the floor. Then, move your hands backward, one by one, toward your feet until you are standing bent over, back in the starting position. Complete 10 reps.

6. Side Plank Swivel

Move into the traditional plank position as if you were about to do a push-up. Support your weight with your forearms on the ground underneath your shoulders and with your toes pointed, touching the floor. Engage your core to keep your body straight and balanced in the plank position and begin to swivel your hips toward one side and then the other in a fluid motion. Your hips should almost touch the floor as you twist your core to complete 10 reps on each side.