Fundamental Body Weight Movements
The Essentials
Everyone loves the exercises and movements that grab attention and are glamorous, but we should NEVER forget and NEVER stop working on the basic, fundamental movements. These fundamental movements include: Air Squat, Push-Up, Pull-Up, Sit-Up and I am going to include the Burpee. Below find brief descriptions of each with a tutorial video with the critical elements and cues for each movement.
The Air Squat
I think everyone wants to be able to live their entire life being able to stand up from a chair and/or never get stuck on the toilet...
The Air Squat is fundamental in that performed correctly, it maintains range of motion and flexibility, builds and maintains hamstring and glute endurance and strength, engage our core strength and helps us maintain the functionality of our bodies throughout our lifetime. We should squat and do so often!
The Push-Up
If we are looking at maintaing functionality throughout our entire life, as well as look at a movement that helps build up muscular strength and endurance... the push-up is one of those. With the Push-Up, it forces us to engage our core strength to hold our bodies in a straight, "plank-like" position, perform full range of motion to the ground (this is the functionality of it) and develop endurance and strength with our pectoral and upper back muscles.
Looking at the functionality, this allows us to build the confidence that if we are every on the ground or we fall, there should be no issues getting off the ground!
The Sit-Up
Who wants to be able to live their life where they can sit up out of bed with no issues? Sounds so simple, but developing core strength helps make life tasks like that, easier. Developing our core strength through full range of motion not only helps to create more efficient breathing, but it also aids in better balance, as well as advocate for a healthy lower back and less lower back pain!
The Pull-Up
There are many life situations that we encounter that require us to use the pulling motion. The Pull-Up allows us to, also, engage core strength, and develop muscular strength and endurance. The pull-up can be critical to helping develop the ability to pull your body weight up and over an object. Also, partaking in outdoor adventure activities like hiking or rock climbing are life activities that would see benefit from the pull-up.
The Burpee
The Burpee is a unique movement that not only strengthens our cardio-respiratory endurance, but it helps aid in creating a more efficient metabolism (metabolic conditioning), muscular strength, endurance and tests our range of motion of the hamstrings and pectoral muscles. Similar to the pull-up, the functionality of the burpee allows us to be confident in our ability to get off of the ground with ease or to catch ourselves safely in case we were to fall. The burpee allows for a increased intensity!