Favorite Exercises For Building Overall Strength

Favorite Exercises For Building Overall Strength

When building overall strength, you must think of the big picture, think of movements that involve your entire body. Another way you can think about it is to look for movements that involve multiple joints. If you think about performing a squat, for example, your ankles, knees and hips are moving during the exercise. That’s a multi-joint movement. Instead, if you think of a bicep curl, the only joint that’s moving would be your elbow. Just a small portion of your body is involved.

With that in mind, here are my top 5 exercises for building overall strength. All of them are multi-joint exercises and all of them require your entire body to work together to maintain stability and strength. Which also means that your core is going to be assisting with all of them:

1.     Squats: Squats are a great lower body exercises mainly but again, like all the exercises on this list, your whole body is moving through space, so it must work together. Squats put a little more emphasis on your quads.

2.     Deadlifts: Deadlifts are probably my ultimate favorite when it comes to building strength. You are basically pulling and pushing weight at the same time. Although, it is a little more technical and I have found that people take a little more time here to get the technique right. So, make sure you master the form and get help if you need to before you start lifting more weight.

3.     Push-ups: An old classic that has stood the test of time and for good reason. A push-up doesn’t only require upper body strength, but it also asks for a descent amount of core strength, making it a great exercise for overall strength. You can do them from your knees or on an incline (with your hands higher than your feet) to make it a little easier, yet still effective.

4.     Chin-ups/ Rows: An upper-body movement that involves your shoulders and elbows and assists mainly with pulling strength. It also helps to improve your grip strength which is correlated with longevity.

5.     Lunges: Another classic that is not only good because it’s a multi-joint movement, but also because it splits the work on your lower body. You get focus on your legs one at a time which is going to help you with any imbalances between left and right. It also good to improve your balance.

Adding these exercises consistently in your training routine is a great strategy for improving overall strength. They have all stood the test of time on the training world and for good reason, they work. Make sure your form is proper before you start adding weight.