The 10 Best Exercises You Can Do Everyday

There are various exercises you can do everyday at home to stay fit, active, and strong, such as pushups, squats, lunges, planks, and burpees. But, can you work out every day?

Yes, you can work out daily. A medically reviewed article published by Healthline.com suggests that you can work out seven days a week as long as you’re not pushing yourself too hard or getting obsessive about it. ¹Is It OK to Work Out Every Day? – Medically reviewed by Daniel Bubnis, M.S., NASM-CPT, NASE Level II-CSS, Fitness — Written by Emily Cronkleton – Healthline

Regular exercise provides various health benefits, from physical to mental. For example, an article published on Mayoclinic.com has outlined seven crucial benefits of regular physical activity, including weight management, better health conditions, quality sleep, and better sex life.

Here’s a quick summary of exercises you can do everyday at home and at the gym.

You can do the first five exercises daily at home if you’re a beginner. And the first five, plus the next five, are for intermediates. So, depending on your fitness level, you can do some of them or all of them.

Besides these workouts, you can also do warm-up exercises, such as mountain climber, squat jump, and jumping jack, every day.

Moreover, you can perform different yoga poses for better mobility and flexibility along with these standard muscle-building bodyweight exercises.

Best Exercises to do Everyday for Beginners at Home

1. Pushups

The pushup is one of the standard upper body workouts. It works on multiple muscle groups simultaneously, such as the chest, triceps, core, and anterior deltoid. It helps improve fundamental strength, build muscle mass, and scale you up for compound liftings, such as bench press and military press.

The pushup has various types, such as diamond pushups, incline pushups, wider pushups, archer pushups, and pike pushups. However, they are challenging for beginners. I’ve written a separate article on beginner pushups, which you can check out.

Let’s see how to perform a standard pushup:

1. Place your hands on the floor, so your arms are straight underneath your shoulders.
2. Get into a high plank position with your hands and toes on the ground, and your body forms a straight line from head to heels. Brace your abdominal muscles. That’s the start.
3. Bending your elbows, take your chest toward the floor as low as possible.
4. Extending your arms, push back to return to the starting position. That’s one rep.
5. You can perform as many sets and reps as you like.

Note: You can do different pushup variations on different days for better strength, balance, and muscle gain. Additionally, you can perform weighted pushups a couple of days weekly to maximize strength and muscle growth.

2. Bodyweight Squats

The squat is one of the traditional lower body workouts. It hits several muscles at once, primarily the quadriceps. Quads is a sizable muscle that helps walk, run, and jump efficiently.

A study has shown that an 8-week bodyweight squat training helps improve body composition, decrease the fat percentage, increase muscle gain and muscular strength of the knee extensors, and jump performance in adolescent boys. ²Takai, Yohei et al. “Effects of body mass-based squat training in adolescent boys.” Journal of sports science & medicine vol. 12,1 60-5. 1 Mar. 2013

The squat has multiple variations, such as the standard, sumo, lateral, and frog squat. And you can do a different one each day.

Let’s see how to perform a standard bodyweight squat:

• Stand upright with your feet shoulder-width apart and toes pointing slightly out.
• Keep your core tight, chest up and back straight. That’s the starting point.
• Lowering into a squat position, try to go as far downward as possible or until your thighs are parallel to the floor, at least.
• Pressing through your feet, return to the standing position. That’s one rep.
• Perform the desired number of sets and reps.
• Maintain a neutral spine position throughout the movement.

You can also do weighted squats with dumbbells, barbells, and kettlebells. However, I don’t suggest doing weighted ones every day as they put more stress on your spine and can be taxing on your knees.

3. Dips

The dip is an excellent upper body workout. It targets many muscles simultaneously, such as the chest, triceps, front deltoid, and core.

It helps build size, strength, and power, particularly in the triceps, and maximizes pressing movements.

Like squats and pushups, you can also perform different dips, such as bar dips, bench dips, box dips, floor dips, and kitchen counter dips daily.

How to perform bench dips:

1. Sit on the bench with your arms straight at your sides and feet flat on the ground.
2. Keep your arms straight beside your hips, lift your butt off the chair, move your torso forward slightly, and extend your legs in front of you. That’s the starting position.
3. Bend your elbows and dip down as low as possible.
4. Now, pushing through your hands, extend your elbows until your arms are entirely straight. That’s your one rep.
5. Do as many reps and sets as you like.

4. Lunges

The lunge is a lower-body movement that enhances balance, strength, and functional fitness. It engages multiple muscle groups simultaneously and improves running, jumping, and squatting performance.

You can do different types of lunges to target different lower body muscles. For instance, forward lunges work more on your quads, and reverse lunges activate more hamstrings and glutes.

Examples of the best lunge variations are forward, reverse, lateral, and curtsy lunges. All of these are identical to each other with some modifications.

Here you see how to perform a forward lunge:

1. First, stand upright with your feet together and back straight.
2. Take a large step forward with your left leg so you can stand in the split stance. That’s the start.
3. Lower into a lunge until your knees are bent at a 90-degree angle. Make sure your body weight shifts forward onto the leading leg.
4. Pushing through your feet, return to the starting position.
5. Perform the desired number of sets and reps.

5. Plank

Plank is one of the best ab exercises you can do everyday. It is an isometric exercise that increases core strength and stability. A strong core supports your lumbar spine, improves posture, and enhances compound liftings, such as the deadlift, bench press, and squat. It also burns significant calories in a quick time and boosts your endurance.

Planks are suitable for all fitness freaks. So, whether you’re a beginner or pro or want to lose weight or build muscles, you can incorporate plank in your home workout routine.

You can do several types of planks, such as forearm plank, side plank, and extended plank, to optimize your overall performance.

Here are the steps to perform a plank:

• Place your forearms on the floor and extend your legs behind to get into a plank position.
• Slightly raise your hips, brace your core, and stay in an isometric position for as long as you can hold.

Once you improve your strength and fitness, you can also start performing weighted planks for better results.

Additional 5 Exercises to do Everyday for Intermediate

6. Pullups

The pullup is a bodyweight compound workout that engages many upper body muscles at once, especially the back and biceps.

Doing pull-ups every day will help you increase strength and muscle mass, improve your grip strength, and scale your fitness to the next level.

You can use different grips to perform pushups, such as wide and narrow grip pull-ups. The wider grip works more on your lats, while the short grip also hits the biceps efficiently.

Let’s see how to perform a standard pull-up step-by-step:

1. Grip the pull-up bar with an overhead grip, hands a few inches wider than shoulder-width apart.
2. Pull yourself up until your chin crosses the bar.
3. Pause for a moment and then return to the hanging position.

7. Inverted Row

The inverted row is another excellent workout to build muscle, strength, and balance in the upper body muscles, especially the lats, upper back, and hip extensor muscles, without putting much stress on your lower back. ³Fenwick CM, Brown SH, McGill SM. Comparison of different rowing exercises: trunk muscle activation and lumbar spine motion, load, and stiffness. J Strength Cond Res. 2009 Mar;23(2):350-8. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0b013e3181942019. PMID: 19197209. It is also known as Australian pullups and bodyweight row.

The inverted row is fairly easier to perform than a standard pull-up because you only need to pull your torso toward the bar during the movement.

Doing this exercise every day will help you improve your pulling strength and improve upper body composition. Beginners can also try it.

The best way to perform an inverted row is using a smith machine bar or gymnastic rings. However, if you do not have access to that equipment, you can try using a dinner table at home.

Stepwise instructions to perform an inverted row at home:

1. Lie under the table and grip the end with an underhand grip with your hands shoulder-width apart.
2. Keep your legs straight in front of you and place your feet on a chair with your toes pointing up.
3. Pull your torso toward the table until your chest touches it.
4. Do it as many times as you like.

8. Burpee

The burpee is one of the full-body exercises you can do everyday. It works on various muscles throughout the body, such as the chest, quads, shoulder, and core, and helps improve strength, muscle, and speed.

It is one of the fast and high intensity exercises that also burn decent calories, boost stamina, and maximize your aerobic and anaerobic performance.

Doing burpees for a couple of minutes pumps your heart, increases blood flow, warms you up, speeds up weight loss, and improves cardiovascular fitness. So, it’s an excellent movement to include in your daily routines.

How to perform a burpee:

1. Standing in a shoulder-width squat position, jump in the air.
2. Land softly into a squat with your chest up and head in line with your tailbone.
3. Place your hands down on the floor in front of you with your arms underneath your shoulders and inside your feet.
4. Kick your legs behind so you’re in a high plank position. Next, perform a pushup.
5. Once you complete the pushup, reverse the movement to complete your first rep.
6. Do it as many times as possible.

9. Bar Dips

Doing a dip on a parallel bar is more challenging than on a bench, especially for beginners. However, it is also pretty effective in maximizing strength and muscles.

The bar dips hit multiple muscles throughout the upper body, especially the triceps and chest, and help build a muscular physique.

How to perform bar dips:

• Grab the handles and hoist yourself off the floor.
• Keep your arms fully straight and slightly lean your torso forward.
• Bend your knees behind towards your buttock and brace your core and thighs. That’s your starting position.
• Bending your elbows, lower your body down as low as possible, and press back to return to the starting point. That’s your first rep.
• Perform the desired number of sets and reps.

10. Floor IYT Raises

The floor IYT raises is one of the easy and effective ways to develop strength and mobility in various muscles throughout the body, such as lats, traps, deltoids, and the lower back.

It is one of the daily exercises you can do at home with no equipment. All you need is some space where you can lay down and mood.

Here are the steps to perform bodyweight IYT raises on the floor:

1. Lie prone on the floor with your face down.
2. Keep your arms straight in front of you with your palms facing each other.
3. Raise your arms upward as high as you possible. Pause for one second, and lower your arms to the start.
4. Next, lift your arms slightly outward, making a Y shape. Pause for a moment and return to the beginning.
5. Now, take your arms out to your sides and raise them off the floor as high as possible.
6. Aim for three sets of 8 to 12 reps.

How should you perform these exercises everyday?

You can perform the above exercises in circuits. Performing exercises in circuits burns significant calories, increases endurance, develops muscles, and allows you to complete your training session in a short duration. However, you shouldn’t do it for more than 10 minutes every day.

If you think the circuit training is challenging, you can try high-intensity interval training or HIIT. During HIIT, you can do each exercise efficiently with a short interval between them. Try not to exceed your training duration above 15 minutes a day.

You can do low-impact training if you want to work out for more than 15 minutes a day. For example, doing exercises with one to two minutes of rest between them.

Here are samples of the daily workout routine:

Sample 1: 10-minute Circuit Training

• Perform each exercise 10 reps.

Sample 2: 15-minutes High-intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

1. Activity time: 30 seconds
2. Rest time: 30
3. Rest between rounds: 2-minutes

Sample 3: 20-30 minutes Low Impact Workout

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) About Daily Exercise

References

• 1
  Is It OK to Work Out Every Day? – Medically reviewed by Daniel Bubnis, M.S., NASM-CPT, NASE Level II-CSS, Fitness — Written by Emily Cronkleton – Healthline
• 2
  Takai, Yohei et al. “Effects of body mass-based squat training in adolescent boys.” Journal of sports science & medicine vol. 12,1 60-5. 1 Mar. 2013
• 3
  Fenwick CM, Brown SH, McGill SM. Comparison of different rowing exercises: trunk muscle activation and lumbar spine motion, load, and stiffness. J Strength Cond Res. 2009 Mar;23(2):350-8. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0b013e3181942019. PMID: 19197209.
• 4
  Yang YJ. An Overview of Current Physical Activity Recommendations in Primary Care. Korean J Fam Med. 2019 May;40(3):135-142. doi: 10.4082/kjfm.19.0038. Epub 2019 May 20. PMID: 31122003; PMCID: PMC6536904.