This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at OSU chapter.
While I’ll never make mentions of any part of my lifestyle being “perfect”, I definitely strive for “perfection-esque”, especially when it comes to nailing moves at the gym. The better the form, the better the results – it’s that simple. There’s a few go-to bodyweight exercises that I know I can rely on in if I’m feeling unmotivated, uncreative, or just plain old lazy (see, I told you, no perfection here). Read up on how to make sure you’re mastering some crucial strength exercises and then take your new tips to the gym to shape that booty and carve that core.
How to do the perfect….
PUSH-UP
- Start out in the plank position (perfection steps on that move coming next) while grounding toes into the floor, engaging abdomen muscles and flattening back. **To focus on getting a flat back: keep your neck in line with your spine by keeping your chin un-tucked and your eyes focuses about 6-10 inches in front of your fingers.
- Begin to lower down until the chest is nearly touching the floor. Careful to keep the body flat, shoulders pulled back and down and elbows tucked close to the body. **You’ll want the arms to form a 45-degree angle once you’re at the bottom of the push-up position.
- As you are coming back up, make sure to exhale, as this can create tension in the core helping you stabilize your position. Also, as you are coming up make sure to again keep the body in one solid position and treat the body as a single unit to be lifted all together.
PLANK
- Hands should be planted directly under your shoulders as if you were about to do a (now perfect) push-up.
- Similar to a starting push-up position, ground your toes into the floor and squeeze the glutes to help stabilize the body.
- Keep your gaze about 6 inches in front of you to keep that neutral spine and then aim to hold for as long as you can (the world record is 4 hours and 26 minutes, so, no pressure)! ***These tips were for a fully extended plank, but feel free to drop to the forearms if that’s more comfortable for you!
SQUAT
- To prepare to build the booty you first need to have feet a little more than shoulder-width apart with hips stacked over heels and knees over ankles.
- Keep your spine neutral, which is helped by rolling the shoulders down and away from the ears.
- As for the arms, keep them either straight out in front of you parallel to the ground (palms down) or elbows pulled close to the body with palms facing each other.
- Starting sending the hips backward and while the butt begins to stick out it is important to keep the chest upright and the back straight. **Keeping eyes focused forward will help keep that neutral spine.
- As you explode back up, keep the weight focused in the heels of the foot while always trying to keep a tight core and neutral spine