It’s no news again that one of the leading ways you can keep your health in an optimal and sound state is to make exercise a part of your daily life. Exercise helps to build physical strength and fitness, burn excess fat, keep you active and set your mood in the right state, leaving you in sound mental health. All these, among others, are why exercising can also bring you happiness.
There are different types of exercises you can practice to strengthen your chest, arms, legs and other parts of the body. But, the one we want to show you today is the exercise that can help you strengthen your core without needing to have your back on the floor. It’s called the lunge and upper body twist exercise. This exercise has many benefits that can improve your health. Interesting right? Below is a detailed guide on how the exercise is done, tips and mistakes you should avoid and the health benefits you will derive from it. Let’s dive in.
How To Do The Exercise
You can do the lunge and upper body twist exercise by following the easy steps below.
Step 1: begin by standing straight on your feet, then spread your feet at a distance equivalent to the width of an average hip. Spread your right hand to the right side and your left hand in the left direction.
Step 2: Once you’re stable at the position in step 1, proceed by raising your left leg in the direction of your chest, putting your core into work. While doing that, make a twist of your right hand to the left side of your body.
Step 3: Return your hand to the right side while dropping your left leg back to the original position. You can do this many times, raising and twisting your hands and legs before you change your position.
Step 4: After ten repeated processes of raising your left leg and twisting your right hand, stay back in your standing position and switch to lifting your right leg and twisting your left hand in the right direction.
Step 5: repeat the alternation between raising your right leg and twisting your left hand and raising your left leg towards your chest and twisting your right hand in accordance with your capacity and desire.
With the five simple steps, you will be able to perform a lunge and upper body twist exercise that helps you strengthen your core and keep you strong and stable.
Essential Tips And Mistakes You Should Avoid
When it comes to exercising, many people fail to get the result they desire. This is due to nothing but the fact that they’re getting it wrong somewhere. They’re making some mistakes that rob them of the chance to get the full benefit from the exercise. We don’t want that to happen to you while you practice lunge and twist exercises. So, we are giving you the tips and mistakes you should avoid to get the best from your exercise.
- Ensure you keep a straight standing posture while performing the exercise so that you can be balanced and stable. It would help if you also practised the lunge and twist with total concentration on your breath and the whole process to avoid falling.
- Make sure that both hands are in action. While twisting the right hand, keep the left hand stretched straight towards the left and do the opposite when you are twisting your right arm.
- Do not bend your spine during the exercise. Try your best to maintain an erect spine and upper body as you lunge and twist your legs and hands. It’s also vital that you keep your core engaged and your hips and torso in a balanced position during the exercise.
- Do not be too focused on your speed that you forget the need for a balanced posture. There’s nothing terrible in going as slow as you can to ensure that the exercise involves your core and the right muscle in action.
The Health Advantages
Body balance and coordination enhancement
If lunges do only one thing, they will straighten your core when you practice it. This alone will help you to gain improved stability and posture as well as relieve back pain. Isn’t that interesting? Your balance and coordination will also thank you for performing the lunge and twist exercise.
Improved spinal health
Lunges help you to enhance your spinal health in two ways. It helps to strengthen and balance your spine, improves its flexibility and relieves the pain caused by loads and stress on it. All these are the result of keeping it stable while you move other parts of your body.
Activation of gluteal muscle
Many of the exercises people perform do not reach the gluteal muscle to improve it. Thanks to lunge and twist as you can now have access to activate these muscles and reap the pain relief, improved stability and strength from their activation.
Like every other exercise, lunge and upper body twist activities are beneficial to human health. Anyone looking to build their core should look up to this exercise. They can follow the steps, tips, and precautions to get themselves in motion, lunging and twisting to build their core, physical stability and overall health.
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