Best Bodyweight Exercises For Dentists to Stay Healthy

As it is the New Year, it’s time to celebrate. It’s time to set new goals and start fresh.

What’s better than starting to take care of our health and well being? As a dentist, or someone in the medical industry, you constantly take care of other people. And in the process, you sometimes neglect yourselves.

Let’s change that.

In order to help you, I have prepared a list of my favourite body weight exercises you can do at home without any equipment.

By the end of this quick guide you will know how to do them, how to combine them and how to get the maximum results.

Top 5 Bodyweight Exercises (No Equipment Needed)

All 5 exercises below are easy to do and will help you target your whole body in only a couple of minutes. No matter where you currently are you, can always start with the basics and improve in time.

Let’s not forget you are doing them because you want to get healthy. Doing these exercises 3-4 times per week is going to make sure you stay in great shape.

In every exercise below I will give you 2 different variations – the easy and the advanced one so you can choose the most appropriate one. However, if you don’t know how to do each exercise there will be a great video to watch as well.

After you know how to do all the exercises, I will show you how to combine them into a short and effective workout you can do anywhere.

Let’s start with the king of all exercises…

1. Squats

No matter what you are training, you have to include squats into your workout. They are a great way to target your lower body and balance. Here’s a great article if you want to learn more about the benefits of squats.

Watch this quick video to find out how you can do them correctly

When talking about squats, there isn’t an “easy” variation of it because the movement is exactly the same. What you can do to increase the difficulty is simply to slow down the whole movement and try to hold the lowest squat position for about 1-2 seconds. Alternatively, you can hold something near your chest as additional weight.

If you are a complete beginner it’s good to squat over a little chair so you can learn the technique while having some backup.

2. Push-Ups

This is one of the best bodyweight exercises that can help you target your chest, shoulders and triceps. Doing push-ups is going to help you build your upper body strength in general.

Push-ups do require some previous strength in your upper body but there is a way around that.

Let’s first see how to do them the normal way here.

As you can see from this video, doing them correctly isn’t very easy and requires some power and technique. Don’t worry here’s the easier alternative you can do instead.

Once you gain some strength and size in your upper body, you can easily progress to the regular variation.

3. Sit-Ups

We all know that sit-ups are one of the most common ab exercises you can do. And there is reason for that – it simply works if done the right way.

But before I continue, let’s debunk one of the biggest myths in the world:

No, doing sit-ups won’t give a six pack but lower body fat percentage and regular abdominal training will.

If you want to target your abdominals on a whole new level, check out this great article containing 17 great abs exercises.

Now with that out of the way, let’s see how is the right way to do sit-ups here.

If you don’t have the core strength to do a complete sit-up, you can alternatively do just the first part of the exercise and lift only your head and shoulders off the ground. Don’t forget to breath out, flex your core and not use your neck in the process.

4. Glute Bridges

During our daily routine, we are constantly sitting and our butts become weaker and tight. That can cause pain, discomfort and muscle imbalances. Squats are a great way to target your lower body but they are not great at isolating your glutes. That’s where glute bridges become really handy.

Here’s a great tutorial on how to do them.

If you want to increase the difficulty of the exercises just lift one leg in air. Do the same amount of repetitions for each leg one at a time.

5. Plank

Planking is a great and efficient way to target your whole core at the same time. Even if this is not the most enjoyable exercise, after a couple of seconds doing it is extremely effective.

Watch this quick video to see how to do it right.

If holding a plank for just for a couple of seconds is too difficult for you, try to do the same exercise on your knees. Another great tip is to try to beat your time with every workout you do.

The Workout

So now you know what the top 5 exercises are and how to do them correctly. You also should have a clue about what your current condition is and which variation of each exercise will suit you the best.

If you don’t know, take a few minutes and try do to a couple of reps of every exercise – aim for 5 to 10 repetitions. If you can do that amount of reps without losing form, then you know where you currently are. If it’s too difficult try for the easier variation.

Here’s a great workout which is going to take you about 20 minutes to complete.

The whole workout is consists of 3 rounds.
Each round is made from all 5 exercises combined one after the other.
You can’t stop and rest until you complete the round.
The rest between rounds is 1 minute.

Home Bodyweight Whole Body Workout (3 Rounds Total)

Each Round is made from:

Squats – 20 repetitions

Push-ups – 10 repetitions

Sit-ups – 15 repetitions

Glute-bridges – 10 repetitions

Plank static hold – 30 seconds

Please Note: The number of repetitions and the amount of seconds for the plank are changeable. If they are too much or too little for your abilities, feel free to change them as you please. You can do the same thing for the total number of rounds. My recommendation is not to go below 3 rounds if possible.

Now it’s time to give it a try and see for yourself how great you will feel after.

Frequently Asked Questions

Before we finish this blog post let’s try to answer some of the common questions you may have.

Q: Do I need any equipment or money for this workout?

A: No, you don’t. As you can see all 5 exercises can be done at the comfort of your home. The only optional thing to have is some sort of a workout mat because you will be lying on the floor for some of the exercises. If you are creative and thoughtful you can easily find an alternative to that (towel, rug or grass).

Q: I don’t have previous experience with working out. Is this workout for me?

A: Yes it’s still perfect for you! Nobody was born perfect and athletic so we all have to start from somewhere right? This workout is perfect for anybody who is eager to become healthy and put some effort into their health. If you are a total beginner, try to use the easiest variations of the exercises and start from there.

Q: How often should I do this workout?

A: I don’t believe there is a specific number because we are all completely different people with different experiences and daily lifestyle, but in general aim to do this workout at least 3-4 times every week. The best way it works for me is to do it 5 times per week (Monday to Friday) and rest during the weekends.

Q: How long it will take me to see results?

A: I really don’t know. That’s an individual thing that is extremely different from person to person but in general if you are eating the right foods, exercising regular and giving your best you are going to start seeing some results in a couple of weeks. But if you don’t want the results to stop, try to constantly improve the difficulty by adding more repetitions, including more weight, more rounds, etc. That way you are making sure you stay on the right track.

Conclusion

So here is it – a quick, effective and great home body workout you can do anywhere.

And yes, being a dentist doesn’t give you an excuse not to be in shape. And not only that – if you are a human and live on planet Earth then this workout is going to be a great way to start the new year.

Give it a try and comment below what do you think. Hope it helps you!

Author Bio

Hi, I’m Bozhidar Karailiev and I run a personal blog in which I share advice, workouts, and tips on how to become healthy and fit. With my 7+ years of experience, you can learn a thing or two. Check me out at https://fittylife.com/ or on Youtube.