Upper, lower body exercises to get more out of your workout

Exercise better, not more

HOUSTON – For many of you, doing core exercises often means getting sore from doing back to back training at home or at the gym. But the key is doing a routine that works on your whole body; in that way you can get the best results.

Shane O’Connor, team development manager at Life Time Athletic in Cypress stopped by Houston Life with exercises to get more out of your workout.

According to O’Connor, frequency is important, but even if you go to the gym two or three days a week you can see difference in your muscles with eight repetitions of these exercises for lower and upper body.

Great beginner exercises for the lower body include goblet squats and kettlebell deadlift, but make sure you do them right. For the squats, “push from the hips, drop down into the bucket and push through the whole foot,” said O’Connor, and for the deadlift “make sure the kettle bell goes all the way to the ground, keep the feet flat on the floor and squeeze those glutes.”

For core muscle exercise, he recommends a bridge pullover.

"Flat on the ground, hips up, grab the kettle bell on the side, reach back nice and long, kettle bell touches the ground, pull back to center,” said O’Connor, who has more than 10 years of fitness experience and has worked with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  

Watch the video above to see Courtney and Derrick do the routine.