To stay fit and healthy – we must take exercising seriously. And not something that we do once or twice a week when we feel like it.
To get the full benefits of exercising – it’s recommended to exercise for 5 days or more.
Exercising gets easier – if we build it as a habit. That’s why exercising daily is far better than exercising 2-3 days per week.
Read on to find out more about daily exercises to stay fit.
10 Daily Exercises To Stay Fit
If you want better results, then – in your daily workout, you should include different types of exercises such as aerobic exercises, strength training and flexibility training. Do these exercises to stay fit – jogging, burpees, jumping jacks, planks, frog jumps, squats etc.
To stay fit, you must train your body with different training methods. So, the types of exercise you choose are important.
Because different types of exercises should hit different fitness goals.
Also, you should not focus on – one type of training method. For example – you shouldn’t focus extensively on strength training. Strength training is good for muscle building. But not so great for improving your cardiovascular health.
That’s why – in your daily workout, you should include aerobic exercises, strength training and flexibility or mobility training exercises.
In the below list of 10 daily exercises to stay fit – you will find a well-balanced mixture of exercises that focuses on improving your strength, flexibility and your cardiovascular health.
10 daily exercises you should do to stay fit:
1. Jumping jacks
Starting your daily workouts with jumping jacks is a great way to warm up your muscles and tone your body. As it’s a full-body workout – you get to activate most muscle groups in your body and prepare them for other exercises.
Jumping jacks are plyometrics exercises (a mix of aerobic and resistance exercises). Doing plyometric exercises can help you tone your body, boost your stamina and metabolism, improve cardiovascular health etc.
Jumping jacks (and every other exercise in this list) are bodyweight exercises. So, you don’t need any equipment or weights.
Here’s a video on how to do jumping jacks.
You can save this youtube playlist – where you will know how to do most of the exercises mentioned in this article.
2. Running or jogging
If you work out in the morning then – running or slow jogging can be a great exercise to warm up your whole body.
Before any workout warming up your body is important to prevent workout injuries.
Apart from warming up your body – running in the morning has many benefits:
- Running helps you to become a physically active person.
- It helps you to burn your unused calories.
- Running helps you to avoid sleepiness during the day.
- Running helps you to tone your legs.
- Running in the morning helps you to boost your metabolism.
3. Lunges
After running or jogging, take 1-2 minutes of rest. Then do some lunges to catch some fresh breath. It will also help you to build your lower body.
For your everyday exercises to stay fit and healthy – you should do lunges in every workout session.
As you are only doing bodyweight lunges. There is a very low chance that you will be overtraining by doing — 25-40 lunges in a workout session.
Bodyweight lunges are also low-impact exercise which means it’s good for both men and women who want to tone their bodies and burn some extra calories without sweating a lot.
Related: The benefits of at-home workouts.
4. Squats
Squats are – one of the best exercises to tone and get strong legs. If you are just starting to work out, you can do 25 bodyweight squats in one go. And do – 2 sets of squats. That translates to 50 squats – 25 per set.
And if you are already doing some exercises and have built some body strength, then you should do 60-80 bodyweight squats in 1 or 2 sets.
While doing daily workouts – it’s important to focus equally on your upper body and lower body.
Most people naturally choose exercises like pushup that trains their upper body but ignores lower body exercises. It’s a mistake. They should give equal importance to their lower body and upper body exercises.
Related: Benefits of living a physically active lifestyle.
5. Pushups
Pushups are bodyweight exercises and can be done in your home workout or at the gym.
Pushup is a compound bodyweight exercise. This means – while doing pushups multiple muscle groups are engaged. That’s why pushups can help you tone your – hand, shoulder and upper body muscles.
For both men and women, pushup has many benefits. For men doing pushups can help you get a muscular bicep and chest. Plus – it will tone your upper body and burn extra body fat.
For women doing pushups will help you to build your core strength and tone your upper body and hands. You can do pushups without worrying about getting a muscular look like men. Because men’s and women’s bodies function differently. And – “women won’t likely develop bulky muscles when they work out like many men do,…” Source.
Related: Best time to do pushups in a day and pushup routine.
6. Jump squats
Jump squats are an advanced form of normal squats. In this exercise, people do normal squats. But while getting up from the squat position, it ends with a vertical jump and then again goes back to a squat position.
If you are a beginner, then you should come to this exercise after exercising for 20-25 days. Because – this exercise does require some extra strength and stamina.
Jump squats mix explosive workout moves while getting up from a normal squat with a vertical jump. That’s why jump squats can burn more calories than normal squats. It also gives impressive results — to give your legs a toned look in less time. Also, jump squats give your under-thigh a better shape than performing regular squats.
For a normal person, 15-40 jump squats are enough for a daily workout session.
7. Burpees
Burpees are good workout starters. As it’s a full-body workout, it acts as a strength training and warmups your body for advanced body-weight exercises.
The benefits of doing burpees in your daily workouts are – it builds muscle strength and endurance while helping you – to tone your upper body and lower body.
For folks who want to work out daily – to burn their unused calories – there’s good news for them.
Burpees can burn 10 calories per minute. And per burpee, you can burn up to 0.5 calories. So, 20 burpees in a minute will help you burn 10 calories.
For most people, in your daily workout – aim to do 20-30 burpees along with other exercises.
Related: 10 Home workout secrets for getting better results.
8. Planks
When you are doing daily exercises to stay fit – you mustn’t forget to build a strong core.
Having a strong core makes your body flexible and helps you to complete your daily chores with ease.
Doing planks in your daily workout is a great way to engage your core muscles and can help you get a flat stomach.
For a normal person, doing three sets of plank for 30-60 seconds is recommended.
For beginners, try to do 2-3 sets of plank for 20-30 seconds.
9. Crunches
To level up your core fitness game, you can do crunches along with planks.
You can do crunches daily to have a strong core and a flat tummy. If your body fat percentage is low, then doing crunches can make your abs visible.
As you are working out daily, try to do three sets of crunches of 12-15 repetitions of crunches in each set.
Related: 12 Best exercise tips for busy people.
10. Frog jumps
If you want to add some – fun to your daily workout sessions, then you should add some animal-style exercises or animal flow exercises.
Frog jumps are easy to do animal style exercises that add some fun element to your workouts plus also have some benefits:
- Frog jumps help to strengthen your legs and lower body.
- Doing frog jumps improves the muscles around your joints.
- Frog jumps improve your cardiovascular health.
Tips for exercising daily without any health issues
As you are doing daily exercises to stay fit, you need to exercise for 20-30 minutes. When you are doing only bodyweight exercises mentioned in the list, you can work out every day or 5-6 days a week.
In the list, there are only two exercises that you want to do every other day. That is pushups and jump squats. If you want to read more about the pushup routine then you can read this post.
In the first 3-5 minutes of this workout, you should focus on warmups. You can do jumping jacks and slow jogging for 3-5 minutes to warm up your body.
If you are exercising indoors – then you can do spot jogging or jumping jacks instead of running.
Even though it’s not mandatory to run in this workout, you should try to run for at least 10 minutes 1-2 days per week. This will improve your cardiovascular health. Or in simple terms, it will improve your breathing capacity — which will help while you do other exercises in this list.
Daily morning exercises to stay fit
Start your morning workout with running. Morning is a great time to run and take some fresh air.
After running for 7-10 minutes – pick 5-6 random exercises from the list and try to do them for 1.5-2 minutes and take 30-60 seconds of rest in between two exercises.
Daily evening exercise to stay fit
For days when you can’t work out in the morning, you can do evening exercises.
Start your evening exercises with spot jogging or with jumping jacks. Then do the following exercises for 2 minutes each and 40 seconds gap in between the two exercises.
Exercises you want to do:
- Spot jogging or jumping jacks.
- Lunges.
- Squats or jump squats.
- Planks.
- Burpees.
- Frog jump.
Can daily exercise become overtraining?
When you are doing daily exercises, you might want to know if exercising daily can become overtraining?
Well, doing bodyweight training with low repetitions like 15-20 is not going to exhaust or overtrain your body.
But as I have mentioned earlier – 2 exercises in this list – jump squats and pushups, you should do every other day. This will help you to exercise daily without overtraining yourself.
Related: Should you do pushups every day?
FAQ about daily exercises to stay fit
What exercises should I do daily to stay fit?
To stay fit, you should do running or slow jogging, burpees, planks, bodyweight squats, frog jumps, and lunges every day.
What exercises should I do every day at home?
You can do these exercises every day at home – spot jogging or jumping jacks to warm up your body – then bodyweight squats, jump squats, lunges, planks, crunches, frog jumps, burpees and pushups.
Is 30 minutes of exercise a day enough?
30 minutes of exercise every day is enough to keep you fit. If you work out for 30 minutes daily and follow a healthy diet, then you can see some impressive results from your workouts.
