Easy Exercises to Tone the Total Body

Toned, sexy muscles make you feel strong and confident, but hours spent at the gym each day can rob you of valuable time at work or with loved ones. You shouldn't have to choose between family and fitness, or between work and workout. Performing compound exercises and high-intensity circuits will tone your entire body and get your heart pumping with a minimal time investment.

  1. Tackle the Total Body

    • For optimal fitness, the American College of Sports Medicine recommends total body compound exercises that incorporate multiple joints and muscle groups in a continuous series of movements. While they will not make your muscles bulge, compound exercises will make you strong, improve your coordination, enhance performance of everyday tasks and sharpen your game in sports. An example of a compound exercise is a squat-thrust combined with a push-up at the down position and an explosive power squat as you return to standing. Or try combining a dumbbell squat with an overhead shoulder press.

    Set Up a Circuit

    • Performing exercises in a continuous circuit with minimal rest between exercises is a great way to tone your entire body in a minimal amount of time. Set up your exercises in an order that alternates between opposing muscle groups so that one is resting while the other is working. Think in terms of fluctuating between muscles that push and muscles that pull. For example, follow push-ups with dumbbell rows, squats with dead-lifts and biceps curls with triceps extensions. Perform exercises one right after the other, allowing minimal time between exercises. Do the entire circuit one to five times.

    Infuse Intensity

    • Get more out of your circuit workout by alternating high intensity intervals with standard exercises. Jumping rope, performing jumping jacks, incorporating dance moves, doing dynamic lunges off a step, and jumping onto and off of a platform are all high intensity options. They will boost your caloric burn, get your heart pumping and build aerobic endurance while giving your legs a dynamic workout. The American College of Sports Medicine recognizes high intensity circuit training, or HICT, as a highly effective way to burn excess body fat.

    Power Up Your Planks

    • Doing yoga planks is a great way to promote core stability and strengthen your spine. But while you're down there, try adding some complementary moves to engage more muscles. In a front plank, challenge your back muscles by doing alternating dumbbell rows. Add alternating leg lifts to engage your gluteals. In a side plank, hold a dumbbell in your free hand and do a fly, wrapping your arm beneath your body and then back to full extension. Or do a "hip dip," lowering your hip to the floor and then returning to your side plank position.