Dana's Top Ten Exercises*

Ever wondered why some exercises work better than others? Get ready to have your questions answered! As a certified personal trainer, I've racked up a list of my top 10 favorite exercises that have consistently delivered results for me and my clients. Together, we'll explore each one - from the classic squat (with a twist of the ATG system and knees over toes technique) to dumbbell rows, tricep extensions, bicep curls, single leg deadlifts, pullovers, and glute bridges. I'll share the insider tips and tricks to make these exercises more effective and injury-proof!

But that's not all! Strap in as we delve into the intricate art of muscle training and recovery. Do you know when to target larger muscle groups and when to avoid the smaller ones? This episode is set to clear the fog on this topic, offering practical insights to help you get the most out of your gym endeavors. Plus, I'm super excited to hear about your favorite exercises too! Share them with me on social media and let's start a dialog to push our fitness journeys to new heights. Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned athlete, this episode is packed with information designed to upgrade your workouts. Let's get started!


Podcast Disclaimer:

The Pain-Free Podcast is presented solely for general information, education, and entertainment purposes. Any information presented in this podcast is not intended as a substitute for the advice of a physician, psychotherapist, or other qualified professional diagnosis. The use of information on this podcast or materials linked from this podcast or website is at the user’s own risk. As always, users should not disregard or delay obtaining medical advice for any medical or mental health condition that they may have and should seek the assistance of their healthcare professionals for any such conditions.

Transcript

Dana: 0:05

Welcome to the Pain Free Athlete Podcast. I'm your host, dana Jones. I am a certified personal trainer and I'm here to help you achieve your fitness goals without pain. In each episode, I'll share tips and strategies that will help you stay safe and pain free while you're working out. I'll also interview experts in the field of fitness and pain management. So if you're ready to learn how to stay active and pain free, then subscribe to the Pain Free Athlete Podcast today. Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Pain Free Athlete Podcast. I'm your host, dana Jones.

Dana: 0:39

So today I decided that I was going to share my top 10 favorite exercises. Now, this list is not exclusive and it's definitely has changed over the years. As I've gotten better at things or as things are no longer easy for me, they kind of fall off the list. But I was kind of like stumped a little bit because I went back and I went wow, there's a couple that are on the list that had fallen off the list for a number of years. But I kind of brought them back because I learned variations of them. So anyway, I figured it would be a good idea for me to share my list with you, and you can either agree, disagree or you know whatever. So it's all good. Anyway, these are not in any particular order, just because you know stream of conscious thinking and you know we'll see how it goes, alright, so the first one that I was thinking about was squat.

Dana: 1:38

I, a long time ago, I used to love to squat. When I was younger I was a catcher, so obviously squatting was a big part of my muscular strength and endurance and essentially, the ability to move in that low position and I did the traditional barbell squat and everything was fine. And then, of course, your knees start to ache and, yeah, things start to happen and you kind of shy away from it and so for a long time I haven't done it properly, like I did body weight squats, but I got away from the barbell stuff because I just didn't want to deal with it. So recently I've discovered the ATG system knees over toes guy and Ben Patrick if you want to Google it, look it up and there's tons of videos and TikToks, youtube's, all that kind of good stuff. Anyway, he reminded me of how I used to squat before and that was with my heels raised and then going as deep as possible.

Dana: 2:42

Somehow, through my training for being a fitness trainer. I was told you know, only squat down to 90. And then you know, you start seeing all these increases in knee injuries and whatever is because we're not actually moving the joint to its full mobility. We kind of start to stagnate and we're creating issues for ourselves in the future. So he said, hey, you know, squat like the old dudes did like back in Russia and everything else where they had complete strength going. But to you know, ask to grass is initially how it started. So I started squatting like that and I kind of like it. I can't do it for very long periods of time because I totally get gassed, because you use every part of your quadricep as you squat down. But that is one of my exercises. So we'll recap and we'll go over that.

Dana: 3:32

Dumbbell rows I like a lot of upper body stuff and my back is pretty strong, especially my upper back. So the rows are fantastic. I do them light, I do them heavy, I always do them with a dumbbell. It's just something where you can get a really good stretch and reach down and you know, it gives you that nice shape of your back. So that's definitely one of my favorites.

Dana: 3:56

Tricep extension this used to be a very this was one that was on the list and fell off the list and now it's back. And the reason why it's back is because I'm doing them differently than I did before. You do, like dumbbell kickbacks and you know, like, for me, you know that burning sensation kind of makes me nauseous, so I'm not a huge fan of it. And I started doing a kettlebell overhead extension where I let my hands really drop back really far, so there's actually a shoulder stretch in the process of doing the extension and then pushing it straight up in the air, and that seems to really get my triceps where I want them to be in terms of strength, and when you get your feedback of, like having a little soreness and I feel like the strength is there a little bit more because I have that shoulder extension as well. Next one bicep curl, my favorite, always been my favorite ever since I was a young athlete doing my stuff, and essentially it's because you can do concentration curls, you can do in and out curls, you can do hammer curls, I mean there's so many different variations and so it's always like that tried and true exercise that you can do it however you want and you still get pretty good results.

Dana: 5:15

Single leg deadlifts. So that is a fun one. I like it because it really helps work on balance and balance is fun for me and I like the idea of using the entire leg to help pull my body upright. So that's kind of an interesting challenge. And again, there's some variations. You could do same weight, same foot deadlift, you can go cross. So there's all kinds of things that you can do so that you get the maximum benefit of the balance, as well as using everything from your glute all the way down to your toes.

Dana: 5:54

Pullovers I like pullovers. I've always liked pullovers. Again, I'm an upper body person, so it's kind of neat Having that, and I typically use kettle bells, having that weight pull over my shoulders and really feel that, and then that push through that ends up getting that. I guess it's like lower chest muscles. That's the one that kind of gives you that upright look kind of thing. So I love doing pullovers. I can do those all day long. They're fantastic.

Dana: 6:26

Glute bridge so we gotta get down to the core, do that stuff. This is one. Again, tons of variations. You could do a regular glute bridge. You could do a glute bridge hold. You can do a single leg glute bridge. You could do a walking glute bridge. I mean. There's just a ton of variations, so really it depends on how I feel. If I'm feeling like I wanna challenge myself, I'll do the walking one, because that includes the glutes as well as the hamstrings, which is always a good thing, and if I really wanna go for it, I'm doing the single leg raises, so going down and really shoving that leg up in the air. That's always a nice one If you are looking for that strength and you wanna activate the glute muscles.

Dana: 7:09

You have another one that was on the list and then fell off the list, and this was obviously well, not obviously, because you don't know that I was very concerned about my neck when I was younger. I felt like my neck was the source of my migraines, so I was very mindful of making sure that I didn't do any exercises that involved my neck. So I dropped off a pushups, I dropped off a bunch of stuff, and one of the ones that I brought back that I really appreciate bringing back is the shoulder press, and I do them slowly and I do them with extreme heavy weight. I just go with either for me heavy weight is like 20s, 25s and just do that shoulder press. Make sure my hands are facing toward my ears, because that allows me most of my shoulder mobility. You would laugh right now if you saw me, because I'm doing the exercises as I'm talking to you all. But anyway, that's turned into another exercise that I actually enjoy and I love seeing how strong I'm getting by just making an adjustment in the way my hands are facing, because before I used to do kind of the shoulder press like a military press, so your palms facing out in front of your body and there was limitations in that and then I would hear the clicking, clunking and all that kind of stuff and I just turned my hands toward my ears and that kind of goes away.

Dana: 8:36

Bird dog that's another good one. I like the bird dog. There obviously are variations to it, but it's a good, solid core exercise. It really gets you everywhere, from your shoulder to your calves and then of course you can bring in your hands and you know, knee to elbow and really crunch in and then extend. So it allows that full muscular or not muscular but skeletal kind of extension and that's always good right to move your body. So I like that. You could do opposite, so that helps with balance and I think it's a fun exercise to do and, again, it doesn't require a ton. You could do weights, you could do without weights. It's really up to you how you want to challenge yourself.

Dana: 9:24

And then the final one is the Turkish get up. I don't know what it is about this exercise, but I think I just like the amount of movement that you do and I actually should probably correct that it's a half Turkish. I like the full Turkish is a little bit too much sometimes and you know kind of want to phone that one in, but definitely like the half one, which is you know, hold that kettlebell and then get yourself to sit up, because you're just using all those muscles to get you up off the ground. And a lot of times as older adults maybe not you, but definitely for me, you know it's not easy to get up off the floor anymore. When you're kids, we play on the floor, we sit funny, you know, and then our parents yell at us because our knees are turned in funny or whatever. The case may be Right, and that's usually not a problem. As we go older we're like oh, you know, I can't sit like that or I can't sit long. You know that kind of thing, and so the process of being able to get yourself up off the ground becomes an event, right, it's not just like, oh, I'm just getting off the ground. So now, excuse me, I'm finding myself really sitting on the ground, doing more things on the ground, and because of the Turkish getup, I'm able to, like, bounce up off the ground, which is not something that you would think would happen, but it does, because you know you work it and then it works for you.

Dana: 10:44

All right, so let's recap. So number one is the squat to dumbbell rows, free extensions, tricep extension sorry, sorry for bicep curls. Five single leg deadlifts. Six is the pullover. Seven is the glute bridge. Eight is the shoulder press. Nine is the bird dog. 10 is the Turkish getup. Again, anything you do, you get to choose right. So you could do it with weights, you could do it without weights. Some of these exercises like the glute bridge kind of stuff you could possibly do every day.

Dana: 11:20

I think a lot of the bigger muscle stuff you can do every day as long as you're not trying to blow your gears. You know it's like, oh, if you want to do like a set of 10 real quick, or throw it in just so that you can get a stretch, then that's fine. You know, the smaller muscle groups. I wouldn't necessarily do something every day, because then you're just going to exhaust them and you're not giving them a chance to recover properly. So that's kind of it. That's what I got for you now.

Dana: 11:45

This is a shorty, but I just wanted to share that because I think it's important for you know, I don't know for you to think like what are your you know, top 10 exercises? What are ones that you, you know, no matter what you're doing at the gym or whatever, you always find yourself, you know, being pulled back to that particular exercise because it's a fun one for you. So if you want, please share it with me on social media. All my stuff is able to find, you're able to find me, and thank you so much for listening and have a good one and I'll catch you later.