Exercise Progression

There are many common and helpful exercises to complete at home to build strength and energy. These can be found on a multitude of platforms, but rarely do they explain how to modify them based on your strength level. I will briefly discuss working some of the most common exercises into progressions to be able to complete them properly. However, explanations can be difficult, and watching a video would be much easier. If you would rather, check these videos out at: https://youtube.com/@kylevandenbosch-CKW

The push up is a very popular and successful exercise to target the upper body. A good way to start to build up that muscle is a wall push up for light strengthening. You could also do an incline push up from a couch armrest or other elevated platform. You can then do knee push ups and build up into regular push ups. The most difficult level is a diamond push up, which has your palms down into the ground for a diamond shaped placement.

The squat is great for building LE strength, however, most people don’t have the necessary strength to complete a proper squat without losing balance. Start with a wall squat and hold your position to build muscle. Then progress into a mini squat followed by a sit to stand from a couch type surface. Then a regular proper squat should look a lot like a sit to stand by the couch, but without touch down. Finally, if you have increased LE strength, you can complete a single leg sit to stand (very difficult!)

A sit up is a great core building exercise, but does require good core endurance and strength first. Shoulder blade lifts from the ground may help. Then you can use your arms for some momentum through the sit up movement. You can then add stiff arms to help your weight distribution for the sit up motion. The next step is to complete a “normal” sit up with arms across your chest. To make it more difficult, you can add a rotation element to the end of it.