Building muscle is the key to improving your physical fitness, but you don’t have to spend hours at the gym. These five essential weightlifting exercises offer opportunities to work every muscle in the body and can be easily modified to become easier or more difficult. Work these into your routine at Summit Fitness in Sierra Vista, AZ.

Pull-Ups

This exercises focuses on the upper body, including the arms, shoulders, and back. You can work different groups by adjusting your grip. Try it with hands facing out and hands facing in. Once you’ve mastered those moves, adjust the width of your hands to be further apart or closer together.

Squats

Squats work the biggest muscles in your body, but good form is the key to success. Change things up by squatting with your legs far apart or close together. If the classic squat has gotten too easy for you, increase resistance by squatting while holding weights. Add more weight as you get stronger.

Push-Ups

Push-ups naturally work your arms and chest, but if you’re paying attention to form, your core is also getting a good workout. With your arms spread wide, you’ll strengthen your chest muscles. When your arms are close to your sides, you’ll focus on your triceps.

Deadlift

Done correctly, the deadlift engages almost all of the muscles in your body. With improper form, though, you’re more likely to injure yourself. It’s always a good idea to have a professional teach you the proper form, but it’s especially important to learn good form with this exercise. Talk to a personal trainer about this.

Military Press

Strengthen the back and shoulder muscles so necessary for good posture with the military press. While this is a move that you can do sitting down or with a weight machine, it’s better to do it standing up so that you can engage your core muscles as well.

Weight training at Summit Fitness is the best way to take your workout to the next level. With these simple moves, you’ll be able to get the most bang for your buck.

This content has been submitted by authors outside of this publisher and is not its editorial product. It could contain opinions, facts, and points of view that have not been reviewed or accepted by the publisher.