Personal Trainer Alejandro

If you want to keep playing sports in your 30s and 40s, you need to train on one leg.

Sports don’t happen with both feet planted evenly on the ground. You’re constantly running, cutting, landing, changing direction, and reacting off one leg.

Here are 5 movements to work on:

Reverse lunges: Strengthen your quads and build single-leg control.

Curtsy lunges: Challenge your glutes, glute medius, and control through different angles.

Lateral lunges: Strengthen your glutes and adductors while training side-to-side movement.

Standing skips: Train your ability to drive off one leg and coordinate your opposite arm and leg.

Forward lunges: Challenge your quads, knees, and your ability to control your body as you step and load one leg.

Don’t just train forward and backward. Train lunges in multiple directions so your body gets stronger and more comfortable moving at different angles.

If you want to keep playing sports as you get older, single-leg strength needs to be part of your training.

Do this before your next upper body workout.

Banded abduction: Warm up and strengthen your rear delts.

Banded pull-aparts: Activate your upper back and rear delts while working the muscles that help stabilize your shoulders.

Lateral raises: Warm up your shoulders and target your lateral delts.

Bicep curls: Warm up your biceps and elbows before heavier pulling.

Banded wrist extensions: Warm up and strengthen your wrists and forearms.

Banded up and overs: Take your shoulders through an overhead range of motion while your shoulder blades rotate and move around the rib cage.

Run through these before your upper body workout to get your shoulders, elbows, and wrists ready to train.

Can you do 10 reps of the dead bug?

The dead bug is a great exercise for building core stability and learning how to move your arms and legs while keeping your trunk controlled.

It’s also a contralateral movement, meaning opposite arm and leg move together, similar to the coordination we use during movements like running and swimming.

Key dead bug form cues:

• Keep your lower back gently pressed into the floor
• Brace your core before you move
• Move the opposite arm and leg together
• Keep your ribs down
• Move slowly and stay controlled
• Only extend as far as you can without your lower back lifting

If the full extension is too difficult, shorten your range of motion. You don’t have to extend all the way to benefit from the exercise.

Start with 10 controlled reps on each side and build from there.

If back pain makes a traditional plank uncomfortable, try the bear plank.

The bear plank keeps your hips and knees bent while still challenging your core, quads, shoulders, and chest.

Start by holding it for at least 20 seconds.

Once that gets easier, increase the challenge by lifting one leg or one hand off the ground while keeping your body stable.

If your wrists are the issue, switch to a low plank and place your weight on your forearms.

Stack your elbows underneath your shoulders, squeeze your glutes, brace your core, and hold for at least 20 seconds.

Find the plank variation that works for you and build from there.

Can’t hold a side plank for at least 20 seconds? Start with this easier version.

Bend your knees, place your weight over your forearm, lift your hips, and stack your body over your shoulder.

Start by holding for at least 5 seconds, then progress as you get stronger:

Bent-knee side plank
Straight-leg side plank
Staggered side plank
Feet stacked
Single-leg side plank

The side plank is a great way to strengthen your side core and obliques while also challenging your shoulders and glutes.

Start with the version you can control and work your way up.

If you’ve been sitting all day, see if you can hold this for at least 20 seconds.

This is the reverse tabletop, a simple exercise that can help strengthen muscles that aren’t challenged much while sitting at a desk.

Plant your feet on the ground and your hands on the floor. Squeeze your glutes and extend through your hips while your shoulders stabilize your upper body.

Start with 5-second holds and gradually build your way up to 20 seconds.

You’ll strengthen your glutes and hamstrings through hip extension while also challenging your shoulders and upper body stability.

Give it a try after a long day of sitting.

If you have rounded shoulders, try adding these exercises to your routine.

Banded pull-aparts to train external rotation and the muscles of the upper back.

Banded abduction to strengthen the rear delts.

T-spine openers to improve mobility through your mid-back.

Goalpost openers to open up the chest and shoulders.

High rows to train the muscles that retract your shoulder blades. Start with no weight, then progress to bands or cables.

Finish with shoulder rolls and chin tucks.

You don’t need to force your shoulders back all day. The goal is to strengthen the muscles that support better shoulder positioning while improving mobility through your chest and upper back.

Try this at the office, on your lunch break, at home, or in the morning.

You can train your legs in under 10 minutes with just your bodyweight.

20 reverse lunges
20 air squats
10 single leg hinges on each side
10 front leg raises on each side
10 lateral leg raises on each side
10 kickbacks on each side

You’re training your legs through multiple movement patterns while hitting your quads, glutes, hamstrings, and hips.

No equipment needed. Just get your reps in.

Feeling tight or weak? Try matching the movement to what you want to work on.

Tight low back: Sphinx pose
Tight hip flexors: Runner’s lunge
Tight mid back: Cat cow
Tight hamstrings and calves: Downward-facing dog
Tight hips: Child’s pose
Tight groin: Cossack lunge
Tight glutes: Pigeon pose
Weak lower back: Crab position
Weak chest: Bear pose

You don’t need a complicated routine. Pick a few areas that need work and start there.