The plank is an isometric exercise that targets your abdominal and back muscles, and it’s used for developing core strength and balance. It’s also a versatile exercise with a few key variations, such as the side plank with either a bent leg or a straight knee.

When you first start working out, exercising multiple muscle groups together lets you move through a full-body workout quickly without sacrificing results.

Bent-over dumbbell rows are compound free-weight exercises that use many of your upper-body muscles. Similar to the bent-over barbell row, the supported position commonly used in the dumbbell version places less stress on your lower back and may be a safer option for anyone with lower back issues.

The Defense Department’s tape test uses a ratio of the circumferences of your neck and waist to figure out your body fat percentage. While your waist should be slim and toned, your neck should be thick and strong. If you have a skinny neck and a pear shape, excess body fat can put you at risk of failing the test.

A consistent exercise program reduces your risk of chronic diseases like osteoporosis, diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

Exercising places a tremendous strain on the body. When you exercise, you tear muscle fibers, which the body must repair in order to make you stronger. In order to do this, your body must have time to recover. Because exercise programs vary in duration and intensity, some athletes need more time to recover than others.

Rowing machines provide your body with a low-impact workout that closely resembles sitting in a boat and moving paddles through water. If you want to exercise to lose weight, you have to do a form of exercise that raises your heart rate and causes you to break a sweat.

Whether you use a treadmill in the gym or climb a hill in the great outdoors, walking on an incline is a great low-impact cardio workout. It taxes not only your cardiovascular system but also several muscles throughout your lower body and even a few in your upper body.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that all adults get at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise five days a week. Going to the gym every day is one way to accomplish this goal. Regular exercise carries many physical and mental health benefits.

You can develop larger gluteus medius muscles, or hip abductors, by targeting the muscle group with resistance training exercises. Training with free weights and doing a minimal number of repetitions promotes muscle growth by placing stress on the hip abductors.

Blood clots can occur in any vein in your body, but they most commonly develop in the deep veins of the legs. A clot that forms in this area is called a venous thrombosis and the condition is referred to as deep vein thrombosis, or DVT for short.

Although scientists are still unsure of the relationship between dreams and eating before bed, it is clear that eating close to sleeping can cause disrupted sleep. You should especially avoid heavy meals, spicy food and anything likely to create indigestion, starting about two to three hours before you go to sleep.