Strength exercises: squats, lunges, push-ups and sit-ups

1Why this matters

Carrying a 20-litre jerrycan of water up a Kigali hill, lifting a sack of beans onto a bicycle, jumping for a header: all of them need strong muscles. Strong muscles also hold your joints steady, which protects them from injury in sport. The four exercises in this lesson need no equipment at all, only your own body weight and a flat piece of ground.

2Key words

• Muscular strength is the greatest force a muscle can produce in one effort.
• Muscular endurance is the ability of a muscle to repeat an action many times without tiring.
• A repetition ("rep") is one complete movement, for example going down and up once in a squat.
• A set is a group of repetitions done one after another without resting.

3The squat

1. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and your toes turned slightly out. Hold your arms forward for balance.
2. Push your hips back and down, as if sitting onto a chair.
3. Keep your chest up, your back straight and your heels on the ground.
4. Let your knees travel in the same direction as your toes. They must not fall inwards.
5. Go down until your thighs are about level with the ground, or as low as you can while keeping good form.
6. Push through your whole foot to stand up, breathing out as you rise.

Main muscles: the quadriceps (front of the thigh), the gluteals (buttocks) and the hamstrings (back of the thigh). An easier version is the chair squat: sit down onto a chair or bench and stand up again without using your hands.

4The forward lunge

1. Stand tall with your hands on your hips.
2. Take one long step forward.
3. Lower your body until both knees are bent to about 90°, with the back knee just above the ground.
4. Keep your front knee in line with your middle toes, not wobbling inwards, and your trunk upright.
5. Push back through the front foot to return to standing. Change legs each time.

The lunge works the same leg muscles as the squat, but on one leg at a time, so it also trains balance.

5The push-up

1. Place your hands on the ground slightly wider than your shoulders, fingers pointing forward.
2. Straighten your legs behind you so that your body forms one straight line from head to heels. Tighten your stomach and buttocks to hold it.
3. Bend your elbows to lower your chest towards the ground. Keep your elbows angled back at about 45° from your body, not flared straight out.
4. Push back up to straight arms, breathing out as you push.

Main muscles: the pectorals (chest), the triceps (back of the upper arm) and the front of the deltoids (shoulders). Common faults are sagging hips, a dropping head and going only halfway down. If a full push-up is too hard, start with wall push-ups, then push-ups with your hands on a bench, then push-ups from the knees.

6The sit-up and the curl-up

1. Lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the ground. A partner may hold your feet.
2. Cross your arms over your chest, or rest your fingertips lightly beside your ears.
3. Tighten your stomach muscles and curl up: first your head, then your shoulders, then your back, until you are sitting up.
4. Lower yourself slowly, one part of the back at a time.

Bent knees reduce the stress on your lower back. Never lock your fingers behind your head and pull on your neck. The curl-up is a shorter version in which you lift only your head and shoulders; it is gentler on the back. Main muscles: the abdominals (stomach).

Breathing: for all four exercises, breathe out on the effort and breathe in as you return. Never hold your breath.

Worked example: measuring progress

Umutoni tests herself by counting the correct knee push-ups she can do in 30 seconds. A push-up counts only if her body is straight and her chest goes down close to the ground. In week 1 she scores 12.

She trains three times a week: 3 sets of 8 push-ups, with 1 minute of rest between sets. That is 3 × 8 = 24 push-ups per session.

Because she counted only good repetitions both times, the test is fair: the improvement is real strength, not sloppier technique.

Practice

Solution. The pectorals (chest), the triceps (back of the upper arms) and the front of the deltoids (shoulders).

Solution. Push her knees outwards so they follow the direction of her toes. She could also go less deep until she can control the movement.

Solution. 3 × 12 = 36 repetitions.

Solution. Pulling on the neck can strain it; he should cross his arms over his chest and curl up using his stomach muscles. Sit-ups strengthen the abdominal muscles, but they do not remove fat from one spot. Fat is lost from the whole body through regular activity and a healthy diet.

Solution. Wall push-ups, then push-ups with the hands on a bench, then push-ups from the knees, and finally full push-ups.