7 Boot Camp Exercises That Can Elevate Your Fitness Even Now

The Russian Twist

Begin in a seated position on the ground. Bring your hands together in front of your chest and interlock your fingers, as though hugging a beach ball. Raise your feet off the ground and bend your knees, bringing them toward your chest. Try to keep your knees together. Rotate your torso from left to right, touching your elbow on either side as you rotate back and forth. Begin with 20 to 30 seconds of continuous rotations.

• Make it harder: Add time in 5-to-10-second increments or extend your legs straight out. You can also hold a weight in your hands.
• Make it easier: Place your heels on the ground for additional stability.

The Split Squat

This involves putting one foot forward and one foot back, then moving up and down. Picture a lunge, but without stepping. “Control your body as you descend,” Reale says. This is ideal for people with achy knees or old injuries, because removing the step makes you more secure and it strengthens multiple lower-body muscles.

• Make it harder: Step forward into a lunge. Put a weight in your hands, such as a kettlebell or even a bag of potatoes or gallon of milk.
• Make it easier: Don’t go down quite as far, or hold the position rather than moving up and down.

The Plank

Most major muscle groups in your body are worked by planks. Move to a push-up position, keeping your core tight and your body straight. The plank has many variations. Side planks are a go-to for oblique strength.

• Make it harder: Add push-ups between your plank holds. You can also do shoulder taps, touching the opposite shoulder one hand at a time.
• Make it easier: Try a knee plank or an incline plank, in which your hands are on a bench or wall.

The Bench Dip

Sit on a bench and place your hands beside you. Plant your feet on the ground, and shift forward a bit so your butt is positioned above, and just in front of, the bench. Bend your arms behind you as your butt drops toward the ground, keeping your spine vertical, not diagonal. Then straighten your arms, pushing your body back up.

• Make it harder: Extend your legs out in front of you.
• Make it easier: Bend your knees, placing your feet closer to the bench. ​

Alexandra Frost is a Cincinnati-based journalist, content marketing writer, copywriter and editor. She is the granddaughter of a veteran, and her work has been published in The Washington Post and Reader’s Digest. You can learn more about her at alexandra-frost.com.​

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