6 exercises that will assist you move easier

When you sit in a chair, pick up a package from the floor, or walk up a flight of stairs, your body is performing some form of squat, hang, or lunge. But just because you do these movements every day doesn’t mean you’re doing them correctly. Whether you’re rounding your back when lifting or straining your knees when standing, repetitive movements with needy form can lead to pain and injury.

Practicing these six basic movements—hinge, squat, lunge, push, pull and rotate—can assist you perform everyday tasks more easily and without pain as you age. Like a musician practicing scales, mastering the basics can assist you expand your range of motion, said Beth Lewis, a movement and exercise specialist in Up-to-date York City.

By procedural memoryyou learn and store the movements so you can do them without thinking about each step. This allows you to hop on your bike and start pedaling, but it can also cause you to compromise your form hundreds of times a day without realizing it.

There are several versions of the basic movement framework, but the idea behind each is the same: building functional fitness by mimicking the movements you exploit for everyday tasks. Each of the exercises below, which you can easily practice at home or in the gym, corresponds to a key movement pattern you exploit in your daily life.

What you will need

• Low to medium resistance band

• Featherlight dumbbells or kettlebells (choose a weight that will challenge you for the last 15 seconds of each exercise, but you can still maintain form)

How often

If you are not currently doing any strength training, start with three days a week and eventually work up to daily. You can also do one set of this routine as a warm-up before other forms of exercise.

Customize for you

Beginner: Chris Flores, a Up-to-date Jersey-based trainer, recommends performing each movement for 45 seconds with a 20- to 30-second break between sets, focusing on maintaining proper form.

Advanced: Once you feel it is uncomplicated, you can do three or four sets of each exercise for 45 seconds.

Hinge

Your hips are a ball-and-socket joint that allows for a wide range of motion while providing stability. This is vital for everyday activities, such as lifting children or grocery bags off the ground. Mr. Flores said he often sees clients who fall forward with their chest rather than retracting their hips, which can raise the strain on the lower back.

Exercise: Body weight good morning

Goals: Hamstrings, quadriceps, glutes and core muscles

Duration: 45 seconds

Stand with your feet hip-width apart and place your hands lightly on the back of your head. Keeping your back flat, push your hips back, allowing your knees to bend slightly, and lower your torso until it’s almost parallel to the ground. Pause, then slowly return to standing.

Advanced: Hold a dumbbell or kettlebell at your chest. If you tend to arch your spine, the weight will pull your shoulders forward at the beginning of the movement, Ms. Lewis said. Operate that feedback to pull your shoulders back and keep a flat back.

Squat

Every time you sit down or stand up, your body goes into a squat. If you feel knee pain, lower back pain, or a tightness in your hip, you may be starting this movement incorrectly or you may have a muscle imbalance, meaning that a muscle on one side of your body is tighter, weaker, or smaller than the muscle on the opposite side.

“The first warning sign of a squat is that the arches of your feet are collapsing,” Mr. Flores said. That can mean your knees and ankles are also collapsing inward, which can lead to extra stress on your knees and needy balance.

Avoid leaning forward to start the movement, which can cause your spine to round, forcing your lower back to support most of your body weight. Keep your torso straight as you stand up.

Exercise: Counterweight Bar Squat

Goals: Quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, adductors and core

Duration: 45 seconds

This squat variation helps keep your torso straight, which takes pressure off your lower back. Hold a delicate weight (dumbbells, kettlebells, or even a weighty frying pan held vertically) with your arms extended at shoulder height. Slowly lower into a squat, keeping your heels in contact with the floor throughout the movement. Hold for a moment at the bottom before standing up.

Advanced: Hug the weight to your chest.

Lunge

Any movement that involves placing one foot in front of the other and bending both knees uses a lunge pattern—including bending to tie your shoe, climbing stairs and walking uphill. “Life happens in a straddle position,” Ms. Lewis said.

Because of the imbalance in this position, Ms. Lewis often sees her clients lean the opposite way to compensate, which can lead to knee pain. Stepping onto a low platform is a gentle, beginner-friendly way to practice maintaining balance throughout the movement.

Exercise: Step-Up

Goals: Glutes, hamstrings, quadriceps and calves

Duration: 45 seconds

Stand on a six-inch platform (or steps) with one foot, allowing your back leg to slightly lift behind your leading leg. Hold this balanced position for three to five seconds before slowly lowering yourself to the ground.

Advanced: Try a higher platform or add weight. Mr. Flores recommends holding a different amount of weight in each hand to mimic everyday tasks.

Press

Opening a door, putting something on a shelf, or getting out of bed – all of these activities require appropriate horizontal and vertical pushing movements.

Shifting your weight to one side of your body, using uneven force and expanding your chest can be a sign of muscle imbalance or needy core strength, Ms. Lewis said. During vertical pushing, Ms. Lewis often sees clients arch their backs and push their hips forward, which can lead to lower back pain.

To practice this move, Mr. Flores recommends modified push-ups that allow you to focus primarily on the upper body.

Exercise: Modified Push-Ups

Goals: Arms, chest and triceps

Duration: 45 seconds

Start in a kneeling position and place your hands on the floor, shoulder-width apart and under your shoulders. Keep your torso straight by bending your elbows and lowering your chest toward the floor. Push back to the starting position.

If this position causes discomfort in your knees, you can try doing a standing push-up while leaning against a wall or placing your hands on a bench.

Advanced: Once you learn how to do these exercises without arching your back, lifting your buttocks, or hunching your shoulders, move on to standard push-ups.

Pull

When you take laundry out of the washing machine or open the door, you are performing a pulling pattern.

Mr. Flores said many people pull with their hands in their arms, but when the back muscles are properly engaged, the pulling pattern becomes more effective.

Exercise: Resistance Band Rowing

Goals: Back muscles, biceps, forearms and core

Duration: 45 seconds

Place a delicate to medium resistance band under your feet. Grasp opposite ends of the band with your hands just outside your hips. Bend your hips and pull your elbows up and back, squeezing your shoulder blades. Hold for a moment, then slowly return to the starting position.

Advanced: You can raise the tension by gripping the resistance band lower or using a heavier band.

Rotation/Anti-rotation

Reaching for the remote control, taking groceries out of a shopping cart, and even walking require the body to make rotational and anti-rotational movements.

Lack of core and spine stability can limit range of motion, which can lead to lower back flexion, which can lead to pain or injury, Ms. Lewis said. She often sees this problem in golfers in the form of “belt line pain” in the lower back.

High kneeling Pallof press

Goals: Core muscles and oblique muscles

Duration: 45 seconds

Attach a lightweight resistance band to an attachment point between waist and shoulder height (you can exploit a table leg, bed frame, or doorknob). With your body sideways to the attachment point, grab the end of the resistance band with both hands at your chest, then step away from the attachment point so that the band offers some resistance. Keeping your torso and lower body still, slowly push the band out in front of you until your arms are fully straight. Slowly return.

Advanced: You can do this using a cable machine at the gym and slowly raise the weight.

Alyssa Ages is a Toronto-based journalist and author of Secrets of Giants: A Journey to Uncover the True Meaning of Strength.