Perform 20 reps of each exercise and repeat the circuit 2 – 3 times.

Squats: Stand with feet shoulder width apart, hands straight out in front of you. Take a deep breath in and squat down keeping your head and chest up and remembering to push your hips back as if going to sit on a chair. Your weight should be going through your heels. Breathe out as you stand up.

Push – ups: Position your hands just outside your shoulders and attempt to touch your nose to the floor.

Bicycle Crunch: Start with your fingers by your temples and crunch up to bring your right elbow to your left knee while extending your right leg. Twist your torso to the other side to bring your left elbow to your right knee while extending your left leg. Use your abs to control the move and try not to strain at the neck.

Jump Lunge: Take a stride forwards and lower yourself in a fluid motion until your front knee is bent at 90 degrees and your back knee nearly touches the floor. Jump up, swapping your leg positions in mid-air. Raise your hands as you jump to gain height. Land in the lunge position, absorb the impact, and then go straight into the next jump.

Dips: Use a chair or a bench to perform this exercise. Grip the edge of the chair with your hands. Keep your feet close together and legs straight and your back upright. Lower your body straight down, keeping your elbows pointing back, then press back up powerfully.

Burpees: Stand, then drop into a crouch. Jump both feet backwards so you’re in a push up position. Jump both feet forwards until they’re underneath your chest. Jump up so that your feet leave the ground and your body is straight. When you land is one rep.

Plank : Position yourself so that your feet are about hip width apart and your body is straight from head to heels with your elbows directly underneath your shoulders and your head looking down. Hold the position as long as possible without letting your hips sag.

During this time of year many of us are working long hours in the lead up to the holiday season. It is these extra long hours in the office, sitting behind a desk and in front of a computer that can affect our posture. It is difficult to hold perfect seated posture for 8 hours a day, so we suggest you regularly remind yourself to take a break, stand up, stretch and if possible get some fresh air too! A simple trick to help remind yourself to check and work on your posture is to schedule a reminder in your Outlook program. This will pop up on your screen and give you a visual reminder to take a break. You could set this to remind you every 2 hours.

There are many exercises that assist in creating and maintaining good posture when standing and sitting and our trainers have outlined 3 in the video above.

Deadlifts: This exercise is a whole body exercise that creates whole body strength. It major benefit to posture in the strengthening of the muscles supporting the spine along with the traps (shoulder/neck muscles). Although this exercise looks simple enough, the correct technique is important and should be monitored by your Personal Trainer.

Hip Lifts: This particular exercise requires no equipment and can be performed anywhere. It’s a great one to do at home in front of the TV (in the ad breaks!). By lifting your hips off the ground you and strengthening the hip flexors and improving your core strength. Try to engage your core muscles before you lift then maintain that contraction during the exercise.

Upper Back Stretch (Foam Roller): If you are lucky enough to have a Foam Roller at home than this exercise is great for stretching the upper back muscles that may be tight after a long day. It is important during this stretch to continue to breathe throughout the stretch and NOT hold your breath.

If you would like further education or demonstration on these posture improving exercises or like more information call 1300 NEWLEVEL or contact via this website.

At New Level we recommend our clients do a minimum of 4 sessions per week. Obviously some of these 4 sessions will be actual Personal Training sessions with the trainer. The remaining sessions will be ‘homework’ sessions that our clients complete on their own.

We take care in ensuring that all our clients understand and learn the correct technique of the homework exercises. We also try to prescribe exercises that require little to no equipment.

The homework routines set by our trainers for our clients are specific to their goal to ensure we are always striving for the desired results. New Level trainers DO keep the clients accountable by asking for the details of their homework workout each time they see each other.

The exercises demonstated in the video above are beginner level exercises that can be performed at home. This website will be uploaded each week with more exercises you can do at home if you wish to add them to your routine.

Good luck!