It\u2019s a new year, but the same old rules will continue to apply in fitness: variety, consistency, and constantly working on learning new muscle movements. With the evolution of exercises so rapid and constant, it is difficult to keep up. There may be times when you do an exercise that seems appealing and works and then just forget about it as the year goes by. But it\u2019s important to keep them in your routine if they\u2019re working for you.<\/p>\n
Having written about hundreds of exercises for Lounge over the years, I must admit that I have forgotten about some that I considered brilliant at the time. Having gone through my notes, I feel that it is time to bring back some absolute gems (along with my regular favourites) for 2026. The five exercises that I\u2019m going to talk about will cover every major muscle group.<\/p>\n
Also Read | Why the deadlift is falling out of favour with fitness enthusiasts<\/a><\/p>\n Three-way lunge: It\u2019s important to exercise across all the planes of movement of the human body. These are sagittal (forward and backward), transverse (rotations and twists) and coronal (up and down). If you use your lunging movement across all three planes, it will be a gamechanger for you.<\/p>\n For the full benefits, you will need to maximise every rep, if you do them one by one. Do two reverse lunges (one on each side), then two side lunges, and then take a quarter turn and perform a slightly rotated forward lunges. You can also start simple with forward, reverse, and sideways lunges before adding the twist variant. If you manage to pull this off, you will essentially be doing half a dozen lunges in each round. Anything between three to five rounds would be a really good set in itself. Progress by adding weights. For more on this, read my Lounge article titled, Why you need to do lunges for stronger legs and butt<\/a>.<\/p>\n Decline push-ups: This is the overlooked push-up. And one you certainly need to do if push-ups are part of your routine. Even if you just add these to your chest day, that too will make for a big change. Decline push-ups are done with the feet elevated, with the torso in a downward angle towards the floor. It\u2019s a common misconception that this exercise is for the lower pecs, perhaps because of its cousin\u2014the decline bench press. In fact, doing a push-up in this angle adds extra load on the shoulders and upper chest. So yes, you do need strong shoulders for this, but the move also hits a critical part of the chest which many people find tough to activate. Do the incline push-up to hit the lower chest. These are easier and gentler on the shoulders.<\/p>\n Hip fall-backs: This isn\u2019t just one of the most unique exercises to learn, but an absolute keeper as well<\/a>. This is the only exercise that strengthens the hip flexor, the muscle which lies at the front of the hip and on the upper thigh\u2014a vital muscle for healthy walking, running, and to bend the knee.<\/p>\n Stretching it feels amazing, but just lengthening it cannot fix issues with the hip flexor. One of the most obvious weak spots in the lower body, it needs to be fixed by adding a load to it regularly, and only the hip fall back can target it with great success.<\/p>\n Place a heavy dumbbell on the side of a bench and hook one foot into it. Sit across (perpendicular) to the bench and let the body fall back with the free foot bent 90 degrees at the knee. Engage the core and fall back until you feel the hip flexor engaged and stretched and go until the point you feel you can use it to pull the body back into sitting position.<\/p>\n Also Read | Why you need to do the tricep dumbbell kickback for stronger arms<\/a><\/p>\n Alternating chest presses and single-arm overhead presses: Single-arm exercises are the best way to build balanced strength. And this can be difficult to achieve especially for the chest and shoulders. Alternating presses come to the rescue here. You can do this on the bench or the floor. Get two dumbbells but press only the left arm up while keeping the right one down. For the next rep, press the right arm up while the left one is on its way down. Some trainers also call this the elevator press because of how one side moves up while the other is travelling down.<\/p>\n The single-arm overhead press doesn\u2019t quite operate on the same principle. To perform this one, you need to use just one dumbbell and press it up for a set number of reps, before moving on to the next arm. The free arm in this case is used to balance the body or support the working shoulder. This variant allows the shoulder to lift heavier loads.<\/p>\n