I’ve been getting a lot of requests for beginner workouts, and I keep thinking of the saying, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” I could give you a beginner workout or I could teach you how to modify exercises so that you can turn all the workouts I post into beginner routines. I’m going to do both. Today, I’m going to go over the general rules for how to make exercises easier, and then later in the week I’ll post a beginner workout. Instead of writing off an exercise as “too hard,” use the following rules to modify it.
Change the Angle of Your Body
You can make an exercise harder or easier by changing the angle of your body. Exercises done in a plank position are the best example of this. Doing a plank with your hands on a chair or wall is a lot easier than doing a plank with your hands on the floor. Dropping your knees down (changing angle!) also makes it easier. Another example of this is boat pose. If your legs are straight, it’s harder; if you change the angle of them by bending your knees, it gets easier.
Reduce the Impact
This is a modification I always stress for clients with knee or other joint issues. Take jumps, hops, leaps and bounces out of the equation. Instead of a jump squat, keep your feet planted on the ground and do a regular squat.
Instead of hopping side to side during alternating lunges, step your feet side to side. Similarly, when doing plank jumps, step your feet out and in rather than jumping them together.
Reduce the Range of Motion
If you’re doing exercises with a stepper or bench, simply don’t use one as high. Maybe you just step up onto the bottom stair of a staircase rather than onto a tall chair. In addition to using smaller equipment to make the range of motion of an exercise smaller, you can simply not move your body as far during bodyweight exercises.
In a side leg lift, for example, it will be harder if you lift your leg up to hip height. If you only lift it a few inches off the ground, it will be easier. For squats, if you only lower down a couple inches (vs. bringing your booty to the floor), the exercise will be easier. For push ups, if you only lower down a couple inches (vs. bringing your chest to the floor, they’ll be easier.
Increase Stability
If doing an exercise on one leg is too hard, make it easier to balance by using both. You can also increase the stability of an exercise with equipment. Stability balls, bosu balls and balance plates all create an unstable environment. To make the exercise easier, use steady surfaces instead (the floor, a chair, etc.).
Reduce Speed
Power walk instead of run. Do 10 burpees during an interval of work instead of 15. Spin at a lower RPM. Going slower doesn’t always make things easier (in Lagree Fitness, for example, slow = hard), but for the sake of the workouts I post on P&I, speed typically makes things more intense and challenging.
Reduce Time or Number of Reps
Hold a plank for 30 seconds instead of a minute. Do 10 bicep curls instead of 20. If I ever post an interval workout that looks too hard, just shorten the work interval (if I say do 45 seconds of work and 15 seconds of rest, maybe you change it to 30 seconds of work and 15 seconds of rest).
Reduce Load/Weight
I’m not trying to insult anyone’s intelligence by including this point; just want to cover all my bases! Use lighter kettlebells, dumbbells or medicine balls. You can modify further by using no added weight at all—just your bodyweight.
Combine Them!
Let’s combine some of these rules and look at potential modifications for a burpee with a push up at the bottom. As you’ll see, there are so many ways to make each part of it easier that everyone, regardless of fitness level, can do the exercise in some capacity.
REGULAR BURPEE
- Squat down and place hands on ground by feet.
- Jump feet back into plank position.
- Do a push up in plank position.
- Jump feet back up towards hands.
- Jump straight up in the air with arms overhead.
MODIFIED BURPEE
- Squat down slightly, bringing hands onto the seat of a chair or bench.
- Step feet back one at a time into an incline plank position.
- Do a push up in this incline plank position or, if it’s too hard, modify by dropping down to your knees for it.
- Step feet back up towards chair/bench one at a time.
- Stand upright.
Hopefully this post was helpful! Also, if there are specific exercises you aren’t sure how to modify, let me know and I can put together a more detailed tutorial for those moves.
WEARING | leggings: c/o Reebok / sneakers: New Balance / hoodie: New Balance c/o Kohl’s // tank: Athleta
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Love these tips, especially the changing your angle one. It’s simple but is a huge game changer 😉
Awesome tips! The pics are really helpful as well. With modifications, anyone can do any exercise.
Great post! Many articles we see online nowadays are all about how to make your exercise super intense…not many take the time to explain that you can modify based on your fitness level 🙂
I’m so gonna copy your cute fitness outfit, if you’re cool with that, since I have the same Kohl’s top and similar bright coral capris!
Of course! 🙂
It is so impotant for people to understand that they can and should modify any exercise so that they can build up to it. Good post!
There’s no shame in taking the low option. In fact, I tell the participants in my group fitness classes that it’s better to do the move correctly in a lower-range option than to do it wrong in a higher-range. Good explanation here! Thanks for sharing.
Totally agree! 🙂
Those are some great modifications for some of the good butt-kicking workouts.
At 6.5 months pregnant, I’ve been increasingly modifying my exercising. Thanks for the tips, these are super helpful!
This is a great guide! It’s perfect for those who are intimidated of working out because of the difficulty.
-Emily
littleflecksofgold.blogspot.com
Love this! I sometimes mix in modifications with regular exercises too. Like 10 regular burpees then the next set modified and then the next regular. Sometimes it’s just nice to scale back so you have the energy to finish strong!
Totally! Sometimes it’s better to modify and be able to do the exercise the entire time than to take big breaks between reps of the regular 🙂
Love it! This is such a fantastic guide! I know I could some of them myself =D
Thank you so much for this Nicole! My sister had knee surgery about 8 weeks ago now and has just been given the all clear to start doing stuff again, and has discovered that she can no longer do all the stuff she used to do for toning, and was asking me what she could do instead, this helps a lot, so thank you 🙂
So glad it helps! Wishing her a speedy recovery!
Fantastic post! These also work or people who have injuries! I’m sharing this everywhere.
Thanks! 🙂
Awesome tips! Sharing on my personal training page 🙂
I love the article! I was struggling with some of those excercises (i think way too much) and didnt know i can just modify them and start with the easier version first and work toward the more difficult ones. Thanks for the tips!
Excellent! Thank You!
I love this! I’m writing a piece that talks about the necessity of strengthening when you stretch and I’m definitely going to link back to your post here for great modification tips!