Top 15 'Foundation-Fortifying' Exercises to start for building a pain-free body that lasts in 2025 - Goh Ling Yong
As the confetti of a new year settles, so does the familiar wave of fitness resolutions. We vow to get stronger, leaner, and more active. But how often does that initial burst of motivation lead to nagging aches, frustrating injuries, and a slow fizzle-out by March? The problem isn't the ambition; it's the approach. Too many of us try to build a skyscraper on a foundation of sand, jumping into intense workouts without first ensuring our bodies are stable, mobile, and ready for the load.
This year, let's do it differently. Let's focus on the foundation. Think of your body like a house. Before you can add a second story or a fancy new roof, you need to make sure the concrete slab underneath is solid and crack-free. The exercises that pour that concrete aren't always the most glamorous—you might not see them on a flashy Instagram reel—but they are the absolute key to building a resilient, capable, and pain-free body that lasts not just for 2025, but for a lifetime.
These 15 "foundation-fortifying" movements are your blueprint for durability. They teach your body to move correctly, activate the right muscles, and create stability from the inside out. By mastering these, you're not just exercising; you're investing in a future with less pain, better performance, and the freedom to enjoy any activity you love. Let’s start building.
1. The Dead Bug: Your Core's Intelligent Switch
The Dead Bug might have a silly name, but it's one of the most intelligent core exercises you can do. It trains your deep core muscles (like the transverse abdominis) to stabilize your pelvis and spine while your limbs are in motion. This is the essence of functional core strength—the ability to keep your center solid while your arms and legs do their thing.
Think about walking, running, or reaching for something on a high shelf. Your core is working just like it does in a Dead Bug to prevent unwanted twisting and arching of your lower back. Mastering this movement is your first line of defense against chronic low back pain. It’s about control, not speed. The slower and more deliberate you are, the more effective the exercise becomes.
- How to do it: Lie on your back with your knees bent at 90 degrees over your hips and your arms extended toward the ceiling. Press your lower back gently into the floor. Slowly lower your opposite arm and opposite leg toward the floor, exhaling as you go. Go only as low as you can without your lower back arching. Inhale to return to the start and repeat on the other side.
- Pro-Tip: Imagine a full cup of coffee resting on your belly button. Your goal is to move your limbs without spilling a single drop.
2. The Bird-Dog: The Master of Stability
If the Dead Bug is about stabilizing from your back, the Bird-Dog is its counterpart from the front. This exercise challenges your body's ability to resist rotation, a critical skill for protecting your spine. It builds a powerful connection between your glutes, core, and shoulders, creating a stable "X" across your torso.
This cross-body connection is fundamental to nearly every athletic movement, from throwing a ball to sprinting across a field. More importantly, it helps you stay balanced and strong during everyday tasks, like carrying uneven loads (hello, groceries!) or catching yourself from a stumble. As Goh Ling Yong often emphasizes in our clinic, a stable core is a pain-free core, and the Bird-Dog is a masterclass in building that stability.
- How to do it: Start on all fours with your hands under your shoulders and knees under your hips. Engage your core to keep your back flat. Simultaneously extend your right arm straight forward and your left leg straight back, keeping your hips and shoulders square to the floor. Hold for a moment, then slowly return to the start. Repeat on the other side.
- Pro-Tip: Place a yoga block or a small water bottle on your lower back. If it falls off, you're rotating your hips too much.
3. The Glute Bridge: Waking Up Your Powerhouse
In our modern, chair-bound world, many of us suffer from "gluteal amnesia"—our glutes have forgotten how to fire properly. This forces other muscles, like our hamstrings and lower back, to work overtime, leading to strain and pain. The Glute Bridge is the perfect wake-up call for these powerful but sleepy muscles.
By isolating the glutes, this exercise teaches them to be the primary movers for hip extension, which is crucial for standing up, climbing stairs, and lifting anything off the ground. Strong, active glutes support your pelvis, take pressure off your lumbar spine, and are the foundation of all powerful lower-body movements.
- How to do it: Lie on your back with your knees bent, feet flat on the floor about hip-width apart, and arms by your sides. Squeeze your glutes and lift your hips toward the ceiling until your body forms a straight line from your shoulders to your knees. Pause at the top, squeezing your glutes hard, then slowly lower back down.
- Pro-Tip: At the top of the bridge, imagine you're trying to crack a walnut between your butt cheeks. This ensures you're using your glutes, not just arching your back.
4. The Bodyweight Squat: The King of Movement Patterns
The squat is not just an exercise; it's a fundamental human movement. We squat to sit, to stand, and to lift. Mastering the bodyweight squat is about reclaiming this natural pattern and building the strength and mobility to do it correctly for the rest of your life.
A proper squat builds strength in your quads, glutes, and hamstrings while also improving mobility in your hips, knees, and ankles. It teaches your entire body to work as a coordinated unit. Getting this pattern right before you add weight is non-negotiable for long-term joint health and preventing knee and back pain.
- How to do it: Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, chest up, and core engaged. Initiate the movement by sending your hips back, as if sitting in a chair. Lower down as far as you can while keeping your chest up and your heels on the floor. Drive through your feet to return to the starting position.
- Pro-Tip: Hold your arms out in front of you as a counterbalance. This will help you keep your chest up and maintain your balance as you descend.
5. The Plank: Building Full-Body Tension
The plank is so much more than just an ab exercise. When done correctly, it’s a full-body exercise that teaches you how to create tension and stability from your head to your toes. It strengthens your core, shoulders, glutes, and quads all at once.
This ability to create and hold full-body tension is what protects your spine under load. It’s the skill that keeps you stable when you’re pushing a heavy piece of furniture or holding a wriggling child. Don’t just hold a plank; engage in the plank. The goal is quality of contraction, not duration of suffering.
- How to do it: Place your forearms on the ground with your elbows directly under your shoulders. Extend your legs back, resting on your toes. Your body should form a straight, rigid line. Squeeze your glutes, brace your core, and pull your shoulder blades down and back. Hold this position, breathing steadily.
- Pro-Tip: Actively try to drag your elbows towards your toes without them actually moving. You’ll feel your entire core light up instantly.
6. The Cat-Cow: Mobilizing Your Spine
Your spine isn't meant to be a rigid rod; it's designed to move. The Cat-Cow stretch is a gentle, dynamic movement that takes your spine through its full range of flexion (rounding) and extension (arching). This is crucial for maintaining spinal health and relieving stiffness.
Doing this simple movement daily helps to lubricate the joints between your vertebrae, improve your body awareness, and release tension built up from sitting or standing in one position for too long. It's like a deep, cleansing breath for your entire back, promoting blood flow and reducing the risk of stiffness-related pain.
- How to do it: Start on all fours. On an inhale, drop your belly, lift your chest and tailbone, and look forward (Cow). On an exhale, round your spine up toward the ceiling, tucking your chin and tailbone (Cat). Flow smoothly between the two positions, linking your breath to the movement.
- Pro-Tip: Focus on initiating the movement from your tailbone and letting it ripple up your spine one vertebra at a time.
7. The Incline Push-Up: Building Pressing Strength Safely
The push-up is a foundational upper-body pressing exercise, but many people can't perform one on the floor with good form. Enter the Incline Push-Up. By elevating your hands on a sturdy box, bench, or even a wall, you reduce the amount of bodyweight you have to press, allowing you to master the form.
This variation still builds strength in your chest, shoulders, and triceps, and it crucially trains your core to keep your body in a straight line. As you get stronger, you can gradually decrease the incline until you’re ready for the floor. This progressive approach builds strength without compromising your shoulder or lower back health.
- How to do it: Place your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width on an elevated surface. Step back into a plank position. Lower your chest towards the surface, keeping your elbows tucked at about a 45-degree angle from your body. Press back up to the start.
- Pro-Tip: Imagine you're screwing your hands into the surface. This will engage your lats and create a more stable shoulder position.
8. The Hip Hinge (with Dowel): Learning to Lift with Your Hips
The hip hinge is the movement pattern behind deadlifts, kettlebell swings, and simply picking something up off the floor safely. Unfortunately, most people hinge from their spine, leading to back pain. Using a dowel or broomstick is the ultimate tool for learning the correct pattern.
The dowel provides tactile feedback, ensuring your spine stays neutral while you learn to send your hips back and load your powerful glutes and hamstrings. This is arguably the single most important pattern to master for preventing lower back injuries in both the gym and daily life.
- How to do it: Stand tall holding a dowel along your spine. It should have three points of contact: the back of your head, between your shoulder blades, and your tailbone. With a slight bend in your knees, push your hips straight back, lowering your torso until you feel a stretch in your hamstrings. Maintain all three points of contact. Squeeze your glutes to return to a standing position.
- Pro-Tip: If the dowel loses contact with any of the three points, you've broken the neutral spine position. Correct it before continuing.
9. The Lunge: Your Foundation for Single-Leg Strength
Life is often lived on one leg at a time—walking, running, climbing stairs. The lunge trains this unilateral (single-leg) strength and stability, exposing and correcting imbalances between your left and right sides.
Lunges build strength in your quads and glutes while simultaneously improving your balance and hip mobility. Starting with forward and reverse lunges builds a solid base of control before you move on to more dynamic variations. They are a fantastic tool for building functional leg strength that translates directly to a more capable, athletic body.
- How to do it: Stand tall. Take a controlled step forward (or backward for a reverse lunge). Lower your hips until both knees are bent at approximately 90-degree angles. Your front knee should be over your ankle, and your back knee should hover just above the floor. Push off your front foot to return to the starting position.
- Pro-Tip: Focus on keeping your torso upright and your core engaged. Avoid leaning forward or letting your front knee collapse inward.
10. The Farmer's Walk: The Most Functional Exercise of All
What's more functional than picking up heavy things and walking with them? The Farmer's Walk is brilliantly simple but brutally effective. It challenges your grip strength, core stability, shoulder stability, and posture all at once.
As you walk, every muscle in your body has to work in coordination to keep you upright and moving forward. It builds a rock-solid core and an iron grip, two things that have a massive carryover to both gym performance and everyday resilience. A strong grip has even been linked to longevity and overall health.
- How to do it: Grab a moderately heavy dumbbell or kettlebell in each hand. Stand up tall, pulling your shoulders back and down. Brace your core and walk forward taking short, deliberate steps. Keep your chest up and avoid leaning to one side.
- Pro-Tip: Start with a weight you can carry for 30-40 meters with perfect posture. The goal is to challenge yourself, not to look like you're stumbling home after a long night.
11. The Inverted Row: The Perfect Pulling Counterpart
For every pushing motion we do (like push-ups or sitting hunched over a desk), we need a pulling motion to create balance and promote good posture. The Inverted Row is the perfect accessible pulling exercise. It strengthens the muscles of your upper back, lats, and biceps.
A strong back is essential for shoulder health and preventing the rounded, forward-head posture that contributes to neck and shoulder pain. The Inverted Row is a fantastic precursor to pull-ups and a staple for building a back that is as strong as it is healthy.
- How to do it: Set a barbell in a squat rack at about waist height, or use a TRX/suspension trainer. Lie underneath it and grab the bar with an overhand grip, slightly wider than your shoulders. Keeping your body in a straight line from head to heels, pull your chest towards the bar. Squeeze your shoulder blades together at the top, then slowly lower yourself back down.
- Pro-Tip: To make it easier, bend your knees and place your feet flat on the floor. To make it harder, elevate your feet on a box.
12. The Thoracic Spine Rotation (Quadruped): Unlocking Your Mid-Back
Your thoracic spine (mid-back) is designed for rotation, but modern lifestyles often leave it stiff and immobile. When your T-spine can't rotate, your body compensates by forcing rotation from your lower back or shoulders—areas not designed for it, which is a recipe for pain.
This simple mobility drill helps to restore that crucial rotation. It can immediately relieve feelings of stiffness in the upper back and shoulders and improve your ability to rotate for activities like swinging a golf club, throwing a ball, or even just checking your blind spot while driving.
- How to do it: Start on all fours. Place your right hand behind your head, elbow pointing out to the side. Keeping your hips stable, rotate your right elbow and chest down towards your left hand. Then, reverse the motion, rotating up and opening your chest toward the ceiling as far as you can. Follow your elbow with your eyes.
- Pro-Tip: Exhale as you rotate up to get a little extra range of motion. Focus on the movement coming from your mid-back, not just your arm.
13. The Single-Leg Balance: Sharpening Your Body's GPS
Balance is a skill, and like any skill, it gets worse if you don't practice it. Standing on one leg challenges your proprioception—your body's internal GPS system that tells you where you are in space.
This simple drill strengthens the stabilizing muscles in your feet, ankles, and hips. Good balance is critical for injury prevention, especially as we age. It improves your athletic coordination and reduces your risk of falls and ankle sprains. It's a "use it or lose it" ability that pays huge dividends.
- How to do it: Stand on one leg, with a slight bend in your standing knee. Try to hold this position for 30 seconds without your other foot touching the ground or your arms flailing. Focus on keeping your hips level.
- Pro-Tip: To make it harder, close your eyes (this removes visual feedback and forces your body to rely solely on proprioception). To make it even harder, try writing the alphabet in the air with your raised foot.
14. The Goblet Squat: The Ultimate Squat Teacher
Once you've grooved the bodyweight squat pattern, the Goblet Squat is the perfect next step. Holding a single dumbbell or kettlebell in front of your chest acts as a counterbalance, making it easier to stay upright and sink deeper into the squat.
More importantly, it forces your core to engage intensely to prevent you from rounding forward. The Goblet Squat simultaneously reinforces good squat mechanics while building strength in your legs and core. It’s one of the safest and most effective ways to load the squat pattern and build real-world strength. Here at Goh Ling Yong's practice, we see this as a game-changer for clients learning to lift safely.
- How to do it: Hold one end of a dumbbell vertically against your chest, with your hands cupping the top. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Send your hips back and down, keeping your chest proud and your elbows tracking between your knees. Go as deep as you can with good form, then drive through your heels to return to the top.
- Pro-Tip: At the bottom of the squat, gently press your elbows into your inner knees to help open up your hips.
15. The Face Pull: Your Antidote to "Desk Posture"
If you spend any amount of time hunched over a computer or phone, you need the Face Pull. This exercise directly targets the often-neglected muscles of the upper back and the external rotators of the shoulder.
Strengthening these muscles helps to pull your shoulders back into a healthier, more neutral position, counteracting the forward slump of modern life. It's one of the best "prehab" exercises you can do for shoulder health, preventing impingement and rotator cuff issues while dramatically improving your posture.
- How to do it: Set a rope attachment on a cable machine at chest height. Grab the ends of the rope with an overhand grip. Step back and, with your arms straight, pull the rope towards your face, aiming to get your hands on either side of your ears. As you pull, externally rotate your shoulders (think "biceps to the ceiling"). Squeeze your shoulder blades together, then slowly control the weight back.
- Pro-Tip: Focus on the "finish" position. At the end of the pull, you should look like you’re making a double bicep pose.
Your Foundation for a Pain-Free Future
There you have it—15 foundational movements to build a body that's not just fit for 2025, but fit for life. It can be tempting to skip these "boring" basics in favor of more exciting exercises, but that's a short-term strategy with long-term consequences. True strength, resilience, and a pain-free life are built on a foundation of quality movement.
Don't feel like you need to do all 15 at once. Start by picking 3-5 of these exercises that address your biggest weaknesses. Incorporate them into your warm-ups or create a short "foundational" workout to do a few times a week. The key is not intensity, but consistency.
By patiently and consistently pouring this concrete foundation, you're giving yourself the greatest gift of all: the freedom to move, play, and live your life without being held back by pain. You're building a body that's ready for any challenge you throw at it.
If you’re ready to move beyond the basics and build a program tailored specifically to your body and your goals, our team is here to help. [Schedule a consultation today] and let’s start building your pain-free foundation together.
About the Author
Goh Ling Yong is a content creator and digital strategist sharing insights across various topics. Connect and follow for more content:
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