The 6 Best Exercises
Starting a new exercise routine can be a bit daunting, especially with so many flashy options out there. It’s easy to get caught up in videos of super fit people doing all sorts of complicated workouts. You might try these moves, struggle, or feel like giving up on fitness altogether.
Here's the truth: great results come from simple, effective exercises. Sticking to straightforward movements is often more beneficial and sustainable. Fitness doesn't have to be complicated—in fact, it's usually better when it's not. The best 6 exercises are:
Squat
Push
Pull
Lunge
Hinge
Weighted Carry
That’s it. That’s all you need.
Why Are These Exercises So Important?
These are MOVEMENTS. Movements you have to get good at to be the mover you’re supposed to be. If you only did these MOVEMENTS and got good at them, you would be set for life in the realm of physical fitness.
These movements do wonders for your posture, help prevent injuries, and make everyday tasks a breeze. Plus, they give you that extra edge in sports and hobbies, keep you strong and active for longer, and even boost your brainpower—something we could all use a bit more of! And let’s not forget, when paired with a balanced diet, they’ll help you get into the best shape of your life. It's all about keeping it simple and effective!
These movements are skills. Skills we have lost do to not doing them correctly and regularly. You are meant to do them. Learn how to do these, please.
These movements aren't just exercises; they're essential skills that many of us lose because we don't do them correctly or often enough. Regularly practicing these movements is key to maintaining our body's natural abilities and keeping us feeling strong and capable. It's about getting back to basics and mastering the fundamentals!
Our body is a tool. This tool is meant to perform various tasks. Movements in everyday life. You need to SQUAT down to pick things up. You need to PUSH things into place or move objects, or even push yourself up off the ground. You need to PULL things to you or pull yourself up to things. You need to LUNGE down to certain levels where one leg down is better than squatting down, or to get you up off the ground. You have to HINGE to pick things up. And finally, you have to CARRY heavy things.
It’s that simple.
If you break it down like that, that’s all you have to work on. Ever.
Let’s just go down the line and break it down.
Squats
The word “squat” brings up images of large men with bulging veins, lots of weight, and an extra tight romper. Actually, you don’t need any weight to perform a squat. A squat is a movement. Not necessarily an exercise.
When you hear "squat," you might picture those massive gym dudes with bulging veins, grunting under heavy weights. But let's set the record straight: you don't need any fancy equipment or weights to do a squat. A squat is a natural movement, something our bodies are designed to do. It's not just for bodybuilders—it's for everyone, whether you're lifting weights or just getting up from a chair.
What is a Squat?
Ultimately, a good squat is one where, with your feet apart, you simply squat down with a straight back, with your rear end very close to the ground. I’m enviously watching my toddler do it right now. Full squat, full range of motion, for a rather long pain-free time, looking at a piece of fuzz that he thinks is a bug. I’m jealous.
As adults, it’s not exactly easy to perform a perfect squat, especially repeatedly. It requires great mobility, and stability, to do correctly, but if you stick to it and get good at it, knee and back problems will become nonexistent, and movement tasks that were once hard will become effortless.
Variations of a Squat
There are body squats (no weight), back squats (barbell on your back), goblet squats, front squats, overhead squats and even things like kickstand and single leg squats, but for the purpose of this article those are the main actual squats.
What Muscles do Squats Work?
Squats work your glutes (butt), quadriceps (thighs), core, and to a limited degree, your hamstrings (the back of your leg part). It’s darn near full body.
If you can perform a squat well with a relatively heavy load for you, it can:
Help enlarge or round out your backside
Make you strong, powerful, and resilient to injury.
If you squat poorly, it can have the opposite effect.
What we’re looking for is essentially being able to lower yourself completely in a squat position with a straight back and without leaning forward.
Why Are Squats Important?
This is an important movement that everyone should know how to do and get good at for a well rounded exercise program. It offers more bang for your buck than almost any exercise out there. It can be an extraordinarily safe exercise if performed correctly and with slow incremental increases in weight.
Push Movements
Pushing movements are ones where you are simply pushing something away from you such as a bench press or shoulder press, or when you are pushing yourself off the floor such as a push up. No, you do not have to bench press to build your chest and make it stronger, though it does help and is quite fun.
What is a Push Movement?
Push up, bench press, incline bench, dumbbell bench, single arm press, and even overhead presses like a shoulder press, Arnolds, etc., are all examples of pushing movements. In life, just pushing yourself up off the floor, or in my case, off a surfboard, pushing a box into place or placing your carryon luggage in the overhead compartment are all examples of things that pressing movements help.
What Muscles do Pushing Movements Work?
Pushing movements like the bench press and push up involve your pec muscles to a high degree, the front of your shoulder, and your triceps (the back of your arm).
I’ve been a trainer for over thirty years and you would be surprised at the sheer number of people who cannot perform a single push up correctly. I’ve seen it all. Arms barely bending, waist going up and down like a bow, and then calling that a set of push ups.
What are the Benefits of Pushing Movements?
Pushing movements can increase the size of the chest, shoulder, and triceps muscles. They will also make you stronger when utilizing those muscles for tasks or sports, and help decrease injuries by strengthening the muscles around the shoulder joint. Sounds like good stuff to me.
The Importance of Good Form
The key to getting good at pushing movements is to start slow, with perfect form, and then to make it more difficult as you progress. Most people try too hard to get strong fast. These movements are skills and should be treated that way.
Additionally, over the years, I’ve noticed that the people who don’t try and get too strong too fast end up being the strongest. Their form is simply immaculate and this helps quite a bit when increasing the weight and leads to far fewer injuries. I’ve had to have people start their push up journey by doing push ups on a vertical wall. Hey, don’t laugh, eventually they can now do push ups on the ground perfectly while most people don’t even come close.
Pull Movements
If you push, you gotta pull. Pulling exercises use the opposing muscles that the push muscles use. You don’t use your back muscles to do a push up. You use your chest muscles. Just as you don’t use your chest muscles when you are pulling back on the oars to row a boat.
This is also a friendly reminder to work both sides of your body equally. Young men often want a big chest but neglect the stability provided by having an equally strong back. Remember balance is key.
What Are Pull Movements?
Pull ups, chin ups, bent rows, single arm rows, low pulley rows, lat pulldowns, TRX rows, are PULLING exercises. Each has its place in your workout routine. You don’t want a strong chest and a weak back. This will cause an imbalance such as the shoulders hunching forward and we don’t want that. We need balance here!
What Muscles do Pull Movements Work?
Pulling exercises work your lats (those muscles on both sides of your back that when are big look like bat wings), and your biceps. To some degree, also the rear deltoid (the muscle on the back of your shoulder).
The back has two pulling functions:
Pulling you up onto something like a fence
Pulling things to you, like rowing, or when you start the lawn mower.
Both pulling functions should be worked but don’t always have to be on the same workout.
I always work both pulling functions because that's just how I like to train. I prefer to knock out all my pulling exercises in one go, so I don’t have to warm up separately for each one. These muscles aren't just about pulling—they're about pulling in different directions. You've got your vertical pulls, like pull-ups, and your rowing movements, like a one-arm row. Since they have these two key functions, it's important to address both in your workout. It's all about efficiency and getting the most out of each session.
Examples of Pull Movements
Pull Ups
Pull ups are a daunting exercise that most people can’t do unless they train for it. It is very difficult to pull your entire body weight up to where your head is over the bar. Often, we use a series of large rubber bands that help lift the person up and to get their chin over the bar. I really recommend you do that technique under the supervision of a qualified trainer, like myself. If pull ups are too scary, one could always just do lat pulldowns on the cable machine. This is a perfectly fine exercise to replace a pull up.Rowing
Rowing exercises are usually done in a bent position as with a bent row, or a seated position while you pull a handle that is attached to a cable that is attached to weights that go up and down as you bring the handle to your body. Rowing is like rowing a boat. You’re pulling something that is resistant to you. You can also use a TRX (brand name) which is a set of two hanging straps with handles that is securely attached to something elevated. A brilliant device for everyone, especially beginners because you can adjust the difficulty just by moving your feet forward or back. It’s like a reverse push up. You pull instead of push.
Why Are Pull Movements Important?
Having strong back muscles is essential for injury prevention and life and sport. Strong back muscles can also change the way you look, if you’re into that V shape, and is used often in regular life activities.
These exercises help with balancing the body out because we tend to get stronger in our chest and weaker in our back. Most sports even do things forward. But most people, including athletes, do not realize that the back muscles help decelerate the forward movement like a punch or throw. Non-athletes may sit for long hours at their jobs and so the muscles responsible for posture are weak. Strong back muscles help a lot with that. Don’t neglect the pulling exercises.
Lunges
The lunge. Oh how I hate you and every one of your various forms. Lunges burn. Lunges make your heart rate increase to epic levels. Lungs make you breathe hard like you just ran a mile as fast as you can. Lunges are also incredibly good for you.
What is a lunge?
A lunge is when one leg is out in front of you and the other leg is behind you and you try to drop the back knee that’s behind you to the ground. You can do this by taking a step forward and then lowering your back knee to the ground and repeating, stepping behind you then lowering the back knee to the ground, or keeping the back foot stable and lowering to the ground as in a split squat or Bulgarian split squat.
Variations of a Lunge
Walking lunge, reverse lunge, split squat, Bulgarian split squat are all variations of a lunge. Lunges are important for life because sometimes just squatting down to get something is not convenient for the task or you are just getting up off the ground. Have you ever watched someone who has a lot of trouble just getting up off the ground? It’s an ugly thing to see.
Why Are Lunges so Important?
Not only is lunging important, in and of itself, but doing things with one leg instead of two, such as with a squat, helps keep your body balanced. You might not believe it, but doing exercises like squats can create an imbalance if one leg is working harder than the other. By doing exercises like lunges the body has to work one leg independently of the other and can help correct those imbalances.
Bulgarian split squats have the name squat in them, but the movement is more of a lunge because one leg is forward while the other leg has the foot elevated behind you on something like a bench or box. The majority of the effort should be done with the front foot and I gotta tell you it is one of the most beneficial and miserable exercises available. Glutes and quad screamfest. I think it is important to learn all of the various lunge movements as they each have their own nuance and place in our workouts even though they are essentially working the same muscles.
What Muscles Do Lunges Work?
Lunge exercises work the glutes (greatly), and the quadriceps (thigh). You can work those muscles for sports performance, a more flattering backside, or just strength. If you do enough reps in a row, I promise you will get some cardio conditioning as well. Lung busters.
Added Benefits of Lunges
Lunges are far more simple to perform correctly than a squat. So if you’re learning the squat, you might as well start lunging in between. Lunges help with balance and strength, and they are easy to learn to do correctly.
Hinge Movements
The hinge movement is the most often done movement in regular life and the most under done movement in the gym. Because we hinge every time we pick something up, such as a box left every other day by Amazon, hinging exercises should be of primary focus in many of our workouts.
What is a Hinge Movement?
Picture yourself standing, keeping your legs straight, and with a straight back, you bend over at the waist so that your upper body is parallel to the ground, and then pull your upper body back up into standing position. You hinged. Just like a door hinge.
When you hinge, the muscles on the back of your thighs (the hamstrings) pull your body back up into position whether you’re pulling a weight off the ground, (like picking up my toddler) or not. Included in that movement are the glutes helping, and the muscles in the lower back and the supporting muscles along the spine. Can it hurt to have all of those muscles strong? No it cannot.
Examples of Hinge Movements
The deadlift.
The Romanian deadlift.
Single Leg Romanian deadlift.
The kickstand Romanian deadlift.
The straight leg deadlift.
Kettle bell swing.
The good morning.
The hinges.
Why Are Hinge Movements so Important?
These are basically the muscles on the backside of your body. Primarily the glutes, hamstrings, low back, and spinal erectors (muscles on either side of your spine going up your back).
It’s important for these muscles to be as strong as the muscles in front or you will have an imbalance and this will cause problems. Most of these imbalance problems occur because we always want to work on the muscles that everyone can see. Chest, arms, shoulders, quads. This is a huge mistake. All of our muscles complement our other muscles. When an opposing muscle is much stronger than another such as your thigh and hamstring, it is common to get an injury because one overpowers the other.
You want to never have back pain? Get good at hinging. You want to be able to pick up heavy stuff off the ground and impress the neighbors and your kids? Get good at hinging.
Importance of Form and Examples of Hinges
Deadlift
Same goes for the deadlift which is one of my favorite exercises on the planet. In a nutshell, a deadlift is when there is a barbell with weight on it on the floor and you put your feet under it, squat down, grab the bar and stand up with it. I think the world record is over a thousand pounds. You can get crazy strong doing deadlifts and if done correctly it is very safe, especially with the advent of the trap bar. (Squarish shaped bar where you can stand in the middle of the square and do a deadlift with extended handles to hold onto). If you can get good at these, it will change how you feel just walking around, going up a flight of stairs, or picking up objects off the ground. It will help keep your back from injury, not the other way around.Kettlebell Swing
A kettlebell swing is when you hold a single kettlebell in both hands, bend the knees, bend at the waist, and with a straight back, you explode your hips up and forward causing the kettlebell to raise up to eye level or even overhead, then just let the kettlebell drop down without resisting it and then repeating. This is an incredible hinge exercise that works all of the muscles on the back of your body but with an explosive component. It is very safe if done correctly, can increase strength and power, and for sure has an excellent cardiovascular component to it. I love them.Romanian Deadlift
The Romanian Deadlift or RDL is similar to the deadlift, only the legs are bent to about 20 degrees and they no longer bend through the rest of the movement. The rest of the movement is done with the torso lowering at the waist (with a very flat back) towards the ground, ending with the chest about parallel to the ground, and then pulling the torso back up to a standing position. The primary movers of this are firstly the hamstrings and the glutes with the back doing a lot of the support, so form is absolutely essential. This is a fantastic exercise for hamstring and glute development, and can help with stability in the knee and speed in sports.
Hinge! Hinge often.
WEIGHTED CARRY
Have you ever carried heavy grocery bags from your car to your house? Or moved your entire residence? That’s a weighted carry.
What is a Weighted Carry?
So what you’re doing is simply holding weights in various positions and walking. That’s it. Walking while carrying heavy stuff.
To perform the exercise, you simply get a couple of dumbbells or kettlebells, stand tall, and walk. Not fast. Not slow. Just walk. It doesn’t have to be heavy at first. You are going to build slowly. You don’t even have to go up in weight for a while, you can just walk longer. You get good at that, then you can go up in weight, try a different variation, and keep getting stronger doing the most simple and safe exercise on the planet.
Examples of a Weighted Carry
Weighted carries are remarkably simple to do because you can start with a very light weight, such as five pounds in each hand and walk, then add a little weight as you progress. Yes, it’s that simple.
Farmer carries (holding a weight in each hand)
Suitcase carry (holding weight in one hand)
Waiter carry (holding a single weight above your head)
Goblet carry (holding a weight to your chest)
Sandbag bear hug carry (holding a sandbag to chest)
Offset carry (holding one weight down at side and one above head)
There are many others, but we won’t go into all of them.
The Importance and Effectiveness of a Weighted Carry
This is one of the best exercises on the planet because it’s so simple. When you are walking with heavy objects in good form, you are working your grip strength, teaching the body to stay upright while doing so which is fantastic for your posture.
What Muscles Does a Weighted Carry Work?
You are working your core muscles, your traps, hips, and burning calories. This is even more intensified when you are holding a single weight on one side because the body has to compensate to keep your body straight.
Get good at weighted carries. Your body will thank you.
That’s it people. That’s all you need. You can do two full body workouts per week just picking one exercise from each of these movements and become an absolutely incredible specimen of human being. You won’t recognize yourself in six months and you will feel amazing! As always, form over ego. Learn these essential movements, get good at them, slowly increase difficulty, and never, ever, look at those ridiculous exercises you see online again.