The ONLY 5 Exercises You’ll Ever Need
My family and I played "The Deserted Island" game this weekend. We each asked ourselves if we were stranded on a deserted island, what 5 items could you take with you and why.
That pales in comparison to what my 4 year old Frankie would take: her plastic pink sunglasses, her Alvin & The Chipmunks DVD, the other 6 people in our family (apparently we only count as 1 item), Rice Crispies and a giraffe.
The game got me thinking about a question that I received over email last week.
Someone had asked me if I could only choose 5 exercises, what would they be? Which 5 do I think are essential to anyone’s program?
So here’s my answer…
1) Turkish Get-Ups – I wrote an article about TGUs HERE and why I was convinced that they are now the King of all exercises. Anytime you have an exercise that can help correct muscle imbalance and help with mobility issues in addition to being a great conditioning exercise, you have to at least consider it in your top 5. TGUs combine shoulder & abdominal stability with lower body strength, coordination and mobility all into one exercise. If you don’t do these, you need to start now.
2) Chin-ups – If you do chin-ups the right way they become a full body exercise. Doing them the right way involves you contracting and arching your entire posterior chain from your calves to your upper back. Focus on pulling your chest to the bar (not jerking your head at the top to barely get your chin over). Stop the exercise when your form starts to deteriorate.
3) 2-arm KB Swings – I’ve been using 2-arm KB swings as my primary conditioning exercise over the winter. No other exercise combines hamstring & glute strength & endurance, athletic power and grip strength into one exercise. I’m fully convinced that doing swings have helped me get a lot stronger and have allowed me to stay lean over the "hibernation" months.
4) Push-ups (all variations) – Hand stand push-ups (with my feet on a wall) are my favorites right now. I also like doing these off rings (or blast straps) for some added shoulder stability. If you’re tired of doing the plain vanilla kind or find that you’re just bored of them, try some decline-close-grip push-ups with your feet on a chair. Those are my go-to push-ups early in the AM to help me get some blood into my muscles.
5) 1-Leg Squats – I was a little reluctant to put Pistols in this list because it’s really hard to do them properly. Nonetheless, there’s no denying that pistols are an important exercise for both muscle building and performance. I’m a HUGE fan of 1-leg exercises (the TGUs can be considered a 1-leg exercise as well). There isn’t much in life that we do with 2 legs at a time, so the carryover of 1-leg exercises into the "real world" is very high.
So, did I miss anything?
Leave your comments below and let me know.
Chris, CSCS, CTT
P.S. There’s a BIG Promo coming up on Wednesday. Stay tuned for details
I completely agree with your top five. They are tough exercises and they get the job done. It takes a lot of practice to do them properly and get the full benefit. I just did my first 1 leg squat and I have been practicing for several months. The great thing is you don’t really need much equipment to do any of them. Good stuff.
Love you list of 5 – have not done the single leg squats for a while – will put them back in again. tx
Nope, you didn’t! This is great, Chris. I think bodyweight exercises are the most underrated things nowadays. Can you do a one-armed push up? If not, why are you benching 500Ibs now? That’s what I would say to people who sneer at bw exercises. And kettlebells – need it say any more about them? Fantastic tool!
I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with this exercise, but I’d have to add burpees. Whenever I’m pulling together a backyard training session or have time to “sneak in” a conditioning session while travelling it’s my go-to.
Hey Chris! Would you consider doing a “demonstration” links for each of these 5 exercises where you can verbally go through & demonstrate the proper form for each and any cautions or instructions. I get so much more out of a visual and would love to hears you talk about each exercise. Thanks for your expertise!
yes, i am more of a visual person, and would like to see a demonstration for the 5 exercises.
Hey Chris,
Great stuff. I have a question for you regarding the TGU’s. If I could only do 1 excercise, this would be it. But……when I use a heavy KB, I inflame my SI joint (only on one side, though). Any idea what would cause this or how I could eliminate it?
Thanks!
Bob
http://www.totalcyclingperformance.com/
Hi, Chris, I’ve been using 1 arm swings, switching arms every 10 reps lately, and it is a great conditioner (have worked up to 600 swings. Before that I was doing 30 seconds on 30 off with 2 hand swings, also a nice lung opener. I think that I would probably choose lunges over pistols, as pistols bother my knees, but that is after college football, and two knee operations….
Like the list, so would you recommend doing all these excercise in one workout. Or spreading them out throught the week in different routines?
Received your e-mail with video for kettlebells has sound but no picture. Any suggestions?
Thanks
Bernadette
I completely agree, there are a lot great exercises out there, but I would agree that those would be in my top 5 as well. Good post Chris!
Hey Chris,
Sorry this isn’t about the exercises – good though they are. I’m just giving you a heads up that you’re probably losing anyone with a Mac.
I’m not sure if you’re up with the play with the battle between Adobe & Apple… but the iPad doesn’t support “flash” based apps. & the dude from Adobe said hey “get used to lots of “Blue Cubes” then…. which is a sign that flash isn’t working…..
& that’s what i’m getting ALL over this site… little blue leggo bits.. & the site ‘bitched’ at me when i landed here… again saying something about flash..
thought you’d want to know
cheers
Rich
Hiya Chris,
So looking forward to lose the fat and look great on the beach in november when i’m going to Australia! 
I’ve been to a kettlebell class the other day, I was sore for 3 days after that but I enjoyed it so much that I bought a 16kg kettlebell. I checked your website before but needed to be sure first if it was something i’d enjoy. I’m defenately going to purchase your program!
I’ll just wait to see what your BIG promo will be haha