If I could do one exercise…
When it comes to training we all have exercises we like and maybe exercises we don’t like quite so much. However, a good training program should have a combination of exercises that strengthen our major muscle groups and hopefully address some of those smaller more neglected muscles. With that said, if there was a scenario where we were only able to complete one exercise, what would it be? I posed this question to our Titan team and here is what they said:
Cameron Chow:
One hundred percent pullups. It hits core, upper body and engages your hips which allows for some lower body engagement. It's a functional movement that is so important to be able to do. The times in which you'll need to pull yourself onto something is certainly higher than anytime you'd need to bench something.
Now imagine that hungry zombies are chasing you…(and they are ALWAYS hungry)
Alex Gerwing:
When asked this question, there was only one exercise that came to mind: squats! The reasons I love squats are many, but I will spare you the novel and just tell you the top four.
1) Functional- a squat is basically just sitting down and standing back up again, which is a movement most of us do every day and would probably like to keep doing for the rest of our days. By practicing squats on a regular basis, we are not only keeping those muscle groups strong, but we are also keeping the motor patterns fresh in our mind.
2) Global strengthening- a properly performed squat not only hits muscle groups in our legs and glutes, it also challenges our core, and you can even include the arms if you incorporate weights (not sure if that is cheating in regards to the question though :P) (or just really creative! -Tyler)
3) Cardio- performing enough squats at a faster pace, can really get the heart rate up and your sweat going, so you get more bang for your buck.
4) Convenience- body weight squats can be performed pretty much anywhere, with zero equipment and have huge benefits for our cardiovascular and musculoskeletal systems.
Look at the depth of that squat (and he’s not even trying!). Would have to talk to him about rounding his back though…
Mark LeGear:
If I could do only one exercise what would I do? My first thought went to the exercises that I often prescribe to my clients in terms of physiotherapy. This could include a squat or perhaps an overhead reach both which are valuable exercises for day to day function and recovery from injury. However, upon reflection, I thought about the single exercise in my own life that has helped me immensely and ultimately that I believe can improve anyone's life expectancy and quality of life immensely: the step.
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step”
Yes, the humble step. The step if repeated for many repetitions becomes walking—the keystone to our ability to move around in the world we live in. Walking for me has been a great source of daily exercise but is much more than that. Walking is a time for quiet and acts as a type of meditation for myself. Oftentimes if I am stressed or generally feel unwell, a walk is the best medicine. Many of my greatest ideas for my business and growth have come to me during walks. Walks are a great time to discuss ideas with family and colleagues as ideas often come more naturally when walking. In fact many companies have moved to walking type meetings (Apple, and Google to name a couple) to help increase productivity.
I encourage all my clients to take up daily walking as a daily exercise. If you do not have walking as your daily habit, I would try it...I think you will find that your life improves in many ways. See you out there!
Looks like she’s hoping for a treat from her dog…
Amy Moorwood:
If I had to complete one exercise and one exercise only for the rest of my life it would have to be the beloved burpee. Some of you might say I’m crazy (I might be), but the famous burpee we all know and love (or hate) benefits many facets of physical fitness. The burpee challenges almost every muscle in our body and that’s why it hurts so much! It helps build strength in our major muscle groups and is a fantastic representation of a functional exercise. A functional exercise is important because it trains the body for all of the activities we perform in our daily lives. We train our lower body so we can walk, sit and climb the stairs, and our upper body to carry our groceries and get dressed. The burpee incorporates squatting, pushing, jumping and reaching, all of which improve our daily activities and quality of life. Furthermore, the burpee is a great conditioning exercise, it helps strengthen our heart and lungs which in turn, lowers the risk for cardiovascular disease. The burpee is also a great exercise to meet your daily Fitbit goals by burning a significant number of active calories. Another great reason to love the burpee is that it requires no equipment, so it can be performed anywhere, and many modifications can be made to suit all different kinds of abilities. Burpees are challenging, but what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.
Now would you call me crazy?
This is NOT a burpee, but rather a variation known as a “clap-ee.” They look like they are enjoying it as much as Amy enjoys the Burpee though.
Tyler LeGear (me):
While there are many excellent exercises, very few movements have the ability to stimulate the entire body to build up functional strength, prevent injury, and maintain/improve mobility. One such exercise is the push-press. See picture below for a good visual of the push-press using a barbell.
Image from CrossFit main site (https://www.crossfit.com/essentials/the-power-of-progressions-part-5-building-progressions)
While the picture above illustrates the correct form using a barbell, the same movement can be done with two dumbbells, kettlebells, or anything else you can lift above your head. Here are the reasons the push-press is a uniquely effective exercise:
True full body compound movement: the push-press involves pushing a weight overhead while generating force with legs. To be able to do this effectively, the entire body (from hands down to your feet) needs to stabilize, hitting our core and those smaller muscles that are often neglected
Increases bone density: with the load pushing down from your wrists down to your feet, the push press effectively loads the entire skeletal system (which is a very good thing!). While we cannot lay down new bone as we reach adulthood, we can increase the bone density of what we have. This becomes increasingly important as we get older.
Functional and intuitive: if you have a weight at your shoulders and want to get it overhead you will naturally use your legs to help generate force and momentum to help. This makes the push-press an easy movement to learn that someone can do at any skill level with minimal training/coaching
Maintains/improves mobility: shoulder flexion (i.e. the ability to lift your arms straight overhead) is one those movements that tends to decrease quite steadily as we get older. We don’t do the movement enough and tend to create our environment for ease: we put all the things we use frequently right in front of us and the things above our shoulders collect dust. We need a movement in our lives that helps maintain (or improve!) our shoulder mobility and the push-press will do that.
Prevent injury: all healthy human movement does its part in injury prevention, but the push-press targets an area that is particularly prone to problem: the shoulder girdle. The shoulder can do very incredible movements and it can do this because it is inherently less stable than our other joints (if you compare the shoulder to the hip, another ball and socket joint, you can appreciate that while the joints are similar the hip is more stable and less mobile). When a joint can do more movement it tells us that there are more muscles involved and, unless we stimulate those muscles, they will get weaker and weaker over time. Our shoulders need work to keep working!
The child’s not terrified because dad’s shoulders are strong enough.
Thanks to everyone from the Titan team for sharing their thoughts and thanks for reading! I encourage you to let us know what your “one exercise” would be in the comments below.
-Tyler