Check out the top 5 exercises that will give you the simplest and most effective way of building strength and endurance and getting a full body workout. Simple, effective, and challenging.

As it is with most every “list”, opinions can differ. I have compiled this list based on my 12 years of experience as a personal trainer and coach in the health and fitness industry.

Exercise is a great equalizer. Being strong, healthy, and mobile are not things that can be bought, borrowed, or stolen. No matter who you are or what you do or how much money you have, you still need to work just as hard as the next person to achieve these things. 

A lot of times we get caught up in new diets and exercises, or fads that claim to be the next game changer. But the fact is, when it comes to human movement and the related pain and injury issues, we are still learning a lot about the human body; how it functions and why it reacts in the ways that it does. I’m not the first person to say that our healthcare system is predominantly treatment based rather than prevention based. But honestly a lot of that comes from a lack of knowledge and understanding about the human body.

Quite a few people are still surprised when they find out that the majority of the time when they’re experiencing joint pain, the cause is generally too much tension in one or more of the muscles that attach to that joint and make it move. And the solution is to stretch or foam roll the muscles in that area, or even just get a deep tissue massage. This is becoming common knowledge for more and more people, but the information is still not as widely known as it should be.

For a lot of us, simplifying our workouts and knowing what to do is one of our main objectives. It saves time, creates consistency, and provides a measurement to gauge improvement and progress. Fortunately, there are really only three main functions: push, pull, and stabilize (most people are referring to this when they say they need to work on their core). You can break it down a little bit more by separating it into upper body push and pull, and lower body push and pull. And there are a multitude of exercises that meet these basic needs, so that can provide some variety, but unless you have a specific skill or talent you’re working on, there’s no need to make things any fancier than that. Admittedly I am glossing over stability, balance, and agility training, but that’s simply because those are topics unto themselves. Although, the following exercises will increase your core strength and therefore your stability.

This list is by no means meant to be exhaustive, nor is it a guide on how to construct a workout, it is simply my suggestions on the top 5 exercises people should be doing, as long as they are able to. So without further ado:

Squat

Whether it’s back squat, front squat, hexbar squats, goblet squats, or simply bodyweight squats, this exercise should be a priority in your workouts. No matter which version you’re doing this exercise builds hip and leg strength as well as building core strength and endurance. By adding weight to this exercise it creates a demand on your ability to control the movement and focus your mental energy on how you’re moving and stabilizing the weight. Additionally, this is considered a complex movement, so your ability to execute it properly demonstrates a higher level of coordination and skill.

Deadlift

This is another full body exercise, with the demand being primarily on your posterior (back) side. And again you have options, ranging from traditional barbell deadlift, to sumo deadlift, hexbar deadlift as well as using dumbbells or kettlebells. This exercise will build glute strength, along with hamstrings, hips, and back (particularly lats and low back). Once you’ve mastered the basic mechanic of the movement, the hip hinge, it’s relatively straightforward and not overly complicated. This will allow you to steadily increase the weight you can move thereby increasing your strength rather quickly.

Overhead Press

It’s possible that this one might ruffle some feathers, and some of you might not even know what it is. But in my opinion, when you’re trying to prioritize exercises that put demand on your whole body to maximize your efforts and get the most results, overhead press is superior to bench press when it comes to upper body. I’m also referring to a strict overhead press with either a barbell or dumbbells. You engage your hips and core to stabilize your body from your midsection down to your feet, and then you press the weight overhead into a stabilized position before lowering it back down. This exercise works your shoulders, arms, back, upper chest, and if you’re doing it correctly, your core. There’s no bouncing or creating momentum in order to get the movement started. This exercise is much closer to how we move as humans than a bench press since typically we need to stabilize ourselves when we move, and even more importantly, when we move a weight. As Mark Rippetoe notes about the bench press in his book Starting Strength, “it is an unusual thing… to actually place the back against an immovable object and use it to push against something else.” If you’re interested, he makes a very compelling and sound argument that even when an athletic movement involves strength through the upper body, the transmission of that force follows a kinetic chain that starts at the ground, with the feet planted into the ground. His chapter on overhead press was one of my favorite chapters in his book. Overhead press is a powerful upper body movement, while still majorly incorporating a demand on your core and lower body in order to properly execute it.

Push-Ups and Pull-Ups

I’m rounding this out with two of the best upper body exercises that almost no one wants to do: push-ups and pull-ups. Both of these exercises build strength in the arms, back, chest, shoulders, and a multitude of core muscles. Not to mention being outstanding strength endurance exercises. In fact, if you had no equipment but could do push-ups, pull-ups, and running drills (think distance, sprints, hills, stairs) you might not get huge, but you would be one strong human. Therefore, I consider push-ups and pull-ups fundamental to any workout routine.

While I promised simplicity, I also want to point out the options for variety as well. Every one of these exercises can be modified and altered. If you feel like you need more balance and stability, or if you notice a strength imbalance between one leg over the other, you can modify squats and deadlifts to be done single leg. This will increase your balance and stability and also ensure symmetrical strength. For both upper and lower body you can change tempo or add pauses. For example, when doing a push-up, lower yourself down to the bottom position on a slow three second count and then hold the bottom position for another three seconds before returning to the top. These concepts can be applied to any one of these exercises. But probably the most important thing is getting to know your body, and recognizing when and how you need to make changes based on the feedback you’re getting. Don’t ignore muscle imbalances or pain. Do a little bit of research and some body work and address the issue. Exercise, similar to most nutrition, does not have to be complicated and confusing. There are fundamentals to each that can be a tremendous benefit to learn while you’re on the path to connecting with your body more, by both challenging it and taking care of it.

Thanks for reading! Please reach out with any questions!

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