My current book of choice is called "7 - an experimental mutiny against excess" by Jen Hatmaker.
Hang on... let me just tell you that I used to HATE reading. Growing up, I was notorious for getting about half way through a book and just stopping. No amount of mystery, excitement or information could hold my attention. It took me 4 tries to get through "The Westing Game". But I digress.
I love reading now. Last year I worked to read a book a month and was doing great until about half way through the year when wedding plans and house plans took over. But I finished each book.
"7" is about a woman and her family who took 7 months to change 7 habits like food (one month only eating 7 foods), spending (one month only spending at 7 places), and media (one month cutting off all media).
It got me thinking about a lot, and as I was reading this morning, I thought about how related this can be to training. When we really think about training, what can we still do to get strong/fit/healthy and not have excess "noise" (read: unnecessary exercises that take away from the meat and potatoes).
We've heard it before... some of us old school lifters can tell you of days past where we did 3-4 things and were out the door. Or we just used a bar and some dumbbells and now there's all these specialty machines and gadgets that have invaded our gyms.
Without getting into a huge debate about training philosophies and modalities, what would you choose as your 7? What 7 exercises could you get by on if you really had to? What 7 exercises are your meat and potatoes?
If we had to simplify training (and I'm aware that many of you do based on available equipment), how could you get it done?
I'm going to start this off by categorizing my priority movements and then choose from there. My goal in this is to see if I'm currently utilizing these exercises in my training (since I'm saying they are must-do exercises) and also to see what all of YOU think, perhaps revive some ones I've forgotten about and learn some new ones.
(I also fully realize that many of you will choose your 7 based on your style of training: Powerlifting vs bodybuilding vs mobility vs yogi).
CATEGORIES (strength based)
Squat
Press
Deadlift
Hinge
Pull
Carry
Bodyweight
The first 4-5 seem pretty obvious from a strength standpoint. The carry (I'll be honest, I almost put unilateral movement there) is because I know it's worth it... but I don't do it enough.) The bodyweight exercise can cross over (a pulling exercise like pullups is also a bodyweight exercise) but I wanted to choose something that would still allow my body to move slightly athletically. This is a broad choice because I can put anything from a pistol squat to sprinting to bear crawling in there.
My 7 exercises would be:
*Box squat
*Bench press (bc my inner meathead won't let me choose anything else)
*Deficit deadlift (bc they suck and fix a lot of issues)
*Goodmorning (I opted for this over RDL because RDL is close to a deadlift and when I did goodmornings more, I was strong as heck.)
*Bentover row
*Yoke walk (I'd actually like to do more of these)
*Pullups (I'm not going to lie... I'd like to choose about 5 bodyweight things for this category, but from a strength standpoint, for ME, this is a must.)
Ask me in 6 months and 1 or 2 of these might change -- the exercise, not the category. Meaning in the summer, I might choose sprinting or jumping as a bodyweight exercise. But the point is you can get a heck of a lot done on these 7 things. It also brings us back to the basics of what we really need, or what our clients really need.
And if the category stays the same, I can rotate things in and out. DB row for BB rows. Trap bar for straight bar deads. DB pressing for benching. Simplicity.
What 7 exercises are your go-to?