There are none. Here's why, and what's more important when it comes to exercise selection.
All across social media you may be seeing “must-do exercise!”, “STOP doing this”, and so on.
If there are exercises that you enjoy, that feel right for you and that contribute towards your goals (or just keep you physically active) then they’re great to do.
There are no ‘must-do’ exercises, and there’s no ‘perfect way’ to perform them either.
Here’s why:
Everyone’s body is different in how it’s built and how it functions.
For example, just looking at the hip, some people may have ‘shallow sockets’ while others may have ‘deep sockets’. Without needing to understand biomechanics and human anatomy, the depth of your hip sockets (among other things) can influence how an exercise (such as the squat) is performed, and how it feels for an individual.
If an exercise feels terrible, then it may not be a good fit for how your body is structured. If it’s not a good fit for your body, you’re less likely to have a positive experience from the movement, and are thus less likely to consistently engage in it.
Have you ever performed or engaged in an exercise that feels terrible, that immediately leaves you feeling frustrated and hopeless?
Does this make you feel a desire to keep performing the exercise and master it?
If an exercise isn’t a good fit for you, the last thing on your mind is eagerness to master it, and you’re probably not going to feel like you have the ability to be successful at it either.
This relates to two crucial aspects of adhering to physical exercise (self-efficacy and feeling a sense of mastery) (see blog post “Why can’t I stick to a health/fitness behaviour?”)
If you experience success with an exercise, you will feel a developing sense of mastery. This contributes to your levels of self-efficacy (your perceived ability to accomplish as task) and therefore you’re much more likely to consistently engage in that exercise. (1) (2) (5)
Feeling competent is positively associated with exercise (meaning you’re more likely to engage in it) (5)
Choosing an exercise where you feel competence, you start to develop a sense of mastery and you feel like you could be successful at it, is considerably more important than following one that someone said is a ‘must-do’.
Most people understand the long-term benefits of engaging in physical activity; however, being able to find some form of ‘immediate reward’ during that activity is going to be helpful in persisting with it.
A paper by Wooley & Fishbach titled “For the Fun of It: Harnessing Immediate Rewards to Increase Persistence in Long-Term Goals” (2016) discussed how those that focus on immediate rewards completed more total reps in an exercise than those that focused on delayed rewards. They also found that immediate rewards increase persistence in a long term exercise goal. (3)
When it comes to performing an exercise, what’s an immediate reward?
- You might achieve a personal best
- You might feel like the exercise is getting easier/you’re experiencing success
- You might feel ‘healthy’, ‘strong’ or ‘productive’
- You might like the feeling of getting away from your usual thought patterns because you’re distracted by the feelings in your muscles (see blog post “Strength Training: A Meditation Tool”)
These are all examples of immediate rewards you may feel, and they’re all more likely to be felt if you’re engaging in an exercise of your choosing, and not one that you ‘must do’. If you’re getting these immediate rewards, you’re more likely to do more reps, and stick with it too.
There’s some research on how your emotions can influence your physical performance.
Both the emotions of anger and happiness have been shown to increase your performance among various papers (4)
I’d personally prefer you to be happy when exercising, and if that gives you an increase in performance (and consequently better results) then it’s something worth pursuing!
“The force produced is significantly influenced by emotional state. Strong positive emotions can immediately increase the energy of muscular contraction by up to four times.” Vinogradov 1966 (From Verkhoshansky’s ‘Supertraining’ (6))
What would make you happier when performing an exercise? A ‘must-do exercise’ or an exercise that feels good, that you’re experiencing success with and that you’re gaining an immediate reward from it?
This is a good summary point: In general, we want a positive experience from the exercise we engage in.
A positive experience (eg. being able to express personal skills/abilities, feeling enjoyment, self-development etc.) is extremely important for adherence. (5)
If you can adhere to the exercise, that’s the best thing we can achieve, and that’s the thing that will give you the results you’re looking for (not a nuanced exercise that has to be performed the ‘perfect way’).
An exercise that feels good for you body, gives you a sense of mastery and success, enables you to experience immediate rewards and elicits positive emotions results in a positive experience that helps you adhere to the exercise and ultimately achieve results.
There are many exercises to choose from. Following this general framework, choose/experiment with a few of these exercise examples (mixture of double- and single-limb) from each category. Choose those that create the best experience for you (it feels good, you gain a sense of mastery/potential success, you gain an immediate reward and it contributes to positive emotions):
Back Squat, Zercher Squat, Goblet Squat, Overhead Squat, Box Squat, Bulgarian Split Squat, Lunge, Front-foot Elevated Split Squat, Step-up, Single-leg Squat
Deadlift, Romanian Deadlift, Hip Thrust, Trap Bar Deadlift, Good Morning, Kettlebell Swing, Single-leg Romanian Deadlift, Single-leg Hip Thrust
Pull-up/Chin-up, Lat Pull-down, Single-arm variations (eg. Single-arm Cable Lat Pull-down)
Military press, Dumbbell Overhead Press, Viking Press
Bent-over Barbell Row, Dumbbell Row, Inverted Row, Seated Row
Bench Press, Floor Press, Dumbbell Press
Deadbug, Planks, Medicine Ball Throws/Slams, Knee Raises, Weighted Carries (Farmers, Waiters)
Happy Training!
REFERENCES
Food choices that can drive your fitness and health outcomes beyond their calorie, fat, carbohydrate and protein content.
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How including both aerobic training and strength training improves different areas of your health and fitness (and how to go about it).
Read article >
Why everyone should consider supplementing with 'Creatine'.
Read article >
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