If You Only Had One Or Two Choices Of Exercises That You Could Perform, What Would They Be?

If I had to choose one main exercise, it would be the Dead Lift and I say this, because it’s an overall exceptional compound exercise that will engage all major muscles.
I didn't deadlift much, because as a bodybuilder I wanted to avoid bringing any thickeness to my waist...but for people who want to activate many muscles at once and don't worry as much about adding thickness, deads are bad to the bone baby! 

When I asked the question on Facebook, what blew me away were some of the answers I was reading. Some were great, but most were just silly…many on the brink of ridiculous.

In a nut-shell if you could only choose one or two exercises for your workout or maybe It would be better suited if I stated it like this…If you only had about 15 minutes and still wanted to get a great total body workout in, what exercise would you choose?

Here’s the deal – When you want to get the biggest bang for your buck or hit the most muscles in the least amount of time, you should always choose a compound exercise.

Exercises like the Dead Lift, Clean & Press (so long as you’re not using haphazard form and simply using inertia), Squats, Pull ups, Bent Over Row and even pushups are all phenomenal exercises that will stimulate more than one or even two muscle groups.

If I had to choose one or two exercises, I would likely choose the Romanian Dead Lift, a hybrid or cross between the hamstrings focused Stiff Legged Dead Lift & the Deep Knee Dead Lift. I like Romanians because I feel like they sufficiently hit the bulk of my leg muscles and also engage the major muscles of my back and upper rear shoulders.

For safety purposes, I make sure that I keep all of my muscles quite rigid and this alone brings on a total body workout effect. At the top of the movement, I really squeeze my shoulder blades together and even give a super squeeze/contraction to my Triceps. If you don’t think this would be effective even for a muscle that’s not directly working, try this next time!

There is no exercise that exhausts me quite like this one.

If I still had time, I would throw in some Pull Ups. This phenomenal movement not only hits the Back, Biceps, Forearms & Shoulders, but in order to prevent your body from swaying in midair, your core muscles become engaged.

So, as you see, Romanian Dead Lifts & Pull Ups together will effectively stimulate all of your major muscle groups. I’m not suggesting that you only focus on one or two exercises, but what I am suggesting is that you really critique your current training plan, making sure that you’re getting the most from the exercises you’re performing. 

Keep It Up, Gang!

Kevin Levrone
IFBB Pro 

Category: TLR