My top five exercises

There are so many exercises out there, so many ways to improve our physical selves. I thought it would be cool to tell you the five that I employ to make myself better. Some of these may not be everyone's cup of tea, and that's fine, but for me, they are what I use regularly to keep myself at top shape. Feel free to add what you like to do. I don't choose an exercise based on comfort levels or the latest trends, I choose things that have proven, through years of research and proof, exercises that I can point to and say "this works, and here's why" without having to cite to much theory and little physical evidence.

From least to best here are my top five (in this case even the least favorite is still outstanding to me):

5) Medicine ball routines. Explosion specific routines that force muscles to maximum levels. the heavier the ball the better. I prefer a ball with handles so I can do 1 handed routines as well. Many of these routines involve dead lift type pulls before the explosive release which adds in some lower body work to the upper.

4) Combo calisthenics. Over the last year, I've developed a few routines that target multiple muscle groups in complex movements. Things that combine chest, arm, and shoulder with core, legs, and back. These are great time savers for the busy lifestyle and can hit all the major muscle groups in minutes instead of hours. Granted these routines are intense, and failure comes fast with them, especially if dumbbells are added, but they greatly increase functional endurance and because of the total body work, they force your muscles to work in tandem which can add to your coordination and balance. Form and balance are crucial to these routines, once form breaks down, you should stop and rest.

3) Swimming. I call this one the ultimate cardio workout. Why? Because it's a total body workout, it forces deep lung inhalation which increases blood oxygen levels, requires concentration and timing which makes us consciously think about muscle movement, and eliminates most of the problems associates with high intensity cardio like high impact and overheating. You generally can work harder with swimming without as many averse side effects, and you will almost certainly use muscles that you wouldn't with most other cardio.

2) Sport simulation (or the actual sport). You can pick from any one of a number of high activity sports. Soccer, football, basketball, hockey, La Cross, swimming (competitively), bicycling. All of these sports combine elements of power, speed, and explosive movement. So what if you've never played basketball before. Your body doesn't care whether you look good driving the lane, all it cares about is that you went from stopped to full speed in 1 second, and it reacts. There are reasons why competitive athletes are always cut up (muscularly) like no other, because they practice their functional muscles daily, Unlike power lifters and body builders who like to isolate for looks, athletes practice combination moves for the purpose of better coordination (core), strength (legs, chest, back, arms), endurance, and speed. the human body is the epitome of form follows function. Your body will shape itself into what ever form you need it to be, and just our luck, a good athlete, looks good!

And my number 1 routine

.
.
.
Wait for it.
.
.
.

1) Sprinting. I know I know. "Sprinting? Seriously?" That's what you're saying. It's the simplest, oldest form of exercise known to man.
But hear me out first.
Most trainers overlook the simple stuff. And that's bad. About 1 in 20 trainers will assign a client to use sprinting as a modality. "Why?" I say. Sprinting really trains the whole lower body, it combines explosive power, with failure training, with maximal muscle memory training. It adds oxygen deprecation to balance moves (it actually takes quite a bit of core to keep balanced at high speeds). It triggers both cortisol release, Growth hormone production, and testosterone release.

It's easy, it's a great workout in a very short time (10 minutes of sprints can match 45 minutes on the elliptical calorie wise) and it increases your "wind" or oxygen efficiency.

Now this ain't your grandmother's running. When I say "sprint" to someone, I mean all out, top speed, verge of off balance, 40 to 50 yard sprints. By the time you are done with 5 of them you'll understand what I mean. Even experienced professional athletes tire after sprinting a few times. There's a good reason for that, because it's pushing your muscles HARD! Sure there are drawbacks to sprinting, but the great thing about sprints are you can do them 4 to 5 times a week with little drawback. 1st, at top speed and correct form you actually REDUCE impact levels (much of the force is horizontal to the ground thus less jarring impact on the knees and hips) when compared to walking or running. 2nd because of how fast we tire, you don't need to do high volumes (20 or 30 sprints can usually be a great workout, no need to spend copious time working out, work smarter, not longer). 3rd you increase oxygen efficiency in the body, increasing mitochondria in the cells which increases your ability to do aerobic work. 4th, it'll give you more balance. the core engages when you sprint, you don't need to do power moves to increase your core muscle strength. Any move that forces balance correction will do this. 5th, because of how much we use our legs, they are trained to recover faster than upper body. We have more type 2A muscle fibers. These are more of a hybrid power/endurance fiber, which means they help you reach max power AND keep you working longer. It also means they recover faster than say, your bicep or pectoral muscles, which are high volumes of Type 2B (real power muscles, the fast, fast twitch muscles that are strong but peter out quickly).

I know I know, running doesn't work the upper body. That's ok, do your sprints, then do some push ups (vary your stance to hit different upper body muscles harder), a few pull ups, and some dips to hit just about every major muscle group. You've still done a KILLER workout in under 30 minutes, and ask yourself, have you ever seen an Olympic 100 meter dash athlete that had a body that you didn't like? There's a reason for that, even though "all they do is run".

Anyway, those are my top five.

I realize I didn't put any weight training in. I have nothing against weight training, and I do use it often, but It's a more deliberate workout, and I'm more focused on functional power over size or isometric strength, it's a conscious choice. I don't care that I can press 300 lbs (I can't, and I have no problem with that), but I can play a full 60 minute football game and Pitch 9 innings of baseball (and yes, I do both of those things in real life, that isn't conjecture) or stay on the court for a full 48 minute basketball game without needing a breather. These are what is important to me, so these are what I train for.