When choosing exercises, most guys want to build muscle, burn fat, boost metabolism, improve mobility, and give you more energy. These exercises do just that.
2. Accessible. They're convenient exercises that you can do anytime, anywhere – especially at home or in a hotel.
And these moves are not just for guys new to working out or trying to get back in shape – they should remain staples in your training regimen until the day you die.
The hips drive every key athletic movement and house the biggest metabolic zone in your body.
- Do 1 to 2 sets of 10 to 20 reps to warm up on leg days or when doing lower-body intensive exercises like squats, deadlifts, running or jumping.
- Start with just your bodyweight. Once you can do 5 sets of 20 reps in 10 minutes with ease, progress to a more advanced variation.
- The shoulders-elevated progression is ideal for full range of motion and max glutes activation. You can make the move harder by using barbell or band resistance, or by doing them on one leg a time. The barbell option provides the most strength and muscle gains. Shoot to be able to 5 sets of 10 with a load equal to your bodyweight.
- If you don't have access to a barbell, you can load the exercise with a dumbbell or kettlebell. Or shoot for 5 sets of 10 reps per side of single-leg hip thrusts.
For general fitness – which means you're not a competitive powerlifter or weightlifter – the goblet box squat is king.
They are about as functional as it gets – loaded standing to sitting to standing. They are easy on the back and knees, but hard on the glutes and core.
Sitting down on a box also standardises your squat depth. You can adjust the height of the box based on your mobility and injury history.
- Use a box height that ideally has your hip crease at or slightly beneath your knee crease.
- Do them at least once per week and up to 3 times per week. If you do them multiple times per week, use a mix of rep ranges and loads for maximum gainz: light weight for 15 to 20-plus reps, medium weight for 8 to 12 reps, heavy weight for 3 to 5 reps.
- Do a set every minute for more fat loss and conditioning. Do a set every 2 minutes for more of a strength emphasis.
- Your goal is to be able to do multiple sets of 10 reps with a load that is ideally half your bodyweight. So a 200-pound man would use a 100-pound dumbbell.
- You can also progress to doing these on one leg at a time to develop superb single-leg strength and stability.
- Bonus tip: Perform 100 bodyweight box squats on your off days to improve form and recovery.
But don't just push up to the plank position at the top. Push your hands through the floor and really, really round out your upper back.
This will fully activate your serratus anterior muscle (a key shoulder stabilizer) and also make your abs contract harder.
Do dead-stops often and your pushup totals and bench press loads will go up.
- Do these with your feet blocked together. This allows you to squeeze your legs together to create more spinal stability.
- You can either plug this move into a circuit as an upper-body or core move, or do as many reps as you can in 10 minutes.
- Your goal is to be able to do 100 total reps in 10 minutes, which breaks down to 10 reps EMOM (every minute of the minute) for 10 straight minutes.
- Once you hit that goal, progress to doing these pushups on one leg at a time, with your feet elevated onto a bench, or while wearing a weight vest.
- Add some power by pushing off the floor with your fingers and going airborne. The clap is optional.
No programme is complete without some dedicated single-leg work to strengthen weakness and imbalances between sides.
Plus, it's super functional. You'll most likely encounter curbs, steps, and staircases daily.
- Most of the time, the ideal box height is one that allows your hip crease to be at or slightly below your knee crease.
- You want approximately three 90-degree angles formed – one at the ankle, one at the knee, and one at the hip – at the start and end of the movement.
- Start by mastering the eccentric – or lowering – portion of the exercise. Take at least 3 to 5 seconds to lower from the top to the bottom of the exercise.
- As you lower, focus on tracking your knee directly over your ankle/foot and really fight to prevent any sort of plopping at the bottom of the exercise because this is when your glutes needs to kick in the most.
- Using just your bodyweight, start or end your workout with 10 minutes of continuous alternating stepups. This will build your base.
- Progress the movement by adding weight and building strength with sets of 5 to 10 reps per side while holding dumbbells.
Farmer's walks build your grip, sculpt your shoulders and abs, and burn fat and build muscle from head to toe.
And here's where this move becomes even better. We're less interested in you being able to hold a really heavy weight at your side, and more interested in you being able to hold a lighter weight overhead with your arm fully extended, biceps alongside your ear, and abs crunched.
And this will boost performance on anything you do with your arms overhead, like pullups.
Start doing overhead single-arm carries. They will muscle up and mobilise your entire shoulder girdle, and improve weaknesses everywhere. And it will upgrade the overall aesthetics of your entire upper body.
- Start or end your workout with 10-minutes of non-stop single-arm carries, switching sides every 25-50 yards or each minute.
- Level 1: Use a 25-pound dumbbell held at hip level by your side.
- Level 2: Use a 25-pound dumbbell held in the "front rack" position at shoulder level.
- Level 3: Use a 25-pound dumbbell held overhead with your arm fully extended.
- Spend at least a month at each level, milking the movement for everything it's worth.