What Is The Best Exercise?
The best exercise – what is it and how do you know if you are utilizing it? Unfortunately, there isn’t one best answer to this question.
Generally speaking the best exercise is the one you enjoy doing. If you like to bike but do not like to jog, naturally you should not force yourself to jog. It is more important to stick with exercises you enjoy; this factor dramatically increases the likelihood of you sticking with your program. Setting goals for your exercise program will also help you decide which is the best exercise. The exercise should match what you are trying to accomplish. For example, if your goal is to run the next 5k you need to focus your efforts on aerobic training, the majority being running. If you are looking to become more healthy or lose weight, you need to have a combination of resistance and aerobic training in your program. It is important to build muscle to boost your metabolism and you need the aerobic training to burn calories. In this case it is important to choose exercises you enjoy and that will provide high exercise motivation. If your goal is to gain strength you need to hit the weights. High reps light weight for toning and lower reps heavier weights for getting stronger. If you are looking to target individual muscles there are specific exercises that are better than others. Researchers have used electromyographic (EMG) testing to evaluate the effects of the muscle while performing an exercise. The test specifically measures muscle activation. Obviously, the exercise that recruits the most muscle would be considered the best exercise for that particular movement. The following is a list of exercises that EMG research has shown to have high muscle activation relative to the specific muscle group.
These were the best exercises at the time of the study. As with anything change is always taking place. New exercises are being developed and new machines are being designed. Use this list as a helpful guideline of quality exercises to include in your resistance program. The key point - exercise of any type is better than none so choose what you enjoy and keep exercising. With that being said, the list I created above was based on studies created outside of an actual gym. Experience tells us that once we are out of the classroom and into real life situations, the studies do not always hold true. You've spent a lifetime in the gym, how would you like to share some of your best exercies with the rest of us?
Have A Great Exercise to Add to the List?What's your best exercise? Do you have something you would like to share that has given you great results? Your Favorite ExercisesClick on the links below to see some of the great exercises that have been submitted.....
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