The only four exercises you really need.

The only four exercises you really need.
If you were to walk into any gym or health club across the country, you would see so many different types of exercises and movements you couldn't even begin to count them all. You might see someone doing curls, or sit ups, or waking lunges, or some strange movement youve never even seen before. As a matter of fact there are more exercise than you'll ever be able to learn and master.

Because of this a common problem arises, people don't know where they should begin when choosing their exercises. Well I'm here to tell you that there are only four exercises that you actually need. With these four different movements you can build a strong, athletic, functional, good looking body. These four movements are: the deadlift, the front squat, dip, and pull up.

 The deadlift is in my opinion the single most important lift. If preformed properly it trains nearly the entire body. It targets the entire posterior chain of muscles on our bodies, this includes but is not limited to the calfs, hamstrings, glutes, spinal erectors, lats, traps, delts, rhombodius, teres major and minor and forearms. With a resumé like that, not deadlifting is just silly. Because of its effects on your posterior chain the deadlift will improve your posture tremendously which will help eliminate back pain and muscle imbalances across your body.

 Next is the front squat. This is a variation of the back squat where
the weight is held in something called the front rack. This simply means across the front of the shoulders. The advantage of this exercise is that it places more stress onto our anterior chain of muscles including but not limited to the quadriceps, and abdominal wall. Also because of the nature of the weight to pull us forward and down when it is in the front rack this exercise also works every muscle involved in thorasic extension, or more commonly know as good posture. This is because in order to not fall forward we must raise our chest and pull our shoulder blades together. In reality the front squat is so much more than a leg exercise.

 Now for an exercise more traditionally thought of as an upper body movement: the pull up. I always recommend that my clients use the pronated grip when they do pull ups; this means palms facing any from yourself. This is because when we do pull ups with palms facing away from ourselves our arms are in a mechanically disadvantageous position, therefore forcing our back muscles to work harder to raise ourselves. So with this one movement we work our entire back and arms. Not too shabby for just pulling yourself up.

 Finally we have the traditional dip. This exercise is an excellent and safe alternative to the often over preformed bench press. By performing dips we work pur triceps, deltoids, and pectoral mucles. These are all the same muscles used in a bench press, however the chance of injuring yourself during a dip is much lower.

 So I've just laid out four exercises that together work every major muscle in our bodies. Now none of these exercises will give you the body of a professional body builder, but they will give you the body of an athlete. A good looking athlete at that.