The 5 Key Exercises that will Keep You Fit

The five key exercises that I would love to see all of us modern-convenience-loving, chair-dwelling, workaday grumblers incorporate into our lives are:

1. Push-ups
2. Pull-ups
3. Squats
4. Planks
5. Rotations

Now, before you even say it (or tweet it at me), I know many of you are thinking, “But Brock, I can’t even do one push-up” or “I haven’t even tried a pull-up since college!”

Well, never fear. You don’t have to be a push-up master, nor do you need to break the world’s record for the longest-held plank (which was set by a 62-year-old), to do this workout. You just need to be realistic and shake that all-or-nothing atitude. 

Start where you are

There is a quote from author Ijeoma Umebinyuo that goes “Start now. Start where you are. Start with fear. Start with pain. Start with doubt. Start with hands shaking. Start with voice trembling but start. Start and don’t stop. Start where you are, with what you have. Just ... start.”

Start where you are—not where the Internet says you should be, but where we are right now on your very own fitness journey.

I think many of us need to apply this philosophy to our fitness planning. Sure, we're surrounded by workout advice that says “Do 15 reps of this exercise” or “Do 10 reps of that exercise.” But what do you do if we can only do one? Or maybe none? Well, you modify the movement and start where you are—not where the Internet says you should be, but where we are right now on your very own fitness journey.

Let’s break down these five key movements into some manageable versions.

Push-ups

Many push-up beginners go straight to the knee push-up because they are more accessible than regular (or military-style) push-ups. But I think that putting your knees down on the ground changes the geometry of your body too much. When you place your knees on the ground, you basically change the length of your fulcrum—the angle of your lever—and mess with how much your glutes and abs are involved.

Don’t get me wrong, I think knee push-ups are a different and fine exercise, but I think a better way to ease into a push-up is to perform wall or incline Push-ups.

• To perform a wall push-up, stand facing a wall with your toes a couple of feet away. Place your hands against the wall and do the push-up movement.

• To perform an incline push-up...

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