People spend enormous amounts of time trying to find the best exercise, whether it is walking, running, squats, the butterfly stroke, jump roping or anything else that comes to mind.
Yet, if you ask a number of doctors and physiologist which exercise is the best, you are bound to get a variety of answers.
“Trying to choose a single best exercise is like trying to condense the entire field of exercise science,” Martin Gibala, the chairman of the department of kinesiology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario said to New York Times Magazine.
When pressed for an answer, however, Gibala suggested the Burpee, “one of the foundations of old-fashioned calisthenics,” (and of crossfit!!!)
A burpee consists of dropping to the ground, kicking your feet our behind you and dropping into a push-up, pulling your feet back in and jumping up as high as you can (while clapping your hands together overhead).
Gibala added that, “It builds muscles. It builds endurance; but it’s hard to imagine most people enjoying an all-burpees program, or sticking with it for long.”
I can attest to that as well as anyone who has ever done a workout consisting of burpees. Burpees are one of the most painful bodyweight movements if done correctly and at high-intensity.
However, many physiologists believe that other movements are the best form of exercise. Michael Joyner, M.D., a professor of anesthesiology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. said to New York Times Magazine that, “brisk walking is far and away the single best exercise.”
However, Stuart Phillips, Ph.D., a professor of kinesiology at McMaster University and an expert on the effects of resistance training on the human body “nominates the squat; it activates the body’s biggest muscles, those in the buttocks, back and legs.”
Gibala suggested that one could make a strong case for high intensity training (H.I.T.). Not only is it adaptable to almost any sport, it also aids in reducing blood-sugar levels, and diabetes risks. Gibala also expects that it aids in weight control.
As a person with experience in a variety of exercises, I believe that a combination of each movement is most effective, as long as it is executed as a high intensity. However, I must also attest for the burpee, while I find this to be one of the worst and most painful movements, it is definitely one of the most effective movements, in that it requires the use of your ENTIRE body, from arms to your core, back, glutes and legs...as well as your lungs! Dare you to try it! :)
