The New York Time’s Gretchen Reynolds puts herself up for one very tough exercise: finding the best exercise. By “best exercise,” Reynolds means the single best exercise that most people can realistically be expected to do. She considers, for example, the butterfly, which “requires greater energy than bicycling at 14 miles per hour, running a 10-minute mile, playing competitive basketball or carrying furniture upstairs.” Martin Gibala, the chairman of the department of kinesiology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, tells Reynolds that trying to choose a single best exercise is like trying to condense the entire field of exercise science. Having said that, Gibala chooses one: the burpee, in which you drop to the ground, kick your feet out behind you, pull your feet back in and leap up as high as you can. “It builds muscles,” he tells Reynolds. “It builds endurance.” Stuart Phillips, Ph.D., a professor of kinesiology at McMaster University, opts for the squat, which, he says “activates the body’s biggest muscles, those in the buttocks, back and legs.†Phillips says the squat, as well as weight training, is particularly effective compensation for the effects of sarcopenia, the inevitable and debilitating loss of muscle mass that accompanies advancing age. Geezer is on it. What do you think is the best exercise? Click on the comment function below and tell us.
See a demonstration of the burpee in the video below.
Footbiking,hand’s down,(AKA-scootering), it’s what’s for exerise! your experts arn’t there yet so there is much to learn,from 7 to 80,this is where it’s at trust me.
Try pretty much anything with kettlebells. Swing, snatch, whatever. Great for burning fat, building muscle and overall strength & conditioning.
Best exercise: clean and press.
Rebounding, NASA, says is the best bar none.
1)The best exercise is the one you will do.
2)SQUAT
The burpee is a good choice. No equipment required. It will build up endurance and with strict form it will build strength. Something about high reps is good for the body.
Make that clean a full squat clean and I’m with ya!
Almost with Don as long as the clean is a full squat clean + press…but that burpee ain’t bad either!
The “burpee”?? All the time i spent in the military that was called a squat- thrust! Leave it to some physical trainer to give it a different name!:)
The very best exercise is the one that YOU will do consistently.
Hmmm. I’m 62 years old and this is a variation of what we did in elementary school PE classes…….and in high school basketball practices as punishment. Good stuff and it has stood the test of time.
Burpees are a good choice. Requires no equipment, can be done almost any where. Do it with strict attention to form you’ll build up endurance and strength.
When were the pushups added to this exercise? If you could guarantee a body like the girl in the video, at 58, I’d risk smadhing my face into the floor. As is I’m voting for the squats or just running up the stairs 20 times.
There is no exercise like playing soccer to build fitness. Nothing else is close.
Every exercise in all these comments are great, but your body is too beautiful, complex, and multi-dimensional for only one to really be the best. You need to fire slow and fast twitch fibers, strengthen muscles around every joint and bone, work you heart and lungs at low and high intensity, move your lymph, stretch your fascia, bathe your brain in BDNF. Asking what the best exercise is like asking what’s the best food. You are alive. You are the kid in the candy store.
The military has probably been using burpees for 50 years.
Walking is the best hands down. Brisk walking in particular. Nothing builds the Soldier better than strapping on that gear and marching. Walking is what we were designed to do, and do best. Everything gets worked to some degree. Even the mind. Walk. Walking does the body good. Slow, fast, uphill, down hill, and even up those stadium steps for a burn like no other! Nothing beats walking!
Very informative article.. The video sounds great and im gonna share with all my friends..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyr_KC2dbao Thanks for taking time to share with us.. Let me try it soon.. Well done!!!
I agree with you Doug,
Walking is the best and nothing can beat it!
Health benefit of walking
Sustained walking sessions for a minimum period of thirty to sixty minutes a day, five days a week, with the correct walking posture, reduces health risks and has various overall health benefits, such as reducing the chances of cancer, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, anxiety and depression. Life expectancy is also increased even for individuals suffering from obesity or high blood pressure. Walking also increases bone health, especially strengthening the hip bone, and lowering the more harmful bad low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, and raises the more useful good high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol.
Studies have found that walking can also prevent dementia and Alzheimer’s.
Source:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walking
stop arguing, guys. the truth is thas as long as you consume less calories than you burn – you are lean and even ripped. and it doesn’t matter what kind of activity you do: soccer, walking, squats, surfing etc. it’s that simple!