10 Powerful Exercise Pairings for the Minimalist Trainee

If you could only choose two means by which to train your body, what would you pick?

In “Power to the People”, Pavel Tsatsouline busted out the deadlift and the bent press as a minimalist exercise pairing that could deliver fantastic results. He followed this up with the pistol squat and one arm pushup in “The Naked Warrior”. Exercise dualities are something that have intrigued me for some time, and also something I feel are important to occasionally (or often) return to throughout our athletic and training careers.

Just like the check and balance system, and rise and fall of the economy, booms and busts, and even day and night, a fall to minimalism in training exercises at opportune times is essential in our forward growth as coaches and athletes.

The minimal approach has several benefits over performing a myriad of exercises, a few of which are the ability to become intimately knowledgeable about the exercises one is doing, as well as understand the exact adaptations those exercises are creating. There is also a strong mental and psychological component to training a single exercise almost exclusively in one’s regime.

When we have an ever-increasing number of movements in a training program, there inevitably becomes so much noise in the system that it might be hard to notice exactly what is contributing to, or even taking away from, one’s total program results.

For me personally, I thrive on variation in a workout program, and even within a set itself, so it’s useful to contrast my typical mode and explore what happens when less options exist, and that’s part of the reason that I posed this question, and whether myself, or anyone reading this actually goes “all in” on a minimal duality, I think we’re better for at least considering the maximal reduction of our training efforts.

To this end, about a week ago I posed a question on social media as to what two exercises people would choose if they were reduced down to those options. It does make it a little more complicated to just say “dunking”, or “climbing” as an option since there are many different variations of these more complex movements compared to say, doing a Turkish get-up or kettlebell swing. Regardless, I’m trying not to get too far in the weeds of technicalities for this mental exercise.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B-ApsWMJhhT/

In hearing loads of answers to the above post, I tried to pick a “top 10” of exercises, with the following, completely subjective criteria:

I favored exercises were fairly “oppositional” in nature, that tended to work opposing/different patterns and encompass as many total muscles of the body as possible
I favored exercises and patterns that are a little more primal and accessible to most people in minimal situations
I leaned towards higher coordination movements (such as picking hill sprinting over deadlifting) in working similar muscle groups
Finally, I tried to chose exercises that most people would be familiar with and needed no explanation beyond what was written

Here are the top 10, in no particular order. One final note before we get to the list, which is that I excluded answers that were basically “sprints and extreme ISOS” just because there are a lot of different types of extreme isometrics that could be done. This is a great answer, however, I’d just say it goes a little outside of the rules (and this being my article, I get to make the subjective rules) since it’s “kind of” more than two exercises, and we need to keep this simple people!

Top 10 Minimalist Exercise Combinations

Dunks and Sprints

@act100n and @gregmart

It doesn’t get much better at this from a standpoint of high-coordination activities focusing on the posterior chain (sprinting) and anterior chain (dunking), although there could be a strong argument for the posterior chain in dunking and anterior chain in the acceleration portion of sprinting, but I think you know where I’m going with this.

The only weakness here is there is no strong upper body component to this duo, but in terms of doing great work for the lower body in general, I don’t know that it gets much better than this, outside of possibly picking one of the above, and then pairing it with an extreme ISO you need to improve in.

Also, I took the liberty of creating an ultra-minimalist training program for you based on these exercises:

Monday: Dunk

Tuesday: Sprint

Wednesday: Rest

Thursday: Dunk

Friday: Sprint

Sat/Sun: Rest

Please use the “pay what you want” option for this program. Just kidding! Enjoy the vertical jump gains.

Hill Sprints and Sandbag Carries

@podium.performance.bne

I really like this combination; it reminds me a little bit of the one and only Spartan race I did last November. I honestly felt like an athletic human being after that race, which involved a heck of a lot of hill running, and a heck of a lot of carrying sandbags and barrels. The fact that my vertical jump went down about 3” into the next week was unfortunate, but probably more of a result of running up and down hills for 4 miles when I hadn’t run more than 3’ straight in the last few months (I still managed to do quite well overall).

In this scenario, hill sprints are building the power/fast twitch, and the carries work more of the postural supporting muscles as well as intensifying the gait cycle. A win on both counts. If you have a hill and a sandbag, the exact combinations and proportions of work are many. This is a truly awesome combination.

Sprints and Bench Press

@adec150

This one wins the meat-head award, but many of us can use a little bench press in our life, even if it may be “non-functional”. Mead-headedness withstanding, it could be argued that if a track sprinter could pick either a bench press or a deep squat as their only means of weight training, there are some case studies and references in regards to deep squatting and effects on tendons, as well as from a specificity standpoint, that show you could be better off simply bench pressing.

This all being said, there is no shame in this duo, since you won’t end up missing international chest day.

Pull-ups and Hill Sprints

@sivori_strength_school @juanp444 @stubbsfitness

Hill sprints makes another appearance on the list, and this time, combined with pullups. This is a great opposing pair of movements, and although we aren’t really hitting the anterior aspect of the upper body here, I think this combination checks a lot of boxes in regards to high velocity, low velocity, grip strength and a lot of general muscle groups.

Sprinting and Wrestling

@danemitch @chrismiahstrengthconditioning

The combination of sprinting and wrestling is probably the most complete option here in terms of muscle groups worked, as well as totality of human movements and muscles, however if we are looking at things in terms of being an exercise or a movement/sport, then we are bending the rules to put it in this article/list.

I will say, with that in context that it might be my favorite option in light of the rule-bending. In our COVID19 world, it may be hard to participate in this duality while also social distancing, so perhaps some form of Capoeira would need to take its place for now.

Is Capoeira the new future of UFC and combat sports?

Crawling and Sprinting

@jumpinj0

If you checked out the podcast I did with Tim Anderson you may remember one profound message that Tim had, which was that crawling and sprinting were both forms of the gait cycle, it’s just that crawling is gait done while parallel to the ground, and sprinting is gait perpendicular to the ground.

This combo is super-effective, and of all options listed, hits the body from all-angles in the sense of crawling working much more anterior chain, and sprinting more posterior. I’ve even had workouts that have gone something like “Run 100m, Crawl 50m, Run 100m, Crawl 50m, and so on, and it honestly feels way better than just running (or course, I’m not much one for just running extended distances in a straight line, but I think you know what I mean.

Sprinting and Muscle-ups OR Sprinting and Handstands

@dr.brandon.keilman @jeffrey_pt

This was an interesting option here, and one that leans more on the skill end of things. Sprinting and muscle-ups could theoretically hit just about all muscle groups, since a muscle-up hits pecs and triceps towards the top of the rep. Sprints and handstands would be a fun activity, since a handstand is going to always have such a massive skill and balance component to it.

Here’s a cool video that might inspire you in whatever conditions you are in with what is possible in handstand progress.

Sled Push and Pull Up

@coachhop @mcgill_jesse

This is a dream combo for a small-space where sprinting isn’t much of an option (or maybe even if it is) and you happen to have a sled, or at the very least, something to push around. Maybe it’s a car for some people.

The sled push is a great accessory exercise for building the torque end of sprinting, and it can also be used to train the shin-drop that Adarian Barr has been teaching the coaching field about for years. Sled pushes and pull-ups most definitely hit both ends of the spectrum here from an upper-lower split perspective, and on the sled push, you can hit some of what you miss in the anterior upper body from pull-ups.

Climbing and Sprinting

@mattsiniscalchi

Here again is an awesome “high coordination” training option that represented a large portion of my life before I had children and became too busy to get to the rock gym (although I hope to get back some day).

If you can do these two activities, you are really hitting a lot of categories in the training department.

Pistol Squats and Pull-Ups

@herrapalsson

OK, I had to include something that was a little more “gym-bro” in nature, since there are quite a few people stuck in their living rooms who, for some reason beyond my comprehension, don’t enjoy getting out and sprinting as a form of exercise. If you had to take dynamic, natural and functional human movement off the table entirely, pistols and pullups would work well. These could be a nice option as well if you were playing a sport and were just using them as your sole, minimal training piece.

My Choice/Training Duo

In originally writing this bit on social media, I had said something about doing only bounding and handstand holds, but after some consideration, I think doing squatty runs and pushups would be a nice combo that would really attack my weaknesses.

I’m a GREAT bounder, but relatively, a worse sprinter, and when I do my various sprint-bound-sprint-bound combinations, I can easily feel why, and how I’m a step behind in the speed-cadence of sprinting. I’m also very good at pullups (have done 30 pullups and +110lb weighted for one) but am a relatively poor bench presser and could stand some more pushing strength.

Squatty runs are something I learned from Adarian Barr, and as Adarian says, if you want to make something faster, put a squat on it. I become a long lanky “worm” spending years of “running tall” and having high knees and everything that goes with that, so Adarian’s squatty running has been nothing short of a miracle for me, and there are lots of others feeling the difference. Again, you can learn about that exercise and more in my book Speed Strength.

I hope you enjoyed this list, and that it might give you some ideas in your own training. Is there any combination that you think I definitely missed? What are you doing now in your own minimal training scenario? Let me know in the comments below, I’d be happy to hear from you.

About Joel Smith

Joel Smith is an NCAA Division I Strength Coach working in the PAC12 conference. A track coach of 11 years, Joel is also a coach for the Diablo Valley Track and Field Club, and also has 6 years of experience coaching sprints, jumps, hurdles, pole vault and multi-events on the collegiate level.

Joel has coached 2 national champions, multiple All-Americans and school record holders in his time as a track coach. In the realm of strength and conditioning, his programs have assisted 5 athletes to Olympic berths that produced 9 medals and a world record performance in Rio in 2016.

In 2011, Joel began Just Fly Sports as a central platform to promote information for athletes and coaches to reach their highest potential. The first episode of the “Just Fly Performance Podcast” was released in 2016, now a leading source of education in the sports performance field.

Before working in the PAC12 conference, Joel spent 6 years in the realms of coaching, college lecturing, personal training, and thesis research. Joel’s certifications include Neurological and Physical Typing from BATI, CSCS, MAT Jumpstart, and NKT level 1, as well as USA Track and Field credentials. Joel is also well-versed in the Be-Activated protocols as taught by Douglas Heel, and has been extensively mentored by sprint and sport movement coach Adarian Barr.