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Other/Mixed You can choose 1 exercise for the rest of your life.

Other strength modalities (e.g., Clubs), mixed strength modalities (e.g., combined kettlebell and barbell), other goals (flexibility)
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Michael morrissey said:
If clean and jerk counts as one, I would definitely go for that. All the muscles in the deadlift and basically all the muscles in a military press
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C&J is my favorite expression of power and strength. When technically proficient it allows for massive amounts of weight overhead. It is also a squat, but should not be a press. You use the dip and drive to add projection and elevation the bar and push yourself under the bar into a deep lunge or squat. The jerk is the most explosive movement in sports.

For many years I hardly pressed at all. Many coaches believe in screws up the mechanics of the jerk and snatch. We push pressed and power jerked, but bench press was forbidden. Once I started pressing regularly, strength came quickly because I had great flexibility and stability.
 
Two hands anyhow. It lets you do a bent press, a cheat curl (everyone's favourite!) and then a military press, using a barbell and a kettlebell as the ultimate expression of strength. The stabilisation challenge plus the flexibility is awesome. Obviously if you take the exercise description as literal (put two things above your head however you want) then you can cheat the system and do whatever exercises you want with a pair of weights.


Obviously it's not exactly the most accessible exercise given the amount of practice that goes in to being able to learn all the technical components.
 
Old and interesting thread here.

"Other than the kettlebell swing, that's too obvious a choice."
Why is it actually so obvious... ?

From my own experience and the way I look at it, TGU would be the one I`d choose and swing would come second.
Especially if different variations of the exercise are allowed. There is so much movement in TGU.

Or could one say that TGU is the best exercise if your goal is X, deadlift is best if your goal is Y... etc? For some people walking might be the best one? And how would you define X, Y... ?

If one would do just different variations of the get up, what would he/she miss?
 
Hahaha I seem to recall Dan John once said "deadlift is the answer to the dumbest question in the world" (if you could only do one exercise...?). I'm with Dan!
 
It's been three years since I first answered. I made a good choice last time, at least when it comes to kettlebell exercises. I've become more fond of the barbell lately, and I think the barbell clean and jerk would win this time around.

But I think adding the clean is cheating. Like @jef posted earlier on, it doesn't make sense to make it so that an exercise counts if one doesn't let go of the implement, because that would lead one to pick a circuit of an exercise... like the clean and the press or the clean and the jerk.

I think there is great value in the swing and the clean, no matter the tool, but I have to also confess that doing only either of those exercises would mean that I wouldn't train or exercise that much. I work better in slow gear.

These days I would pick the squat or the deadlift. Barbell would be the tool of choice, because of incremental loading, and, well, loading. I believe the deadlift would be the last man standing, and I would make it a bit harder; do it with a deficit, or with a wide grip, or both.

Snatch grip deficit deadlift it is.
 
MattM said:
Other than the kettlebell swing, that's too obvious a choice.

Mine would be the trap bar deadlift. Second place would be farmers carries.

You get unlimited resistance, just choose the movement.
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If I had to choose just one lift, it would be the clean and push press: a lower body pull, a lower body push (when it gets heavy enough you have to do a full front squat), an upper body pull (no elbow bending, but your back works like crazy anyway) and an upper body push.

If I had to choose just one type of exercise, it would a be long, steady and easy cardio-based one: swimming (which I hate), running, hiking (this is what humans are built to do)...
 
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