Men's Health: The Best Exercises

— -- Exercise trends last about as long as a head of lettuce and offer about as much benefit. But there are some exercises that have been around since the birth of Larry King. And that’s because they work.

We polled exercise researchers, strength coaches, physical therapists, top trainers, an entire C.S.C.S. convention, and a few thick-necked guys and made them vote on the most effective exercises you can do in a dozen different categories, plus the single best one of all time.

Best No-Weight Exercise

The Pushup

What’s great about pushups is that you can do them even though you may be weaker than the Russian ruble. You can start with a few, and over time increase repetitions at a good, even pace that builds muscle in the places that count (chest, shoulders, triceps).

The pushup that impresses: Only the strongest and bravest should attempt a one-arm pushup. Yes, we’re talking about you.

The Best Exercise No One Does

The Clean and Jerk

The clean and jerk used to be a staple move in hard-core gyms.

But it’s making a big comeback in collegiate training rooms.

Go ahead and jerk: Juan Carlos Santana, C.S.C.S., recommends the version below, using dumbbells instead of a barbell.

Start with light weights, and focus on building speed more than building strength. Add weight only when your form is fluid and the move feels natural.

Best Exercise for the Beach

The Arm-Blaster Curl

The arm blaster — a thin strip of metal that hangs from your shoulders and prevents your elbows from moving forward and back during a curl — forces your biceps to work much harder than they would if allowed to swing a little. Consequently, this curl is the best single exercise for working all parts of the biceps with maximum intensity, according to an MRI analysis conducted by Per Tesch, Ph.D., author of Target Bodybuilding.

And the biceps are the best muscles to display on the beach, according to our experts, especially if a rumble breaks out over blanket space. “The stronger your biceps, the faster you can punch,” says Tom Seabourne, Ph.D., a sports psychologist, martial artist, and author of Complete Cardio Kickboxing.

Best Strength Exercise

The Squat

If you aren’t doing squats in your workout, then you don’t have a workout. Squats shape the body and develop performance power, asserts Don Chu, Ph.D., director of the physical-therapy program at Ohlone College in Newark, California.

To get more out of the squat: Focus on squatting deeper, rather than heavier. The key is to descend until your thighs are parallel to the floor, while still keeping your heels on the floor and maintaining the natural arch in your lower back. (Use a light weight until you develop the correct form.) This deeper squat builds muscle faster and is safer for your knees than a squat in which you stop before your thighs are parallel to the floor. When you cut a squat short like that, you turn your knees into brakes. And you know what happens to brakes. They wear out.

Best Exercise No One Knows You Do

Pilates

At least it’s not Suzanne Sommers’s Buttmaster. But what the hell is Pilates? It’s a form of exercise designed by the dancer Joseph Pilates back in the 1920s. The idea is to make the body more stable and injury-resistant by strengthening muscles when they’re in fully lengthened positions, since those tend to be the points at which injuries occur in athletes.

Pilates in private: People who try Pilates rave about improvements in their waistlines. Zayna Gold, who teaches special guy-friendly Pilates classes at the Boston Body health club, recommends the rolldown: Sit on the floor, legs stretched in front of you. Hold on to your legs wherever you can (ankles is ideal, behind the knees more realistic) [A]. Inhale deeply, pull your belly in as far as you can, and roll back, vertebra by vertebra, as you exhale [B], [C], and [D]. Repeat 10 times.

Best Exercise for Health and Longevity

Circuit Weight Training

The beauty of circuit weight training — moving from one exercise to the next with little rest in between — is that you can modify it to achieve lots of different goals. Going faster and using lighter weights can improve heart health and muscle endurance, while doing a slower circuit with heavier weights can build strength and muscle size and speed up metabolism. Research has shown that for men recuperating from heart surgery, circuit training is the safest and most effective exercise to nurse them back to health.

You can turn any workout you do into a circuit. It’s simple: Do all your exercises one after the other, with 15- to 30-second rests in between. Repeat the circuit three times.

Best Exercise Class for Men

Boot Camp

If you’re going to train men to kill, you’re not going to teach them Tae-Bo. “Boot camp develops willpower and determination, which can really help a man achieve in life,” says Ian King, a strength coach who works with Olympic and professional athletes, and author of Get Buffed.

Turn your living room into a boot camp: Along with all the usual military-style exercises you can think of — pushups, sit ups, imperialistic marching songs — Patrick Avon, creator of the Sergeant’s Fitness Program, recommends you try these “arm haulers”: Lie on your stomach, cross your feet, lift your legs, and stick your arms straight out to the sides. Now move your arms up and down 100 times with your thumbs up [A] and 100 times with your thumbs down [B]. Don’t let your hands touch the floor. You’ll work your shoulders, rotator cuffs, and middle-back muscles. If you can keep your feet off the floor, you’ll also work your lower back, gluteals, and hamstrings.

Best Sport for Exercise

Basketball

Basketball players are in great shape because they never stop moving. “Basketball allows you to run, sprint, jump, slide, stop, and then start all over again,” says E.J. “Doc” Kreis, strength coach at the University of Colorado. Another benefit: Basketball requires both “power and power endurance — the ability to repeatedly jump up and down for rebounds and putbacks,” adds Michael Mejia, C.S.C.S., a trainer in New York City.

Power up your rebounding: The rebound doesn’t always go to the player who can jump the highest — it’s the man who can keep jumping the same height three or four times in a row. Try these rim jumps: Stand beneath a basket, leap up, and slap both hands on the backboard, if you can. If not, just grab some net. (If you can’t do that...well, we hear racquet ball is fun.) Land, then immediately hop back up. Keep going for 30 seconds. Rest 3 to 5 minutes, then repeat. Do a total of two to four sets, and do these only two times a week.

Best Fun Exercise

Mountain Biking

Mountain biking uses tons of energy and tons of muscles and takes a ton of balls, and you aren’t even aware of what it’s doing for your body. A 180-pound guy mountain-biking for an hour burns almost 700 calories.

Bring the mountain to you: Mountain biking has a fitness payoff even when you have no mountain handy. Hit the flat road. Riding a mountain bike takes about a third more effort than riding a road bike, largely because of the increased rolling resistance from the fatter tires and the increased weight of the bike. So if your time is limited and you have a choice of bikes, it’s always better to choose the mountain bike, even if you’ll be riding it on the road. Riding 12 miles on fat tires is the equivalent of doing 15 on the skinny rubber.

Best Aerobic Exercise

Running

It’s the most basic exercise you can do, but it’s also the most intense.

To be a better runner: Focus on improving the speed of your strides rather than their length, says Tom Miller, Ph.D., a biomechanics specialist in Salt Lake City. Your front foot should land under your body — rather than out in front of it — and you should push off the toes of your rear leg for propulsion. Another key is to keep your forearms high throughout the run. You should be able to brush your nipples with your thumbs. (And you may possibly enjoy it.)