I love cheesecake. But I can’t stand going out to The Cheesecake Factory.

The food tastes good, I love that pumpernickel, and they have all the cheesecake I could ever want. (In case you were wondering, that equates to all of the cheesecake.)

The menu’s too much. And according to a quick Facebook survey, people seem to agree. (My favorite comments are pictured right.) Menu isn’t even the right word. It’s more like a tome, housing hundreds of different options—about 300. And that doesn’t even include the cheesecake. Talk about information overload.

I can’t handle that many options. I’m already indecisive when I order because it all looks so good. Give me a menu with hundreds of items and ordering becomes overcomplicated.

It’s paralysis by analysis. And it happens everywhere, not just at The Cheesecake Factory.

Whenever we’re stuck analyzing countless options, we’re falling victim to paralysis by analysis.

It happens in the fitness industry all the time.

There are more ways to get fit than anyone could ever use or even need. Google, “how to lose fat,” and you’ll get about 124,000,000 results in 0.59 seconds.

And that’s just searching “how to lose fat.”

You could spend a lifetime analyzing search results. But that’d be a waste of time. And a lot of what you’d find would be full of fluff. Sensational headlines and fancy exercise techniques seem much sexier than the basics.

But the basics produce results.

What Really Makes In-N-Out Burger Great

As a Californian, I’m a wee bit biased, but I think In-N-Out is great. It’s tasty and it comes with all sorts of nostalgia. When I sink my teeth into a Double-Double or slurp down a shake, I’m taken back to high school.

I love In-N-Out, but I’ve had better burgers.

The burgers aren’t the secret sauce behind what makes In-N-Out great. And it’s not their secret sauce either.

Simplicity is what really makes In-N-Out great.

The menu is one of the simplest I’ve ever seen (#sorrynotsorry, Cheesecake Factory). They’ve got four main options—cheeseburger, hamburger, fries, shakes. And that’s all they need.

“Extraordinary results are directly determined by how narrow you can make your focus.”

                                                                                    — The One Thing

In-N-Out focuses on the basics and produces extraordinary results.

It’s time for your exercise program to do the same.

The Basic Movements

When exercise programs stray away from tried and true basics, they become less effective. Do the basics well. See big success. It’s that simple.

The following are the “few things” your exercise program needs. Do these movements well and you’ll see big success:

1. Hip Dominant

Hip dominant movements primarily work your glutes and hamstrings, or backside mechanics. (While I can’t be certain, I like to think that pun was intended.) It’s a basic movement, but rarely performed in day-to-day living. We spend most of our day seated—at our desk, on the couch, and in the car. The result of so much sitting? Muscle imbalance and dysfunctional glutes and hammies.

This is a problem.

Knee and lower back pain, improper movement patterns, and other functional issues are common. Often times, these are a result of inactive or dysfunctional glutes and hamstrings. What’s more, poor glute development makes filling out a pair of jeans downright impossible. Nobody wants a pancake butt.

The fix is simple—hip dominant movement.

Here are some of my favorite hip dominant exercises…

• Barbell:
  • Deadlifts
  • Romanian Deadlifts (RDLs)
  • Hip Thrusters
  • Glute Bridges

• Free weights (dumbbells or kettlebells):
  • Swings
  • Bulgarian Goat Belly Swings (great for learning how to properly do a swing)
  • Single-leg RDLs

• Bodyweight:
  • Single-leg Glute Bridges
  • Single-leg Hip Thrusters
  • Single-leg RDLs
  • Reverse Lunges

• Honorable mentions:
  • Lateral Band Walks
  • Zombie Walks (with a mini-band)

 

2. Pull

Pulling movements primarily work your mid and upper back. There are a bunch of muscles involved in pulling, but a couple of the big ones—literally—are lats and traps. Similar to hip dominant movements, pulling is often underutilized.

For one, we spend the day looking at our phones and typing on our computers. It’s a sure-fire recipe for shoulders that round and necks that tilt.

I bet 75% of you just fixed your posture, or at least noticed it. If you didn’t, take a second to do it. Were you slouched forward? Yeah. Me, too.

Plus, the way a lot of people train adds to the problem. People like working the muscles they can see in the mirror. That’s why in a high school all we did was bench and bicep curls. People often neglect working their back because they focus too much on what they see in the mirror.

But your shoulder health, spine health, and posture need you to pull. And pull often.

Here are some of my favorite pulling exercises…

• Barbell:
  • Deadlifts (Hip dominant and pulling? Yes please.)
  • Bent-over Rows
  • Single-arm Landmine Rows
  • High Pulls

• Free weights (dumbbells or kettlebells):
  • Single-arm Rows
  • Single-arm Statches
  • Renegade Rows

• Bodyweight:
  • Pull Ups/Chin Ups
  • Inverted Rows
  • Muscle Ups
  • Front Levers

• Honorable mentions:
  • Band Pull Aparts
  • Face Pulls (with bands or cables)

 

3. Quad Dominant

Quad dominant movements primarily work the quads. Weird, right? They also work hip flexors, which makes sense. One of the four “quad” muscles, the rectus femoris, is a hip flexor… #science. The simplest example of a quad dominant movement is a squat.

These are essentially the opposite of hip dominant movements.

As such, quad dominant movements are rarely underutilized. In fact, they’re common in everyday life. Things like squatting to sit down and going up a flight of stairs are both quad dominant.

Your quads and hip flexors probably aren’t underactive. But you still want quad dominant movements in your exercise program. Because balance… and boss-like physical performance.

Here are some of my favorite quad dominant exercises…

• Barbell:
  • Back Squats
  • Front Squats
  • Bulgarian Split Squats
  • Pause Squats

• Free weights (dumbbells or kettlebells):
  • Goblet Squats
  • Front-loaded Bulgarian Split Squats
  • Single-leg Squats

• Bodyweight:
  • Bodyweight Squats
  • Forward/Backward Lunges (Lunge forward then backward without touching the moving foot down in the middle.)
  • Single-leg Squats (elevated, knee-tap, or pistol)
  • Sprinting

• Honorable mention:
  • Sled pushes (No sled? A car works too.)

 

4. Push

Pushing movements primarily work pecs, delts, and triceps. Remember those muscles people like working because they can see ’em? These are them—the “mirror muscles.”

Working them is a double-edged sword.

On the one hand, working on pushing looks good when you’re flexing in front of the mirror. True story. But it can add to postural issues if you either push too much or don’t do any pulling.

Hopefully it’s pretty obvious that pushing and pulling are opposites. But that doesn’t mean one is bad and the other is good. They’re both good—better yet, necessary—for building a balanced body.

So heed the wise words of Salt-N-Pepa and make sure you push it.

Here are some of my favorite pushing exercises…

• Barbell:
  • Bench Presses
  • Overhead Presses
  • Single-arm Landmine Presses
  • Incline Presses

• Free weights (dumbbells or kettlebells):
  • Squeeze Presses
  • Single-arm Overhead Presses
  • Weighted Dips

• Bodyweight:
  • Pushups (and all their variations)
  • Dips
  • L-sits
  • Planches

• Honorable mention:
  • Crawling (baby, bear, and Spiderman)

 

5. Getting up from the floor

This is the most basic movement of all. And perhaps the most important.

Every year, more than 25,000 Americans die from falls or fall-related injuries.

Learning to lower yourself to the floor and get back up could literally save your life. Brazilian researchers found that people who had difficulty doing so were more than five times as likely to die during the next six years. (Compared to people who could do it easily.)

Yikes.

This is a big deal. But people rarely practice safely lowering themselves to the floor or getting back up.

That’s why I’m going to teach you a drill to fix that. You’ll get better at getting up from the floor and live longer.

It’s really simple. But instead of telling you how to do it in writing, I want to show you. For one, it’s a video and the dog makes a cameo. That’s a win. But more important, it gets confusing when I try to explain it in writing. Trust me, I’ve tried. The video will minimize confusion and you’ll be able to get started right away.

If you’ve got any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out. I’m here to help.