The Easiest Beginner Workout You Can Do

The Easiest Beginner Workout at a Glance

Struggle to stick with a workout program
Start with one exercise to create an exercise habit
Set priorities to choose the one exercise to which you will commit
Can add other exercises, but only commit to one

The One Exercise Beginner Workout

That’s right. You can’t get more “beginner” than this. The purpose of this beginner workout is to develop a habit of intentional exercise. It’s a part of the overall DS4H fitness plan. Choose one – and only one – exercise you will commit to do every day. And you do only one set to failure (when you can’t do another rep without maintaining decent form) You don’t have to do the same exercise every day, but to start out it’s best to alternate between no more than two exercises during the week. For example, you can do planks one day and push ups the next.

Why Just One Exercise?

The most important thing you can do to develop a lifetime of fitness is to make exercise a habit. I can’t count how many times I started with “a simple 20-minute workout” I couldn’t stick with. I was too busy, made myself too sore, or just plain didn’t feel like it some days. It wasn’t until I committed to one – and only one – exercise a day that I was able to turn it into a habit. It was easy to come up with excuses for not doing 20 minutes of exercise. Those excuses evaporate when it is one exercise that takes less than one or two minutes. You can read about our strategy for building healthy habits HERE.

Another reason a lot of folks don’t stick with an exercise plan is that they overdo it the first time or two and get so sore they can’t move the next day. So they take a few days off. Only after those few days have passed they don’t resume the exercises. If you do just one set of one exercise to failure, that is far less likely to happen.

Finally, it’s easy to measure the effect of your progress. This is why I recommend that you alternate between no more than 2 exercises. If you do push ups one day and planks the next, you’ll be able to see more rapid progress in terms of the number of reps or length of time you can hold the position. By working arms one day, pushups another, core another day and legs yet another day, you won’t see progress as quickly. For many people, and I’m one of them, seeing progress is a much better motivator than working toward a goal.

Choose the Exercise(s) for Your Beginner Workout

There are countless exercises you can start with. And making that decision can be overwhelming. So the first thing you need to do is determine your level of functional fitness. Check out THIS ARTICLE to see if you can still perform everyday tasks without feeling like you’re going to die.

Once you have determined your fitness level, you can set your fitness priorities. Do you have joint or muscle pain? You might want to find exercises to help with that. Do you get out of breath easily? Then you might want to work on cardiovascular exercises. Or maybe you want to find an exercise that helps you develop strength and stamina. The best exercise I have found for that is the infamous burpee. Here is a video that has great options for burpee beginners.

You might want to experiment with some different exercises before landing on the one(s) you want to commit to. Only you can find the optimum balance between something that is easy enough to be comfortable doing every day and challenging enough to improve your fitness level.

Backup Exercises

Although you will want to commit to just one exercise a day, it doesn’t mean you have to do only one exercise. After about 2 weeks of doing push ups, I started feeling stronger and wanted to keep going with my workout. So I added bicep curls. On plank days I would add reverse planks.

Let me be clear. You can do as many exercises as you want with this beginner workout plan, but only commit to your primary exercise for each day. That way you are far less likely to talk yourself into doing nothing. I started this strategy a year ago, and there are still days when I just do one set of one exercise to failure.

Now go out there and Do Something for YOUR Health.