5 Exercises You’ll Regret Skipping 10 Years From Now

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Strength training is gaining popularity consistently, but millions are still on the fence about doing certain exercises because they believe in outdated gym dogmas that they have been fed through conventional media or old-school circles.

Avoiding a few movements might not feel like a big deal right now, but you will feel its effects within 10 years. Reaching down to tie your shoes or hauling groceries from the car will start feeling more challenging as your lower back twinges with every hinging movement, and your grip starts to fade.

As a veteran personal trainer with almost two decades of hands-on experience, I deal with clients daily who wish they had followed a more wholesome program.

Contrary to what most people think, strength training isn’t just about improving your physique aesthetics; it’s about building a body that will help you maximize your physical performance and functionality.

In this article, I’ll take you through the five most common exercises that lifters skip, as they find them too challenging or ineffective. You’ll also learn how to incorporate them into your training routine. I like to think of these lifts as an insurance against regret.

Why Aging Doesn’t Pay Fairly

Each year, you are not just adding candles to your cake. There are several hormonal shifts happening in your body that lead to overall health and wellness changes.

The biggest one is that we gradually lose muscle mass, joint stability, and mobility as we age. This process, known as sarcopenia, starts creeping in when you turn 30, and its rate increases by 3-5% each decade. (1)

If you are not mindful of this factor, several simple tasks like climbing stairs or even playing with your kids or grandchildren 10 years from now can become almost impossible.

Forget intense physical activity for a moment. Avoiding certain exercises can also increase your risk of back pain. And developing a poor posture, especially if you spend most of your days hunched over a computer or your phone.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to scare you, but these issues are real, and you must start doing something about them today.

I leveraged my experience training athletes across the fitness spectrum to choose five compound movements that will strengthen your posterior chain, build upper body strength, boost grip and core stability, fix shoulder imbalances, and power up your glutes.

Without any further ado, here are the moves that should be a staple in your training regimen:

Exercise 1: Romanian Deadlifts (RDLs)

RDLs are primarily a hip-hinge movement that can protect your lower back by strengthening your hamstrings and glutes. This can boost your performance in any movement that involves bending and lifting.

Lower back pain is one of the most common issues as people age. It also increases the risk of injuries, poor hip mobility, and leads to imbalances, which can result in falls.

You might be fine if you skip the conventional deadlifts, but avoiding RDLs can be a disaster as you grow older. Since this exercise involves a limited range of motion, it allows you to focus on the target muscles with greater intensity. Here is how to perform Romanian deadlifts with a picture-perfect technique:

• Stand upright with a shoulder-width stance while holding a barbell with an overhand grip against your thighs.
• Take a deep breath and brace your core.
• Slowly push your hips back while lowering your torso towards the floor, keeping your spine straight.
• Prioritize feeling a deep stretch in your hamstrings and glutes at the bottom of your range of motion.
• Drive your hips forward explosively to return to the starting position.
• Repeat for recommended reps.

Remember, the key to maximizing the effectiveness of all the exercises mentioned in this list is to perform them with a picture-perfect form.

Exercise 2: Pull-Ups

If I could only do 10 exercises for the rest of my life, pull-ups would definitely be one of them. That is how effective they are for maintaining and improving your upper body strength and shoulder and overhead mobility.

As a strength training coach and a writer, pull-ups are non-negotiable for me, as they help combat the forward slump that can develop from working several hours at a keyboard.

Although this is a bodyweight exercise, it is incredibly technically demanding. You must do everything right to maximize target muscle fiber activation and subsequent adaptations.

Begin by grabbing a pull-up bar with a slightly wider than shoulder-width overhand grip. Your body should be in a straight line from hands to toes in the starting position. Pull your chin towards the pull-up bar by flexing your elbows and driving them towards your back pockets.

Pause at the peak contraction before slowly returning to the fully extended position. Avoid using momentum by swinging your legs, as it generates momentum and takes away tension from the primary movers.

Holding on to the pull-up bar is one of the most challenging factors in this exercise. Constantly think about squeezing the bar as hard as possible to maintain your grip. This exercise is also incredibly effective for building mental resilience.

Exercise 3: Farmer Carries

A scientific review concluded that handgrip strength is a reliable indicator of overall strength and physical capability, which is often considered a vital sign for older adults. (2)

In my experience, grip strength is one of the first to go as you get older and has one of the biggest impacts on your performance in day-to-day activities.

Farmer carries are relatively straightforward and involve walking with weights in each hand. The simplicity and effectiveness of this exercise make it a perfect fit for most training regimes. Besides building a vice-like grip, this exercise can help improve your core strength and stability and prevent spinal issues over time.

How To:

• Grab a dumbbell in each hand and hold them against your sides.
• Keep your spine neutral, shoulders pulled back, and core braced as you begin walking. 
• Use normal strides to prevent lower back strain.

More advanced lifters can use variations like suitcase carries, which involve holding a weight in one hand while the other is placed on your hip or raised to the side. You could also perform overhead inversions to further test your core strength and stability.

I highly recommend farmer carries for people trying to shed excess body fat, as this exercise can improve your metabolic conditioning.

The best part about this exercise is that you don’t need any fancy equipment for it. You can do it with kettlebells, sandbags, or even barbells if these are the tools available to you in your garage gym.

Exercise 4: Face Pulls

Most lifters treat rear delts as an afterthought; however, this is a blunder.

Face pulls are an exceptionally powerful exercise for fixing hunched shoulders and keeping them mobile and pain-free. Hunched shoulders from desk work can exacerbate neck pain and lead to shoulder muscle imbalances, which can limit overhead mobility and hamper your posture in the long term.

Lifting too heavy is one of the most common mistakes that I see people make while performing this exercise. Don’t let your ego get the better of you.

Adjust the cable pulley at face height and fasten a rope attachment to it. Grab the ropes with a neutral grip, with your palms facing each other. Take a big step back so that the cable is taut in the beginning position.

While keeping a neutral spine and core braced, pull the cable by flexing your elbows and driving them behind your ears. Spread the rope wide during the lifting phase and pause at the top of your range of motion for a sharp contraction.

Slowly return to the starting position and stretch out your shoulders to maximize delt activation.

People training at home can use a resistance band for this exercise and attach it to a sturdy surface like a door frame.

Many of my clients report improved shoulder mobility within four weeks of adding this exercise to their training routine. Imagine what performing it consistently for 10 years can do for your shoulder health.

Exercise 5: Hip Thrusts

Glutes are the biggest muscle in your body, and you’re inviting trouble by neglecting to train them. Hip thrusts can help build a strong and powerful derriere, which improves your physique aesthetics and can reduce strain on your knees and back.

Technique Guidelines:

1. Sit with your back against the long side of a flat bench and place a barbell across your hips with your legs fully extended and placed on the floor.
2. Wrap a pad around the barbell for comfort and grab it outside your hips for balance.
3. Place your feet flat on the floor and focus on using your shoulder blades as the only point of contact with the bench.
4. Drive your hips towards the ceiling so that your body is in a straight line from your head to your knees at the top.
5. Slowly return to the starting position while focusing on contracting your glutes throughout the range of motion.
6. Repeat for the recommended reps.

This exercise is a must-do if you are an athlete and your sport requires explosive power or quick direction changes, for example, in running, hockey, or football.

Things To Consider

As you might have realized, all five exercises are mainly posterior-chain focused, and this is not a coincidence.

Most lifters tend to focus on the mirror muscles. For the uninitiated, these are the ones that you can look at directly in the mirror while training them, for instance, chest, biceps, shoulders, and quads.

Many of my beginner clients tell me that they have a hard time developing a mind-muscle connection with their posterior chain muscles (back, glutes, and hamstrings).

This makes many of these folks skip training these muscles altogether because they feel that they are not making any progress, even when they work them. Sticking to this mindset can lead to significant strength and muscle imbalances in the long term, hampering your day-to-day and athletic performance.

Incorporating These 5 Exercises in Your Routine

When discussing fitness, it’s essential to think long-term, which is why we’re examining the effects of skip insert exercises over a 10-year period.

It might be enticing to start doing all five exercises from your very next workout, but this can be counterproductive and lead to exhaustion and overtraining.

You don’t need to perform all these exercises in a single workout or even in the same week. Begin by re-evaluating your training split and finding any gaps that could cause injury or limit your functionality. Beginners should seek an experienced trainer’s help for this exercise.

I have my clients perform these exercises according to their usual split. If a trainee is following a bro split, I have them perform RDLs and hip thrusts on their leg days, pull-ups on back days, farmers carries on arm days, and face pulls during shoulder days.

While newbies should focus on mastering the movement mechanics of each lift, intermediate and advanced lifters can challenge themselves by employing advanced variations of these movements to challenge their muscles and unlock their maximum potential.

Conclusion

Functional exercises like Romanian deadlifts, pull-ups, farmer’s carry, face pulls, and hip thrusts can be incredibly potent for improving your strength, mobility, and functionality as you grow older.

Consistency, dedication, and discipline are the most important factors when it comes to making consistent progress in the gym. Remember, you have enough time. Start small and gradually increase the training volume, intensity, and frequency as you gain more experience. Best of luck!

References:

Fitness Volt is committed to providing our readers with science-based information. We use only credible and peer-reviewed sources to support the information we share in our articles.

1. Larsson L, Degens H, Li M, Salviati L, Lee YI, Thompson W, Kirkland JL, Sandri M. Sarcopenia: Aging-Related Loss of Muscle Mass and Function. Physiol Rev. 2019 Jan 1;99(1):427-511. doi: 10.1152/physrev.00061.2017. PMID: 30427277; PMCID: PMC6442923.
2. Vaishya R, Misra A, Vaish A, Ursino N, D’Ambrosi R. Hand grip strength as a proposed new vital sign of health: a narrative review of evidences. J Health Popul Nutr. 2024 Jan 9;43(1):7. doi: 10.1186/s41043-024-00500-y. PMID: 38195493; PMCID: PMC10777545.

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