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There are all kinds of exercises out there. Some are super specific and only target one muscle group, like the chest and hamstrings. Others are more “inclusive”, sometimes to the point of covering nearly all muscles in the body.
This article is about the latter. Below, you can find our selection of the top 10 full-body exercises you can try right now, covering all of your strength development, endurance, and cardio needs.
In the table, you can find some general information on our 10 best full-body exercises, listed in no particular order. Below, we will take a closer look at each one of them.
| Exercise | Full-body? | Main muscles | Main benefit |
| Deadlifts | Yes | Glutes, Hamstrings, Core, Lower back, Upper back | Foundational strength movement |
| Squats | Yes | Hamstrings, Glutes, Quads, Core, Lower back | Natural hormone boosters |
| Burpees | Yes | Glutes, Quads, Calves, Core, Shoulders, Arms, Chest | The most complete full-body exercise in terms of muscle activation |
| Kettlebell swings | Yes | Glutes, Hamstrings, Core, Shoulders | Explosiveness & cardiovascular health |
| Clean and press | Yes | Legs, Back, Core, Arms, Shoulders, Upper chest | Challenging, even for pros |
| Pull-ups | Just the upper body | Lats, Biceps, Shoulders, Core | Really makes you stronger, not just bigger |
| Push-ups | Just the upper body | Chest, Triceps, Shoulders, Core | Scalability & number of variations |
| Farmer’s Walk | Yes | Traps, Shoulders, Core, Legs | It’s like walking (and does wonders for your grip) |
| Lunge | Mainly for the legs | Glutes, Quads, Core | Amazing unilateral workout |
| Rowing | Yes | Legs, Arms, Back, Core | Feels natural & targets virtually every muscle in the body |
Deadlifts are the perfect exercises to make your whole body feel alive, as they target several muscle groups in the legs and upper body. Depending on the variation, deadlifts offer different levels of dynamism and muscle activation. They’re often listed as one of the most complete types of exercises because they increase both strength and posture.
Research has shown that deadlifts are a “foundational strength movement” because they mimic a natural human motion, are based on core stability, and engage virtually all muscles in the posterior chain: glutes, hamstrings, core, and lower and upper back. Scalability is another big plus, as deadlifts can be performed with various equipment and levels of weight.
If deadlifts mimic a “natural human motion”, what can we say of squats? This fundamental, all-time classic provides a similar level of muscle engagement, hitting the hamstrings, glutes, quads, core, and lower back.
Squats also have the unique characteristic of being a natural hormone booster. Artificial boosters like testosterone boosters are often used to increase muscle strength and endurance, meaning squats don’t just improve your gains physically, but hormonally. However, you need to know how to do them…
After all, a study on the endocrine response of barbell squats determined that, to drive some kind of significant hormonal response, you need to train at least six sets of squats:
“The 6 sets of squats seems to drive hormonal responses of GH, C and IGF-1, which may play a significant role in stimulating muscle growth and tissue regeneration.”
The burpee… It’s the kind of exercise that can drive people to exhaustion and make them quit on that HIIT YouTube video mid-training. However, burpees are hard for good reason, serving as one of the ultimate bodyweight full-body workouts anyone can try.
Burpees have one main flaw: limited scalability. Apart from that, they are arguably the most complete full-body exercises out there. Why? Because they’re sort of an all-in-one squat, jump, and push-up! They also have the advantage of being appropriate for athletes of all levels, from complete beginners to bodybuilders.
Not the best exercise for mass development, burpees make up for it by being outstanding for building endurance and losing fat. So, if you’re looking for proper full-body conditioning (focused on cardiovascular health and endurance), burpees are the way to go.
When a workout is dynamic, it has a much better chance of serving as a great full-body exercise. Compound and explosive movements force several muscle groups to engage, and few routines do this as effectively as kettlebell swings.
Kettlebell swings are driven by the hips, but are mainly designed to target several important muscle groups at once (namely, the glutes, hamstrings, core, and shoulders). Just like burpees, kettlebell swings double down as a super-effective cardio exercise, meaning they can do wonders for your cardiovascular health.
Our fifth recommendation is perhaps the most unique in the list, as the clean and press is a workout so hard to master that it was removed from Olympic weightlifting “due to excessive loosening of lifting form“. If you focus on form rather than weight, though, the often-forgotten clean and press stands tall a one of the most complete full-body workouts out there.
Why? Well, the clean and press is a compound exercise involving two different movements:
Going literally from the ground to above the head, this highly complete combination of movements ends up activating virtually all essential muscle groups in the body: legs, back, core, arms, shoulders, and upper chest. The only disadvantage of the clean and press is, as mentioned, the difficulty level.
Unlike the exercises we’ve discussed before, the pull-up isn’t exactly a full-body workout, as it doesn’t cover any muscle groups in the legs. Yet, as a complete upper-body workout, pull-ups are pretty much impossible to beat, activating the lats, biceps, shoulders, and core with the sort of intensity that will leave your muscles burning after 5-10 reps.
If you want to get a stronger grip, the pull-up is one of the best exercises around, as the movement can demand a lot from your wrists. Pull-ups are also a great indicator of one’s actual strength, and that’s probably why they’re included in the U.S. Army Fitness Test.
If you’ve never tried pull-ups, we’re not gonna lie to you: they can be challenging for beginners. However, they can do wonders for your form in the long term as long as you accept that they have a steep learning curve. Even if you struggle to do one pull-up, be patient, don’t give up, and accept that hardships will only make you stronger.
Also known as “everyone’s first workout”, push-ups are another upper-body-only exercise worthy of an entry on our list. They’re massive on the chest, triceps, and shoulders, and they can be one of the most effective core routines around as soon as you find some creative ways of adding weights to the process (like adding pilates plates to your back or wearing a weighted vest).
Incredibly scalable, push-ups offer countless variation possibilities. So, once normal push-ups get a little bit too easy for you, you can dive right into alternatives like the one-arm push-up to make things challenging again.
Benefits are also worth considering, as push-ups increase endurance and core stability while also making your upper-body muscles bigger. Their “holistic” ability to strengthen the entire upper body on so many different levels is what makes push-ups a perfect full-body exercise.
Walking is a great full-body exercise, but it’s seen more as part of a healthy lifestyle rather than a proper gym workout. The reason is obvious: while the amazing benefits of walking are well-documented, just walking isn’t going to make any experienced athlete sweat.
That’s when the Farmer’s Walk steps in. This exercise consists of walking, but with weights. The result is a combination of all the benefits of walking with an added emphasis on strength development. And the best part is that, much like the clean and press, the Farmer’s Walk involves virtually all muscle groups in the body.
Scalability is also a big plus, as you can both increase the weights you’re carrying and cover longer walking distances over time (soon enough, you can even Farmer-Walk while doing your chores!).
The only unilateral workout to make it to the list, the iconic lunge focuses on activating all essential leg muscles one side at a time. When weights are added, the exercise’s effectiveness increases, forcing the glutes, quads, and core to step up their game.
Lunges can also involve jumps, and jump training happens to be a very complete endurance workout. Studies show that jump training is so good for endurance that it can improve physical fitness and athletic response even in experienced runners.
Oh, and as anyone who’s ever taken a tumble in between lunges knows, lunges are also great for improving balance!
To end things with a blast, rowing, a full-body workout by all means (involving the legs, arms, back, and core). A beast when it comes to conditioning, this exercise checks all the marks, serving as a great endurance booster, posture enhancer, and low-impact cardio routine.
Just like burpees, rowing can improve cardiovascular health, and, just like the Farmer’s Walk, can be scaled both in terms of weight and duration (people often consider rowing to be a meditative exercise because you can do it for hours if you feel like it).
In conclusion, Rowing is as full of an exercise as full-body exercises get!
Our bodies are one, so why not make the most of full-body exercises to activate your body as one? Engaging multiple muscles at once and delivering different degrees of explosiveness, the exercises above can make you stronger, healthier, and more beautiful.
However, a true full-body workout isn’t just a collection of full-body exercises. For you to get where you want to be, it’s best to commit to training routines carefully developed by industry experts. You can find them on our programs page, which includes everything from pull-up programs to 5-day workout splits.
Compound exercises are great for the whole body because they hit various muscles and joints at once and often combine strength and endurance development. However, choosing the number-one best exercise for your whole body isn’t as black and white as that, as it depends on your specific goals and physical condition.
The number of times you should do full-body workouts depends on your form and goals. For beginners, experts recommend no more than three weekly workouts; for advanced athletes (like bodybuilders), it’s okay to do full-body workouts up to six times a week as long as they are programmed correctly.
The classics are the classics for good reason… Popular bodyweight exercises like squats, push-ups, and planks are perfect daily routines because of their focus on several muscles (without putting much strain on a single one) and high level of scalability.
There’s no right day to train a body part (like, your legs won’t get bigger just because you’re training them on a Monday). Also, there’s no reason why one body part should be trained daily in favor of others, as our body is a holistic organism where all muscles play an important role.
Experiment with any full-body workout that covers all of the following: engaging multiple muscles, increasing your heart rate, and building endurance. Do you need a good full-body cardio exercise? Try rowing or kettlebell swings.
Want to get stronger, leaner, and take your fitness to the next level? Explore our workout programs now!
