'What's the Single Best Exercise?': A Retort
Never, ever, take fitness advice from the New York Times. We've made this point before. They're always spouting off about getting "thin" with some sort of limp-wristed jogging workout. In neon shorts. In Central Park. When you're not skiing, in Aspen, and then reading the New York Times by a roaring fire, in a resort, sipping on probably some nice Earl Grey, not even thinking about Muscle Milk at all.
That's not hardcore. So it pains us to see the NYT now trying to address the Very Important Question: "What's the Single Best Exercise?" Gretchen Reynolds quotes a variety of tea-sipping "experts" who variously suggest burpees (okay), high intensity interval training (decent), or even—and I hasten to add that this is a direct quote to which someone allowed their name and reputation to be attached in the paper of record—"brisk walking."
Brisk walking.
Only one man (Stuart Phillips, Ph.D.) is both brave and hardcore enough to step forward and speak the true name of the Single Best Exercise in the Whole Wide World: Squats. Glorious squats! And after listing all of the benefits of this all-purpose health builder, what is the final analysis of the New York Times?
But there's something undignified and boring about a squats-only routine.
I am so damn offended right now. As is Super Squats author Randall J. Strossen, Ph.D.—who, in an act of journalistic malpractice, was not contacted for this article.
Nobody needs to walk. Everybody needs to squat.
