The ONLY 8 Exercises You Need To Build A Lean Physique
Aug 18, 2026
The High Performance Journal Written By Dan Go - August 18th, 2026
When I first started to train, I thought my workouts needed to be like P90x.
In my 20s, I thought I needed to do 100s of different exercises, train 5 days a week, and each workout I set out to be in a pile of my own sweat, swearing Tony Horton's name out of my mouth.
I was wrong, and that way of thinking held me back for years.
What I realized later is that your body doesn't care about exercises.
There are 8 specific types of movement patterns that matter most. When you train these patterns instead of body parts, you get lean faster, you stay injury-free, and you actually enjoy training.
In today's newsletter, I will show you what those movement patterns are so you can simplify your training, avoid distractions, and finally get lean.
You ready? Let's go 🔥
1. The Squat
This exercise hits your quads, glutes, and core, and it's the foundation for everything below your waist.
Your legs also hold the most muscle in your body. Muscle is where most of the glucose from your meals gets stored. Training legs creates a bigger sink to take in all that glucose, making this one of the most underrated things you can do for your blood sugar.
Free weight version: Barbell back squat, front squat, or goblet squat.
Machine version: Hack squat or Leg press.
My pick: I'm a big fan of the Hack Squat. Because it's a machine, it has a fixed path and back support, letting you train deep knee flexion and load the quads heavily with less need for balance and spinal load.
2. The Hinge
Again, a lower body pattern that hits your glutes, hamstrings, and lower back. If the squats hit the front part of your legs, hinges train the back part. These train the muscles you can't see in the mirror, but everyone else sees from behind.
Also, by training this movement properly, you will be protecting your lower back for decades.
Free weight version: Romanian deadlift, trap bar deadlift, or conventional deadlift.
Machine version: Seated leg curl, back extension, or hip thrust machine.
My pick: The back extension has been a revelation for me. It trains the glutes, hamstrings, and spinal erectors safely through hip extension with a stable setup that is easy to load, control, and take close to failure.
A close second is the trap bar deadlift. It puts your body in the best position to deadlift and can be safe for most.
3. The Lunge
Single-leg work fixes the imbalances you built up from decades of sitting and favoring your strong side.
It also builds stability to keep your knees healthy. If you can't do a bodyweight reverse lunge without losing your balance, your body is telling you something.
Free weight version: Traveling lunge, Bulgarian split squat, or step-up.
Machine version: Smith machine Bulgarian Split Squats.
My pick: I have a love-hate relationship with Bulgarian split squats. They are exceptional because they load each leg through a deep range of motion, building your quads and glutes while also improving your balance and stability.
A quick tip is that the straighter you stand and the more you lean forward, the more you hit your glutes and hips.
4. The Vertical Push
This pattern hits your shoulders and upper chest and is one of the best exercises to build your upper body.
It's also the exercise that most people over 40 quietly stop doing, especially as they get older.
Free weight version: Seated dumbbell press, standing barbell overhead press, or landmine press.
Machine version: Machine shoulder press or standing overhead machine press.
My pick: In my gym, we have a standing overhead press machine. I love it because it builds the shoulders and triceps and creates an athletic upper body shape.
The guided resistance lets you train hard and take this exercise close to failure without putting yourself at as much risk as using a barbell.
If you don't have access to a machine like that, then a machine shoulder press would be my second pick.
5. The Horizontal Push
This exercise hits your chest, front delts, and triceps. This one is the one that most "gym bros" do usually a little bit too much of.
Free weight version: Barbell bench press, dumbbell bench press, incline presses, or dumbbell flys.
Machine version: Chest press machine, Incline chest press machine, Chest fly machine.
My pick: I'm a big fan of the incline chest press machine because they build the upper chest, front delts, and triceps to create a fuller, more balanced upper body. A 30° incline is particularly effective for emphasizing the clavicle portion of the pec.
6. The Lat Pull
This pattern hits your lats, biceps, and rear delts and builds a nice V-taper from below that makes your waist look smaller without you losing an inch.
It's also the pattern that most people quit on because they haven't been able to do a pull-up yet.
Free weight version: Pull-ups.
Machine version: Lat pulldown or assisted pull-up machine.
My pick: I love doing weighted pull-ups, but for most people I would suggest the assisted lat-pulldown machine. The adjustable assistance lets you use a full range of motion and progressively build toward unassisted pull-ups.
7. The Back Row
This exercise hits your mid-back, rhomboids, rear delts, and biceps. It's a great exercise to improve your posture and the muscles that make you look like you train when you have a shirt on.
A good rule for back exercises is to do 30% more pull exercises than push exercises. Most people do the opposite, and they wonder why their shoulders are rounded and their posture looks like Quasimodo.
Free weight version: Dumbbell row, barbell row, or chest-supported row.
Machine version: Cable row or chest-supported machine row.
My pick: Chest-supported dumbbell rows are excellent because the bench minimizes low-back fatigue and momentum, allowing you to do focused, controlled loading of the lats, upper back, rear delts, and biceps.
8. Walking
The one that doesn't need a gym, and it might do more for your body composition than anything above it.
Walking burns calories without spiking cortisol, requires zero recovery, and doesn't eat into your training. Most people over 40 are already stress-dominant, so adding harder cardio makes the problem worse.
7000-10,000 steps a day is a good range to aim for daily. I like getting them outside on calls or on my treadmill desk.
3 walking workouts worth trying:
- Japanese interval walking is 3 minutes fast, 3 minutes easy, for 30 minutes.
- Rucking is doing a walk with 10 to 20 lbs in a backpack.
- The 12-3-30 workout is done on a treadmill with the incline at 12 degrees, pace at 3 miles per hour, done for 30 minutes.
A pro tip is to do a light walk after your workouts if you have time. A light walk can take your body from sympathetic activation toward parasympathetic recovery.
Important Note Before Crushing These Exercises In The Gym
Now that you have these exercises, you might be a little motivated to hit the gym and test them out. Awesome.
There is one rule when you do these exercises: the goal is to add more weight or more reps every workout. This is how you build muscle to assist in looking lean.
Eventually, you will hit a point where it gets hard. This is what we call being at the top of your strength curve, and it is exactly when most people switch exercises.
In this case, you are going to be smart and won't. When you change the movement, you go back to the bottom of the curve and start learning all over again. It feels like progress because the exercise is new.
What you change is the size of your progression. Early on, you can add 5-10 lbs. per session and do a lot of reps because you are still finding your ceiling.
Near the top, you can't. Instead of adding 5-10 lbs, you'll be aiming for smaller progressions like 2.5 lbs, 1 lb, even .5 lbs, or doing an extra rep.
You Don't Need More. You Need To Focus On Less But Better.
At this moment, I train 3 days a week, full body, and I'm in and out of the gym in 35 minutes flat. I'm also leaner than I was and in better shape than I was in my 30s, when I was training 6x a week.
The clients who get the best results are the ones who stop trying to chase the next shiny object in the gym and focus on running the same short list for years.
You will get much farther in getting stronger and repeating these exercises over the long haul than constantly changing your workouts every time you hit the gym.
Onward and upward. 🚀
- Dan
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Disclaimer: This email is provided for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute providing medical advice or professional services. The information provided should not be used for diagnosing or treating a health problem or disease, and those seeking personal medical advice should consult with a licensed physician.