Hey Folks,
I recently put myself through a mental exercise wherein I told myself I had to “pick just one”. In this particular case, it was one bar/piece of training equipment, one food (not meal, but actual food), and one book to guide my training. I figured I’d open this up to others to do the same, and see what we come up with. And feel free to add your own “pick just ones”. I specifically DIDN’T go with “one movement” for this one, but I’ve got a few of those in my mind already, and there may be some more “just ones” I hadn’t even thought of.
My list.
ONE BAR
Open trap bar (ideally the rep fitness brand)
It was watching a video of Alex Bromley squatting with one of these that inspired me in the first place to engage in this mental exercise, because I realized just how AWESOME one of these bars can be. Not only can it do the normal trap bar stuff of trap bar deads, rows, shrugs and presses, but NOW it also functions as a cambered squat bar, along with zercher squats, lunges, and even benching. But can’t a barbell do all that too? Absolutely, but the trap bar ALSO lends itself to farmer’s walks. With this, we cover all of Dan John’s movements (push, pull, squat, hinge, loaded carry), AND, if we’re creative with our set-up, we don’t even need a rack. We can create jerk blocks or stack crates/chairs/whatever to elevate the bar as needed to get it to our backs or in position to press, which means that an open trap bar can be a VERY low footprint gym for those that have space at a premium. I also feel like high rep squats to failure are a bit more viable with this bar, since you can set it down like a yoke rather than have it roll off you like a barbell.
ONE FOOD
Eggs. Oh my goodness eggs are awesome, not just because Gaston ate 4 dozen each morning to grow large and now that he eats 5 dozen eggs he’s roughly the size of a barge. Eggs are THE original superfood.
For one: they’re a complete protein, which is kind of important for a goal of physical transformation, to say nothing of simply STAYING ALIVE due to the whole “essential amino acids” concept. And the same goes for fats: eggs contain all the essential fatty acids we need to survive, let alone thrive, especially if these are some good pasture raised eggs that have a solid amount of Omega 3 in them. The saturated fat in eggs are crucial for testosterone production, and eggs also contain vitamin A, D, E, K, and a whole host of B vitamins. So, already, eggs are awesome, but along with that…
…just like the open trap bar, eggs are like the Swiss army knife of food, because there’s a million different ways to make eggs. Of course, you can Rocky them and just drink them, but you can fry them in SO many different styles (sunny side up, over easy/medium/hard), soft/hard boil them, poach or scramble them, make them into omelets or frittatas, etc. And along with THAT, you can change the macro composition of your egg dish by using either the yoke OR the white in varying degrees. If you want to make it protein heavier, use more whites. Heavier in fats? Use more yolks.
And funny enough, eggs even have a trace amount of carbs in them, for those of you that care about that sort of stuff. They clock in at about .6-.7g of carb per egg, which may seem insignificant, BUT, if we ARE going full on Gaston mode here and eating 5 dozen eggs each morning, that’s 36-42g of carbs, which CAN be enough to stay out of ketosis, if you’re wanting to do just that. AND, if you are antsy about carbs, once again: play around with the whites to yolk ratio. It goes to show the versatility of this one food. And hell: I’ve ONLY been discussing chicken eggs here: there is a whole WORLD of eggs to explore, each with their own unique attributes. I still have it as a goal of mine to one day eat a platypus omelet: made with the eggs, meat and milk of this unique egg laying mammal.
ONE BOOK
To the shock of probably very few: “Super Squats”
It’s a book you can read in an afternoon, but it can set you up for the rest of your life. The book contains THE Super Squats program, for sure, but it also contains an abbreviated version of that program, AND a follow-on 5x5 program to be run AFTER 6 weeks of Super Squats, in order for the trainee to get some time away from the high reps and rediscover some low rep strength while their body recovers. Along with that, it even has some alternative Super Squats protocols listed, to include 2x15, 3x10 and 1x30 approaches for the breathing squat sets. With all this, we already have “programming for life”, for those out there that only ever want to read just ONE book. But wait: there’s more!
The book ALSO contains instructions on how to perform ALL the exercises in the programs, along with alternative exercises that can be used. So, once again: with the alternatives, we open ourselves up to even MORE programming options, and, in some sort of desert island scenario where we have no access to the internet, we STILL have a resource that can teach us HOW to lift.
The book ALSO contains nutritional protocols specifically for achieve the goal of getting bigger and stronger. It lays it out very plainly with simple, quality foods that are primarily single ingredient, not ultra-processed, and wholesome. There’s no calorie counting, macros, etc, just a focus on taking in a large amount of quality food…and, of course, milk.
How about ya’ll? Where do you land on this?
