As a fitness community, myself included, we tend to go overboard with fancy stuff and exercises, always looking for the next evolution or advancement. Fitness “oneupmanship” is the new trend. More is better nowadays, as any flick through Instagram will show you.

Naturally, when I notice this in fitness or with myself, I respond by trying to reel it in and get basic. One of my favorite concepts is called Pick 2. Its very simple: pick two exercises and alternate sets of them until you’re done with doing them anymore. Typically they’re more compound moves that involve lots of muscles but they don’t have to be. No set structure- just pick two exercises and do them.

Today it was Front/Back Lunges and Lat Pulldowns…

I did probably 6 or 7 sets, including warmups, ranging from 20 reps down to 5. I started lighter with more reps and increased weight more to less reps on the pulldown while keeping the weight and reps pretty much the same on the lunges.

After about 35 minutes I felt the work had been done and called it a day. A good simple workout. After my 40 Days of Fitness run, chances are I’ll be doing a lot more Pick 2s in the near future…