Use These 10 Exercises to Completely Transform Your Body - With Dr. John Rusin

Shawn Stevenson (0:00)

You are now listening to The Model Health Show with Shawn Stevenson.

All exercises are not created equal. If you want the very best exercises for changing your body composition, for improving your performance, whether this is in your sport or in your life, the very best exercises for injury prevention, all in one, I've got them here for you today. We have an absolute master class with Dr. John Rusin. We're going to go through the top 10 most high ROI exercises that you can do. ROI being return on investment. All right, and I'm telling you again, this is a master class. I'm so inspired. I'm ready to pick something up right now.

All right, I'm so inspired by what I learned today. It's not just about the exercises. It's also about the knowledge contained within them. There's a certain reason why, and he's gonna unlock all of those mental boxes on why this is so valuable, and also talk about scaling it, right? So progressions, regressions, so that every body can take advantage of these top 10 high ROI exercises. Without further ado, let's get to our special guest and topic of the day. Dr. John Rusin is an internationally recognized strength coach and injury prevention expert. With nearly two decades of elite level training experience and advanced degrees in both exercise science and physical therapy, Dr. Rusin has developed performance, regeneration, and aesthetic programs for some of the world's best strength, power, and endurance athletes. Named a top 50 health and fitness expert by Men's Health Magazine, Dr. Rusin took the methods proven at the highest levels of sport and adapted them specifically for everyday people making elite level injury prevention, sustainable health, and lifelong physical performance accessible for everyone.

Let's dive into this conversation with the incredible Dr. John Rusin. We've got the one and only Dr. John Rusin back in the studio. What's up, man? How are you doing?

John Rusin (2:30)

It's good to be back here, man. Thanks for having me again.

Shawn Stevenson (2:32)

Of course, of course. Let's dive right in.

John Rusin (2:35)

Okay.

Shawn Stevenson (2:36)

As a superstar strength performance injury prevention coach, you've got a huge dataset, you've got a huge laboratory to see this stuff.

And there are 10 specific exercises that are incredibly high ROI that we all can be taking advantage of, but most people have no idea about these exercise, or they're not utilizing them. I want to go through these 10 exercises, give them to everybody today so we can take action. As a matter of fact, even just getting a preview to this 10, inspired the hell out of me today. So let's jump right in. So what's the first exercise that can give us a huge ROI that most people are not doing?

John Rusin (3:19)

So number one on this list, and just to make sure everyone's on the same page here, ROI is not risk of injury. That's what everyone thinks. I'm talking about return on investment. And return on investment, it needs to be more clearly defined, like what actually is that? It needs to be accessible to a lot of people, it needs to be safe, and it needs to be wildly effective as well. But when it comes down to those three factors, nothing beats the trap bar deadlift in my mind. I think it's accessible to everybody, it is wildly safe, and it is one of the most effective things that you could possibly do for full body functional strength.

Shawn Stevenson (3:54)

All right, trap bar deadlift. For those who don't know, because most of us know about deadlift, what's the difference between a trap bar deadlift versus a conventional deadlift?

John Rusin (4:04)

So they're two different bars. So you think about the straight barbell, you would have to stand behind the barbell or sometimes in front of the barbell in order to deadlift it up off the ground. But the trap bar is a different shape, is a diamond shape, so you essentially stand in the middle of this specialty bar. Now, it seems very simple, but by standing in the middle of the bar, you actually put your body directly over its center of mass. And that means that you can reduce the amount of stress on the spine. You can maximize muscular recruitment in the quads, the glutes and the hamstrings. And you're actually 20 to 30 percent stronger on the trap bar as compared to the barbell. So just by switching out the bar and doing a hip hinge dominant deadlift pattern, this is one of the best things that most people have not necessarily done a lot of.

Shawn Stevenson (4:49)

This already just makes it for me more accessible and also safer for the average person, but also especially with advanced lifters as well. Because again, there's a lot of value to be found in a conventional deadlift, obviously.