Over the years I’ve had phases where I did nothing other than pushups. So I’ve actually done the “limited to one exercise” thing before with pushups for a time.
As far as the weight room is concerned I’d agree with Dan John. One can in fact be awesome doing nothing but the clean and press…
But I also say that some form of heavy ass partial in the rack is a solid one exercise choice for just brutishness. I’m partial to a partial front squat (they’re better than partial back squats), or some variation of cheat rack pull work, my favorite variation being a strapped hand and thigh lift into cheat form/body english shrugs.
Of course one could just work a heavy labor job like men of yesteryear, and not give a fuck about exercising.
Labor which brings me to this last bit…
Sled work, if you involve your hands is the closest to labor strength you’ll get in the gym.
While I see people pulling for scientific amounts of time with scientific amounts of weight generally using a hip belt, I prefer to go full retard on these movements.
Firstly I refuse to use less than bodyweight on the sled. Almost always I involve grip by pulling/dragging holding onto a fat bar.
Only once have I used that hip belt. It resulted in this:
315 sled moved for 10 minutes.
Yesterday I did 2 x 3 minute sets with 270 holding on to a fat bar.
In the vein of the 1000lb plate load prowler…
I once pulled a 500lb sled 10-15 yards before having my fingers slip launching myself like a off the rails locomotive towards an unsuspecting personal trainer. Somehow that crash was averted.
So…
Drag/Pull a heavy sled for time holding onto a fat bar. It’s also a damn good choice for one exercise should you only do one exercise for some odd reason and not simply work heavy labor.
With it you’ve got legs, grip, and cardio/GPP/work capacity/whatever rolled all into one fun suck pretty brute force unscientific caveman laborer package.
However this is a silly thought experiment as why would you limit yourself to one exercise?
Even in the most limiting of circumstances (say solitary confinement) you can still do it all with your body alone.
-J