What makes rowing popular with elite athletes and CrossFitters is exactly what many in the general fitness population dislike about it: your weaknesses cannot be hidden on the rowing machine. It is a human polygraph of physical and mental performance. Stroke for stroke, you are provided with feedback that both reveals any weak spots and very visibly demonstrates the relationship between performance and proper technique.  —Angela Hart, "Rowing Technique," CFJ

“The goal in your pull-up work is 'more.' You want, you need, more pull-ups. The more you can do, the stronger you become. Muscular endurance, absolute strength, relative strength—whatever you want to define and measure gets better. Every personal-best pull-up is an event worthy of celebration. You’re going to live to be 100, but you’ll not get that many pull-ups, so treat the new ones like birthdays.” —Greg Glassman

In an earlier time, the push-up was largely regarded as a measure of a person's strength and fitness. In more modern times, much of this reputation has been passed on to the bench press, but the push-up’s passing misses the great opportunity to master a gateway movement to one of the most developmental progressions in all of fitness.

The squat is a beautiful, natural movement. It demands midline stabilization, posterior-chain engagement and core-to-extremity movement, and it can be used to move your body weight or very large loads held in a variety of positions. At one end of the spectrum, the squat is an essential component of weightlifting and powerlifting, and at the other end, the squat is essential to getting off a toilet seat. Regardless of what the problem is, the answer is to squat.