Project Zomboid – What Is the Best Exercise to Do?

Exercising is the safest way to earn XP for your Fitness and Strength skills, as you can do it without facing the undead and whenever you’re free.

So, what are the best exercises to do in Project Zomboid?

Recommended Read: How to Connect a Generator in Project Zomboid

The best exercises to do in Project Zomboid are burpees, push-ups, squats, and dumbbell presses.

Table of Contents

• What Is The Best Exercise to Do in Project Zomboid?

What Is The Best Exercise to Do in Project Zomboid?

Since exercise is optional in Project Zomboid, you can do it whenever you want to.

Exercising increases hunger and thirst, so pack some foods and water in your inventory to eliminate these negative moodles.

To exercise in Project Zomboid, select the “Exercise” tab in the Health panel (H), choose your desired exercise, and select “OK”.

There are 4 aspects to consider when choosing the exercise to do:

• The XP earned for each rep of the exercise.
• The repetition per hour: the lower the reps, the less endurance is reduced, and vice versa.
• Exercise requirements.
• Fatigue accumulation.

Each exercise targets different parts of your character’s body, which fatigues them afterward.

Exhaustion in the trunk (upper body) reduces melee damage and attack speed, and you’re more clumsy if your legs are too tired.

Although exercising is effective in leveling up Strength and Fitness skills, after reaching level 7, the effect of exercising seems to be limited due to the poor XP given.

In our opinion, the best exercises to choose among the 7 available exercises in Project Zomboid are:

1. Burpee (Strength & Fitness)

Burpees stand out as the best exercise to do in Project Zomboid.

Besides being the only exercise that grants XP for both Fitness and Strength simultaneously, burpees require no additional equipment.

With each burpee, your character gains 3.2 XP for Fitness and 4.8 XP for Strength. In 1 hour, your character can perform burpees 60 times, gaining 192 XP for Fitness and 288 XP for Strength.

It’s worth noting that the trade-off includes a 21% loss in endurance (from 100% to 79%) in 10 minutes.

However, burpees induce fatigue across the entire body rather than a specific body part. So, while it’s an efficient exercise for building your character’s passive skill, be prepared for some exhaustion.

2. Push-up (Strength)

While push-ups might not offer the highest Strength XP gains compared to bicep curls and dumbbell presses, they have their own advantages, such as simplicity and improvement.

For every single push-up you perform, you receive 6 XP for Strength. As a result, after an hour of completing 114 push-ups, you earn a total XP of 684 (at level 5 default Strength skill).

Nevertheless, in 10 minutes of push-ups, you’ll experience a substantial 30% reduction in endurance, making it the exercise that loses the most endurance without requirements.

Additionally, push-ups cause fatigue in your arms and chest, impacting how fast you attack with melee weapons.

3. Squat (Fitness)

There are only 2 exercises that gain XP for the Fitness skill (aside from burpees), and squats are the better option than the other choice (sit-ups) because they provide double the amount of XP per repetition.

Each squat gives 4 XP. You can do 60 squats in an hour, resulting in 240 XP in total.

Compared to push-ups, squats have a lower impact on your endurance.

Specifically, doing squats for 10 minutes consumes 15% of your endurance, meaning you can extend your workout with more squats or additional exercise without getting tired quickly.

Speaking of the downsides, squats cause fatigue in your legs, resulting in a slower pace and a higher risk of falling.

4. Dumbbell Press (Strength)

Among the 3 exercises that require equipment in Project Zomboid (barbell curls, dumbbell presses, and biceps curls), the dumbbell press benefits you the most.

Although these 3 exercises offer the same amount of Strength XP per repetition (7.2 XP), the dumbbell presses outperform the others within an hour of doing them, reaching the maximum of 777.6 XP.

In comparison, barbell curls result in 561.6 XP, and dumbbell curls grant 604.8 XP.

This result is due to the number of repetitions of each exercise per hour.

Specifically, you can perform dumbbell presses for 18 reps in 10 minutes, while the number of reps you can do for barbell curls and dumbbell curls is, respectively, 13 and 14.

Nevertheless, the higher the rep, the more significant the endurance reduction, and the dumbbell press is no exception.

Dumbbell pressing in 10 minutes leads to a 33% reduction in endurance, while dumbbell curls cause a 25% reduction, and the number of barbell curls is 23%.

Additionally, dumbbell presses exhaust your chest and arms, making it less effective in swing melee weapons.

Furthermore, finding a dumbbell to perform this exercise can be challenging, as they are not very common in the game world and add weight to your inventory.

Those are the best exercises to do in Project Zomboid.

Have any suggestions for this guide? Let us know in the comment section below.