The Beginner’s Guide to Strength Training (Part 6 of 30): Movement Patterns

In Part 2 of the series, we explained that strength training is based on movements – not muscles – and that exercises should target several joints and muscles at the same time. That way, we don’t miss any body parts, develop overall stability and coordination, and train for functionality.

Now, there are hundreds of different exercises at our disposal — how should we categorize them? By muscles worked? Well, a barbell row targets the trapezius, but it also targets the biceps, the rotator cuff muscles, the rhomboids, etc. How about planes of motions? (There’s only three.) What will make it easier to design a balanced program?

If we look at a barbell row, for example, it involves a pulling motion — a horizontal pulling motion. And when we look at other exercises with horizontal pulls, almost all of them target similar muscles to varying degrees.

Bingo.

Movement Patterns: The Breakdown

Ultimately, to create structure and order within our program, we need to classify each multi-joint exercise by their movement patterns — a blend of their direction and functionality. There are seven movement patterns we will discuss today that should all be included to create a balanced program to train everything.

I’ll also list a few common and effective exercises for each category. (If you’re unsure about an exercise – what it looks like, technique, or safety – leave it comment because I’ll be able to help.)

Listed in no particular order:

Knee Dominant

What It Is

Also known as a “lower-body push,” these are leg exercises that use greater range-of-motions (ROM) at the knee. As a result, it targets your knee extensors (quadriceps) and other synergistic muscles. It uses the squat and lunge patterns of the body and is one of the best ways to build great overall strength.

Exercises

• Front squat
• Back squat
• Overhead squat
• Split squat
• Siff squat
• Step up
• Forward lunge
• Reverse lunge
• Bulgarian split squat
• Lateral squat

Hip Dominant

What it is

Also known as a “lower-body pull,” hip-dominant exercises are leg exercises that use much less ROM at the knee, but more at the hip. Targeting hip extension, this strengthens the powerful muscles of the glutes and hamstrings.

It also trains yourself to properly bend over, shift your weight posteriorly, and maintain a neutral back, which is important both inside and outside the gym. Make sure to keep the lower spine neutral as this helps keep the force on the hips, maintain a healthy spine, and teach a good “hip-hinge.”

Exercises

• Pull-throughs
• Deadlift
• Sumo deadlift
• Romanian deadlift
• Single-leg Romanian deadlift
• Good morning
• Hip Bridges
• Kettlebell swing

Horizontal Push

What it is

Want a big chest and strong arms? Then these exercise need to be in your workout program. These are movements where you push something away from you (or yourself away from something) in a forward direction. They are, however, extremely common for most trainees — for optimal health and safety, balance this movement with a lot of horizontal and vertical pulls.

Exercises

• Pushup
• Bench press
• Incline bench press*
• Decline bench press
• Cable press

* depends on the angle. Too high of an incline will be more of a vertical push.

Horizontal Pull

What it is

Pull something in front of you toward your body — pull your shoulders back, push your chest forward, and let your shoulder blades slide together.

Great for developing a strong upper-back, horizontal pulls are also important because most people have poor posture. Nowadays, we spend so much time with our hands in front of us – on a computer, driving, at a desk, eating, etc – that our shoulders round forward; instead, we need to work our opposing muscles to bring our body back to neutral.

Horizontal pulls also strengthen our shoulder stabilizers, rotator cuff muscles, and shoulder health.

Exercises

• Cable row
• Inverted row
• Bent-over row
• T-bar row
• High-incline bench press
• 3pt row

Vertical Push

What it is

Push overhead — that’s it. These exercises sculpt a strong, sexy upper body with big traps and shoulders. It’s also builds great core strength because pushing and holding a heavy weight overhead requires a lot of stability from the ground up.

Like the horizontal push, vertical pushes develop the triceps because it trains elbow extension. You can also use more weight that with an isolated exercise like a tricep pulldown.

Exercises

• Military press
• Barbell overhead press
• Scaptions
• Push press

Vertical Pull

What it is

Pull something from above closer to you. These build great strength at your latissimus dorsi, back, biceps, forearms, and shoulders. Vertical pull strength is also correlated to shoulder stability and health.

Exercises

• Pullups
• Chinups
• Pulldowns*

* you can vary the stances or grips

Core Training (also “Twist” or “Rotational”)

What it is

Okay, so this isn’t really a movement pattern — with proper core training, your torso actually remains stable. It’s just a way of classifying exercises that challenge the torso with flexion (forward-bending), extension (backward-bending), or rotation.

Why most people do it wrong

Most people strengthen their core with too much twisting, bending, and extending. But the muscles in your core – the obliques, rectus abdominis, transverse abdominis, pelvic floor, etc – are designed to keep the spine and organs of your lower torso safe and stable.

Rather, we should train our core to resist movement.

Exercises

• Deadbugs
• Planks
• Carries
• Get ups
• Chops
• Lifts
• Rollouts
• Anti-Rotation Presses
• Bodysaws

Final Note

There are exercises, however, that involve two or more movements like combination exercises or Olympic lifts. There are also lifts that blur the lines — for example, a high-handles trap bar deadlift can be a knee-dominant hip-dominant exercise or a hip-dominant knee-dominant exercise.

Don’t let these categories confuse you, though. (Or my grammar.) With this article, I just want to provide a structure for movement patterns and exercise selection — as long as you understand the underlying body mechanics behind common strength exercises, you’ll craft a better exercise program to reach your fitness goals.

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In the next part, I’ll expose some dissension within the strength and conditioning community — the focus on one limb vs. two limbs. I’ll explain the pros and cons for each and how you can build a smart and comprehensive workout program while incorporating both to get specific and safer results.

Throughout this seres, I’m sure you’ll have a lot of questions, so be sure to ask using the comment section of this post. Feel free to reach out to me via Facebook and Twitter to get your question answered. See you soon!