Train Movements not Muscles

Movement Patterns

When you are looking at selecting exercises don't base it on muscles that are being trained, rather look at movement patterns. For too long the industry has been influenced by old school bodybuilding training ideas.

Here is a list of movement patterns that you should be thinking about.

Upper Body

1. Horizontal Push
2. Horizontal Pull
3. Vertical Push
4. Vertical Pull

Lower Body

Quad Dominant
Hip Dominant
Knee Dominant Flexion
Knee Dominant Extension

There needs to be a balance between all theses movements. However in many cases with people who have been training for some time and have created imbalances in some of these movement patterns then the training need to be temporarily adjusted to correct these imbalances.

Here's a breakdown using some of the more traditional exercises.

Primary Movement Patterns:

Horizontal Push:
Bench Press, Standing Cable Chest Press, Incline DB Press

Horizontal Pull:
Bent Over Barbell Row, Seated Cable Row, Bent Over DB Row

Vertical Push:
Military Press, DB Shoulder Press, Push Press

Vertical Pull:
Chins, Pullups, Lat Pulldowns

Quad Dominant:
Squats, Single Leg Squats, Front Squats, Bulgarian Squats

Hip Dominant:
Deadlifts, Romanian Deadlifts, Good Mornings

Knee Dominant Extension:
Split Squats, Lungs

Knee Dominant Flexion:
Reverse Leg Curl, Slide Board Leg Curl

Planes of Movement

The second thing to consider when looking at movement patterns is the planes of movement.

Sagittal Plane movements should be first mastered before moving onto Coronal Plane (Frontal Plane) movements then further progressing to Transverse Plane movements.

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