Whether you have designed your own gym program, have a coach who plans your workouts, or you just go to the gym everyday and make it up on the spot, there are a few key movement patterns that you should be incorporating into your training. All of these movement patterns have their own benefits, but also can be an issue for some people based on their ability and injury history. All movements can be progressed, and regressed, so it can be useful to have someone to show you the ropes if you are unsure about what you are doing in the gym.

Push

The movements contained in the push segment of your training are often dominated by deltoid (shoulder) and pectoral (chest) muscles. Push exercises can be separated into horizontal push, and vertical push. Horizontal push exercises are primarily chest exercises, and are usually pushing in front of you. Examples are; bench press, chest flyes, and push ups. Vertical pushes involve you pushing a weight overhead, examples being; shoulder press, lateral raises, and handstand pushups.

Pull

Pull-based exercises of your training are often dominated by your back muscles, including your trapezius muscles, your rhomboids, and lat muscles. Pull exercises can also be separated into horizontal pull, and vertical pull. Horizontal pull exercises include; a wide variety of rowing movements, and rear delt flyes. Vertical pulls involve you pulling a weight or down, examples being; trap shrugs, pull ups, and lat pulldowns.

Squat

This is self-explanatory for most people. Squatting variations can be performed using a bar, bodyweight, dumbbells, kettlebells, or machines. Squats are often a knee dominant movement, and include both free weight variations, but also machine variations such as a leg press, or hack squat.

Hinge

Hinging movement’s are hip dominant movements, taht focus primarily on your low back, glute, and hamstring muscles. Most of the movement here comes form the hip ‘hinging’ forward, with minimal involvement of the knee. These exercises include: good mornings, Romanian deadlifts, and hip thrusts.

Carry

Exercises that challenge your carrying ability is great for more than just doing the Tesco shop. These exercises can be static, or dynamic, where you are moving weight around the gym floor. They include exercises like farmer’s carries, shrugs, heavy deadlifts, and some accessory pieces from Olympic Lifting workouts.

Core

These exercise challenge the ‘core’ which is the barrel around your torso. The core is not just the six-pack. It is also the obliques on the outside of your trunk, and your low back. Core exercises range from sit ups and Russian twists, to heavy barbell exercises like Zercher squats, or tempo squats.

If you have any questions on whether physio is the best option for you, or you have any questions about MVMNT in general, feel free to contact via email.

- Jay Towolawi, Specialist Sports Physiotherapist and MVMNT Founder.