Part 1 of 5 - Movement Categories Series
By: Jason Bungo, CSCS
The fundamental movements of strength training are our traditional big lifts. Often times referred to as compound movements, due to working multiple joints of the body, they provide the most bang for our buck during our routine. It is a valuable skill to be strong and capable in each movement because most activity in our daily lives is one of or a combination of these movements. They are also movements even the most advanced athletes are still continuously working to improve in both technique and ability. I also like to tell my clients and often do when we begin, that if we do not know what to do, pick a variation of each one of these movements and find a good challenge for a few sets. This on its own can be a great workout. And, that we can probably progress for quite some time, possibly indefinitely depending on goals, if we do this workout a couple times each week.
For my purposes in training, I generally view there to be "7" Fundamental Strength Movements. These include: Chest Press, Shoulder Press, Rows, Pulldown/Ups, Squatting, Deadlifting and Single Leg Movements. Note these are movement patterns and not necessarily a particular exercise, the movement pattern could be completed with a barbell, dumbbells, bands, cables, machine, etc.. There can be virtually unlimited variations to train these movement or even combinations of these movements at the same time, but for this article we will go movement by movement, review the primary muscles trained, a few notes on technique and highlight a few of my favorite variations.
Chest Presses:
The chest press works the chest, triceps and shoulder muscles. During a chest press it is important to maintain our posture, keep the chest up and shoulders back and down, and keep the elbow inline with the wrist in the direction we are pushing. During a chest press we will breathe out as we push and in as our hands come back towards us. Some of my favorite chest press variations include: barbell bench press, dumbbell bench press, pushups and machine based chest press.
Shoulder Presses:
The shoulders and triceps are the primary muscles used during a shoulder press. Like the chest press we want to maintain our posture and keep the elbow in line with the wrist in the direction we are pushing. We also want to make sure we do not elevate our shoulders towards the top of the movement. During a shoulder press we want to exhale as we push and in as our hands come back towards us. My favorite shoulder press variations include: standing barbell shoulder press, seated dumbbell shoulder press and machine based shoulder press.
Rows:
The muscles of the upper back (lats, rhomboids, traps) and biceps are the primary muscles being used during rowing movements. Technique wise, we want to make sure we maintain posture similar to our pushing movements, keeping the chest tall and keeping the shoulders from rising or coming forward. Rowing movements can be particularly important due to their ability to build the muscles to help our posture, most of our daily lives we are hunched over and balancing out these muscles can help to greatly improve posture. During a rowing movement we want to exhale as we pull towards us and inhale as our hands move away from us. My favorite rowing variations include: dumbbell bench row, suspension (TRX) rows, low cable rows and machine chest supported rows.
Pulldown/Pullups:
The upper back and biceps are again the primary mover in pulldown and pullup variations. We want to make sure we keep the shoulders from elevating too much during these movements and still keep the chest tall. If we find ourselves leaning forward or bring the shoulders inward/forward the weight is either too heavy or we are trying to pull to low... or both. During a pulldown variation we want to exhale as we pull towards us or pull our body upward, and inhale as our hands move away from us. My favorite pulldown variations include: pullups, cable lat pulldown and machine pulldowns.
Squats:
Our big leg movement. The squat works pretty much all the muscles in the legs and probably the entire body for that matter. It will primarily focus on our quads, hamstrings and glutes, but also work our calves and other hip muscles. For our purposes we are using our squats generally for a quad focused leg movement. During squat variations, as always, we want to maintain our posture, keep our heels down and drive through them. The posture becomes particularly important when we start squatting with a weight on our backs. We also want to make sure we are keeping our knee in line vertically with our ankles when looking at ourselves from the front. During a squat we will inhale on the way down or at the top of the movement and hold, then exhale as we move upward. My favorite squat variations include: barbell back squats, goblet squats, leg presses and hack squats.
Deadlift:
The deadlift is a hinging movement and like the squat will work all the muscles of the leg and most of the body, but particularly the back when it comes to other body parts. However, the deadlift will differ from the squat in the that it will be more glute and hamstring dominant than the squat. The knees will bend, but primarily from the hips moving backwards. During a deadlift we will inhale on the way down and exhale on the way upward. My favorite deadlift variations include: barbell deadlifts, dumbbell Romanian deadlifts, single kettlebell sumo deadlifts and machine/bodyweight back extension variations.
Single Leg:
Generally individuals least favorite of the fundamental movements. These variations can be challenging because we must complete the reps for both legs, and this can take a while and get the heart pumping. Single leg movements like step ups and lunges work all the leg muscles and can be both hip and quad dominant, but place an extra challenge on our stability and balance muscles. These movements are some of the most important because we walk and spend as much as 80% of our time on one leg while doing so. During single leg movements we inhale as we lower our body and exhale on the way back up. As with most of the movements, if you noticed the pattern, posture is important, we want to maintain our upper body posture even during these lower body movements. If we feel too unstable we need to consider lightening the load or trying and easier version of the movement (regression). My favorite single leg variations include: lunges (all directions and types ;), single leg deadlifts, step ups and single leg leg press. Also notice we could include loaded carry movements, like walking with heavy dumbbells in this category as well (dumbbell farmer's carry).
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