The 5 Key Movement Patterns

With health, fitness and pretty much all things exercise becoming so trendy and popular in the past couple of years, exercise and movement can seem very confused. There are loads of examples of different exercises on various social media platforms and there sometimes seems so much going on it is hard to know what the exercise is doing and what muscles the movement is targeting. Since this is the case I think it would be beneficial to reiterate the 5 key movement patterns, what the exercises are, and which are the main muscles targeted.

Squat

A knee dominant exercise

What are the key exercises?

Goblet squat, back squat, front squat, overhead squat, single leg variations such as lunges, split squats and single leg squats.

Which are the main muscles used?

Quadriceps and gluteals

Hinge

A hip dominant exercise

What are the key exercises?

Kettlebell deadlift, conventional deadlift, stiff leg deadlift, sumo deadlift, single leg dumbbell and barbell variations.

Which are the main muscles used?

Posterior chain: Hamstrings, gluteals, and lower back

Pull

An upper body movement pattern that can either be horizontal or vertical in the relation to the body.

What are the key exercises?

Horizontal: Dumbbell and barbell row (bent-over), Cable row, Prone row, TRX row, Inverted row, facepull and single arm variation such as a single-arm dumbbell row or split position single arm cable row. 

Vertical: Pull-up variation (supinated, pronated and neutral grip), pull-up regressions, Lat pull down and single arm cable variations.

Which are the main muscles used? Posterior deltoids, rhomboids, latissimus dorsi.

Push

An upper body movement pattern that can either be horizontal or vertical in the relation to the body.

What are the key exercises?

Horizontal: Dumbbell or barbell bench press, incline or decline bench press, alternate DB press and single arm variations.

Vertical: Dumbbell and barbell military press, Push-press variations, Single-arm landmine press.

Which are the main muscles used? Anterior deltoids, triceps and pectorals major and minor.

Trunk

The beauty of free weights is that all the above uses your trunk and require constant contract to perform with good form, range of movement and with good load. The specific trunk exercises are categorized into three categories:

• Anti-extension/flexion
• Anti-lateral flexion
• Anti-rotation