Strength Training Simplified

Instead of spending the bulk of your training time working individual muscle groups, prioritize the six movement patterns in your workouts. Unlike isolation exercises, like biceps curls or calf raises, the fundamental movements are compound lifts.

This means they each involve multiple joints and muscle groups, and thus allow you to lift more weight. They’re more effective for gaining functional strength, increasing your metabolic rate, and improving bone density.

These patterns are necessary for daily life, too. Everything from carrying groceries and getting up from your office chair to reaching for an object on a high shelf, are tasks that are based on these movement patterns. Bonus: whether you work out at home or a gym, they’ll save you time!

The six fundamental movement patterns

Squat

Squatting involves lowering your body by bending your hips and knees, then returning to a standing position. It’s required for activities like sitting or getting up from a chair, or getting in and out of a car.

Variations: goblet squat, barbell back squat, sumo squat, resistance band squat, dumbbell front squat

Hinge

Also known as a deadlift, hinging involves bending at the hips with minimal knee movement. This engages the posterior chain muscles, including the glutes and hamstrings. This movement is essential for lifting heavy objects from the floor without straining your low back.

Variations: barbell deadlift, kettlebell deadlift, single-leg deadlift, kettlebell swing

Lunge

In a lunge, one leg steps forward or backward, lowering your hips toward the ground. This pattern improves balance and unilateral strength, crucial for actions like climbing stairs or getting up from the floor.

Variations: lateral lunge, forward lunge, reverse lunge, walking lunge

Push

Pushing movements involve pressing weight away from the body, engaging the chest, shoulders, and triceps. Daily examples include pushing a door open or placing items on a high shelf.

Variations: push-ups, barbell overhead press, barbell bench press, dumbbell incline press, kettlebell single-arm overhead press

Pull

Pulling actions draw weight toward the body. Working the back and biceps, you use this pattern closing a garage door, pulling down windows or blinds, or dragging a chair across the floor.

Variations: seated row, pull-ups, lat pulldown machine, dumbbell bent-over rows, resistance band rows

Carry

Carries require holding weight while walking, strengthening the core, upper body, and grip. You perform this movement pattern when you’re hauling groceries from the car into the house. Gradually work your way up to carrying the equivalent of your body weight—half in each hand—for 20 to 30 seconds. (This is logistically much easier with dumbbells or kettlebells, rather than groceries!)

Variations: kettlebell carry, overhead carry, yoke carry, sandbag carry

You don’t need to include all six movement patterns in every workout. Just make sure you’re training each pattern at least once a week.

When my coaching team and I design workouts for our clients, we prioritize the foundational movement patterns before incorporating any single-joint or isolation exercises. Clients training twice a week typically don’t perform isolation movements at all. For those training four times a week, we may add one or two isolation exercises at the end of a session, but the focus remains on compound, foundational movements.

You’re now ready to squat, hinge, lunge, push, pull, and carry your way to more effective workouts!

This article was originally published in the June 2025 issue of alive magazine.