Strength training can seem overwhelming with its countless exercises. But at its core, it all stems from five fundamental movement patterns, and they all come from everyday life. Here, Thilde Maarbjerg walks us through them and shows how good technique often matters more than heavy weight.
Five movements you already make
The five movement patterns aren't specific gym exercises, but stem from completely ordinary everyday situations. You sit down on a chair, so you squat. You push something, so you press. You pull on something, so you do a pull. And you carry heavy grocery bags, so you do a carry.
The goal is to perform those movements correctly and learn to load them properly. That's exactly where the strength element comes in, because we need a little more weight than we'd typically use in everyday life.
Squat: the knee bend
One of the classic mistakes in the squat is the knees falling inward, the weight coming up onto the balls of the feet so you tip forward, or the spine rounding so you bend forward instead of bending at the knee.
How to do it: Stand with your feet slightly wider than hip-width and your toes pointing a little outward. Lift your upper body tall, press your knees forward over your toes, and lower down while sending your hips back as much as needed to reach parallel, where the thigh is roughly parallel with the floor. From here, press up, driven mainly by the quads with a little help from the glutes.
You can load a squat in many ways: with a kettlebell as a goblet squat, with dumbbells, with a barbell on your back, or in machines like the leg press or hack squat.
Hinge: the hip bend
A hinge isn't a squat with weight in your hands, but a movement driven by the glutes and especially the hamstrings, with a little back activation.
How to do it: Keep a big chest and a straight back, and send your hips back with relatively straight legs until you feel a stretch in the hamstrings. From here, pull yourself up and extend. It's naturally loaded with something in your hands, for example a kettlebell, dumbbells, or a barbell, or in more stabilized machine variants.
Press: pushing away from the body
A press is where we push something away from the body, in various directions, typically straight ahead or slightly upward. The classic mistake is the shoulders creeping up toward the ears, instead of staying neutral, because the primary pressing muscle is actually the chest.
A good place to start is a pushup, which requires no added weight. Keep your elbows at a 45-degree angle from the body, hold the plank, and lower until your chest touches the floor before pressing back up.
Pull: back training
In a pull, we mainly use the back muscles to draw a weight toward the body. The classic mistake is pulling with the arms, when it should be a back exercise.
Try a bent over row: Bend slightly at the knees, hinge forward, push your hips back a little for stability, and brace your core. Let your shoulder blades draw apart, start the movement with your elbows, come up and squeeze between the shoulder blades, then lower again. Keep your elbows at a 45-degree angle to activate the upper back, and maintain the integrity of your lower back throughout.
Back training is a particularly good counterbalance to modern life, where we sit hunched over a screen for hours. It straightens the posture and activates muscles that are otherwise often slack.
Carry: carrying heavy
A carry is closely linked to grip strength, one of the factors research connects most strongly to longevity. We simply carry something heavy, and do it correctly.
Grab some weights, which in principle could also be grocery bags, but here with real load. Keep an upright posture, brace your core, relax your shoulders, and walk. That trains both your grip and good posture.
Thilde's tips for the movement patterns
Learn the technique first. As you start to master the movements, you'll notice it's rarely about maximum weight.
Remember that technique beats heavy weight. Good technique with less weight beats poor technique with more.
Loading comes afterward. Focus on learning the movement, then start adding weight from there.
