Create Your Own Workout - Part 4: Categorizing Movement
By now, the importance of viewing exercises in terms of movement patterns it should be drilled into your head. Isolation exercises certainly have their time and place, but we want to develop the strongest, most resilient body that we can. This demands that we use it as the sophisticated, interwoven organism that absorbs and generates force as a single unit.
Previously, we've introduced the basic human movement patterns that include: Push, Pull, Hinge, Squat, Carry, and Locomotion. Today I'll break them down even further, lay out the prime movers of each movement pattern, and help you categorize common exercises into their proper movement categories.
Basic Human Movements
Lower Body Movements:
- Squat: Essentially every muscle in our lower extremities; Quadriceps, Hamstrings, Glutes, Calves, and Hip Flexors.
- Hinge: Like the squat, hinge movements such as the deadlift utilize a large amount of lower body muscle mass, but place a major emphasis on the hamstrings, glutes, and spinal erectors.
Some people typically categorize squatting movements as "Lower Body Push" exercises, and hinge movements as "Lower Body Pull" movement, but for our purposes we use denote squat and hinge to emphasize the following:
During a hinge movement, like the deadlift, we want to predominantly see HIP FLEXION during the eccentric phase, making the movements primarily HIP EXTENSION exercises during the concentric contraction of the involved musculature.
Squatting movements normally involve a large amount of HIP AND KNEE FLEXION, resulting in more involvement of the knee extensors (read: quads) during the lifting phase.
From Greg Nuckols at: Strengtheory.com
Upper Body Movements:
For the upper body, we typically separate exercises into "Upper Body Push" and "Upper Body Pull" exercises, but we can divide them further as well. It's useful to note the vector in which you're pulling and pushing, for instance, is the exercise a vertical pull or a horizontal pull? This slight difference in direction will result in changes in muscle sequencing and the prime movers will vary.
- Vertical Push: Anterior/Middle Deltoids, Triceps.
- Horizontal Push: Pectoralis Major, Anterior Deltoids, Triceps.
- Vertical Pull: Latissimus Dorsi, Biceps, Triceps-Long Head.
- Horizontal Pull: Rhomboids, Latissimus Dorsi, Posterior Deltoids, Biceps.
Keep in mind I am strictly listing the muscles that play the largest part in each movement, the prime movers. Yes, the pecs (especially the clavicular fibers) play a synergistic role in an overhead press, but you'll be sorely disappointed if you decide to choose it for your main chest-builder. Horizontal pushes will give you the most bang for you buck if building a barrel chest is your goal.
You also need to be aware that the lower body lifts will cause muscular growth in your upper body because of the large amounts of tension being placed on the muscles. Your forearms and lats will absolutely grow as a result of gripping a heavy deadlift, and your shoulders will grow as a result of a heavy barbell loaded on your shoulders in a heavy front squat.
Locomotion and Carrying:
Locomotion and carrying movements are variable, and can be manipulated to emphasize different training adaptations. A Single-Arm Bottoms-Up Overhead KB Carry will be targeting shoulder stability to a much greater degree than a heavy Farmer's Carry, which will be placing the emphasis much more on hip stability and overall strength.
Final Thoughts and Example Exercises:
You can break most of the categories up in bilateral and unilateral variations, and we'll touch on the difference between the two later on in the series. They each provide unique training adaptations, therefore it's important to always decide on your training goal before choosing an exercise.
Below I'll leave you with a few example exercises of each movement pattern. These all serve as perfectly reasonable choices for your workout. Try them out before the next part in our series!
- Squat: Goblet Squat, Back Squat, Front Squat, Zercher Squat, Split Squat, Pistol Squat.
- Hinge: Deadlift, RDL, Glutebridge, Single-Leg RDL, Goodmorning.
- Vertical Push: OH Press, Single-Arm Bottoms-Up OH Press, Z-Press, Handstand Pushups.
- Horizontal Push: Bench Press, Floor Press, Pushups, Single-Arm Variations.
- Vertical Pull: Chinups, Lat Pulldown, KB/DB Pullovers, TRX Ys.
- Horizontal Pull: Row variations, Rear Delt Flys, TRX Ts, Face Pulls.
- Locomotion: Leopard Crawls, Prowler Push, Bear Crawl, Bounding.
- Carries: Farmer Carry, Goblet Carry, DA KB Racked Carry, Crossbody Carries.
Creating Mobility for Taller Trainees
Screen any basketball team and the first thing you'll notice is that more often than not, they have the mobility of the tin man. Yet, prescribing static stretching and traditional mobility drills yields very little results. This is because their lack of mobility is often a protective mechanism. What is being protected? Their joints.
Due to the long lever arms of most of their joints, a high amount of stability is required from the surrounding myofascial tissue. When the body senses that it does not have enough stability to safely use a range of motion out of a particular joint, it will lock those tissues down. Therefore the key to getting a taller individual more mobile, is to actually get them more stable first.
Below are my favorite drills to help with this process, ordered from most to least important. Keep in mind that since these exercises are supposed to focus on the CONTROL of fiber length and tension, they should be kept within a low-threshold and should be done very slowly.
90/90 Abdominal Wall Activation
There's nowhere more important to have stability than in the deep spinal stabilizers. This drill helps to activate and sequence the intrinsic core subsystem. If the individual has tight hips and a tight T-spine this is stop number one. Not to mention the tremendous benefit it has for cleaning up anterior pelvic tilts.
Deadbugs and Single Leg Lowerings
Riding off of the Abdominal Wall Activations, these drills are very similar, but focus more on creating hip separation which is extremely important in gait. The deadbug requires less hamstring length than the leg lowering, thus should be the first progression. Pairing this along with a hinge movement is a sure fire way to expedite the progression. The variations shown are core-engaged versions that provide external cues to keep the correct core stability.
Lateral Lunge On Sliders
Adductor lengthening is very underrated for what it can do to someone's movements. I personally have noticed that most taller individuals tend to be adductor dominant and are more likely for groin pulls. If the previous drills have been addressed, then progressing a Slider lateral lunge may be a wise training investment. Brandon LaVack also showcased one of his favorite drills for this not to long ago, you an find it here.
Hands Elevated PUPP With T-Spine Rotation
I decided to use this video so that I could embarrass one of are athletes who snuck into the shot. Sorry Erin!
This drill helps teach the correct tension to for t-spine rotation. The objectives are to keep the hips still, drive the supporting hand into the bench and get the opposite hand as far from it as possible. This can also be done on the floor, but for newer trainees, this may result in a high threshold pattern, which is no bueno. On that note, it's also important to KEEP BREATHING as locking down for a brace will make it harder to rotate.
Dowel Rod Trap Raise
This drill helps to engage the upward rotators of the scap and can improve shoulder flexion bilaterally. The cues are to focus on pulling the dowel apart as you raise it overhead., slowly. Another exercise that I like for a similar affect, but with more t-spine engagement are SFMA Rolls with a dowel rod.
Remember not to throw the baby out with the bath water. Some lanky individuals can still benefit from classic mobility work, I just find these drills to have more bang for your buck. Especially when complimented with a sound strength program.
Spartan Race: Team SAPT
There were hills to run.
There were walls to scale, ropes to climb, heavy things to be carried.
And there was a LOT of mud.
Team SAPT competed in a Spartan Race this past weekend: Eric Shih, Lisa Dowdell, Jane Leonard, Ryan Walls (who placed in the overall top 7% among all the men) Jarrett, Charlie, and myself. It was a total blast!
Thanks to Jarrett's Spartan Training Program (email us if you want a copy), I felt totally prepared leading up to the race and felt that I had gas left even by the end of the 5 miles. The course was hill-ridden and when you combine that with the various obstacles and slippery mud, it was a challenging race.
Lisa, Jane, and I ran together and lemme tell ya- they are some tough ladies! There were some very heavy things to carry- buckets full of gravel, sandbags, heavy logs, not to mention hauling our bodies over walls and up ropes- and both women more than held their own. (we passed more than a few men struggling up hills or through the obstacles...)
This race was definitely NOT for the faint of heart or weak of muscles.
Lisa is a long-time SAPT client (longer than I've been here!) and regularly trains 2x/week. Jane is just a beast: she plays club soccer down at VCU but trains hard consistently throughout the year. I am so proud of them! Not once did the back down from a seemingly-insurmountable obstacle. Even if they weren't sure if they could complete the challenge, they always gave it 100%!
Our times were a little slow- though I blame on the fact that there were just boatloads of people there and we had to wait in line for many of the obstacles. However, we ran as much as we were able to and blew through the obstacles quickly.
After completely the Spartan Race, no one could ever ask one of these two, "Do you even lift?"
They proved that strong girls win.
Summer Recipe: Grown-up Tuna Melts a Protein-Packed Lunch
My brothers and me with our typical picture-taking faces. My mom is so proud.
I don't know about you, but during the summer my family would make a trip to the beach (if we weren't moving) and inevitably we'd stop at a local diner. Tuna isn't my super-favorite food, but I used to really enjoy tuna melts. Something about the way the buttery toasted bread flavor melded with the tuna... couple that with the sea-salt air and it was a recipe that is forever melded in my brain as summer.
Now that I'm grown, and carry considerably more knowledgable about nutrition, I can't help but cringe a bit inside when I think of the classic tuna melt.
I recently found a cleaner version, huzzah! I read Clean Eating (which is a pretty good magazine if you're so inclined) and they have a feature each month where they "clean up" a classic American meal and I thought I'd share the recipe here for you to try this summer.
Grown-Up Tuna Melts
Serves 6
Ingredients:
1 tbs olive oil
1 red onion, thinly sliced
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper (i.e. a generous shake or two of the shaker)
12 oz of albacore tuna (pouch or can)
2 stalks of celery, chopped
2/3 cup plain Greek yogurt (2% or lower)
1 1/2 tsp mustard powder
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper OR paprika
1/2 tsp tarragon
6 slices of whole grain bread
3 oz reduced fat whit or orang cheddar cheese, grated
3 scallions, thinly sliced
Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 F and line a large rimmed baking sheet with foil.
2. In a large skillet, on medium, heat oil. Add onion, salt, and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally until brown and tender.
3. Meanwhile, plop tuna, celery, yogurt, mustard powder, cayenne, and tarragon into a medium bowl and stir to combine.
4. Toast bread until golden brown and arrange on baking sheet. Spread tuna mixture over each bread slice, divide evenly (or not, if you want more tuna on your slice ;)) . Top with onions and cheese. Bake until cheese is melted, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle with scallions before serving.
Hopefully yours look as good as the picture.
Also, if you're NOT a tuna fan- here are some alternatives:
Salmon (cooked)- dill instead of tarragon
Shrimp and feta- finely dice cooked shrimp and swap tarragon for parsley and feta for cheddar
Chicken curry- shred cooked chicken and mix in curry and dried apricots in place of the tarragon, mustard, and celery.
Chickpea and egg- if you eschew meat, mash up chickpeas and eggs with a fork and swap tarragon for basil.
Happy summer munching!
So You Want to be a Trainer
It seems almost weekly that I meet or speak with someone who wants to become a trainer. Many of them have a passion for staying fit, some want to help others and the rest just seem to hate their current job. There are usually two different questions that I’m asked by these individuals. Here they are with my usual responses:
Them- "Hey, what resources should I look into to learn to become a trainer?
Me- "There’s a lot! Let’s grab coffee and talk."
OR
Them- "Hey, what’s the easiest and quickest way to become a trainer?"
Me- "Bite me."
Well, the second response may be a little exaggerated. But honestly, I’m very tired of dealing with the quick-buck type of individual trying to push their way into a field that is meant to help people become empowered and healthy. As I mentioned in my post: Owning the Trainer Profession, the current state of the fitness field is deplorable. There is no regulation of the profession and society has a very hard time judging the quality of the product. The last thing we need is more D-bags aiming to shortcut all the necessary skills of being a good trainer and watering down our profession.
To me there are a few very obvious things that quality trainers practice which separates them from the rest of the field. This is usually what I preach to the first individual who is actually inquisitive on becoming competent. Let’s dive in:
1. Know the Certification is Just the Start
In all honesty, you will probably absorb the least amount of information from your certification. Most certification processes just give you a mold of understanding how to do the basics. It’s really up to you to learn how to manage the rest of the variables. That’s not to say your certification is not important, it does set you up for professional development and the more serious ones often times show who is willing to put in the work. But I’ve seen trainers of the same cert that practice on totally different levels and it rarely defines you as a trainer. With that said, the ones I usually recommend to new trainers are:
ACSM, NASM, ACE or NSCA CPT
I personally have a bias for the strength and conditioning certifications and they usually hold more street cred for trainers as they require a higher understanding for the physiology. The Strongfirst certifications are very hands on and consist of a very practical exam, meaning you WILL understand how to coach correct form. They also provide you with an awesome network of qualified professionals. The personal training certs at the bottom are just general training certifications. They’re usually the standard when it comes to most gyms and do provide a good starting point for most people.
A key thing to remember that I stated above: none of these will define how good you are as a trainer. It’s really up to you and how serious you take your craft, which leads me into my next point...
2. Never Stop Learning
This is very similar to point 1, but I believe it’s warranted. When you really think about it, as a trainer you are being part biomechanist, part exercise physiologists, part psychiatrist, part nutritionist and part coach. There are many different avenues in which you can further your understanding and many different attributes that can separate you from the pack.
Cueing for example, sounds simple, but there’s way more to it then what you first comprehend. To go in more depth on the subject:
Some may look at a simple cue as just telling someone how to do something. But there’s so much more to it than that. There’s variables such as focal points, internal vs external cues, visual, vocal and kinesthetic cues and specific times to apply each one. (This is without even stepping into the realm of identifying how to manipulate the limbic system via coaching). When you first start out, you may not see a difference in telling someone to use their glute medius to push the knees out as they squat versus telling them to rip apart the floor with their feet as they squat, but there is a huge difference. And if you want to understand it, just start googling some of the terms above. Next thing you know, you’re that much better at coaching an exercise.
Never get comfortable with your current knowledge base and always look to expand it. This is a key difference from people who train just to make money and people who train to make a difference.
3. Know How to Assess the Risk vs Reward Ratio
This is probably the biggest mistake that new trainers will make. Every exercise that you prescribe has inherent risks to the client. Often times if your understanding of biomechanics and functional anatomy is lagging, this may be harder to assess, but it’s still no excuse. The first rule of training is, “Do no harm” and that needs to stay in the back of your head at all times. The fastest way to be bad at what you do is to hurt someone in a session and that usually happens because there is no assessment of risk for the chosen exercise.
Assessing the risk of what you program is a combination of taking into account the client’s age experience, training level, past injuries and ability when writing a program. If you use an exercise that may be considered riskier, there better be a damn good reward towards their goals. I would say a barbell snatch is a higher risk exercise due to the high mobility and technique requirements, but it also offers a high reward to many track and field athletes. If they are untrained, or immobile, then the scale certainly tips towards it being too risky. If they’re studs and have been progressed correctly, then let’s get the track-stars to snatching. What if it's a baseball player who has good mobility and is well-trained? No freakin' way, there's virtually no reward since there's so little carryover to their sport, not to mention the likelihood of screwing up their shoulder during the exercise.
Sadly, most new trainers or coaches may not fully understand the risks posed by certain movements and therefore will not be able to make accurate calls. Which is why my fourth point is so crucial
4. Get a mentor
Even Arnold had someone help teach him to lift. At SAPT, we require an extensive internship before we even consider hiring you as a coach. The reason being is that there’s only so much you can learn from a book or dvd and the hands-on knowledge you obtain from a good mentor is priceless. Their guidance can save you from spinning your wheels and can actually show you where to put most of your attention. I can’t describe how quickly I saw improvements in my craft after spending just 75 hours under Coach Steve.
It’s important that your mentor actually knows their shit too. Shoot for the stars and follow under someone you aspire to train like or at least ensure that they follow the previous 3 points. Just as a good mentor can help guide you to a successful career, a poor one can totally derail it.
This also applies in hand with point #2. The easiest way to learn, is from someone else. The common thought is that only greenhorns should be spending their days following around someone else. In reality, there’s always someone better who can teach you a thing or two and not pursuing opportunities to learn from them only hinders you. I’m 5 years into my career and I still venture up to Silver Spring regularly to shadow Dr. Aune of Capital Sports Medicine. Coach Steve and Kelsey chose to spend their honeymoon at Cressey Performance to learn from their program. There are no excuses not to find someone better at something than you and ask to shadow them. Chances are, they will welcome the opportunity.
5. Know the Business Side of Things
There's a difference between being good and successful. Being good gets your clients results. Being successful gets your wallet results. As much as we like to think the two are married, they're not. The Personal trainer Development Center has LOADS of info on this, so I'm not going to beat a dead horse here.
Keep these five points in mind as you go forth into the field. Adhere to them and you will quickly be on your way to making a promising and fulfilling career. Now set forth and conquer!
Knowledge is Power: Beach Body Edition
The summer is my favorite season of the year, and no summer is complete without a trip to the beach. I'd like to think that I've spent the past few months getting "beach-body ready," but the past few days of coronas, boardwalk fries and chocolate chip pancakes has surely undone most of my hard work. With that being said, here are a few posts to help you expedite the process towards a beach body of your own.
12 Exercises to Make You Easier to Look At and Harder to KIll - Jarrett Brummett, SAPT
10 Tools For Getting Better at the Pullup - Melody Schoenfeld of FlawlessFitness.com
3 Reasons Why The Half-Kneeling Position Will Improve Your Training - Quinn Henoch, Darkside Strength
The Iron Grater - Jen SInkler, Author of
