Not this. Ever.
Wherever you go around the world we move in similar ways. Think also about a child learning to push itself up, then crawl, then stand and finally walk. No matter where in the world they are this always happens in pretty much the same way.
Your body moves through the action on muscle pulling on levers, the bones. Many choose, when they train, to focus on the actual muscles themselves when they train, that’s all fine if that is you goal but think about what we know for a minute
- Muscles work together in a highly nuanced way combining timing and the force they generate
- This is overseen by preprogrammed software [think: those babies developing their movements]
- There are basic set of fundamental, universal movements that combine to give us all the movements we use in the real world.
In the book we went through some workouts, there wasn’t space to properly go into the variations of the movements so here, as promised, are some variations that you can use.
NB Thought they’re divided up here they’re free weight compound movements – they use less stable loads and multiple joints – this means that they’ll likely also train other muscles than the ones quoted, for example the deadlift which trains every muscle on the back of the body and many on the front as well.
Lower body push, squatting type movements
Barbell
Back Squat (high and low positions)
Front Squat
Dumbbell
Goblet squat
Front Squat
Kettlebell
Goblet squat
Front Squats
Sandbag
Front squats
Back Squats
Bodyweight
Bulgarian split squat (with or without dumbbells)
Pistols
‘Air’ Squats
Lower body pull/hip dominant leg movements
Barbell
Deadlift
Clean
Snatch
Suitcase deadlift
Hip thrusts
Dumbbell
Romanian deadlift
Step-ups
Swings
Kettlebell
Swings
Clean
Snatch
Bodyweight
Step up
Swiss ball hip thrust/Leg curl
Upper Push: shoulder dominant, vertical (or near) plane
Barbell
Overhead press
Push Press
Push Jerk
Javelin Press
Dumbbell
Seated or standing press
See-saw press
Kettlebell
Overhead press (seated or standing)
Unilateral press
Sandbag
Sandbag shoulder press
Bodyweight
Dive bomber push ups
Handstand press ups
Upper Pull
Barbell
Row (overhand/pronated, underhand/supinated)
NB: cleans, snatches, high pulls and deadlifts all have a heavy back component
Dumbbell
Rows (standard, Kroc, unilateral, bilateral)
Kettlebell
Rows unilateral
Rows bilateral
Renegade rows
Bodyweight
Pull up (palms away/pronated) medium, wide and close grip
Reverse rows (from bar)
TRX rows
Twisting
Barbell
Landmine twist
Dumbbell
Turkish Get-Up
Russian twist
Kettlebell
Turkish Get-Up
Bodyweight
Crunch with twist
Swiss ball side roll-outs
Leg raise with twist
Folding
Barbell
Barbell ‘ab’ roll out
Dumbbell
Sit up with dumbbell
Bodyweight
Crunches – various
L- sits
Knees to elbow
Knees to bar
So there’s some, there is more of course bu these give you a huge amount of possible variety for your training.