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Resistance training is one of the best tools available at our disposal to improve our health, performance and aesthetic. In essence we prepare the body to absorb and produce forces.
Here are some examples of producing and absorbing forces in a sport specific context:
When sprinting on a track in the first phase you accelerate by producing horizontal forces.
In field hockey players need to be able to stop on a dime and change directions as well as accelerating the ball using their stick. They are both absorbing forces and producing other forces.
In BMX racing the contenders need to fight the centrifugal force to stay on their bikes while sprinting. They are mostly absorbing this force while preventing the loss of speed on their chosen trajectory.
What you do outside of training your sport however, can be scaled and more safely progressed in a predictable setting to raise your performance ceiling.
That being said, we know that everybody loves time efficiency. Therefore the bulk of your resistance training should be spent doing multi-joint movements. In the coaching community they are often called compound exercises.
There are eight fundamental movement patterns that we do with our extremities (arms and legs). Horizontal push, vertical push, horizontal pull, vertical pull, hinge, squat, carry and lunge. Most if not all compound exercises can be categorized as a variation of one of these eight patterns.
One’s muscles, connective tissues, tendons, neurological efficiency and cell metabolism can adapt and this causes someone to become better at the movement patterns they practiced.
Because you get so much bang for your buck with these, let us go over them one by one.
A horizontal push is characterized by elbow extension along with shoulder adduction and some shoulder extension. Push ups and flat bench press are the most famous and popular examples.
A vertical push is characterized by elbow extension along with shoulder extension and some shoulder adduction. Wall balls and handstand push ups in crossfit and military press and a seated dumbbell overhead press are examples of vertical push variation but you might notice that its horizontal counterpart gets comparatively way more love. Good programming and technique and a combination of both push patterns will prevent plateaus.
A horizontal pull is characterized by elbow flexion along with shoulder abduction and some shoulder flexion. Seal rows, that are alternatively called bench pull, are probably my favorite so if you have access to a good setup at home or in your gym, you should be grateful.
A vertical pull is characterized by elbow flexion along with shoulder flexion and some shoulder abduction. Pull ups are by far the most well known and popular here but various machines and tools exist to mix it up and help you scale. Rope climbing is another you might have done in gym class as a kid.
A hinge is characterized by hip flexion and extension with some to no knee flexion. 45 degree back extensions, hip thrust and deadlifts are widely used examples.
A squat is characterized by the combination of hip flexion and knee flexion with the rest of the body maintaining positions. Back squats and step ups are popular examples but a lot of machines have been created to take out the stability challenge to promote muscle growth when people challenge themselves. A good mix of both should mitigate plateaus and injury rates.
A lunge involves the hip and knee flexion with your center of gravity moving away from and back toward one supporting foot. Because you are training one side at a time here per definition (unilateral in nature), lunges are often used as a tool to work our way out of strength imbalances or to reduce axial loading (weight that pushes down on the spine).
A carry involves a loaded isometric hold in one or two hands and you moving through space on your feet. The stabilizing of the chaos during the movement and the weight pulling down on you can have tremendous effect on the shoulder girdle, ankles, feet, smaller stabilizing muscles in your hips and train your core muscles to work together in harmony. If you really crank up the intensity on a carry it also works your mental toughness. You can always hold for one more second or take another step, if you want it enough. ;)
Other movement patterns you can include in your program are crawling and rolling. We literally do these as babies but unfortunately we often stop. Actually maintaining and developing what our core can do rounds out a great program: lateral bending, trunk rotation, core compression and extension and their static counterparts (anti lateral flexion, anti rotation, anti extension, anti flexion).
If you have certain specific needs for certain muscle functions or groups, isolation exercises are a great way to top off your already effective training plan.
I generally recommend sticking to 4 to 9 exercises per training session and at most 34 working sets.
As you might have noticed, hitting all the mentioned patterns gets you to 12 movements at least (or 16 if you count the static counterparts for the core). That’s why training 2 or even 3 times per week is very helpful to get through a well thought out variety of exercise selection.
If you need help with tailoring your own program for your needs and goals, don’t hesitate to contact me.
Thank you for taking the time to read this!
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