Fundamental Movements and Training Principles
The beauty of strength and conditioning is that it’s simple. The principles used to create the most complicated, science-backed, high-level, detailed (complicated?) strength and conditioning programs can be scaled down and used by everyone using only bodyweight.
The fundamental movement patterns are just that, foundational movements that humans should be able to do. They’re movements that look like sitting down, getting up from one knee, pushing things away from you, pulling stuff towards you and bending over to pick something up. We see these shapes in daily life and in high performance athletic events. It’s why we don’t have machines in the gym anyway, can you imagine trying to recreate those movements in the comfort of your living room?
We define the functional movement patterns as follows:
Squat
Hinge
Push
Pull
Single Leg
Core/Carry
In our world, nothing else exists. These are the global movements that will cover our basis as humans, so long as we train with sound principles. Here are the principles we use to guide or programming, whether in a gym full of equipment or in a living room with no equipment at all.
Work within a safe range of motion
Scale movements and add variables as needed
Build functional strength through skill development, practice and repetition
Develop a robust core
Develop your cardiovascular system at different intensities
Improve mobility, flexibility and stability
As we head deeper into this quarantine, you may start to feel lost. Like you’ve lost direction in your training. That’s understandable, we’re in a unique situation and you’re out of your normal routine. It’s a chance to work on some new, different goals though. Instead of missing out on what you normally do, know that we’re still training you with these principles in mind. Will your deadlift max dwindle a little bit? Perhaps, but if you stay fit, move well and continue to follow these training principles, all your former strength is going to be within reach after just a few training sessions.
That’s what we’re doing with the workouts we sent you and the daily workouts we’re posting. We’re embodying these principles and movement patterns to make approachable workouts for you. Is it as hard as 5 down and backs with a heavy sled? No, but working on your forward lunge pattern is similar, and can have a similar training effect for your muscles, tendons and joints. Stick with the plan and not only will you maintain the strength and fitness you’ve built, you’ll continue to cultivate it so when we’re back in the gym, you’ll jump right back to normal.
Justin Miner
@justinminegain
