Fitness Vocabulary Part 2: Movement Types and Why They Matter
In part one of the Fitness Vocabulary series I talked about the basics of reps,sets, rest periods, and tempos. Make sure to go and give that a read if you haven’t already.
In part 2 we are talking about the different types of movements you can perform in the gym. Part 3 will discuss how to split those movements up from workout to workout more specifically so be on the lookout for that soon!
Why does it matter to know the different types of movements? Well, you don’t like being bored, do you? Knowing the different types of movements you can perform in the gym will open you up to a much broader exercise library that will keep you more engaged and focused in the gym as opposed to doing the same thing over and over and over. I know people who have been doing the EXACT same workout routine for decades. How?!
You don’t seem like the type that would do that though. You’re reading this to expand your knowledge, right?
I did not include EVERY type of movement that you can do. These are more so the big rocks of movements that everyone can benefit from. So chill out if you get upset that I didn’t include wrist flexion, ipsilateral movements, overcoming isometrics, or all the other 1 million movement types.
Let’s get started!
UPPER BODY
The upper body is generally broken into two different types of movements or it can also be broken up by muscles too. I’ll discuss which muscles are working in each type of movement.
Push
Everyone's favorite. Why else would it be put first?? Your push muscles are the muscles in your chest, shoulders, and triceps. A stat I’m going to make up is that all men between the ages of 15 and 25 train “Push” three times more than the rest of their body combined on a weekly basis. I’ve been guilty of this. I wanted a big chest. It didn’t work. Just sore shoulders instead, but anyways. Everyone should train push movements at least one to three times per week. My favorite movements include but are not limited to:
Pull
As you’ll read towards the end, this is a sometimes more neglected movement to train because you can’t see it, you can’t always feel it, and it takes a lot of hard work. Pull refers to all the muscles in your back and your biceps too. Many people will say you should “Pull” two to three times more than you should “Push” in your training programs, to which I say yeah probably, but it depends on more factors than a blanket statement and a short article can cover. So to make it easy, for each set of push you do in a week, you should do AT LEAST one set of pull. My favorite movements include but are not limited to:
LOWER BODY
When it comes to lower body we can break it down a few different ways. Whether it be knee dominant & hip dominant (covered first), quads day one, glutes and hamstrings day two, or hitting a little of each, each day. This will go with the same concept at push/pull, for every knee dominant movement you do (the easier option), you should do AT LEAST one set (but preferably two or three) hip dominant movements.
Knee Dominant
Knee dominant movements are normally going to target the quads muscles more than any other muscle group in the lower body. However, if you’re focusing on big compound movements such as squats & lunges for your knee dominant movements they will also target your glutes. In the Knees Over Toes Guy era, yes that is a real person who is insanely popular in the fitness world, everyone just wants to train quad. Young people especially. There is nothing wrong with training knee dominant movements hard and frequently, unless they hurt your knees then stop doing that and try something else. However, I’ll say it again, you should have a 1 to 1 or 1 to 2 knee dominant to hip dominant ratio. This goes for all human types. My favorites for this category would be:
Hip Dominant
Now to the good stuff. If you are an athletic human, you should be doing twice as many hip dominant movements as knee dominant. If you are a strong human, you probably already ARE doing that. If you’re an everyday human, it depends on your fitness level, injury history, etc. But you probably should be doing twice as much also. Our glutes and hamstrings make up most of the hip dominant movements with the quads having little to no involvement. So why twice as much? These are BIG muscles responsible for a lot when it comes to performance and power output, so why would you not make them a priority? Favorite movements in the hip dominant category:
Unilateral
This is just fancy trainer talk for saying one side at a time. Unilateral exercises are important to maintain and even up muscle imbalances or strength discrepancies from one side to the other. Everyone, in my opinion, should be performing at least one to two exercises that fall in this category per workout if possible. Whether you’re a strong human, an athletic human, or an everyday human. Examples of unilateral exercises that would be suitable for all that I program frequently are:
Pull: One Arm Dumbbell Row
Knee Dominant: Bulgarian Split Squats
Hip Dominant: Single Leg Romanian Deadlift (RDL):
Bilateral
Uni means one and bi means two, so can you guess what this is? Good job! It does mean using both sides to perform a movement. You’re getting smarter already! Bilateral movements make up the bulk of exercises in a training session in part because they’re usually easier, more time efficient, and you can use more weight to pump up your ego and confidence. In some crazy circles of the fitness internet there are extremists who believe bilateral training is mostly useless or dangerous. Yes, I’m serious. Bilateral movements allow you to coordinate multiple muscles at one time and are an important part of any great training program. Examples of big compound movements that I program most often are:
Push: Barbell Bench Press
Pull: Pull Ups
Knee Dominant: Barbell Box Squats
Hip Dominant: Barbell Hip Thrusts
Posterior Chain
Ooh another fancy trainer word. This just means your backside and usually referred to as anything you can’t see in the mirror. Most people, myself included, would recommend people to train their posterior chain more frequently than their anterior chain (spoiler alert, front side). The muscles that make up your back, glutes, and hamstrings play a HUGE role in performance and staying healthy as you age. I know we are all obsessed with our quads, pecks, biceps, and abs, BUTT (pun intended), if you focused more on your posterior chain, I’d be willing to bet those other aspects would look better too. Posterior Chain exercises that I like are endless, but here are a few of my favorites
Anterior Chain
As mentioned above, your anterior chain refers to the front side of your body. This is the easier of the two to train because you usually “feel” these muscles easier, you can see them, and exercises that work these muscles are more popular on social media. Now this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t train your anterior chain, just make sure you’re not overtraining it. For example, if you are doing an exercise program and it calls for an exercise that works your hamstrings, don’t substitute a movement that works your quads instead. That happens all the time and it drives me bonkers. Movements I like most are:
Again, these are just some of the basics that I think if more people understood, we’d live in a healthier world with less aches, pains, body image issues, gym intimidation and the list goes on.
Knowledge is power. Health is wealth. Take care of yourself.
If you liked this newsletter, why not share it with a friend?