7 Movement Patterns - That will make you functionally fit

The 7 movement patterns are a key component of aging well. These movements should be performed as part of your exercise program. The movements encompass how the body was created to move and if you perform all of these movements regularly you will be functionally fit. The first movement pattern is push, there's also pull, we have a bend, a squat, one leg dominant or lunge movement pattern, and also have rotation. The one pattern that you usually get in everyday life is gait, which is basically walking, running, and/or jumping. The first movement pattern we're going to cover is the push movement pattern. Typically, it's pushing away from the body, but can also be pushing over the head. So the most common form is a push up. Some options include push ups from the knees, push ups from the toes, and from an elevated platform (i.e. step, bench, or counter). So you should choose at least one pushing exercise with your exercise program. If you're a little more advanced, you could choose things like a bench press, a dumbbell bench press, an incline press, and/or an overhead press. The next movement pattern is pull. So if we think of a pull, the two main go toos are a lat pulldown or a pull up. Pull ups can be pretty challenging so might want to start with a lat pulldown. If you don't have access to a lat pulldown you could use a band that gives you some assistance on a pull up. The other common pull movement pattern is a row. It could be a seated row, or a suspension strap/TRX row. When performing a row it's important to pull your shoulder blades together. You should choose one of those exercises to make sure that you have the pull movement pattern covered. Another movement pattern is the bend. The bend is where we bend at the waist (i.e. picking up a box). The most common bend pattern exercise is a deadlift. With the deadlift, you want to be careful and make sure that you're not lifting too much weight and that your back stays flat. Besides the deadlift - deadshifting is another form or the bend pattern. If you're just starting out starting begin with a dead shifting pattern with no weight or a deadlift with very light weight. Somewhat similar to the deadlift is the squat movement pattern and it's pretty much what it sounds like. If you're just starting out of a basic bodyweight squat (lowering your body down and then standing up). Your fitness level, mobility, and exercise experience might determine how low you can squat. Ideally when you do a squat, you want to go to where your thighs are parallel with the ground. If you can't go that far at the beginning, just go halfway down and then eventually try to get lower. You can also do something that's called a ball squat. This allows you to squat a little deeper. Besides the ball you can hold on to something to allow you to go a little bit deeper. If you're new to exercise, choose a body weight squat. If you're more advanced, or you've been working out a while, you could do a loaded squat. That's where a barbell is placed on the upper back. If you don't have access to a barbell, you could use dumbbells or even a band, but a barbell would be my first choice - dumbbells would be my second choice. Besides the squatting movement pattern, we also have a one leg dominant or lunge pattern. That's where we're emphasizing one leg during a movement. The lunge is the perfect movement for this movement pattern. Similar to the squat, you might not be able to go all the way down (where your knee hits the ground). So you might just go halfway, or just like the squat, give yourself some assistance. This is where you can go a little bit lower and help pull yourself up. The lunge can be challenging for those just starting out so a good alternative would be a step up. You put one foot on a step, and propel your body upwards. A good starting step up height would be about 12 inches (gradually working up to approximately 16 inches). Step height partially depends on how tall you are, the taller you are, the higher the step you can get away with. As you advance you can increase the resistance. You could add a barbell, dumbbells or even a weight vest to a step up or a lunge as your fitness improves. The next movement pattern is called rotation or rotate. In everyday life, we have to do something where we rotate (i.e. when we get in a car we rotate). So we should choose an exercise that covers this movement pattern. In addition to actually rotating; an anti rotation could be chosen. That's where some resistance wants to pull you in one direction, but you have to resist. An example of an anti rotation would be a Palloff Press. A band/cable rotation would be a more traditional choice. #freedom4lifefitness #7movementpatterns #sevenmovementpatterns