As the saying goes, if you don’t use it, you lose it. Never is that more apparent than in the movements we use on a daily basis – squatting down to pick up your child, hip hinging when grabbing your groceries from the trunk, pushing the lawn mower, pulling a box of clothes from the previous season from the back of the closet, or carrying an awkward load of laundry up the stairs. Movement matters. In fact, it could be argued that as movement declines so does the quality of life. When we aren’t able to do the things we used to, it’s inevitable that happiness will slowly dwindle from our daily living. Freedom is replaced by confinement, and no one looks forward to that.
That I think we can all agree on.
But you say… I move fine (although with a little pain and without the mobility I used to have). I just want to lose weight.
Movement still matters. Why?
Movement burns calories. The more efficiently and effectively (and pain free) you can move, the more intensely you can exercise, which results in more calories being burned and more fat being lost.
If I have a client that can move through all 6 movement patterns without any limitations, it’s much easier to design a program to help that client reach her weight loss goal. If she can only squat and press, the muscles used to squat and press will fatigue before a significant number of calories are burned during a workout. If she can squat, hip hinge, carry, press, pull, and perform some kind of core work, she can burn a significant amount of calories during a workout because the same muscles aren’t constantly being exercised. Thus, by the time she completes the 6th exercise in a circuit, she has rested long enough to attack the 1st exercise again during round 2 with a high intensity.
- The Squat pattern – body weight squat, goblet squat, single leg squat, back squat, front squat, jump squat, sumo squat
- The Hip Hinge – the deadlift, RDL, single-leg deadlift, cable pull-thru’s, hip thrust
- The Press – pushup, bench press, shoulder press, incline press, dumbbell press
- The Pull – TRX rows, barbell rows, band rows, chin-up, pulldown
- The Carry – Farmer’s Carry, Waiter’s Carry, Overhead Carry
- The Core – Plank, Dead bugs, Pallof Press, Stir the Pot, Landmine Rotations
Next time you perform a workout on your own, look over it and make sure you’re using an exercise from each movement above. Or, you can join one of our FLOW 385 classes. During the 4th pod, we incorporate an exercise from each one of the movement patterns above. We try to change it up each week so you learn a variety of exercises from each movement that you’ll be able to use on your own.
