My favorite workouts to do are the basic movement patterns and these are also the most effective. Basic and fundamental movement patterns include:
– Squat
– Deadlift
– Lunge
– Shoulder Press
– Push Up
– Chin-Up
– Horizontal Row (Bent over or seated row)
– Plank
Nearly every exercise is a variation of these movement patterns. If you spent your time mastering these movement patterns and increasing the load used on them you would be one fit and physically capable mama-jama.
Yet, most of us don’t. Most of us get “bored”. Most of us don’t have the discipline to stick with the fundamentals to get all of the juice out of them. Most of us jump around from program to program, exercise to exercise, shiny lure to shiny lure. Yet, if we simply mastered the fundamental “movement patterns” we would be leaps and bounds ahead of where we would be doing anything else.
Once you have mastered the basics then maybe, just maybe, it makes sense to add 1% – 5% of “advanced” training and deviation. The basics and fundamentals are the building blocks and the nuts and bolts of the house. You can have a house without the shiny finishes, but you cannot have a house without the nuts and bolts that hold it together.
Not many people will focus on the basics long enough to reap the full rewards and those that do are the ones we admire.