The Core Four Movements Part 5
Putting It All Together
Thus far we’ve covered the four movements of the squat, hip hinge, push and pull. Now we’ll go into detail about how and when to utilize these for an effective workout.
The Total Body Circuit
I’m a big fan of total body weight training sessions. You get the most bang for your buck, and when implemented as a circuit, you can get a great workout in a short amount of time. If you have 10 minutes you have enough time to get a great workout. Let’s use the exercises from the previous articles to get started. We’ll perform 8 repetitions of each movement for the, with no rest between movements until after completion of the circuit. It looks like this:
Goblet squat
Single-Leg Deadlift
TRX Row
Push-Up
Take a rest after finishing the push-ups then do the circuit again. Your rest break will go a long way in determining the intensity of the workout. A short break makes it harder, a longer one easier. 30 seconds is a good place to start. Another idea is setting a timer and seeing how many rounds you can complete within the given time frame. This is also an excellent way to gauge progress, as you can easily repeat this circuit and see how much more work you can complete after a few weeks of training. Of course, if you choose to do this you will need to use the same resistance and time limit to have a valid comparison.
Doing the same four exercises will probably get boring, so let’s add four more to keep it interesting. You will still use the circuit format, but the exercises will be different, have a look.
Goblet Squat / Jump Squat
Single-Leg Deadlift / Kettlebell Swing
TRX Row / Pull-Up or Assisted Pull Up
Push-Up / Dip or Assisted Dip
You’ll simply do the four exercises from the first circuit, then perform the other four for the next circuit and switch back and forth.
The Compound Circuit
Another way to kick up the intensity is to do a compound circuit. This means performing two exercises that work the same muscle groups before moving on to the next two, which looks like this.
Goblet squats followed by jump squats
Single-leg deadlift followed by kettlebell swings
TRX row followed by pull-ups
Push-ups followed by dips
In this format, you’ll perform all eight exercises before taking a rest break. Yet another way to add variety is to switch the order of the exercises after each circuit. So you would do jump squats before goblet squats on your second run-through.
This concludes the series on the core four movements. Mastering these basic movements is the cornerstone of any good resistance training program. These skills will enable you to graduate to more advanced versions of these exercises such as the barbell back squat, barbell deadlift, bench press, and pull-ups. Until next time, train hard and train smart.
