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PATHFIT 2
WEEK 1
Fundamental Movement Patterns (FMS)
are patterns that allow the body to be coordinated in those simple, basic movement patterns of lateral motion,
weight transfer, forward motion, up and down motion, and coordinating upper and lower body movements

means a repeated sequence of movement ideas, a rhythmic movement sequence, a spatial design on the floor or
in the air, or a specific relationship or grouping of people

are a specific set of gross motor skills that involve different body parts. These skills are the building blocks for more
complex skills that children will learn throughout their lives. They help children take part in games, sports and
recreational activities.

Procedure
When performing all of these movements, you will be able to stimulate all of the major muscle groups in your
body

600 muscles

Importance
Are very important in the physical development

Allow us to build a positive relationship with sports and exercise where we get confident and competent
with these skills, we can develop sport-specific and complex movement skills that allow us to enjoy sports
and physical activity

It helps you keep good heart-healthy habits

Can help prevent obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and heart attack and stroke later in life

Can help delay or prevent chronic illness

Category of Movement Patterns

The Fundamental Movement Patterns
Horizontal Push

Horizontal pushing isn't actually something most people do every day. In that way, it's the most you'll-only-do-
this-in-the-gym move of all the patterns on the list. Unless you're a lineman in football explosively shoving
someone out of your way, it's unlikely you'll engage in this pattern daily- except at the gym.

That said, horizontal pushing exercises such as the barbell bench press are a performance metric for many
sports as a surrogate for upper body strength. It's also necessary for competitive powerlifters and a great chest-
builder for those chasing a particular upper body aesthetic. While a horizontal push may be the least likely to be

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 called upon in real-world scenarios, a powerful upper body is a high- value commodity in many sporting
situations.

Muscles That Perform the Horizontal Push

A horizontal push involves flexion of the chest, triceps, and shoulders. The width and angle of your grip can
influence which muscles dominate horizontal pushes - think about the difference between performing a close-
grip push-up (tricep-focused) and a standard pushup (chest-focused).

But regardless of grip, all three of these muscles-the chest, tris, and shoulders - - are typically involved to some
degree. Depending on the range of motion, other shoulder stabilizing muscles may receive some stimulation
from horizontal pushes, too. For example, fully protracting the shoulder in a horizontal press would also
stimulate the serratus anterior (hence why your sides might be sore after a day full of push-ups).

Best Horizontal Push Exercises — The best horizontal push exercises to master early are calisthenics
and variations that unilaterally challenge each side of the body. Push-ups are a fantastic way to learn about
full-body bracing while drilling horizontal pushing mechanics. They are also scalable and require no
additional equipment. Dumbbell floor pressing or bench pressing are scalable, unilateral horizontal push
exercises that challenge the strength, coordination, and stability of the body.

Push-Up

Bench Press

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 Floor Press

Svend Press

Horizontal Pull

The biggest horizontal pulling benefits are promoting postural and shoulder health in everyday life. Many
people experience a forward-rounded shoulder posture from using handheld technology or sedentary
keyboard-heavy desk jobs.

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 When combined with pec and anterior delt stretching, horizontal pulling can go a long way in rebalancing this
hunch. This isn't to say that horizontal pulling doesn't show up elsewhere. Rowing itself is an entire sport and
can be used as a physique-builder and cardiovascular tool all at once.
Muscles That Perform the Horizontal Pull
The horizontal pull draws on the muscles of the upper back to pull your arms alongside your body. Similar to
the horizontal push, muscles that perform the horizontal pull are greatly influenced by the grip orientation and
degree of abduction (elbow position) of the arm.
An overhand grip with a more flared elbow position recruits more of the trapezius and rhomboid muscles. On
the other hand, a neutral or underhand grip with a tucked elbow biases towards the latissimus dorsi.

Best Horizontal Pull Exercise — In addition to barbell bent-over rows, single-arm and cable-based row
exercises are highly valuable horizontal pull variations. A single-arm dumbbell row or cable row allows you
to balance strength and coordination from limb to limb while also accommodating individual body sizes
where many machines may fail. Both single-arm dumbbell and cable variations also allow for the high
variability of hand-grip orientation to bias the specific muscle of interest in the upper back.

Bent-Over Row

Pendlay Row Single-Arm Row

Inverted Row

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 T-bar Row

Seated Cable Row

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 Vertical Push

The vertical push is an extremely underrated movement pattern as it is often more difficult and therefore
considered less gratifying than the horizontal push. With that in mind, to successfully push vertically means
successfully pairing overhead strength and stability with shoulder health.
In addition to giving you more powerful shoulders for the gym, strengthening the overhead position with vertical
pushing has a dramatic carry-over to everyday life. Reaching or lifting objects overhead can put many rotator
cuffs at risk-however, much of this risk can be alleviated with a modest investment in vertical push training.

Muscles That Perform the Vertical Push

Pushing overhead will largely draw on the deltoids as the prime mover. But perhaps more
importantly, it requires a strong and stable rotator cuff to safely perform. As the arm ascends higher overhead,
the shoulder stabilizers are more and more challenged. By extension, a vertical push will also involve the
serratus anterior, trapezius, and rhomboids.

Best Vertical Push Exercises — The best vertical push exercise will often exist on a continuum of
shoulder mobility or stability. Many people don't have suitably mobile or stable shoulders required to safely
execute loaded vertical pushes. This is where exercises such as cable and machine variations shine your
shoulders in an externally-stabilized setting — these allow you to train

Progressive training that improves shoulder mobility and stability can then help you progress to dumbbell,
barbell, or other free weight variations. As shoulder functionality allows, perhaps one of the absolute best
vertical push exercises is the dumbbell Z-press. The Z-press is a seated, on-the-floor version of a shoulder
press. This position forces maximal core engagement and frequently cues correct alignment of the torso for
safe shoulder pressing.

Dumbbell Z-Press

Barbell Overhead Press

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 Push Press

Dumbbell Shoulder Press

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 Vertical Pull

Similar to the vertical push, the vertical pull boasts a ton of shoulder health benefits. While the vertical push will
end in a fully-overhead position, the vertical pull starts there. This means that the muscles required to stabilize
the shoulder and initiate the pulling exercise are in their most compromised position at the start.
In order to safely execute overhead pulling, the correct load must be selected and often helps to enhance
shoulder stability. While the vertical pull draws on the back musculature to actually complete each repetition,
your rotator cuff muscles are often put on trial to initiate the movement.
Muscles That Perform the Vertical Pull
The prime movers in a vertical pull will largely be dictated by the hand grip and implement choice. Single-arm
exercises and neutral or underhand grip positions will tend to bias the latissimus dorsi. By contrast, grip
positions that are more narrow, or cause the elbows to flare out during the pull, will draw more upon the
trapezius and rhomboids.
Another muscle commonly involved in vertical pulling is the teres group, which works with your lats when
initiating a vertical pull from a protracted shoulder (dead-hang).

Best Vertical Pull Exercises — For overall shoulder health and muscular development, a single-arm cable
pulldown is an extremely well-rounded exercise. Not only will it allow for unilateral strengthening and
muscle stimulation, it also allows for individualized set up by manipulating the rest of the body around the
cable stack. Many machine variations perform this exercise from a fixed range of motion, which may not
allow for an optimal set up.

Pull-Up

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 Chin-Up

Lat Pulldown

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 Kneeling Cable Pulldown

Squat

Squatting is one of the most common exercises in resistance training. Almost everyone will throw some version
of a squat into their programming. While squatting to full depth is often portrayed around as a benchmark for
functionality, not everyone needs nor would be able to accomplish this glorified position. The true value in the
squat is the necessary mobility, stability, and coordination required to successfully complete whatever variation
happens to be the best for you. Successfully being able to squat means there is a prerequisite level of ankle,
knee, hip, and spinal stability that will carry over into nearly any other goal-both in the gym and out of it.

Muscles That Perform the Squat

The prime movers of the squat are the glutes and quadriceps. Your hamstrings and adductors also play key
roles depending on the type and depth of your squat. However, there are many more muscles involved in
successfully squatting. Depending on the variation, stabilizing the implement or squat pattern itself will draw
upon the core and back musculature, too.

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 Best Squat Exercises — Squat exercises come in a wide variety of loading implements, ranges of motion,
and intent. As a general tool, a front-loaded goblet squat is a great starting point for many novices and
remains an excellent tool for seasoned athletes.

Depending on the goal, high-bar and front squats have a huge general carry over to many lifters. Low-bar
squats and overhead squats are primarily used for competition purposes, though many practice them in the
gym to enhance their strength and functionality.

Goblet Squat

Front Squat

Back Squat

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 Overhead Squat

Lunge

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 Split Squat

Hinge
Hinging is one of the most essential movement patterns for lifting, playing sports, and general health outcomes.
A hip hinge integrates the posterior chain of muscles to produce perhaps one of the strongest and safest
positions to produce force. From Olympic lifting, deadlifting, or picking up a young family member, the hinge
plays a pivotal role in spinal safety when bending to perform any
task.
Muscles That Perform the Hinge
The prime movers of the hinge are the glutes and hamstrings. The full complement of back and core muscles
also stabilizes the spine throughout the exercise. The latissimus dorsi, trapezius, abdominals, forearms, and
muscles of the hands all contribute to the successful execution of loaded hinging. When performed from the
floor as a deadlift, the quadriceps also contribute to the initiation of the lift.

Best Hinge Exercises — As a general rule, most people do not need to perform a complete deadlift from
the floor as a part of their primary hinge training. Unless the deadlift is a part of a competitive environment,
nearly every variation will suffice.

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 There is value in training for the capacity to pick something up off the floor, but the dumbbell Romanian
deadlift is an enormously beneficial exercise. This exercise trains grip strength, unilateral coordination, and
core engagement, as well as the prime movers of the hinge. It also allows you to customize your end range
of motion to where your mobility currently allows.

Deadlift

Hip Thrust

Glute Bridge

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 Romanian Deadlift

Kettle Swing

Rotation
The ability to twist and rotate is a recurring movement pattern in everyday life. Shoveling snow, reaching across
your body to grab something off the counter, or any number of real-world tasks draw on the ability to rotate and

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 twist. Without proper technique, many muscles and joints may be put in extremely compromised positions. Too
often, however, rotating and twisting gets minimal intentional focus during training.

Muscles That Rotate

Different muscles can be put on trial depending on the specific rotational exercise or task. Rotational
movements are often discussed as primarily core exercises but remember that the core is not the only mover
involved. As a general rule, the hips and shoulders are also involved in most twisting
exercises.

Best Rotation Exercises — Rotation and twisting exercises can be thought of in both a training or sporting
context. Explosive change of direction in sport, such as a football player cutting on the field, is one example
of twisting or rotating that can be applied as a training drill. In a more isolated context, cable woodchoppers
or kettlebell windmills also challenge rotation and twisting capacities.

In the gym, this movement pattern is often trained against itself - anti-rotation exercises are very effective at
strengthening the integrity of this movement pattern. Here, think about Pallof presses and side planks.

Cable Woodchopper

Kettlebell Windmill

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