Dan John’s 5 basic human movements

14 May 2025

The beauty of simplicity.

I don’t know about you, but I can get quite analytical and overthink everything. Part of that would be how to program and write my exercise routine. For some strange reason, I find programming interesting and therapeutic. I truly hope I’m not the only person who feels this way.

Whenever I get to a place where things are a little convoluted, I come back to Dan John’s five basic human movements. He simplifies his exercises into the following movement pattern categories: “Push, pull, squat, hinge and loaded carry”.

He trains both athletes and the general population and follows the same philosophy of prioritising movement patterns over muscles. This is what he states:

"So many people spend so much energy looking for the perfect program, when it’s much better to get “good enough” workouts a few times per week for the next 30+ years.

Play with different combinations of exercises and reps, just make sure you cover the 5 fundamental movement patterns. Push, Pull, Squat, Hinge, and Loaded Carries. Do those 5 things, and your workouts will be pretty good."

It’s hard to argue with that. Here’s a short list of exercises you might want to try.

Push

Bench Press
Overhead Press
Dips

Pull

Rows
Chins ups
Pull ups

Squat

Back squats
Front squats
Goblet Squat

Hinge

Deadlift
Romanian Deadlift
Power Clean

Loaded Carries

Farmers walks
Suitcase carry
Waiters walk
Rack Carry