Dan John’s 5 basic human movements

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

Squats

• Back squats
• Front squats
• Goblet Squat

Hinge

• Deadlift
• Romanian Deadlift
• Power Clean

Loaded Carries

• Farmers walks
• Suitcase carry
• Waiters walk
• Rack Carry

If you want to simplify your training, try Dan John’s approach. Happy lifting.