Let’s be real with each other bros. We all workout with the main goal of looking better naked. We figure if we look better naked, we’ll have a better chance to blow some lucky lady’s mind. It’s a confidence thing.
We also want to be strong. There’s something about being a man, and being strong, that is fulfilling. It satisfies a deep primal desire. The same can be said about feeling able bodied, healthy, and mobile. It helps us feel like we’re capable of providing and protecting.
A lot of bros find these two things as mutually exclusive for some reason. In reality, looking great naked and being strong and mobile are directly related. Not only are they directly related, it’s tough to have one without the other.
Here’s how to achieve both:
There are 5 fundamental movements you should be doing every single day to build strength and shed fat.
Full disclosure, I’m not the person who came up with this. Dan John is the guy who is credited for popularizing these five movements and doing them everyday.
In case you don’t know Dan John, he is widely considered one of the most influential people in the entire strength and conditioning world. He was a successful discus thrower, and has training everyone from professional athletes, Special Forces, to the average person.
He’s also been lifting for 50+ years. Look at doing these as a way to implement 50 years of learning and practice into your daily routine, without wasting 50 years of your life.
The five movements:
- Squat
- Hinge
- Push
- Pull
- Loaded Carry
These movements encompass all aspects of human movement. If you get these done once a day, you’ve managed to train your body in a more complete manner than damn near every other average gym goer out there.
Why does that matter?
Because these all involve lots of muscles working at once. When you get lots of muscles firing at one time, magical things happen. Specifically, how it responds and adapts.
The adaptations that occur tend to happen in the form of building lean muscle mass and shedding off unwanted body fat.
Forget spending hours on the treadmill or all your time working the mirror muscles. Implement these five movements in some form or fashion every single day, and you’re bound to wind up with a stronger, more athletic, and leaner physique.
Squatting:
When it comes to squatting, any squatting can do. Squatting is a surprisingly diverse movement. You can barbell squat, front squat, kettlebell front squat, goblet squat, and split squat. There are a ton of options you can work on each and everyday.
The beauty of this is it allows you to train the fundamental squat pattern every single day without getting the beat up feeling that heavy squatting every single day can lead to.
Hinging:
Hinging is an incredibly diverse movement as well. The deadlift is the best example of a hinge pattern in action, but that doesn’t mean you have to deadlift every day. You can kettlebell swing, Romanian deadlift, single leg Romanian deadlift, do good mornings, or even light deadlifts with something like a kettlebell.
Push:
The upper body push isn’t a movement pattern most of us bros are lacking in. We’ve been trained since we first walked into a weight room to work on the bench press. This leads to the majority of us have over developed front delts and chest, while a weak back.
Training the push pattern with push-ups, shoulder presses, bench presses, floor presses, and other variations is awesome. Just don’t overdo it, remember you’ve probably been pushing plenty already.
Pull:
This move is often neglected by the average gym goer, because it’s just not as fun as pushing. We can’t see our pull muscles in the mirror, so things like heavy dumbbell rows, pull-downs, pull-overs, and pull-ups aren’t done as much as they should.
Start trying to train the pull/push patterns in a 2:1 ratio. This will help compensate for the excessive pushing you’ve put yourself through up to this point. Not only will your physique look better, but your shoulder health will improve.
Loaded carries:
Loaded carries are one of the most often neglected exercises in the gym, which is a shame, because they’re effective as hell. Loaded carries do a fantastic job at building overall strength, and are more functional than damn near every other movement you can think of.
Really, what’s more functional than picking something up and walking with it?
The beauty of loaded carries isn’t their function though. It’s the adaptations they bring about. They strengthen the grip, abs, back, legs, traps, shoulders, and arms.
If you’re paying attention, that’s pretty much you’re entire body.
They’re also fantastic at building the cardiovascular system. If you need proof, just think about what your heart rate did after your last big grocery-shopping trip. After carrying all those groceries in, it was probably elevated. Chances are it was elevated a bit more than you’d care to admit.
You don’t have to hammer them every single day for hours on end. Spend some days where you’re working heavy, others where the reps are moderate, and others where the load is very light. Sometimes training might go for an hour, others it might only be 20 minutes.
It’s wise to spend a few days a week where you’re only going a short amount of time with very light loads. This can do wonders for recovery, and still provide a stimulus to help you make the changes you’re looking for.
Implement these five fundamental movements, and reap the rewards.