Movement Patterns: Programming for specific populations.
Exercise prescription will look a little bit different depending on the population that I'm working with. If I'm working with an athletic population the exercises are going to look a lot different than if I'm working with general or special population. When programming workouts, the exercises I select for each of these demographics comes down to individual need, and the movement patterns which best suit those needs.
To understand what I mean by movement patterns a bit better consider the task of signing your name. When you bring a pen to paper there's a specific pattern that your hand follows to create your signature. Now humor me and try this for yourself. Try signing your name on a piece of paper, once you've done this now take your finger and try signing your name in the air. Once you've done that (and this is where it gets kind of silly) take your foot and try signing your name in the air. Now even sillier, take your elbow and try signing your name in the air, what do you notice? Every signature that you made in the air whether it was with your finger, elbow, or foot, all followed the same movement pattern. More practically speaking, this is how I categorize these exercises I program, for example, whether it's a front, back, overhead, or goblet squat, each of these exercise follows the bilateral knee flexion movement pattern.
Before we get into the movement patterns that I include in my training model, its important to understand the demographics that I bucket each pattern into. Here are the three primary demographics I work with at AIM Athletic:
General population
This is the average gym goer, the person who is looking to build muscle, lose fat, and get stronger. Its very rare to find someone who doesn’t have some sort of chronic pain, or lingering injury these days, but for the most part these people are physically healthy, and coming to the gym to improve their body composition. These individuals are usually in small group training session and 1:1 personal training.
Athletic population
These individuals are athletes looking to improve performance in their sport. They are physically healthy and can handle a lot of different stimuli including resistance movements, as well as explosive and ballistic movements.
Special populations
These are people who are suffering from chronic and acute injuries, elderly, and youth individuals. With these populations we’re going to avoid ballistic movements and focus primarily on resistance patterns.
With those demographics in mind, I will outline the movement patterns that I include in my workouts when programming, some examples of each one of these movement patterns that you might see in your workouts at AIM athletic, as well as which populations have access two each pattern. The first nine patterns are resistance patterns, commonly done with weights, you’ll notice that these patterns are pretty much accessible to all populations. Once we get down to final six, starting with change of direction, some populations will start to be excluded.
Bilateral Knee Flexion
I mentioned this movement pattern earlier, these are squatting exercises, ones where both knees are flexing simultaneously and include leg press, all the squat variations as well as hamstring curls. This pattern is one I use with all populations.
Bilateral Hip Extension
These are hinging movements, such RDL’s, deadlifts, good mornings, as well as hip thrusts and bridges. All populations have access to these movements. You may notice that trap bar deadlifts are not included, this is because they involve a greater amount of knee flexion, therefore I believe they are more of a bilateral knee flexion pattern.
Unilateral Knee Flexion
This pattern includes all split squat variations as well as almost all lunge variations. The one movement I would exclude from this pattern is the reverse lunge, as it involves more movement at the hip and less at the knee making it more of a hip extension exercise. This pattern is accessible by all populations.
Unilateral Hip Extension
In this pattern we are looking at single leg RDL’s, reverse lunges, step ups/downs, and single leg hip bridges. All populations have access to unilateral hip extension movements.
Horizontal Press
This pattern includes any exercises where we are pushing against resistance perpendicular from our bodies. Think of chest press variations, push ups, and dumbbell flies. These are accessible to all populations.
Vertical Press
Any exercise which involves pressing against resistance above your head, or upwards, is a vertical press. In this pattern shoulder pressing variations are included. All populations have access to this pattern, however its very common that individual ranges of motion are restricted in these movements, so they are sometimes avoided.
Horizontal Pull
This pattern involves pulling the elbow back and includes all rowing variations. All populations have access to these patters.
Vertical Pull
Anytime you are pulling your elbow downwards, towards your pockets, you are using the vertical pull pattern. Included here are lat pull downs, pull ups, cable pull downs, and ring pull ups.
Core
Core is a bit of tricky pattern as there are many subdivisions within it. Firstly, you can break down core into exercises that either target pelvic control, or thorax control. Next there is both dynamic and static core exercises, and finally you can divide core movements based on the plane of motion they take place in. For the most part, I will use these patterns with all populations, however when I’m working with athletes, I am toggling up the amount of rotational core that I program into their workouts.
Change of Direction
Change of direction entails how fast you are able to stop your momentum, and then accelerate in another direction, and is key to athletic performance. This is pattern that I only program when working with athletes as it does not correlate to the commonly outlined goals of general and special populations, and risk of injury outweighs the potential reward in this situation.
Triple Extension
This is another athletic pattern, and covers movements which require the exerciser to extend at the ankle, knee, and hip simultaneously with velocity. Here you can think of exercises such as Olympic lifts for examples of this pattern. Again, these movements are likely needs of general and special population individuals and the risk to reward potential is too high to warrant their inclusion with these demographics.
Throwing
This pattern is once again predominantly only used with athletes and involves medicine ball throws. Slams are sometimes used as a cardiovascular method with general population individuals, but in special populations ballistic movements like throwing are not utilized.
Plyometrics
This pattern revolves around the stretch shortening cycle and is once again key to athletic performance. I believe that many coaches incorrectly include plyometrics into general population programming as a form of cardiovascular exercise. When plyos are included as a form of cardio however the outcome is usually poorly executed plyometrics, low cardiovascular stimulus and potential injury to tendons and ligaments, especially in special populations.
Locomotion
The final movement pattern is locomotion, and while all individuals need to be able to move effectively, the only population that I will really break down gait with is the athletic population. For general and special populations, time is more likely suited spent with resistance patterns such as unilateral knee flexion, and hip extension to improve gait while still getting a muscle building stimuli.
While I like to bucket these movement patterns into specific populations, there is of course specific situations where some patters overflow into other demographics, as well as situations where a demographic would not get a pattern they otherwise have access to in my model. However, for the most part, by sticking to these guidelines, I have been very successful in avoiding injuries, and better targeting specific goals of the populations I work with.
You’ve got the information, now its time to take AIM!