The 5 Basic Strength Training Exercises

Just this past week, I ran a short strength workout for a group of dancers. I created a straightforward circuit workout for the group and explained why each of the exercises would help them improve their dancing (because we’re all about getting stronger to do more cool stuff here!). I had a sign for each station with a category and a couple exercise options to choose from underneath. At the end of the workout, one of the dancers came up and asked if she could take a picture of the signs together. She’d been trying to work out from home, but needed some guidance on choosing exercises to do that would actually make an impact. The categories and exercises I put together gave her a simple structure to follow consistently.

Does her situation (maybe minus the dancing…) sound familiar? This is one of the biggest struggles I hear from people about strength training- not knowing what to focus on or which exercises to do during a workout.

I’m here to tell you: the basics always work! Learning the five basic strength training exercises and using them as the cornerstones of your workout is a simple way to set yourself up for success.

Why are these exercises important?

When it comes to our body movement, there are a handful of vital movements that help you live your life. These five movements/exercises strengthen your body move its best and, when combined, strengthen all the major muscle groups. Of course, there are many, many other strength exercises that can be used in a workout plan, but these are the generally-agreed-upon best functional exercises.

A functional exercise is an exercise that helps you move better. The perception of strength training is that it’s only for “bulking up,” or achieving larger muscles. While that is one outcome, it takes a specific training program. When you’re strength training to help your body move better during daily activities or hobbies, you want to focus on full-body exercises instead of specific muscles. These are the exercises that will help your body function as a whole, lengthen your healthspan, and prevent future injury.

What are the 5 basic strength training exercises?

1. Squat
2. Hinge
3. Push
4. Pull
5. Carry

Squat

What is it: A squat is a movement where you bend both your knees and hips.

Why do it: Squat exercises strengthen the muscles in your legs, especially your quads (front of thigh muscles), adductors (inner thigh muscles), and calves as well as muscles around your hips and butt. Doing squats helps movements like standing up, sitting down, walking up stairs, and getting up off the ground feel easier/more stable.

Exercises in this category:

• Squats, such as bodyweight squats, goblet squats, and front squats
• Step ups
• Lunges, such as static lunges, reverse lunges, and lateral lunges

Squat tip: During any type of squat movement, you’ll want to keep your knee pointing in the same direction as your middle toe. Many people’s knees have the tendency to cave in towards each other while squatting, which can cause knee injuries. By pointing your knee in the same direction as your third toe, you’re protecting your knees and strengthening all the muscles around them!

Hinge

What is it: A hinge is a movement where you bend your hips a lot, but your knees very little.

Why do it: Hinge exercises are critical for strengthening your posterior chain, the muscles that run along the backside of your body, including hamstrings, glutes, and back muscles. Doing hinge exercises helps you lift or pick things up and walk/jog/run. They also have the added benefit of supporting your lower back, an area where many people feel discomfort.

Exercises in this category:

• Deadlifts, such as conventional deadlifts, sumo deadlifts, and Romanian deadlifts
• Glute bridges and hip thrusts
• Good mornings
• Kettlebell swings and cleans

Hinge tip: The muscles you want to focus on most for any of the hinging exercises are the glutes, the weakest part of most people’s posterior chain. Make sure you’re engaging them (read: squeeze your butt) during each rep while keeping your back neutral/straight and not rounded.

Push

What is it: A push is a movement that pushes something away from you, or moves your body away from something.

Why do it: Pushing exercises work the muscles on the front of your upper body, specifically your pecs (chest) and shoulder muscles. Pushes make it easier to get up off the ground or out of bed and lift above your head (like putting things on a shelf) as well as strengthening/protecting your shoulders from injury.

Exercises in this category:

• Vertical (upward) presses, such as overhead presses and military presses
• Horizontal (outward) presses, such as bench presses and floor presses
• Push ups

Push Tip: When doing any type of push motion, you want to keep your elbows closer to your torso instead of flared out to the side. For horizonal presses and push ups, this looks like making an arrow with your body and arms instead of a T. For vertical presses, this looks like bringing your arms more in front of your body (think 45°angle) instead of way out at your sides.

Pull

What is it: A pull is a movement that pulls something toward you, or moves your body toward something.

Why do it: Pulls strengthen the muscles along your back such as lats (down the sides), rhomboids (in the middle), and traps (at the top and in the middle). While the large muscles are important for movement, pulling exercises also strengthen the smaller muscles that support your shoulders and shoulder blades and help them move optimally. Having stronger back muscles means it’s easier for you to stand up straight, hold things, and pull yourself up (like off the ground or out of a pool, for example).

Exercises in this category:

• Rows, such as seated rows, bent over rows, and upright rows
• Pull ups and its variations
• IYTWs
• Reverse flys
• Pullovers

Pulling Tip: Before every pulling exercise, think about rolling your shoulders down and back. This will engage your back and core muscles before you even begin pulling, helping you get the most out of each rep.

Carry

What is it: A carry is a core exercise that involves full body stabilization holding one or more objects/weights.

Why do it: The core is the key to stabilizing your entire body. The many muscles in your core support your pelvis, spine, and ribcage and help connect your upper body to your lower body. A strong core helps you bend in all directions, twist, and brace your body (like if your dog was about to jump on you and you didn’t want to fall over). This bracing is what your body does when you carry weight, and that strength directly transfers to all the other exercises we’ve talked about in this article.

Exercises in this category:

• Carries, such as farmer’s carry, suitcase carry, and rack carry
• Other core exercises can also go in this category, but focus on strengthening the entire core! Many common “core” exercises (like sit ups, crunches, and leg lifts) actually just strengthen your abs and hip flexors and ignore the other muscles.

Carry tip: Carries can take more time than other exercises, especially as you get stronger. Have a favorite energizing playlist or, if you’re at home, a tv show/movie going to keep you entertained while you move!

How can you put the basic exercises into your workout plan?

Now that you know what the five basic strength training exercises are, let’s talk about how you can use them as cornerstones of your workout plan. No matter what type of goal I’m working towards, these exercises are always present in my workouts.

Since squats, hinges, pushes, and pulls are full-body, compound (multiple joints involved) exercises, I usually do them first after my warm up. Putting them first guarantees I have the most energy to spend on the full-body exercises, so I can focus on more targeted exercises with lighter weights once I’m already tired.

I usually save carries or any core exercise until the end of my workout, or at the end of the strength portion if I plan to do any metabolic/cardio exercise. I need my core for almost every exercise I do during a workout, especially the full-body ones. If I start with core and exhaust it first, those muscles will be less effective at stabilizing my body, causing me to lift less weight or even potentially get injured.

Below are two different options for putting together a workout plan that incorporates all of the basic exercises and strengthens your entire body. I encourage you to start with the variations of each exercise that you feel comfortable with and progress as you get stronger. Start with little to no weight to build confidence and avoid injury, then add weight slowly. For guidance about how many reps of each exercise to do, keep an eye out for an article about training goals, coming soon!

Your New Workout Plan

Template Key:

• Main exercise: the focus of the workout, the exercise you want to use the heaviest weights with.
• Secondary exercise: a squat, hinge, push, or pull, but with less weight or a different variation than when you do it as a main exercise
• Accessory exercise: any other exercises you want in your program, usually targeting more specific muscles or movements you want to train

Here is a simple template to use for two days of workouts per week:

Day 1	Day 2
Full body warm up Part 1 Main Exercise #1: Squat Main Exercise #2: Push Part 2 Secondary exercise #1: Hinge Secondary exercise #2: Pull + any accessory exercises you’d like to add Part 3 Carry	Full body warm up Part 1 Main Exercise #1: Hinge Main Exercise #2: Pull Part 2 Secondary exercise #1: Squat Secondary exercise #2: Push + any accessory exercises you’d like to add Part 3 Different carry than day 1 or another core exercise

Here is a simple template to use for four days of workouts per week:

Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Day 4
Full body warm up Part 1 Main exercise: Push Part 2 Secondary exercise: Pull + any accessory exercises you’d like to add Part 3 Carry exercise	Full body warm up Part 1 Main exercise: Squat Part 2 Secondary exercise: Hinge + any accessory exercises you’d like to add Part 3 Core exercise	Full body warm up Part 1 Main exercise: Pull Part 2 Secondary exercise: Push + any accessory exercises you’d like to add Part 3 Carry exercise	Full body warm up Part 1 Main exercise: Hinge Part 2 Secondary exercise: Squat + any accessory exercises you’d like to add Part 3 Core exercise

Make It Your Own

As you do these exercises and combine them into workouts, you’ll start to figure out which variations you enjoy the most and how much weight to use for each of them. Just like the dancer at the beginning of the article, you can use them as the basis of any strength program you create for yourself- you may need to change the weight or the variation occasionally, but these exercises will always help you get stronger. Doing the five basic strength training exercises consistently is the key to moving well now and in the future!

Looking for something like this, but with a little more guidance? Check out this free workout: Stronger in 40!