The Repertoire

All movements

• Assisted pull-up machine A pull-up with a counterweight taking part of your bodyweight — and unlike a band, it helps evenly all the way up.
• Back extension Bending and straightening over a padded bench — badly named, because done properly it is mostly a hinge.
• Band external rotation Rotating the forearm outward against a band with the elbow pinned to your side — small, dull, and the only direct way to load two small muscles.
• Band face pull Pulling a band towards your face with the elbows high — upper back and external rotation in one movement.
• Band pull-apart Holding a band at arm's length and pulling it apart — the simplest upper-back movement there is, and the one bands are best at.
• Band pulldown A pulldown against a band anchored above you — vertical pulling with no bar, no machine and nothing to hang from.
• Band row Rowing against an anchored band — the most useful pulling movement available to someone with no weights and nothing to hang from.
• Band-assisted pull-up A pull-up with a band taking some of your weight — popular, useful, and helping least exactly where you need it most.
• Barbell back squat Squatting with a bar across your back — the most loadable squat, and the one that needs a rack and a plan.
• Barbell bench press Pressing a bar off your chest — the most loadable horizontal press, and the only movement here you can get trapped underneath.
• Barbell deadlift Lifting a loaded bar off the floor — the movement that loads more of you at once than any other.
• Barbell front squat Squatting with the bar across the front of your shoulders — more upright than a back squat, and limited by whether you can hold it.
• Barbell hip thrust Hip extension with your back on a bench and a bar across your hips — heavy loading with nothing asked of your spine or your grip.
• Barbell overhead press Pressing a bar from your shoulders to overhead while standing — the movement that most exposes what your trunk is doing.
• Barbell Romanian deadlift A hinge with a barbell that never touches the floor — more load on the back of your legs than anything else you can do.
• Barbell row Rowing a barbell while holding a hinge — as much a test of your back position as of your pulling strength.
• Bent-over dumbbell row Rowing both dumbbells while holding a hinge — which makes it as much a back-position exercise as a pulling one.
• Bird dog On hands and knees, extending opposite arm and leg without letting the hips turn.
• Bodyweight squat The squat with nothing in your hands — which sounds like the easiest version and is in one respect the hardest.
• Box squat A squat onto a chair or box, where the target underneath you removes the two things that make squatting hard to learn.
• Cable pushdown Straightening the elbows against a high cable — the popular one, and mechanically the lesser of the two elbow-extension movements here.
• Cable woodchop Pulling a cable diagonally across your body — the collection's one genuinely rotational movement, and the rotation should not come from your lower back.
• Calf raise Rising onto the toes — and whether your knee is straight or bent decides which muscle does the work.
• Chest press machine Pressing a fixed handle away from your chest — horizontal pressing with the balance, the setup and the failure mode all removed.
• Dead bug Lying on your back moving opposite limbs while your back stays flat — trunk control with the load taken off entirely.
• Dead hang Hanging from a bar and doing nothing — the entry point to every pulling movement, and harder than it looks.
• Dumbbell bench press Pressing from a bench, where the arms can travel below the body — more range than the floor allows, and more shoulder demand with it.
• Dumbbell curl Bending the elbow against weight — and which grip you use decides which muscle does most of it.
• Dumbbell floor press A press lying on the floor, where the floor stops your elbows going too far — which is the whole reason to do it.
• Dumbbell front squat Squatting with a dumbbell on each shoulder — more load than a goblet squat, and the shoulders decide how long the set lasts.
• Dumbbell lateral raise Raising light weights out to the sides — an isolation movement that only works if the weights stay light.
• Dumbbell overhead press Pressing weight from your shoulders to overhead — and the trunk has to stop your lower back doing the work.
• Dumbbell reverse lunge A reverse lunge with weights in your hands — the stepping version of the loaded split squat.
• Dumbbell Romanian deadlift The hip hinge with weight in your hands — the movement that finally loads the back of your body.
• Dumbbell split squat A split squat holding weights at your sides — the most efficient way to load your legs heavily with light dumbbells.
• Dumbbell step-up A step-up carrying weight — two dials at once, the step height and the load.
• Farmer's carry Picking up something heavy in each hand and walking with it — the most honest exercise there is, and the least interesting to look at.
• Glute bridge Hip extension lying on your back — the whole hinge pattern with the balance and spinal demands removed.
• Goblet squat A squat holding a single weight at your chest, where the load in front is what lets you sit down properly.
• Hip abduction machine Pushing your knees apart against pads while seated — narrow, honest, and surrounded by claims it does not support.
• Hip hinge Bending at the hips rather than the back — the pattern underneath every deadlift, every row and every time you pick something up.
• Incline push-up A push-up with your hands raised — the load is set by the height, which makes it the honest way to scale the movement.
• Inverted row A row done by hanging under a bar with your feet on the floor — the load is set by how flat you lie.
• Kettlebell deadlift Picking a kettlebell up off the floor properly — the most useful movement on this site, because you already do it badly several times a day.
• Kettlebell swing A hinge done fast — the bell is thrown forward by your hips, not lifted by your arms.
• Lat pulldown A pull-up done to yourself instead of to the bar — the most straightforwardly scalable vertical pull there is.
• Lateral band walk Sidestepping against a band around the legs — a small movement carrying a large amount of folklore.
• Leg extension Straightening the knee against a pad — the only common movement that loads the front of the thigh and nothing else.
• Leg press Pushing a loaded platform away with your legs while supported — heavy leg loading with no balance, no back position and no bar.
• Lying leg curl Bending the knee against a pad — and it trains only half of what the hamstrings actually do.
• Negative pull-up The lowering half of a pull-up, done slowly — the most reliable route to a first full pull-up.
• Overhead triceps extension Straightening the elbows with the arms overhead — and the overhead position is what makes it different from a pressdown.
• Pallof press Pressing a band straight out while it tries to twist you — the clearest anti-rotation movement there is.
• Pike push-up A push-up folded at the hips so you press upward instead of forward — overhead pressing with no equipment at all.
• Plank Holding a straight line on your forearms and toes — resisting movement rather than producing it.
• Pull-up Hanging from a bar and pulling your chin over it — the hardest common bodyweight movement, and the clearest one to measure.
• Push-up The whole upper-body press and a moving plank at the same time — which is why it is harder than it is given credit for.
• Reverse lunge A lunge stepping backwards rather than forwards — easier on the knee and easier to control.
• Seated cable row Rowing a cable while seated — horizontal pulling at any load, with the back position problem taken away.
• Seated calf raise A calf raise with the knee bent — the only common way to load the deep calf muscle with the visible one taken out of the equation.
• Side plank A plank on one side, resisting the hips dropping — and the only common trunk movement that loads the side.
• Single-arm dumbbell row Rowing one dumbbell with your other hand supported — the most accessible loaded pull there is.
• Single-arm Romanian deadlift A two-legged hinge holding weight in one hand — the load is uneven, and resisting the twist is the exercise.
• Single-leg glute bridge A glute bridge on one leg, which roughly doubles the load and adds a demand nothing in the two-legged version has.
• Single-leg Romanian deadlift A hip hinge on one leg — the balance demand is the point, and it is what makes a light movement feel hard.
• Split squat A stationary lunge — one leg in front, one behind, going straight up and down.
• Step-up Stepping onto a box and back down under control — the most transferable single-leg movement there is.
• Suitcase carry A farmer's carry with one weight — which turns a grip exercise into a trunk exercise without changing anything else.
• Walk The movement this site refers to more than any other, and the only one most people already do every day.
• Wall sit Holding a seated position against a wall with no chair — sustained work for the front of the thighs, and nothing else.