Train Movements Not Muscles: The Super Saiyan Six Exercises

Focus on training movements rather than muscles

Almost everyone who first gets into lifting uses a body-part split. Chest on Monday, Back on Wednesday, Legs on Friday, or something to that effect. And on those days they just focus on putting the muscle through as much pain as possible with any exercise available and hoping it will grow.

I prefer a much more targeted approach, I think it would serve most trainees better to focus on movements rather than muscles. Because the right movements being placed at the foundation of training means that...

A) You’re getting the best return on investment by using the best mass building exercises

B) You’re creating a balanced program based on real life movement patterns ⠀

So what are these movements?

1.A lower body press. (Examples: back squat, front squat, leg press)

2.A hip hinge (Examples: Deadlift, Romanian Deadlift, barbell hip thrust)

3.A horizontal push (Examples: Bench Press, push ups, chest press, incline Bench)

4.A horizontal pull (Examples: Barbell Row, Chest supported Row, Seal Row)

5.A vertical push (Examples: Overhead Press, Machine Shoulder Press, push press)

6.A vertical pull (Examples: chin ups, lat pull downs, pull ups)⠀
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Those 6 essentially train our primary movement patterns of pushing, pulling, and picking stuff up along with using the most muscles for the respected muscle group.

I call these movements 'The Super Saiyan Six' and they should serve as the foundation for any training routine.

If you progressively increase the weight in a given rep range for these movements you will grow, accessory work definitely has its place but it shouldn’t be the foundation of any resistance training routine.

If you want to know more about getting as ripped as a shonen anime protagonist check out my free training manual 'The Super Saiyan Six'

Have a nice day guys and always remember: Be More Shonen

Cosplay: Son Goku (DragonBall Z) Photo: Guilherme Affonso (Taken At World Cosplay Summit 2019)