Tip: Movement Pattern Warm-Up: RDL, Lunge, Rotation

Train three of the foundational movements patterns by adding these drills into your warm-up.

Every movement we do, whether in the gym or outside the gym, can be categorized into a movement pattern or a combination of fundamental movements. These movements are:

  • Squat
  • Hinge
  • Lunge
  • Push
  • Pull
  • Rotate or stabilize

These movements are trained with a variety of drills, mainly focusing on coordinative challenges. But what do you do if your goal is to gain strength and size? How much time to you want to spend on coordinative exercises? You want to get some heavy lifting done, right?

This is where the dilemma starts. You don't want to spend valuable gym time on training your coordination; however, if you don't train your coordination you will lose it.

So, What's the Solution?

Include the coordinative exercises into your warm-up. Ideally, combine more coordinative skills into one exercise. This way, you get the biggest "bang for your buck" in the shortest period of time.

The featured drills in the video train a combination of the hinging pattern and the lunge pattern by combining a single-leg RDL and a forward lunge. You can also add the rotation pattern.

Christian Bosse is a strength-and-conditioning specialist who has developed some of the world's strongest athletes. He prepared competitors for medal success at the Olympic Games in London (2012) and Rio (2016). Christian is currently working with athletes in preparation for the Olympic Games in Tokyo (2020). Follow Christian Bosse on Facebook