It’s Monday at 11:45am and you heading to the gym for a quick lunchtime workout. Your last meeting left your head spinning and all you can think about is the work you need to complete that afternoon. You throw your things in your gym bag and race over to train.

When you get to the gym, you walk out onto the floor and totally blank on what to do. You hurry through a few sets of bench press, chest flyes, curls, and crunches. Everything feels rushed and you are unable to focus. You return to your desk feeling like you accomplished very little.

Wednesday finds you in the same situation, except this time you complete a handful of different exercises. The rest of the week you are so swamped with work and unmotivated from your lackluster workouts you don’t make it into the gym at all.

This cycle repeats week after week.

This story exemplifies how many busy professionals approach their training. You don’t have a plan or know how to maximize your time. Instead, you bounce haphazardly between the exercises you know and like. You may try to follow a multi-day body part split, but fail to make it in for all of the workouts. This not only wastes time and results in no progress towards your goals, it can lead to imbalances and potential injuries.

I want to suggest a better way to build workouts, even on the fly.

Legendary strength coach Dan John explains that there are five major movement patterns: squat, hinge, push, pull and carry. Full-body workouts that focus on these five major movement patterns are an effective, efficient, and enjoyable way to train. This article looks at each pattern and provides exercise examples and progressions for each one.

You can use this basic framework and the exercises included to quickly assemble a safe, effective, and challenging workout. At the end, I include two sample full-body workouts based on these principles.

Squat

The squat is a lower-body movement that uses lots of flexion at the ankle, knee, and hip joints. Think of a squat as sitting down into a chair.

There are many different ways you can train squats at the gym. Start with bodyweight air squats or box squats. Next, progress to front-loaded variations including goblet squats, double front racked kettlebell squats, and barbell front squats.

Once you have mastered basic squat form, you can add in barbell back squatting. I don’t have all my clients back squat. Most people can get the same benefits from front-loaded squat variations, which tend to have a lower risk of injury.

Read More: Can’t Back Squat? Try These Front-Loaded Squats Instead

I also include single-leg exercises under the squat category. Everyone should do some single leg exercises throughout the week. This is especially true for runners or athletes.

The most basic single leg exercises include step ups and stationary split squats. Once you are more comfortable, you can progress to various lunge variations (reverse, forward, walking, side, or deficit), rear-foot elevated split squats (also called Bulgarian split squats), and single-leg squats.

Hinge

The hinge is the second major lower body movement and it involves lots of flexion at the hip, minimal flexion at the knee, and almost no flexion at the ankle. Think of a hinge as picking something up from the ground.

Everyone regardless of age, experience, or injury history needs to train the hinge. You don’t want to be the person who throws out their back helping a friend move or picking up their child at the playground. Learning to move from your hips and load your legs without risking your spine is an incredibly important skill.

The deadlift is the king of hinge exercises. You can perform a variety of deadlift variations depending on your skill, strength, and injury history. Choose a deadlift variation that allows you to get into the longest position without any rounding of the spine. For example, if you are one of the many people who lack the flexibility to perform a great barbell conventional deadlift from the floor, try pulling from a sumo position, elevating the bar on blocks or doing rack pulls, or using a trap/hex bar. You can also use dumbbell or barbell Romanian deadlifts to practice moving into a hinge from a standing position, which requires much less coordination and flexibility.

Read More: Which Deadlift is Right for Me?

Other hip hinge exercises include the cable pull-through, back extension, goodmorning, and kettlebell swing. Experiment with different exercises and implements to determine which choices are best for your skill level and body.

Push

Upper body pushing and pulling movements are divided into vertical and horizontal categories. As a general rule, most people should perform more horizontal pushing and pulling than vertical pushing or pulling. People with shoulder injuries or very tight upper backs should use caution or avoid vertical pushing and pulling altogether.

Horizontal pushing includes pushup and chest press variations. Pushups are a tremendously efficient exercise that builds upper body strength along with core strength and stability. If you can’t complete pushups from the floor, elevate your hands on a bench or smith machine and work your way down.

Chest press exercises include standing cable or band chest press, flat bench press, incline bench press, decline bench press, floor press, and single arm presses at any angle. Start with dumbbells or kettlebells and then progress to the barbell.

Single-arm landmine pressing is a great half-way option for people who want to train their vertical press but don’t want to or can’t get into a fully overhead position. Complete these in a half-kneeling position for an extra challenge for your core and legs.

Vertical pushing exercises include different types of overhead pressing. If you include vertical pressing in your program, start with light weights and use implements such as dumbbells or kettlebells that allow less restricted movement of your shoulders. Once you are strong and sure of your form, you can progress to barbell overhead presses such as military press or push press.

Pull

Horizontal pulling is also known as rowing. You can row using barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, bands, cables, machines, and even your own bodyweight. Beginners should begin with bands or cables (low row, single arm cable row, face pull) and machines (chest supported row) before progressing to dumbbells and kettlebells (bent over rows or chest supported rows). As with all movements, the barbell is the most advanced progression and should only be used if you are sure of your form and have built a solid foundation of strength.

Trainees of all ability levels can benefit from bodyweight inverted rows using a TRX or a smith machine. Elevate your feet or add a weighted vest to make these more challenging.

Vertical pulling includes chin-ups and pull-ups using a variety of grips and implements. You can also perform lat pulldowns if you aren’t strong enough for pull-ups or want to supplement your vertical pulling training. Check out the video below to see a TRX progression I use to help my clients work up to their first bodyweight chin ups. 

Carry

Carrying is perhaps the most basic of all the movements included in this program. No matter who you are or what you do, you will need to complete carries on an almost daily basis. Common real-world examples include carrying groceries, children, pets, or moving objects for your job or hobby.

My favorite carry is the basic farmer carry. Grab two heavy weights, stand up with tall and tight posture, and walk around. You can mix up your carries by holding weights in front of you (front rack carry), overhead (waiter carry), or by pulling or pushing a heavy sled or box.

With this framework, you can easily put together an effective full-body workout even when you are crunched on time.

Pick one exercise from each category and complete 2-3 sets of 8-12 reps each.

Use supersets (two exercises paired together) to save time. Pair hinge with push and squat with pull.

Finish with a few rounds of carries and call it a day.

I provide two examples of workouts catering to beginner/intermediate and advanced lifters below.

Beginner Workout

Dumbbell Romanian deadlift

Smith machine elevated pushup

Step ups

TRX inverted row

Farmer carry

Advanced Workout

Barbell front squat

Chin ups

Dumbbell bench press

Kettlebell swings

Waiter carry

Putting it all together