The definition of “fitness” and “strength” encompasses a huge spectrum of various types of exercise, from running to racquet sports to swimming to Olympic lifting. As you can probably imagine, how we define “strength” would vary greatly between different activities - just because someone is an elite gymnast does not necessarily mean that their body is conditioned to excel in long distance running. This is why athletes in different sports have their individualised training program tailored specifically to their requirements.

And then of course we have the everyday person who has to juggle their time between various commitments, whilst trying to pursue their health goals. Add in the need to consider other factors such as age, exposure/experience in fitness training, existing medical conditions or past injuries…you might realise that everyone’s “starting point” can be very different.

With a plethora of websites sharing tips on fitness and health, it can be difficult at times to determine which piece of information is reliable, and which exercises are specifically relevant to our individual needs. However, there are certain “Foundational Movements” that are basic movements the human body can perform: Squat, Hinge, Push, Pull, Lunge and Rotation.

These are movements we intuitively perform multiple times throughout our day, and most of our tasks and activities are essentially combinations or variations of them. Practicing these movements will stimulate all of the major muscle groups in your body, and help you become "real-life" stronger:

• Squat – getting in and out of a chair, sitting on the floor with the kids.

• Hinge – picking an item up off the floor, the first movement of the squat.

• Push – opening a really heavy door, pushing-starting a broken down car, pushing something heavy into the top shelf of a cupboard

• Pull – starting the lawnmower, pulling something out of the cupboard, removing gardening waste, helping someone up off the ground.

• Lunge –tying your shoelaces, patting the dog, getting down to fixing something.

• Rotation – throwing a ball, putting the seatbelt on.

In our video below, we have demonstrated some ideas on how you can work on these movements, and examples of how you could progress their difficulty in your training:

The basic moves shown above could be a good starting point to include in your routine. However, this also depends on whether you have an existing injury, or other medical conditions. As always, we would recommend you seek the advice of a physiotherapist or strength & conditioning coach on how to safely progress your existing training program. Your physiotherapist would also be in the best position to assess your strength and movement “baseline”, and give you a safe recommendation in order to minimise risk of injury.

Our team at Sterling Physiotherapy are also accredited Strength & Conditioning coaches, and therefore we can assess your physical condition before designing a training program specific to your needs. We also work closely with a team of coaches from different sporting backgrounds, and would gladly connect you with one of them as part of our network. Get in touch with us if you would like some guidance on your fitness journey, and let’s chat about your goals!