Exercise does not have to be hard or complicated to be beneficial. Fitness magazines, television and social media often promote the most complicated or flashy movements because they look “cool” but may do little to improve your fitness level.

Keeping your exercise routine simple has many benefits. A simple routine is easy to maintain. You do not have to learn complicated movements in order to progress. Simple routines are easy to remember. The body has a limited number of basic movement patterns that we do on a daily basis. Training these simple movement patterns will keep our bodies fit and in balance.

The basic movement patterns that we use every day are squat, lunge, push, pull, hinge, twist and gait. Posture is another variable that should be trained consistently since posture is the base pattern for all movements.

Each of these movement patterns have many variations. Using variations can keep your fitness routines fresh and your motivation to train high. For example, squat variations include the basic bodyweight squat, back squat, goblet squat, wall squat as well as single leg variations like the pistol squat.

Over the next few weeks, we will look at these movement patterns more in-depth to help you understand how to put together a simple yet effective fitness routine.