Movement Patterns

Movement patterns have become the foundation in strength training programming. They allow us to focus on movements that are functional in life and sport. Thanks to the knowledge of movement patterns, we are able to design training that will be specific to MTB.

What are movement patterns?

Movement patterns are a classification of exercises based on the biomechanics of movement. The distinguishing features of each pattern are:

1) Dominant lever of movement e.g.:
- Deadlift – hip work “hip dominant”
- Squat – knee dominant

2) Track of the performed movement e.g.:
- Pull Ups – vertical pull “vertical pull”
- Dumbbell Row – horizontal pull
- Bench Press – horizontal push


Division of movement patterns

In different literature or articles of other trainers you can meet with different division. However, the scheme below I checked and use in my work with clients:

1. Knee dominant
2. Hip dominant
3. Push
4. Pull
5. Rotation
6. Anti-rotation
7. Anti-flexion
8. Locomotion including Carry


This is a simple pattern classification, but training programming must takes additional consideration:


- the dynamics of the movement: static or dynamic exercise
- unilateral movements (e.g. single leg) and bilateral movements (e.g. double leg)
- direction and plane of movement: linear, lateral, vertical, horizontal
- rotational and anti-rotational movement
- global movement
- type of muscle work: eccentric, concentric, isometric

Thanks to the movement patterns we are able to create a training specific for a given sport discipline, so for MTB. For this we need the correct interpretation of the requirements of the sport. On the basis of movement patterns we can design a training periodization and plan progression for it.

“When training muscles we forget about movement, but when training movement we never forget about muscles”.

See more training and workout tips on our website Train For Skills.