Movement Breakdowns

Before you can use an exercise in training, you must understand a bit about it. You should know what muscles it targets, how to properly set-up and execute it, potential modifications and substitutions, and best practices for progressing it over time.

Typing all of this out explicitly makes it feel more overwhelming than it really is — most of the time, we intuitively run these calculations in our head. But there is still substantial value in knowing these exercises at an intimate level; for this is the only path to true mastery of the gym and dominance over your training.

Here we have a collection of way-too-detailed movement breakdowns that will provide you with practically everything you’ll ever need to know about the exercise in question. I encourage you to approach every variation (even those not contained here) with this level of analytical criticality — and if you find one that stumps you, there is more work to do!