The Anatomy of My Workouts

A StansellFit Guide

I have written thousands of workouts for clients (and myself) at this point. I generally know what works and what doesn’t. I will upload workouts here that I’ve created in the future, but I also want to “teach you to fish”, so to speak.

The anatomy of a good workout is not complicated. There are a handful of movement patterns that form the backbone, and you can fill in the gaps with anything else that’s important to you. The template I’m going to outline here isn’t exhaustive, but it will help you create simple, effective, and balanced workouts. You can get very far with this simple outline. I know because it’s what I still use for most of my clients.

This guide will show you not just how to put the big pieces together but will also give you some ideas on how to fill in the gaps once the big rocks have been taken care of. A more comprehensive list of exercises that fall into each category will be listed at the end of the article.

The Movements

You only need a handful of movements that can handle loads heavy enough to produce broad strength adaptations. Not every exercise fits neatly into these movement categories, but it’s fine for our purposes. 

1. Upper Push (UPS)

   1. This is any movement where you are either pushing something away from yourself or pushing yourself away from something (usually the ground) with your upper body. 

      1. Examples: Bench press, chest press, overhead press, push-ups, handstand push-ups 

   2. These can be further subdivided into vertical and horizontal pushes.

      1. Vertical Pushes are when you’re pushing parallel to (or in line with) the body

         1. Overhead pressing, handstand push-ups, and shoulder/overhead pressing machines are the most common examples of true vertical presses.

      2. Horizontal Pushes occur when you’re pushing perpendicular to the body

         1. Push-ups, bench presses, and chest press machines are the most common examples.

      3. Some movements aren’t purely horizontal or vertical, like incline press and landmine press, but are still in the upper push category

      4. When placing these exercises in your program, you don’t need an exact 1:1 ratio of vertical to horizontal pulling, but you should try to make sure you have exercises from both subcategories

2. Upper Pull (UPL)

   1. Any movement where you are either pulling something toward you or pulling yourself toward something. 

      1. Examples: Rows, lat pull-downs, and pull-up variations 

   2. These can also be subdivided into vertical and horizontal pulls.

      1. Vertical Pulls (UPL-V) are pull-ups, lat pulldowns, and machine pulldowns.

      2. Horizontal Pulls (UPL-H) are barbell rows, dumbbell rows, machine rows, and inverted rows on the bar.

   3. Same as with the upper pushing, try to have a mix of both categories so all your pulling bases are covered.

3. Lower Push (LPS) 

   1. A lower push is where you’re pushing something away from you with your lower body or pushing yourself away from something with your lower body.

      1. Squats and leg presses are the most popular examples in this category

   2. I like to divide these into unilateral (one side) and bilateral (both sides).

      1. Unilateral (LPS-U) examples are walking lunges, lateral lunges, split squats, step-ups

      2. Bilateral (LPS-B) examples are leg presses and squat variations (back squats, goblet squats, front squats, box squats)

   3. How you distribute this category will be totally up to you. Bilateral exercises tend to be better for building overall strength whereas unilateral exercises can ensure balance across sides and can help prevent overuse injuries by loading the lower body in a different way.

   4. Your gym setup will also dictate what exercises you have access to. If a squat rack is never available, obviously that’s not a viable option.

      1. If you’re at a commercial gym, you’ll likely have access to a rack, smith machine, or leg press, but at an apartment gym, you may only be able to use dumbbells. In that case, unilateral options might work best because you can use less weight when isolating one side.

4. Lower Pull (LPL)

   1. A lower pull involves “pulling” the hips through to a locked-out position by squeezing the glutes.

      1. These also work well subdivided into unilateral and bilateral variations.

         1. Bilateral Lower Pulls (LPL-B) examples include Deadlifts and RDLs, Hip Thrust, Back Extension, KB Swings.

         2. Unilateral Lower Pulls (LPL-U) examples include Single-Leg RDLs, Walking Deadlifts, Single Leg Hip Bridge

      2. The two lower body movement types (LPS and LPL) have some overlap, so some exercises may not fit neatly into one or the other but should rather be considered as a hybrid that can satisfy both categories.

         1. Lunge variations, although they’re listed in the lower push category, also target the glutes. The same can be said for split-squats and front squats at greater squat depths. So those exercises can satisfy both categories if needed.

5. Core (CO) 

   1. “Core” exercises are those specifically designed to target the abdominal muscles and/or all muscles defined as “core”, which can include pelvic muscles, lower back muscles, and lats (winged muscles under the armpit). But I will be focusing mostly on the superficial and deep muscles on the front of the body as the back and lats get targeted with many other exercises in the workouts.

      1. I have not made the distinction between different core exercises in the programs, but it might be a good idea to include an even distribution across each of these core training categories.

      2. Spinal Flexion and Extension

         1. These are exercises where you are shortening the abdominal muscles and extending them.

         2. Crunches, sit-ups, v-ups, inverted sit-ups, etc.

      3. Lateral Flexion and Extension

         1. These are exercises where you are shortening and/or extending the side abdominal muscles (obliques)

         2. Side bends, abdominal side taps

      4. Isometric

         1. Anti-Extension

            1. Holding the spine straight and keeping it from arching like a cat

            2. Plank and plank variations, ab wheel rollouts

         2. Anti-Rotation

            1. Pallof press, anti-rotation chops

         3. Anti Lateral Flexion

            1. Side plank, suitcase carries

6. Isolation (IS)

   1. These are exercises that only target one muscle or muscle group. I use these exercises to fill in gaps that compound movements don’t cover, to target “lagging” body parts, or to just give extra attention to muscles I want to make bigger or more visible.

   2. You can divide these into upper isolation (IS-U) and lower isolation (IS-L)

      1. Lower Isolation (IS-L) Examples include leg extensions (quads), leg curls (hamstrings), hip abduction (hip abductors, mostly glutes)

      2. Upper Isolation (IS-U) examples include bicep curls (biceps), tricep pressdowns (triceps), lateral raises (shoulders). 

Putting It All Together