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Welcome back to my blog series where today we will be talking about exercise selection. Exercise selection will be another series, within a series, within a series… within a series? So, follow along as I dig us into an ‘Inception’ level rabbit hole from which we will emerge with a complete and comprehensive understanding of exercise selection as it relates to program design.
When talking about exercise selection for program design we can break exercises down into three categories all with subcategories within them:
 
Patterns are the way in which we move. We have four primary movement patterns.
Bends are predominantly hip dominant exercises like deadlifts, hip thrusts, and kettlebell swings. Because of the demand that bends place on the spine through shear and compression force, we also include spinal flexion/extension exercises in this category. Some examples of flexion/extension exercises would be Toes to Bar, Burpees, Sit-ups, or any other exercise where your spine is bending.
Squats are a hip AND knee dominant pattern. Some examples of squats are, well… squats; front squats, back squats, overhead squats are the obvious ones, but also lunges and pistols as they meet the criteria of a hip AND knee dominant pattern.
Presses are upper body movements characterized by the shoulder and elbow flexing and/or extending in synchronicity to PUSH an object away from our body or our body away from an object. Presses can be further broken down into horizontal presses and vertical presses. Examples of horizontal presses would be push-ups and bench press. Vertical presses include exercises like push press and handstand push-ups. A third, less commonly defined press is a dip, which fits into the presses category and moves vertically but instead of pressing something over our head, we are pushing down towards the floor.
Pulls, like presses, have us flexing and/or extending our shoulder and elbow in synchronicity. Unlike presses, pulls move our body towards an object or an object towards our body. Again, like presses, pulls can be broken down into horizontal pulls and vertical pulls. Ring rows and barbell rows are examples of a horizontal pull. Vertical pulls are exercises like pull-ups. Pulls also have less common exercises that fit this category. In CrossFit, we do an exercise called ‘sumo-deadlift high-pull’ as well as various high-pulls in the sport of Olympic weightlifting. Both of these exercises have an upper-body pull component but fit more appropriately into ‘bends’ as there is a significant contribution from the hips.
 
Planes of movement refer to the direction that the exercise is performed. There are three planes that exercises occur in:
The sagittal plane bisects the body into left and right halves. Sagittal plane exercises move forwards, backwards, up and down. Squats, wall-balls, pull-ups, presses, kettlebell swings are all sagittal plane exercises, In fact, most of the exercises we do in CrossFit are done in the sagittal plane.
The frontal plane bisects the body into front and back halves. Examples of frontal plane movements are things like side lunges and shuffles. The frontal plane doesn’t play host to a lot of exercises but has a major stabilizing role in any single leg or split stance exercise. Walking lunges, pistols, and even running rely heavily on frontal plane stability.
The transverse plane bisects the body into top and bottom halves. Transverse plane exercises are all about rotation. Rotational medicine ball throws and Russian twists are the most common transverse plane exercises we would perform in CrossFit. Like the frontal plane, transverse plane stability is very important in a lot of exercises we do. A common exercise variation we use to train transverse plane stability is the low-bear; crawls and shoulder taps are a great way to train transverse plane stability.
 
Contraction types are the last thing we want to consider when talking about exercise selection. Although contraction type doesn’t dictate the form of a movement the way patterns and planes do, it is an important component in how exercises are executed. We have 4 types of contractions to perform in CrossFit:
Concentric contractions are those that result in the shortening of a muscle. This is the up part of most lifts like squats, push-ups, and pull-ups.
Eccentric contractions are those that result in the lengthening of a muscle. This is the ‘down’ portion of most lifts like squats, push-ups, and pull-ups.
Isometric contractions are a contraction that results in the muscle maintaining the same length through the contraction. This would be a pause at a specific point during a movement, either at the bottom of a squat or the top of a pull-up. The important thing to remember is that isometric contractions are still performed against resistance, but there is no change in muscle length.
These three contraction types are often denoted in the Time Under Tension prescription. You’ve seen it written like this, ‘32X1’. In this prescription, the first digit always represents the eccentric (down) portion of a lift; in this case, 3 seconds down. The second digit represents the bottom (isometric) phase of the lift; in this case, a 2-second pause at the bottom. The third digit represents the up (concentric) portion; in this case, the X means there is no prescription so the concentric should be executed as fast or explosively as possible. Finally, the last digit is the top of the lift; more often than not there is little to no tension on the body in this position but there are some exceptions like in the pull-up or barbell row.
Plyometric contractions are ones that take advantage of the elastic qualities of the muscle-tendon unit. Plyometrics are short, fast contractions like double-unders and rebounding box jumps. Plyometric contractions are less about the shortening or lengthening of a muscle than they are about the stretch that’s available in the muscle’s connective tissue. For more information on plyometric contractions see HERE.
 
Exercises are the combination of everything we discussed above. Remember, when we are designing a CrossFit program, variety is key! We want to thoughtfully manage all of the variables of exercise selection. We should mix and match different movement patterns, in different planes, with different contraction types. Managing all of these variables thoughtfully is the key to a safe, effective program.