The basics of movement and how they show up on the wall
Push, pull, hinge, squat, lunge, carry and rotate: the basic human movement patterns, and where each one hides in the climbing moves you already do.
Coach Lucian · · updated · 3 min read
Climbing looks like a sport of pulling. Watch a strong climber closely, though, and you will see almost every basic human movement pattern at work: pushing, hinging, squatting, lunging, carrying and resisting rotation. Understanding these patterns helps you train the whole body rather than just the forearms, and it gives coaches a shared language for describing what is going wrong on a route.
The seven basic patterns
Most strength coaches group human movement into a handful of patterns. The exact list varies, but a useful version looks like this:
| Pattern | What it is | Where it shows up in climbing |
|---|---|---|
| Pull | Bringing a load towards the body | Locking off, moving between holds, campusing |
| Push | Moving a load away from the body | Mantling, pressing out of a palm, stemming in corners |
| Hinge | Bending at the hips with a neutral spine | Rocking over a high foot, keeping hips close on slab |
| Squat | Bending hips, knees and ankles together | Standing up on a high step, compressing on a low start |
| Lunge | One leg forward, one leg back | Long reaches with one foot driving, dynamic moves off one leg |
| Carry | Holding a load while staying stable | Gripping hard while the body stays tight and controlled |
| Rotate / anti-rotate | Turning, or resisting being turned | Drop knees, flagging, controlling a barn door |
None of these is unique to climbing, which is exactly the point. Climbing is a skilled way of combining them under unusual constraints: small holds, steep angles and the need to keep your centre of mass in the right place.
Pull: the obvious one
Pulling is the pattern everyone trains. Lock-offs, pull-ups and hangboard work all live here. The trap is that pulling strength without control of the shoulder blade and trunk tends to leak energy. A good pull starts with the shoulder set and the body tight, not with the elbow bending.
Push: the forgotten partner
Mantles, palming on arêtes, bridging in corners and pressing down on a hold as you move above it are all pushing. Many climbers struggle with mantles not because they lack strength but because they rarely practise pressing. Push-ups, dips and overhead pressing, done with good shoulder control, build the base.
Hinge and squat: the legs do the work
Rocking over a high foot is a hinge followed by a squat. Getting your hips over your feet on a slab is mostly a hinge. Climbers who can squat deeply and hinge well tend to use their legs more and their arms less. Read more in Hips and feet: the forgotten half of climbing.
Lunge: one leg at a time
Climbing is mostly single-leg work. Every long reach off one foot is a lunge pattern, and drive from that leg is what makes dynamic moves feel light. Split squats and step-ups train this directly.
Carry: staying solid under load
A carry in the gym means walking with something heavy. On the wall, the equivalent is holding body tension while gripping hard, so that your feet stay on when the wall steepens. It is the bridge between grip strength and core strength. See Core for climbing: tension, not crunches.
Rotate and anti-rotate
Drop knees, flags and twisting into a sidepull all use rotation. Just as important is resisting rotation: stopping the body from swinging off when you let go with one hand. That anti-rotation ability is what keeps you from barn-dooring.
Why this matters for training
Thinking in patterns helps in three ways:
- Balance: a programme that only pulls leaves pushing, legs and trunk undertrained. See Antagonist training for an honest look at what pushing work can and cannot do.
- Diagnosis: when a move fails, ask which pattern is weak. A failed rock-over is often a hinge or squat problem, not a finger problem.
- Longevity: a body that moves well in all directions tends to tolerate climbing's demands more comfortably over the years.
Climbing is not one movement. It is every movement, done on small holds.
Try this
- Pick one session this week and add one exercise for each pattern you rarely train, such as a push, a hinge and a single-leg exercise.
- Film yourself on a familiar boulder and name the pattern behind each move.
- If you have a coach, ask them to add these exercises to your planned sessions in Train Climb, so sets and targets are ready when you train and logging takes about 30 seconds.
- New here? Create an account and start logging your sessions.
