There’s tons of fitness advice out there about the “best exercises” for every goal imaginable. If you zoom out and look at what actually creates full-body strength, confidence, and long-term health, a few movements stand out. Moving your body in any way is great, but if you’re training for real-world strength and overall wellness, there are three foundational patterns you don’t want to skip: a squat, a deadlift, and an upper-body press.
Sometimes called the Big Three, these movements have a huge carryover to everyday life. They build muscle, strengthen joints, improve posture, and make daily tasks feel easier. Whether you’re totally new to strength training or coming back after time away, learning these basics is one of the best investments you can make in your health. The really cool thing about all three of these movements is that there’s a ton of ways to approach them and to incorporate them into your workouts in a way that works for you!
Foundation Builder 1: The Squat
At its most basic, a squat is just sitting down and standing up. Simple, but really important for your quality of life. Squats develop lower-body strength with a focus on the quads, glutes, and core. They’re incredibly accessible. You can start with a bodyweight squat, hold a dumbbell for a goblet squat, or use a box to build confidence and reinforce solid technique. In our LIFT program we do barbell back squats, front squats, and variations with dumbbells and kettlebells to build up strong, solid squatting ability.
Why It Matters for Health
- Functional Strength: Squats prepare you for real life! Whether it is picking up a kid, getting out of a chair, climbing stairs. If you can squat well, daily movement gets easier.
- Joint Health: Squatting strengthens the muscles around your hips and knees, giving those joints extra support and stability.
Foundation Builder 2: The Deadlift
The deadlift is the ultimate strength builder for the backside of your body, including your glutes, hamstrings, and back. Simply put, the deadlift is picking something heavy up off the floor and putting it back down. The conventional barbell deadlift gets all the attention, there are tons of variations we love: Romanian Deadlifts (RDLs), Trap Bar Deadlifts, kettlebell deadlifts, and beyond.
Why It Matters for Health
- Posterior Chain & Posture: Deadlifts strengthen the muscles that keep you upright. If you spend a lot of time sitting, this is the antidote to that rounded-forward posture.
- Back Resilience: A properly performed deadlift teaches bracing—how to stabilize your spine under load. This is the key to preventing everyday back injuries.
- Grip Strength: Your ability to carry groceries, hold onto a dog leash, or open a stubborn jar? That’s grip strength. Deadlifts build it fast.
Key Tip: The magic of the deadlift is in the hip hinge. This is not a squat. Push your hips back, keep the spine stable, and let the legs and glutes do the work.
Foundation Builder 3: The Upper Body Press
Pressing movements train your upper body to push weight away from you. You can do a press either overhead, like in the Overhead Press, or horizontally, like the Bench Press. Both versions build strong shoulders, triceps, and upper-back stabilizers, contributing to both strength and long-term joint health.
Why It Matters for Health
- Shoulder Stability: Pressing strengthens the entire shoulder complex, especially the small stabilizing muscles that help prevent common shoulder and rotator cuff issues.
- Functional Power: Pressing makes daily tasks easier, whether it’s pushing open a heavy door, putting a box on a high shelf, or getting up from the floor.
- Bone Density: Resistance through the upper body helps maintain (and even build) bone density, which becomes increasingly important as we age.
Your Strength Foundation Starts Here
These three fundamental movements (squatting, hinging/deadlifting, and pressing) cover most of the movements your body performs in daily life. Together, they build a foundation of strength, stability, and confidence that carries you through workouts, workdays, and everything in between.
You don’t need to be a powerlifter to train these patterns. You just need the willingness to learn and the guidance to do them safely.Ready to master the Big Three?
Join our Strength for All program, where our coaches teach you the technique you need to squat, press and deadlift starting right on day one and help you build strength that lasts a lifetime. Book your free No Sweat Intro where we can chat about your goals and see if it is the right program for you.
