Fano Plane of Dan John's Fundamental Movements
Origin story: Dan John is one of the Great Teachers. He's a strength coach, multiple record holder, Fulbright Scholar, and all-around fantastic human being. If you've ever done a kettlebell goblet squat, or carried a slosh pipe, or done a round of "get back ups", you have him to thank.
I had the rare pleasure of spending an evening with him at a discus camp (no, I don't throw). Over the course of a couple hours with him and two of his talented student coaches, I presented the Fano Plane as a possibility for a visual model that tied together his thoughts on his six fundamental movements - push, pull, hinge, squat, carry, and groundwork - and we worked out the details.
No model will ever be all-encompassing or perfect, but for simple, effective and balanced exercise programming, this one is still pretty good and useful. Will it work for you? As Dan often says, "it depends!"
I had the rare pleasure of spending an evening with him at a discus camp (no, I don't throw). Over the course of a couple hours with him and two of his talented student coaches, I presented the Fano Plane as a possibility for a visual model that tied together his thoughts on his six fundamental movements - push, pull, hinge, squat, carry, and groundwork - and we worked out the details.
No model will ever be all-encompassing or perfect, but for simple, effective and balanced exercise programming, this one is still pretty good and useful. Will it work for you? As Dan often says, "it depends!"
Six fundamental movements
In his many books, videos, and blog posts, Dan John has long discussed his training concept of the Six Fundamental Movements - push, pull, hinge, squat, carry, and groundwork.
In July 2015 I was fortunate to be welcomed into an evening of strength training conversation with Dan and two of his student coaches (Kelton Mehls and Chase Kallas). It was during an annual discus camp held down the street at Denison University. When Dan mentioned he was looking for a visual model to help explain this concept, it occurred to me that a Fano Plane has six points, and it might be interesting to map the movements to the points and see what happens.
In July 2015 I was fortunate to be welcomed into an evening of strength training conversation with Dan and two of his student coaches (Kelton Mehls and Chase Kallas). It was during an annual discus camp held down the street at Denison University. When Dan mentioned he was looking for a visual model to help explain this concept, it occurred to me that a Fano Plane has six points, and it might be interesting to map the movements to the points and see what happens.
This is what we made. You cut out and place the six movement pieces on the six points of the diagram. The corner points indicate a Focus movement (harder effort), and the edges are a movement to Maintain (easy-to-medium effort). You then use the arrows to move around the plane in different ways.
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There are two main methods we worked out:
Method 1 is as a program of three workouts per week with two movement patterns per workout. This ensures hitting each of the six movement patterns once a week.
Method 2 was for in-season and off-season programming using Dan's organizing idea of Survive, Thrive, and Sex Drive.
Method 1 is as a program of three workouts per week with two movement patterns per workout. This ensures hitting each of the six movement patterns once a week.
Method 2 was for in-season and off-season programming using Dan's organizing idea of Survive, Thrive, and Sex Drive.
Method 1 - two patterns per workout, three workouts per week
Here's an example of a week's three workouts. Let's say your Focus/Heavy movements are Carry, Ground, and Hinge.
- Start on the lower left Focus point, and put the Carry piece there. Put Ground on the top Focus point, and Hinge on the lower right Focus point.
- Then put the other three movement pieces (Push, Pull, Squat) on the Maintain points.
- Start on the lower left corner Focus/Heavy point (Carry), and then follow arrow #1 to find the Maintain/Light point (Push).
- Workout one is heavy Carries (farmers, suitcase, sand bag, slosh pipe), plus easy Pushes for patterning and maintenance (pushups, dips, one-arm overhead presses).
- For workout two, move to the next Focus (Ground), and follow arrow #2. Do some heavy Ground work (try crawling while dragging a chain, or Spiderman crawl backwards uphill), plus some easy Pulls.
- Moving around to the lower right Focus point, workout three is heavy Hinge (deadlifts, swings), plus light Squats for mobility.
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The next week, start on the lower left Focus point and go counter clockwise using arrows #4, #5, and #6. The third week, start on the lower left Focus point, and follow arrows #7, #8, and #9. Repeat from the beginning as is, or swap the Focus and Maintain pieces and do another three weeks.
Method 2 - Survive, Thrive, Sex Drive
Dan had also come up with the idea of grouping the movements into three categories. Survive (groundwork and climbing), Thrive (hinge, loaded carries), and Sex Drive (push, pull, squat). Dan explains it in a short video here. Or in more depth in writing here.
This second method of using the Fundamental Movements Fano Plane splits the plane into two configurations. The first focuses on Survive and Thrive (sprint, carry, and climb movements), and the second focuses on Sex Drive (muscle growth and hormone cascade). The Survive and Thrive version is good for in-season athletes, when the demands of their sport are high, and training needs to be reduced to conserve resources for sports performance. The Sex Drive version is good for off-season armor-building.
For athletes, this could be programmed as five workouts a week. Three heavy sessions of three Focus movements, alternating with two light sessions of three Maintain movements. For example, in the off-season Sex Drive version, it would be three workouts of heavy Pushes, Pulls, and Squats, alternating with two workouts of light Carries, Hinges, and Groundwork.
This second method of using the Fundamental Movements Fano Plane splits the plane into two configurations. The first focuses on Survive and Thrive (sprint, carry, and climb movements), and the second focuses on Sex Drive (muscle growth and hormone cascade). The Survive and Thrive version is good for in-season athletes, when the demands of their sport are high, and training needs to be reduced to conserve resources for sports performance. The Sex Drive version is good for off-season armor-building.
For athletes, this could be programmed as five workouts a week. Three heavy sessions of three Focus movements, alternating with two light sessions of three Maintain movements. For example, in the off-season Sex Drive version, it would be three workouts of heavy Pushes, Pulls, and Squats, alternating with two workouts of light Carries, Hinges, and Groundwork.
Click here to download a PDF of these diagrams, and happy training!
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Workout dice
I also made a set of random workout dice using the fundamental movements.
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