The six moves

• Stand tall, feet a little wider than your hips
• Toes turned out slightly, wherever feels natural
• The weight held up against your chest in both hands, elbows tucked in underneath it

Sit down between your feet, hips going back and knees bending together, until you are as low as you can go with your back staying long. Then drive back up through the whole of both feet until you are standing tall again.

• Screw your feet out into the floor, so the knees track in line with the feet and never fall inward
• Chest up. The weight at the front is doing half that job for you
• Down as slowly as you come up. No dropping into the bottom

• Stand tall, then step one foot a good stride straight back, into a long split stance
• Front foot flat, back heel lifted
• Weight shared fairly evenly between the two feet, roughly fifty-fifty

Lower yourself straight down, thinking of dropping your back knee towards the floor rather than bending your front knee. Aim that back knee straight down and let the front leg bend to allow it. Go only as far as you can under control and without the knee complaining. Shallow is fine, especially to begin with, and the depth comes as the control does. Then drive back up through both feet to where you started, pushing up through the mid-foot and heel rather than the toes, and keeping the whole foot planted. Do all your reps in that stance, then swap your feet over.

• The front knee tracking in line with the foot as you lower and drive up, never caving inward
• Screw the front foot out into the floor, and you'll feel the hip take charge of holding the knee in line
• The whole of the front foot staying in contact with the floor, and the movement straight down and up

• Stand tall, feet about hip-width apart, a soft bend in the knees
• Set your neutral spine and brace your middle
• The weight held in both hands, hanging down in front of your legs

Push your hips back behind you, as if you were closing a car door with your backside, and let your chest tip forward as they go. Hips travel back, not down. Let your knees keep only that soft bend they started with, don't let them push forward, and feel a good stretch come on down the backs of your thighs as your hips move back. If your range allows it, let your upper body come the whole way down until it's roughly parallel with the floor, flat as a tabletop from hips to head. Put the same three-three-three tempo on it that you've used all chapter: about three seconds to lower into the hinge, three held at the bottom while you check your back is still one flat line, then three to drive your hips forward and rise back to tall, squeezing your glutes at the top.

• The flat line of your back, held the whole way
• The movement happening at your hips, and the work landing in your hamstrings and glutes, not as a strain in your lower back
• Depth handed to you by your hamstrings, never forced. A short hinge with a flat back beats a deep one that rounds, every time
• No pause at the bottom once there's weight in your hands

• Hands a little wider than your shoulders, on whichever surface you're using
• Body in one straight line from head to heels, middle braced
• The further your feet are from the surface, the harder it is

Lower your chest towards the surface under control, until it's a few inches away or gently touching. Then press yourself back up until your arms are straight. Slow down, honest up.

• One straight line, head to heels. No sagging in the middle and no backside in the air
• Elbows travelling back at about forty-five degrees, not flared straight out to the sides
• The whole range. A short, bouncy press-up builds a short, bouncy press-up

• Stand tall, feet about hip-width
• Weights at shoulder height, palms facing forward or slightly in
• Middle braced, ribs down, so your lower back can't arch to help

Press the weights straight up overhead until your arms are at full stretch, then lower them slowly back to your shoulders. Press up, not forward.

• Shoulder blades set, shoulders down and long. No shrugging up towards your ears
• Ribs down throughout. If your back arches to get the weight up, the weight is too heavy
• Slow on the way down. That's where the strength is built

• Stand tall, feet about hip-width
• Middle braced gently, the way you learned at the back, so your ribs don't flare and your lower back doesn't arch to help
• Arms hanging down in front of you, elbows soft
• Shoulder blades set down and back

Keep a soft, slight bend in your elbows the whole way, never locked out straight, the same easy unlock you keep in your knees. Raise the weight slowly up in front of you, on up past shoulder height and all the way overhead until you are reaching tall. Then lower it just as slowly back down under full control. As it comes overhead, let it settle a touch in front of straight up rather than forcing it back behind your head. Slow up, slow down, and no swinging it.

• The shoulder blades gliding round and up as your arms rise, and no shrug
• The shoulders staying down and long the whole way
• The weight a touch in front of dead overhead, where the shoulder has the most room and the least pinch
• The lift coming from your shoulders, not from leaning back and swinging the weight up

• Hinge forward from the hips with your back flat
• The weights hanging straight down from your shoulders
• Middle braced, back long and still
• With a band instead, stand tall facing the anchor and step back until there's tension

Pull both weights up towards your ribs, leading with the elbows, and let the shoulder blades draw back and down as you go. Then lower them slowly all the way back down.

• Start the pull with the shoulder blades, not by heaving with the arms
• Back flat and still throughout. No rocking up and down to help the weights
• Slow on the way down. That half is the half people waste

• Kneeling or standing under the anchor
• Arms up and out, band held in both hands, a little tension already on it

Pull down and in towards your chest, elbows driving down towards your ribs. Then let it back up slowly, all the way, until your arms are long again.

• Start with the shoulder blades, not the hands
• Ribs down. Don't lean back to cheat the last few inches
• All the way up at the top. A short pulldown builds a short pulldown

• Hold an end in each hand, arms out in front of you at shoulder height
• Step back until there is tension on the band before you start

Pull the band towards your face, hands travelling wide and elbows staying high, until your hands are either side of your head. Then let it back out slowly under control.

• Elbows high, level with your hands. Let them drop and it becomes a row
• Shoulders down. No shrugging up towards your ears
• Slow on the way back out

• Stand tall between them and pick them up with a flat back
• Shoulders back and down, arms hanging
• Middle braced

Walk. Slowly and tall, for a set distance or a set time, then set them down with a flat back and rest.

• Shoulders back and down. Don't let the weight round you forward
• Steps smooth and unhurried, eyes up
• Breathe. It's easy to hold your breath and just endure it

• Stand tall, the weight hanging at your side, shoulders level
• Set your neutral spine and brace your middle, exactly as you have all chapter

Simply walk, slowly and tall, for a set distance or a set time, then turn around and come back, and swap the weight to the other hand for the return. The whole exercise is the walking. There's no clever movement to it. The work is all in what you don't let happen.

• Staying dead level and tall while the weight tries its hardest to tip you over towards it
• Both shoulders level and your spine stacked straight up. Don't lean away to counterbalance it either, that's just swapping one bend for another
• Breathing behind your brace, steps smooth and unhurried, eyes up

• Stand tall, the weight pressed straight up overhead in one hand
• Arm locked out tall, shoulder set down and away from your ear
• Middle braced, ribs down

Walk, slowly and tall, keeping the weight steady above you. Then bring it down under control and swap hands.

• Arm tall and the shoulder steady underneath it
• Don't lean away from the weight to counterbalance it
• Ribs down. If your back arches to hold the weight up, it's too heavy

• Stand side on to the anchor, feet about hip-width
• Band held in both hands, in against your chest
• Step out until there's real tension on it, and brace your middle

Press your hands straight out in front of you until your arms are long, and hold there while the band tries to twist you. Then bring them slowly back in to your chest. Do your reps, then turn around and face the other way.

• Shoulders and hips stay square. The band does not get to turn you
• Press straight out in front, not off to one side
• Keep breathing behind the brace. It's easy to hold your breath and grip

• Stand side on to the anchor, feet a little wider than your hips
• Both hands on the band, arms long, up and across towards the anchor
• Middle braced

Pull down and across your body, from high to low, turning through your middle as you go, until your hands finish outside your opposite hip. Then control it back up along the same line. Do your reps, then turn around.

• Turn through your middle. Don't just swing your arms across in front of you
• Feet planted and hips still. The turn happens above them
• Controlled both ways. The way back up is not a rest

• On your hands and knees, hands under your shoulders, knees under your hips
• Set your neutral spine and brace your middle
• Head in line, eyes down at the floor

Reach one arm forward and the opposite leg back until both are straight and level with your body. Hold. Then bring them in and swap. Three seconds out, three held, three back.

• No sagging in the middle and no tipping to one side. A cup of tea on your lower back shouldn't spill
• Reach long rather than high. The leg doesn't need to go above the line of your back
• Slow. Momentum makes this easy and useless