How can I learn to break pawn barricades?

I am very weak player in this area so would like some study materials on this. Many of my games end up with almost total non-pawn piece material exchanges but my opponent usually ends up with one extra pawn and even if not I invariably lose badly from this point on. My opponents manage to zig zag all their pawns and even if I try to do it I fail badly. Any advice to my weak play?

I have looked and found only one of your games. You resigned it prematurely. It also shows weak opening play: you move pawns too much and move the same piece twice.

It is a well known technique to win a pawn and then trade off pieces so as to increase the relative importance of the pawn. A good player will almost always win when a pawn up for no compensation. That does not mean you should resign when you are a pawn down. Just play on till the end.

A good way to study endgames is to set up a position of your choice with 6 pieces with the tools board editor and analysis board. Activate the table bases and you will see the exact evaluation of the position: won, drawn or lost and the best moves. Play through and learn.

@kiwiheretic seems like your weaknesses are endgames and pawn structures.

Bad pawn structure = bad endgame
good pawn structure = good endgame

if you are stuck with a bad pawn structure in the middlegame, try to avoid exchanges.
the general principal is to make sure your pawns can be defended by other pawns. You don't want to be stuck with any pawns that cannot be defended by friendly pawns. Those usually drop off in endgames.

Endgames are when pawn advantages become a big deal. 1 extra pawn can turn into a passed pawn which can turn into a queen. Hope this helped.

This was the game. I resigned because I could see no move forward against the pawn structure although materially we were probably fairly equal (that is before white forked my rook and bishop with his knight and I followed with a blunder).

en.lichess.org/Vmfa1vSe#51

I should add I played black. The thing is I never see these kind of horrendous pawn structures in masters games. Yet they seem to be hideous to combat.

This pawn structure is known as the Stonewall, or more precisely the reverse Stonewall. Botvinnik played it often and Bronstein too. Carlsen has also played it occasionally.
Your move 8...Nc6 should have been 8...Nd7 intending 9...Ndf6 to strengthen your hold on the central square e4.
9...Qf6 loses a pawn and with it your grip on the centre.
After that your position is lost.

Hi, I think my advice is slightly off-topic. I am a beginner like you, and have no formal training/ knowledge of theory. With only one game of yours, it is hard to predict, but still I feel you have much work to do in tactics. Try practicing that, and to avoid theory and pawn endgames, avoid closed positions and in my opinion avoid d5 in response to d4. Try something else (like nf6, g6, etc.), get an open position, employ your tactics, attack the opponent. It will definitely improve your chess. After you have reached say 1900 or so, then you can look at theory and endgames and so on. I have progressed much since I first began. (I reached about a peak of about 1830 recently)

@bat_of_doom with all due respect, there is no point in avoiding endgames, closed positions or 1 d4 d5. Open or closed positions is a matter of taste, but you cannot and should not force that, especially if playing black. If white opens 1 d4 you cannot force an open position. 1...d5 is easier to play than 1...Nf6.
Endgames are very useful to study, for direct benefit as well as for the understanding in the game they yield.
Back to the game: as said 8...Nd7 was better and 9...Qf6 is a blunder and should have been 9...f5.

@kiwiheretic I would suggest you to solve more and more tactical puzzles rather than worry about pawn structures , so that you don't drop off a pawn easily ... after that you should do a deep(not some) study on pawn endgames - it will help you play the endgames ofcourse and also it will improve your calculation skills. Endgames are fun , dont create an impression in your mind that the endgames are boring . Finally you should do some study on various pawn structures in the middlegame and how to play with them ... I would like to recommend Some books for you-
1)Pawn Power In Chess (Strategy)
2)Chess Strategy In Action (Strategy)
3)Winning Pawn Structures (Strategy)
4)Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual (Endgame)
You can find multiple books on tactics and even there's the tactics training tool in lichess itself .... Just train for atleast an hour a day , then not only will your problem with the pawns will be solved , but also you will become quite strong in other areas of the game ... :) Good luck and have fun !

@tpr Okay, maybe positions can not be opened that easily. But, do look into the game. He just proceeded to exchange the pieces, lost pawns, and then lost to white's superior pawn structure. If I were playing the game, I would have not given up my pieces that easily, without an advantage in my position. I don't know why you want a guy who can't easily identify forks, pins, positional advantage, etc. (basic tactics and strategy) to learn about pawn structures, and endgames. I don't think there is a point in teaching somebody something tough like general topology, if he doesn't understand basic high-school algebra. If the OP wants to read books, I suggest something basic like "Logical Chess -Move by Move -by Irving Chernev". Also, as suggested by @S0what in the comment above, he should try more puzzles possibly using the site itself. I think basic endgames come naturally, when one improves in tactics. Though I have never read theory or studied endgames, in particular, I feel I can handle them much easily than before due to the improvement in my tactical ability. Basically, I calculate ahead what the other player might try to do, and in most cases it works fine. Also, I think studying theory is much easier after you have basic tactical skills, and a bit of practice. It is much easier to appreciate the moves in any standard game or text. This, of course is only my opinion, and I post it because I feel the OP is in a similar position as I was .

I would suggest that thinking about pawn structures is a good thing, regardless of your level - you can't get everything working all at once. Other issues, as others have posted, may override the importance of that, but it will eventually become more important.