The Main Movements
Control the whole system
Every movement we do is a full body movement because even if a movement doesn’t require moving all of our body, it still requires us to be aware of what we are not moving.
When learning any movement, we must be consciously aware of where we are moving as well as not moving and I choose to start with where we don’t move. This is why I get clients to practice resisting unwanted movement first with their neutral, brace, breathe Anti-Movements. This gives them a great starting place for learning new movements because they will have good central stability to best control their upper and lower body movement systems.
THE SIX Main MOVEMENTS
The Six ‘Main Movements’ are: SQUAT, HINGE, LUNGE, PUSH, PULL and CARRY.
When we move with weight, we want to keep our torso rigid whilst getting as much movement from our two main movement systems, our upper and lower body complexes. Both systems primarily work in the same way, building their movement system around a ball and socket joint. These ball and socket joints have evolved for maximal movement and we want to take advantage of this, getting maximal movement from our hips and shoulders with minimal movement from our torso. This is the simple principle I work on when getting clients to move better in a few key movements which I adopted from “Dr John Rusin”. Check out below to see them in action, looking at which joints move and which ones don’t.
This split allows a client to train every muscle and control every joint whilst always training their core.
The Movement patterns
These main movement patterns combine to give total body control as well as a total body workout.
(watch time : ~2 mins)
Mastering all of these movement patterns and their many variations will help maintain the health and longevity of the body’s joints. Importantly for fitness, they can also be manipulated to form an effective fitness regime for achieving fitness adaptations. The main movements can be manipulated to improve: mobility, strength, endurance, balance and body composition.
My first aim with all clients is to get them to move well. I do this by getting clients to combine the Neutral, Brace, Breathe and Anti-Movement principles into their Main Movements. This simply means, I work with clients to get them moving in a way which better spreads out their training forces to put more training stress through their muscles and less through their joints. Better movement quality allows more wiggle room to safely push training harder, allowing for greater potential adaptations and improvements in training. Better movement quality is therefore both beneficial for health, helping to better protect joints over the long term, as well as for fitness, allowing greater training stresses to be achieved.
Once clients can perform their main movements well, they are ready to be safety challenged in a way fitting their desired goals. Purposeful challenge to a combination of these movements is what makes up most fitness training regimes.