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It's worth looking at your movement patterns. Perhaps you will find the cause of your ailments or training limitations. This isn’t a fitness novelty - it is the knowledge that forms the basis for physiotherapy, rehabilitation, and functional training.


What is a movement pattern?

It is a specific set of moves that allows us to move, dynamically move objects, pick up something or push away from ourselves. We learn these patterns in our formative years but correctly mastering them takes time and patience. This is something well-known to people who, after injuries or tedious rehabilitation, re-master seemingly basic abilities to move again.


Seven basic movement patterns

Pattern 1 - stable position

We should maintain a stable position when standing, walking, sitting, bending down. These simplest activities should not require any support. If, when spontaneously bending down to pick up something lying on the floor, we have the reflex of holding our hand against a piece of furniture or a wall, then something is wrong. If sitting on a stool without a backrest is uncomfortable for us, it is also a signal that we have lost some of the stability in our torso when sitting.

The width between our feet when standing, bending, or walking has a huge impact on the stability of our body position. Too close to each other do not guarantee stability.

Stable position is determined by strong deep muscles, i.e., those that support the spine during the difficult work of lifting the weight of the body. It's worth spending some time training them.

The average person maintains a habitual position, i.e., one in which they are comfortable, more than 90 percent of the time during the day.

Unfortunately, the constant need to sit has a bad effect on the stability of our posture. While working, relaxing, talking to other people. We often can't imagine our life without a comfortable chair and armchair. We spend way too much time sitting. The effect? Weak gluteal muscles arched spine. Tilting your head while reading or looking at a monitor is another curse - it causes overloading of the cervical spine.


Pattern 2 - moving around

The obvious way for humans to move is walking, i.e., alternating feet. And although it seems that it is the most natural activity in the world, there is usually much that can be improved. Like the positioning of the feet. If we place them too close together, our gait can be unstable and we can find it difficult to learn a comfortable and natural way of running. If, in turn, the feet are rotated outwards or inwards, it always affects the knee and hip joints as well.

Check your gait by leaving footprints in the sand. Observe how you place your feet while walking freely, compare with the footprints of other people.

The higher level of gait is, of course, running. When running, we should also take care of the correct arrangement of the feet, the way of bouncing off the ground, the length of the step, the arrangement and coordination of our arms, controlling the position of the spine by tightening the abdominal muscles - all this affects our health and makes running more beneficial than harmful.

It is worth remembering that the first way of moving a person is crawling. As adults, we completely forget about this type of activity. This is wrong. This position is extremely good for the spine. It is worth remembering not only how to crawl, but also practice in this position, like yoga. Many exercises involving the deep muscles, muscles of the back, buttocks and abdomen can be practiced in this position.


Pattern 3 - hip hinge

If you get the chance, do an experiment. Put an object on the ground and encourage a child and an adult to pick it up. More than certain that they will do it completely differently. The child will immediately do something like a squat - butt back, bending the knees, lowering the center of gravity, straight back, stable position. And an adult? Legs straight, back arched, head down. It's a completely different kind of movement. Children use the hinge movement of the hip whenever they have the opportunity. They also take this position when they want, for example, to jump high up. This is the most natural movement, which, thanks to the activation of our hip extensors (i.e., the gluteal muscles), allows you to generate a lot of strength necessary not only to lift a large weight from the ground, but also to dynamically jump up.

The vast majority of back injuries result from an inability to bend and lift safely. When lifting, the back must be straight and the movement should be carried out is not in the lower part of the spine, but in the hip joint.

Next time: Squat, Pull, Push, and Torso Twist, the other four movement patterns we really need to keep in mind.

Tags: helpful exercise