6 fundamental primal human movements

Risingbd Desk: Six fundamental primal human movements are needed to keep fit the body.


A push isn’t an exercise per se but rather a category of movement.

It includes the push-up, the military press, and the bench press, all of which are big pushes. Forced to rank them, they`d be ranked in that order: best, better, and still great.

Within each category of human movement, you want to do the movements that offer the highest return on investment. The push does that. And the push-up in particular is perhaps the perfect primal exercise, working trunk stability and upper-body pushing strength. This classic gym class exercise strengthens the chest, shoulders, triceps, and abs.

The squat is an essential human movement pattern.

Squatting keeps the hips supple and the knees strong. It’s also a natural rest position, meaning that you should be able to get down into a squat and sit there comfortably for extended periods of time.

The figure shows the primal or bodyweight squat. If you have the mobility, it should feel almost effortless to sit in the bottom position of this squat. You want to try to accumulate as much time as you can in the bottom of a squat position throughout the day. Doing so will work wonders for your hips, knees, and back.

Gait, or the manner of moving on foot, includes walking and sprinting.

Jogging, especially for long distances, is a dreadful undertaking. Instead, you should steep yourself primarily in the two ends of the force-velocity spectrum. You should move slowly very often and move very fast occasionally. There’s little benefit to playing around in the middle (jogging).

risingbd/Dhaka/Jun 2, 2015/Nasim