Last week we discussed 9 fundamental movements to understand when following, or building, exercise routines and regimens. Ideally, you’ll start with the most basic, bodyweight version of these movements and in this post I’m going into why that is.
Originally when I wrote this article I was going to have this be one piece around how to progress movement, but I ended up getting overly technical and explaining the mechanisms and mechanics behind why it’s so fundamental to master proper form for a movement in its bodyweight form first before progressing the movement… that I decided to break this up into 2. 🤓 Because that last run-on sentence was a mouthful in itself. 🙃
So Part I is all about why beginning with bodyweight base movement and learning fundamental mechanics matters. Part II will be all about how to progress and advance movement from stable, bilateral, bodyweight movements.
But first, why should you even care about how to properly progress a movement?
Why Even Bother Following a Proper Progression?
I’ve always been a stickler for form so I highly recommend everyone master a movement in it’s most basic, fundamental (often bodyweight) form before trying to spice it up and up the challenge.
One of the many reasons I harp on fundamental form is because first and foremost helps reduce your risk of injury. Ask anyone who’s thrown out their back, improper movement can take you out or keep you out of the game even when it comes to normal day-to-day functioning. Injury from improper movement patterns can be a pain in every sense of the word.
Another reason is because one of the best ways to get the full effect of your workouts is to make sure you’re getting full range of motion. Full range of motion will give you the most efficacy and benefits. While it’s not always necessary to 100% master movement via bodyweight before adding resistance, movement without load typically makes it easier to achieve full range of motion.
Most people can pick up a pair of 10 lbs dumbbells and perform some of these fundamental movements fine without having to first master the body weight movement. However, when you start loading up a barbell with hundreds of pounds, the story changes. There is a massive difference between a 200 lbs quarter squat and a 200 lbs full squat. In a full range of motion squat, compared to a quart squat, you’re recruiting more muscles and putting a higher demand on your body to execute the full movement. Properly increasing demand on the body and recruiting more muscles can result in better muscular adaptation, better cardiovascular adaptations, better neural adaptation, among many other things.
On that note, one typically can’t advance from a 200 lbs quarter squat to a 200 lbs full squat off the bat. It takes incremental progression for most people to be able to get a 200 lbs full squat.
All this to say, if you’re like “...but I’m not trying to squat 200 lbs 🙄…”, these principles still apply. Someone who does a quarter pushup will not have as great adaptation and results as someone doing a full depth, proper push up. And with that, let’s get into the basics with bodyweight.
The Basics: Starting from Square One with a Stable, Bilateral, Bodyweight Foundation
As I’ve said, most coaches will start an individual with body weight movement on as stable of a surface as possible with both sides of the body working simultaneously (bilaterally) and only with the individual’s bodyweight to learn a movement.
To get science-y and technical for a moment, when we perform new movements our brain forms neural pathways as we learn to coordinate our body. A neural pathway is essentially our brain’s step by step series our brain goes through to execute a movement. In the beginning it takes our brains a little to build the neural pathway, but our brain loves to be efficient. The more we repeat a movement causes our brain to create shortcuts to be quicker and require less brain power whenever it performs the movement in the future.
If you learn something wrong, it’s not entirely impossible to unlearn and reteach your brain how to do something the right way. However, it’s best to eliminate as many potentially distracting factors as possible when first learning a new movement and developing those neural pathways.
If you think of a baby taking their first, clumsy steps their brain is developing the neural pathways for walking. The brain is learning how to coordinate the core, the hips, the knees, the ankles, etc. and at first a baby will need help being held up as the body and brain are learning those movements and as the brain begins forming neural pathways. As a baby continues to practice walking, those pathways are developed, practiced, refined, and improved upon then the baby eventually becomes a better walker, eventually on their own without assistance. From there, eventually a toddler can learn to run and so on and so forth.
Even though many of us have been squatting for forever and often (aka every time you sit down in a chair or on the john), we may not be doing the proper mechanics to execute a squat with load or resistance. Another way to think about this is not everyone could successfully (or at least not properly) sit down or stand up from the toilet with a 50 lbs backpack. This is why I believe that even if you think you know how to squat or whatever the other movement is, I think individuals should make sure they’re able to master the correct mechanics of the movement before adding any form of difficulty. One of the best ways to learn correct mechanics is to begin with bodyweight movement on a stable surface without any forms of distractions, challenges, or resistance and ideally bilaterally to begin with.
Why Start Bodyweight?
Ideally when a movement is mastered with bodyweight only, the body can more easily develop the neural pathways and understands how to complete the movement with proper form and range of motion.
There are some advanced movements where adding load will actually help teach someone how to properly execute the movement. However, when it comes to the base fundamental movements we’re talking about, I stand by mastering the bodyweight movement then it is appropriate to add load/resistance.
If we go back to the example of a baby learning how to walk, you wouldn’t throw a backpack onto the baby learning how to take its first steps. The first steps are usually bodyweight only. At most a 1-2 lbs load of carrying something.
Why Start Stable?
When learning movement we want the road to least resistance and we want to learn the movement and form neural pathways with the most ideal form possible. Therefore, in order to learn proper neural pathways we want to eliminate as much resistance as possible and instability counts as resistance.
Furthermore, when starting out learning a movement, more likely than not you’ll inadvertently be creating your own instability because your body may not be coordinated enough to perform the movement. For example, it’s common for individuals first learning how to lunge to be wobbling on their way down and up even if they’re keeping their feet planted. Doing a proper controlled lower lunge requires an individual to brace their core and is plenty difficult for many individuals to master. We’ll dive more into instability in next week’s post.
Why Start Bilateral?
The reason beginning with bilateral movement in particular is important (for example on a bench press when both arms are lowering and raising at the same time) is because it is usually easier for our brain to handle and build the neural pathways required for the movement when both extremities are moving at the same time. We’ll also dive into this in the next post, however, another way to think about this: think about how it’s difficult for you to pat your head with one hand and rub your body with the other. Not an easy task and requires a lot of brain power to initially learn and operate.
Why I’m a Stickler for Form and Mechanics
If you’ve read this far and allowed me to geek out on the kinesiology and mechanisms of fundamental movement, thank you. While the science may not seem as important to you as it is to me, I genuinely believe it is worth at least trying to disseminate and breakdown for you so you can understand the method behind the madness.
I hope you’re noticing that the through-line here is that when forming the neural pathways for these foundational movements, we need to make sure we’re mastering form which is best mastered with bilateral movement on a stable surface with only body weight. Eliminate unnecessary, too advance elements of movement and make it as easy for the brain to learn proper form. Then progress, challenge, and spice it up.
Lastly, I think knowing the science can help someone not feel so rushed to start throwing around weights especially for anyone who doesn’t know what you’re doing. Bottom line: I really don’t want you learning improper form that will either hinder your results, or worse, put yourself at such a high risk of injury that can end up taking you out of the game.