7 “Primal” Movements You Need in Your Workouts

We live in a weird time. Often, we will sit for 8 hours a day at work then hop in our car and drive to the gym. At the gym, we will sit on a bike to warm up then move from machine to machine to get our workouts in. But isn’t there a better way? Are machine-based, range of motion-controlled exercises really the way to get the strength and physique we want? I would argue not. Primal, functional movements where you need to control your body and the weight you are lifting are the way to make fitness gains that better your life.

Bettering your life by picking a couple of exercises in your workout may seem like a stretch. However, research has shown that increased strength and fitness decreases all-cause mortality (aka. Your likelihood of dying sooner) and mental health (Saint‐Maurice et al., 2018; Sharma et al., 2006).

I would argue (and the science supports it) that functional movements are better than isolation exercises for building strength.

Read More: How exercise order effects strength gains

What Are Primal Movements

The discussion around primal movements patterns is intriguing. Often, fitness writers or coaches will talk about moving the way our ancestors did. This usually comes with made up stories of fighting off sabretooth tigers or hunting lions in what is the modern-day Sub-Saharan Desert. 

I think it is best to stay away from these extravagant stories, regardless of their effectiveness in painting a picture.

Instead, I think of primal movements as functional movements. 

In this respect, the primal movements are patterns that we see in our day to day life. They include patterns that mimic sitting onto a chair, bending over to pick up a laundry hamper or putting a toolbox away on a top shelf.

Increased strength in these functional movement patterns will improve our efficiency in everyday life. 

And this is what we are really here for. Unless we are competing in a sport, we should be training to improve our life. An improved physique just happens to be a beneficial side effect of increased efficiency in our activities of daily living.

There are 7 primal (functional) movement patterns that should be the basis of the majority of the training you do:

• Squat
• Lunge
• Push/Press
• Pull
• Hinge
• Twist
• Gait

Looking at this list, you should notice that nearly everything you do in a day involves some combination of these 7 movement patterns.

The Squat

Squatting is my favourite exercise. I’ve got relatively short femurs, a longer torso and pretty solid hip mobility. All this adds together to being at an advantage when it comes to squatting deep and heavy. (And by heavy, I mean as a 75 kg male, I squat about the same as an average 60kg female weightlifter). 

I think it goes without saying that squatting is a foundational movement. Any time you sit down or stand up, you’re doing a squat. Getting down to tie your shoes? Yeah that’s a version of a squat. Grabbing a bag of potatoes from the bottom shelf of your pantry? Probably going to be squatting for that too.

In addition, I have written extensively on the benefits of sitting in a deep squat. Hanging out in a deep squat used to be a resting position for humans. Now it’s tough for a lot of people to even get into the bottom position of a squat. But I think we should all strive to be able to get down there and be comfortable.

Bottom line, I don’t think a training program is complete unless it has some deep knee bending in it – whether you’re lifting your body weight, dumbbells, kettlebells, or have a barbell on your shoulders.

Read More: Why accelerating the bar when lifting leads to bigger gains

 The Lunge

I believe that lunging is an overlooked part of fitness training.

I feel that people are a bit hesitant to incorporate into their workouts. Lunges look a bit weird, they’re hard, and you can’t load them up with heavy weight (usually). 

However, there is a reason why a number of the best strength and conditioning coaches and athletes in the world perform a ton of lunges and split squats.

The act of supporting yourself in a split stance places greater demands on the “working” leg. This means that it is harder to compensate, because the working leg has to do the work. However, in a squat you can push a lot harder with one leg than the other in order to lift the weight.

In a lunge, you’re relying on the working leg and the other leg can’t really help out.

I think lunges are absolutely critical for those that live in colder climates. Every winter, I find myself slipping and sliding on ice. I frequently end up in a lunge variation to stop myself from falling. Having trained lunges for upwards of 10 years I have the strength to get into a weird lunge position and stop myself from ending up on my butt. 

Because of this, I push my parents (both in their mid-50’s, living in Canada) to do all kinds of lunges. It might mean the difference between a broken wrist and just a scare.

Lunging is also super athletic. Look at a sport like tennis, hockey, baseball or pickleball and check out how many lunge variations happen in a game. Improving your confidence and abilities in these sports comes with increased ability and strength in lunges.

The fun thing about lunging is that you can do it front/back, side to side, or angles in between. Working in a number of different planes will help you when you get in sticky situations, like when your feet slip out on ice. 

Pushing or Pressing

“Yo, but how much you bench though bro?” – the most stereotypical gym bro question.

But that’s not what we’re really talking about here. When I talk about functional pushing and pressing exercises, I think of all kinds of pressing.

This means push ups, dips, bench press, overhead presses, jerks, etc.

All of these exercises have to do with pushing or moving weight away from our trunk. If you think about it, this would be a “primal movement” that our ancestors would have had to do. (Yeah, I know. I did the thing I said I don’t like). 

Moving weight away from our torso or moving our torso away from something is a key movement. In the primal viewpoint, it would be something that we do to protect the vital organs housed in our torso.

In our world now, pushing and pressing is key because it involves the majority of the muscles on the front side of our upper body. There are some pretty large muscle groups involved in horizontal pressing (i.e. the pecs in a bench press) and vertical pressing (i.e. deltoids in an overhead press).

Why are presses functional? If you’re out messing around, you want to be able to push yourself off the ground if you fall onto your torso. In the garage, you want to be able to lift your kid’s bike up to the hooks hanging from your rafters. And if you happen to find yourself in a tussle, it is good to know you can push someone away from you.

(Plus, having a well-developed upper body is good for confidence). 

Read More: How to use variety to keep workouts interesting

Though we often don’t climb obstacles often, having a strong backside of the upper body will give the ability if we have to. (Police chase, anyone?). A well-developed back will also allow us to clutch things close to us. Whether this is to protect our children or stop our dog from tearing its leash from our hands, having the requisite strength gives us peace of mind.

Personally, I love keeping things simple with my pulling work. I do pull ups with varying grips for vertical pulling work. A simple bent over barbell row is my go-to for horizontal pulling work.

I may be in the minority here, but I love doing rows and pull ups (and all of their variations) more than I enjoy pressing.

The Hinge

Having a good hip hinge is key to athletic performance. It is also one of the most important of the functional movement patterns. 

A hinge consists of being able to flex at the hips (allowing your torso to become more parallel to the floor) while keeping the back relatively flat. To reverse this, you engage your glutes and hamstrings to extend the hips and come back to standing. 

Hip hinging involves the huge and powerful muscles that surround the hip, plus your low back and hamstrings. These muscles are the keys to transferring energy and power between the upper body and the lower body. 

Hip hinges utilize a ton of muscle mass and because of that you need to include them in your training

I typically do my hinges as Romanian deadlifts, trapbar deadlifts, or single-leg Romanian deadlifts, plus some back-extension work. 

If you’ve ever had to reach into the back of the trunk of your car to grab a heavy case of water or grab something from deep in your pantry you know how important hinging is.

Being strong in the hip hinge allows you to protect your back from compromised positions. And having a bulletproof back will keep you active for years to come.

Twisting and Rotating 

Despite popular opinion, the torso is supposed to twist, flex and extend. As such, you need some rotational movements in your workouts.

I’ll admit I’m not a huge fan of traditional things like the Russian twist core exercise. But I’m a huge fan of using medicine balls for rotational and multi-directional throws. That’s why I think even the most basic home gyms should have medicine balls.

The internal and external oblique muscles of the trunk are designed to rotate the torso. Additionally, the fascial lines of the body run obliquely. 

This means that the sheaths that connect our muscles run on angles. For instance, fascial lines go from one shoulder to the opposite hip (shown below). To train effectively, some exercises should involve rotation along that line. 

Opposite to rotational exercises, but just as (or more) important is anti-rotation exercises. 

As the name suggests, these exercises are used to resist rotation. Primarily these involve resisting movement through the trunk. Having strong anti-rotation strength typically means that you have a strong torso that can hold you in place when needed and decelerate your body when rotating (like when swinging a baseball bat).

Anti-rotation exercises include things like a single arm dumbbell carry, Pallof press or bird dog. The goal here is to have a load trying to alter your posture and using your trunk to resist the motion.

Both rotational and anti-rotational exercises will help you when doing sports like golf, tennis, or baseball. Additionally, they will help with carrying groceries into the house or holding a child in one arm.

Gait

The last (but not least) functional movement pattern is gait. 

I think that there are a few ways to look at working your gait patterning.

First and foremost is straight up being active. Get out of the house, go for walks around the neighbourhood, walk to your favourite coffee shop.

Try to walk places that would be less than a 10-minute drive. Getting outside and working up a little sweat will do wonders for your mental health. Plus, you’ll save money on gas and not have to worry about parking.

Short walks may also change your opinion about the necessity of a car and will provide low-intensity aerobic work. Though a 10-minute walk won’t change your fitness level, adding in a couple hours of walking per week will have an impact.

Secondly, we should all probably do some long-distance aerobic work. Whether this is running, or walking does not matter. But doing some longer distance, low-intensity, aerobic threshold work is great for the heart. Using a heart rate monitor to make sure you’re in the right training zones may be beneficial here too. 

Now that we have lower-intensity work covered, we should also do some high intensity efforts too.

This DOES NOT mean running 100-meter or 40-yard repeat sprints.

What this may mean is 3 20-meter accelerations with a 15-meter run in. For this you would start jogging for 15 meters, gradually increasing speed, and then accelerate up to about 80% of max speed over the next 20 meters.

And over time, slowly increasing to reaching close to maximum speed.

Rarely do we ever do anything full speed. And even more rarely do we run at max speed.

However, it is something we should all be able to do.

It is fun and it is a great training stimulus.

The Wrap Up

Now that we know the components that should probably make up the majority of our workouts, we train more efficiently.

If your workouts consist of the above 7 components, chances are you will see good fitness progress and will be able to independently do activities of daily living for years to come.

Sure, you want to make sure you are doing exercises in the right order and doing the right sets and reps for your goals – but having the right movement patterns is key.

We would all do well to remember that we are training for life. And in life, we perform movements – we don’t perform exercises.

Enjoy moving!

References:

Saint‐Maurice, P. F., Troiano, R. P., Matthews, C. E., & Kraus, W. E. (2018). Moderate‐to‐Vigorous Physical Activity and All‐Cause Mortality: Do Bouts Matter? Journal of the American Heart Association, 7(6). https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.117.007678

Sharma, A., Madaan, V., & Petty, F. (2006). Exercise for Mental Health. Prim Care Companion J Clin Psychiatry, 8(2), 106.