The Primal Pattern Movements: Where to Begin and End

back to The Basics

The word “functional” is now thrown around and used by many fitness gurus as well as educated professionals, so Paul Chek created the Primal Pattern Movements system to classify and organize all movement patterns into their constituent base pattern or patterns.

The seven Primal Pattern Movements are Twisting, Squatting, Lunging, Bending, Pushing, Pulling, and Gait (walking, jogging, sprinting). Each of these were absolutely necessary for our ancestors to be proficient in or their chance of survival in nature were slim. Like it or not, our bodies evolved in an extremely demanding environment, that called for resiliency and mastery of each movement pattern as well as combinations. Let’s take a quick dive into each.

Twisting

Maybe the most overlooked and yet the most essential to our existence, twisting was probably the most used Primal Pattern and still is in “non-developed” nations. We live in the transverse plane, rotating to throw, pick up, place, and interact with the things around us. Neil Thomas Roach of Harvard’s Department of Human Evolution thinks that developing the capacity to throw  over 2 million years ago was essential for our succession in the natural world. I couldn’t agree more.

Most traditional gym exercises are stuck in the saggital plane however such as the back squat, bench press, forward lunge, etc. Yet life happens in all three planes of motion, especially the transverse (rotational)

If you want a healthy body and spine, add more twisting exercises into your program like wood chops, rotational medicine ball throws, or even practicing throwing stones at trees for accuracy!

Squatting

One of the most trained patterns, our modern society has fallen in love with squatting heavy loads in the gym and with good cause. Being able to squat 1000lbs is no joke, but I think we could use a little more outside of the gym. 

Squatting in modern society outside of the gym is almost taboo, yet it’s so primal to other cultures, and we have even coined a full squat as an “Asian Squat. For example, I was talking to a chiropractor once and got on the topic of squatting and about our reduced exposure to it in modern society, and she said that most people don’t need to do a “3rd world squat” and that a parallel squat. This is where we disagreed.

Looking cross-culturally, squatting is a normal, everyday posture that undeveloped societies find themselves many times a day; to shit, pee, interact with things on the ground, cook, or even relax. In a full squat, our torso rests on our pelvis allowing for a more relaxed posture and position.

For most of us though, our hip and ankle mobility make it difficult to get into a full squat causing the discomfort. If you cannot comfortably get into a deep squat, try some of these ankle and hip mobility drills to get back to your primal pattern.

Lunging

Usually finding itself combines with other patterns, the lunge is the king of single leg stability and building up that booty. It is also essential for helping us carry loads over variable terrain as well as tie our shoes (lol). Again, practicing deep lunges needs some mobility which many are lacking, so compensating usually occur such as the heel coming up off the ground, the knee caving inward, or the torso falling forward. 

Start small but shoot for the most range of motion you can achieve while keep good from and perfect posture. I recommend starting with a reverse lunge to decrease the amount of possible pain in the knee and allow the hip to do most of the work.

Bending

Probably the most dysfunctional pattern of all, the bend pattern is used thousands of times a day, whether we are bending to pick up objects on the ground, leaning over to see something, or getting ready to drive a golf ball 300 yards.  However, with our high levels of inactive cores or improper training, an improperly sequenced bend can greatly increase our chances of injury. 

Here’s a simple way to see if your core is properly activated during a bend pattern, and can also be used throughout the day for proper core activation. All you need is a stiff piece of string. 

First, tie the string tightly around your waist at the level of your belly button tight enough that when you relax and let your belly hang, it’s noticeably tight. Now find a decently heavy object, for me that might be 20lbs but for someone less active maybe it’s only a large book.  

Bend down and  pick it up while taking notice about what happens at the string. If you notice that your belly expands and pushes into it, making it tighter, your abdominal wall is not properly working which can cause instability in your core. This can have several negative impacts such as increasing your likelihood of getting injured, low back and neck pain. Try keeping this string on throughout the day to help build awareness of your abdominal wall.

If the string stays loose, congrats! Your abdominal wall is firing appropriately and you're safe to load up the bend with some RDL’s, deadlifts, etc.

The picture above of me is a great drill to practice this pattern! check it out here!

Pushing

Pushing is an odd one, and how we choose to train it is even odder when you think about it anatomically and historically. If I were to ask what exercise is the epitome of a “push” most would think of a bench-press, or shoulder press. Lets start with the bench press, and its major muscle group, the pecs, one of the favorites for defining male strength and prowess in the gym.  

Personally, I think that the traditional barbell bench-press is the most overused and ineffective exercise for being a strong, healthy and pain free individual (not all bench presses are always bad though). Some reasons include the minimal use of true core activation because of the support from the bench, stabilizing the entire back and shoulders as well as the weak position it puts the shoulder in end ranges of external rotation. 

Plus, think about the position that you are in, how often, if at all, is this replicated or useful in our interaction with the world around up. I would argue that a more functional way to use the pecs and pushing patterns to throw, twist, and pick up things. 

The don’t think that pecs were made to be extremely large, but they did evolve to be mobile and explosive such as throwing spears, rocks, balls, etc. as well as compressing and holding things in our hands like large rocks, trees, etc. 

Now I know that many want to grow their chest to be large and so do I, but I’d argue that it's more appropriate to train them in unison with its accessory muscles like the anterior deltoid and triceps as well as postural stabilizers and core. Some of my favorites are pushups (soooo many variations), horizontal cable pushes, rock carries and lifts, sled pushes, and if you want to get fancy, single arm cable push with a weight shift.

As for overhead presses, love them put shit overhead, throw them high. Build those boulder shoulders. I love unstable things like sandbags or water weight too. 

Pulling

Probably my favorite to teach and implement, the pull is a highly misunderstood movement for its carryover and importance towards keeping your shoulders healthy and pain-free.

First, you should know that in a training week, you should have almost twice as much pulling as pushing movements. We are already thrown in to chronic internal rotation of the shoulder throughout the day while we drive, sit, browse, etc. Rowing and pulling helps strengthen the upper back musculature that pulls our shoulder and thoracic spine into a correct position. 

BUT! Many of us have forgotten about the important distinction between vertical pulling and horizontal pulling or rowing. I’d argue that you should also have two times as much rowing as vertical pulling at least in a training program for a few reasons.

First, vertical pulling like pull-ups or lat pulldown puts the shoulder into an internally rotated position. Now, there's nothing inherently wrong with these internally rotated position, but when they are over-programmed at high intensities and loads, most of the time with poor form, it’s a recipe for pain and orthopedic injury at the shoulder.

Conversely, if you horizontally pull or row more often in a proper, externally rotated shoulder position, you're going to build a stronger, healthier and more resilient  shoulder girdle. Include things like TRX rows, single arm dumbbell rows, face pulls, and low cable rows to build those puppies up. For more information, check out Dr. John Rusin who goes into the importance of rowing for shoulder health here

Also, remember we want to properly condition the pulling motion with our core and stabilizers so remember to prioritize ones where you use your body to stabilize instead of machines. 

Gait (Walking, Jogging, Sprinting)

My least understood primal pattern, I’ll admit, is gait. Due to its complexity, it takes a well trained eye and some slow motion to pick out small changes in rotational ability, compensations, and overall mastery. I hope to understand more in this upcoming few months as I will be taking a course all about it from the CHEK Academy. Woohoooo!!!! 

Gait is broken down into three different levels of intensity, walking, jogging, and sprinting, all of which have a different pattern of force production and biomotor sequencing. Proper gait is essential to a happy life and is easily picked up by most people. Just think about how easy it is to see when someone has a limp and your eye naturally searches for the weak point. Or am I the only person who does that…. Idk. 

Some ways to train these are pretty simple: sprint and carry things at high levels of intensity for your body. That could be a light jog or a hard sprint as well as double kettlebell carries or maybe carrying some heavy boxes around the house - talk about functional!!!!!

Conclusion 

Overall, we use an iteration of each of these movements everyday and finding ways to challenge them appropriately is essential to building a resilient, healthy, and pain free body. Remember that you are on your own personal journey in mastering your body and these movements so consult a local CHEK practitioner, like myself, if you need an expert to help you conquer your Primal Pattern Movements and thrive every damn day. 

Till next time friends!