If you’ve ever tripped while trail running, crashed onto the mat below a bouldering wall, or taken a tumble off your bike, you know that how you land can mean the difference between standing up and continuing your workout or heading to the ER. To give yourself the best chance of getting off the ground in one piece, consider spending more time there.
Once we learn how to walk, we spend most of our waking hours sitting or standing. Growing evidence suggests that we should get back on all fours for at least a few minutes a day through a practice called quadrupedal movement training (QMT), which can improve core strength, coordination, balance, mobility, and range of motion. For athletes, it can also mitigate some of the risks associated with falls and crashes.
How to Prevent Falls (and Fall Safely) with Animal Flow
The ground is “where we first learned how to move and control ourselves through space,” says Freyja Spence, a health and movement coach and the Head of Standards for Animal Flow, a QMT-based training program. Once we begin spending most of our time upright, we tend to rely heavily on our visual systems to maintain balance, rather than our body’s understanding of where it is in space (also known as proprioception).
Visual cues are harder to rely on while on all fours, but QMT has been shown to deepen our joint repositioning sense, or our ability to perceive the position of a joint. This leads to greater stability and control and can help athletes avoid falls. Still, some tumbles are less preventable. In those cases, avoiding injury is the priority.
“You want your body to already know where it is in space so that you don’t have to use time-consuming cognitive centers to figure it out,” says Spence. “Bodyweight skills help connect your brain to your body.”
When practiced regularly, Spence explains, QMT can help shift the body’s ability to disperse force, thanks in part to the strength and power developed through these movements, but also due to our body’s familiarity with landing and moving on the ground.
The Moves
Perform the first three moves in this series before your workout to prep your muscles, joints, and nervous system for the task ahead. The post-workout moves will support recovery and can help correct muscle asymmetries.
If you’re new to QMT, do these moves slowly and deliberately, ensuring proper hand and foot placement, breathing, and bracing. The slower you go, the more you’ll feel the impact.
Before Your Workout
Beast Activation
What it does: Stabilizes the trunk and core, hips, and shoulders; increases wrist and toe mobility; builds endurance.
How to do it: On all fours, place your hands shoulder-width apart and knees and feet hip-width apart, with the tops of your feet pressing into the ground. Shift your knees a bit in front of the hip line. Tuck your toes under and rotate your shoulders outward. Draw your bellybutton in, engage your glutes, and lift your knees one inch off of the ground. This is called Beast position.
To begin the activation, lift your right foot just high enough that you could slip a piece of paper underneath, keeping the rest of your body still. Lower your right foot and try the same lift on your left. Then try each hand (with feet remaining on the ground). Finally, try lifting your opposite hand and foot at the same time.
Volume: Perform two to three sets of 20- to 40-second activations, with a two- to three-second hold for each lift.
Side Kick Through
What it does: Increases shoulder and hip strength in rotation and coordination.
How to do it: Begin in Beast. Lift your right foot (keeping your right knee at the same height as your left knee) and left hand at the same time. Begin to draw your right knee under your body toward the left side, keeping your left heel elevated until your right knee is in line with your left foot. Drop your left heel and lower your hip toward the ground as you extend your right leg fully, pointing your right toe. At the same time, bend your left arm and draw your elbow back, bringing the back of your hand in line with your left ear. To return, lift your left heel, bend your left leg and pull it back under the body, bringing your right hand back to the floor and keeping your knees elevated. Repeat on the opposite side.
Volume: Two to three sets of 40- to 60-second slow, controlled repetitions.
Lateral Traveling Ape
What it does: Increases lower body mobility, upper body strength, and wrist mobility.
How to do it: Begin in a deep squat with your gaze facing forward. Raise your heels and place the hands on the ground about six to eight inches in front of your body, shoulder-width apart, with your left arm outside your left knee and your right hand directly in front of your left foot. With straight arms, press your hands into the ground, lean your weight into your hands, exhale and lift your hips to kick both feet off the ground, leaping to the left. Your right foot should land first and in line with your left hand. Once your left foot lands as well, drop back into the heels, returning to the deep squat position. Repeat this movement in the same direction one more time before switching directions.
Volume: Two reps one way, two the other way, then stand up between sets. Do two to three sets.
After Your Workout
Crab
What it does: Increases shoulder mobility and stability, and improves posture.
How to do it: From a seated position, bend your knees and place your feet on the floor shoulder-width apart about one foot in front of your hips. Place your hands behind you, shoulder-width apart, with fingertips pointing away from your body. Eyes should be looking just above the horizon. Pull your shoulders back, brace your core, engage your glutes, and lift your hips one inch off the ground.
Volume: Two 20- to 40-second sets.
Crab Reach
What it does: Increases strength and stability along the back of the body.
How to do it: From Crab, lift your right hand off of the ground without shifting weight toward the left side. Bend your elbow and raise your arm above the chest, drawing your fingertips about six inches from your face. Press your feet into the ground and raise your hips slowly into a bridge position, keeping your left shoulder open and ensuring your knees haven’t collapsed inward. Reach your right arm overhead and toward your left shoulder, following that hand with your gaze. Hold for 10 to 15 seconds. To return to Crab, pull your top hand back in front of your face, gaze toward the ceiling, and lower the hips with control. Return your right hand to the ground.
Volume: Two sets per side.
Ape Reach
What it does: Promotes mobility and stability in the hip, shoulder, and spine.
How to do it: Begin in a deep squat. Drop your chin and stretch your arms in front of you, rotating them internally, so the backs of your hands are touching and your thumbs are pointing as close to the ground as possible without touching the ground. Heels are planted, hips pulled back. Shift your weight from your heels to your toes, raising your heels off the ground. Your glutes should be touching your heels, if possible. Raise your arms and begin to open them outward to shoulder height, rotating your hands so your palms are facing up. Hold for five seconds. To return, rotate the arms back inward, look toward the ground, and draw your arms back to the starting position, heels lowering to the ground. Hold for five seconds.
Volume: Two reps with a five-second isometric hold at the bottom and at the top. After two reps, stand up. Then, back down for two more.
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