Locomotion, Fluid Mobility, and Primal Movement Workshop

🧬 What Is Primal Movement?

Primal movement refers to basic, functional movement patterns that are hardwired into our biology. These unique and unconventional movements engage multiple muscle groups and joints simultaneously, promoting full-body strength, stability, and coordination.

This fitness trend is like pressing the reset button on your body—restoring natural strength, mobility, and confidence. 

These include:

• Squatting – like sitting down or picking something up
• Lunging – stepping forward or sideways
• Pushing – opening a door or doing a push-up
• Pulling – climbing or lifting
• Bending and Twisting – rotating your torso, reaching behind
• Hinging – bending at the hips, like in a deadlift
• Locomotion – moving through space (walking, crawling, running)
  

These movements mimic how we naturally interact with the world—before chairs, cars, and screens reshaped our posture and habits. The early man (primal man, if you will) lived quite an active life, what with having to walk everywhere he went, hunt and gather for food, traverse rough terrain, fight off and flee from enemies, etc.

With modernization came busy work, school schedules and technological developments that limit our movement and pretty much encourage sedentary lifestyles.

This stifles the body’s natural mobility such that we aren’t able to move as swiftly and be as strong as our ancestors were a million years ago.

Primal movement and locomotion are like the body’s original language—natural, instinctive motions that humans have used for survival, play, and exploration since the beginning of time. Think of them as the building blocks of how we move before modern fitness came along.

Performing locomotion and primal movement will enable your body to regain its natural mobility and strength by encouraging exploring different directions during exercise, which will likely keep you fit and alleviate the risk of chronic illnesses triggered by practising a sedentary lifestyle.

🚶 What Is Locomotion?

Locomotion is a subset of primal movement focused on moving the body from one place to another. It includes:

• Walking
• Running
• Crawling
• Climbing
• Jumping
• Rolling
• Moving Between 5 Body Positions: Supine (belly up), Prone (belly down), Side Body, Upright, Inverted
  

It’s not just about getting from A to B—it’s about how fluidly and efficiently your body can move through space.

🌟 Benefits of Primal Movement & Locomotion

Here’s why these movements are a game-changer for your body and mind:

Benefits and Why does it matter?

• Functional Strength - Builds strength you can actually use in daily life
• Improved Mobility - Keeps joints healthy, mobile and flexible
• Enhanced Coordination - Trains your brain and body to move in sync
• Injury Prevention - Promotes balanced movement and reduces strain
• Core Stability - Strengthens deep stabilizing muscles
• Better Posture - Reverses the effects of sitting and slouching
• Increased Energy - Boosts circulation and natural movement efficiency
• Mental Focus - Engages your brain through mindful movement
• Engages neglected muscles - You get to strengthen muscles that you don’t regularly 
• Muscles definition - Flows like that will define and tone your  muscles
• Agility & Balance - Improves your ability to react and stay upright
• Longevity - Graceful aging and long-term physical independence
• No Gym Required - Body weight movements and gravity allow you to harvest all fitness benefits without an additional need for equipment

💡What We Will Cover:

1. Five Anatomical Body Positions

Whether we talk about Locomotion, Primal Movement or any sorts of Floorwork Mobility the one thing in common is moving our bodies through 5 anatomical positions: Upright (Standing or Seated), Sidebody, Supine (belly up), Prone (belly down) or Inverted (head below heart). 

What we want to achieve within our flow is connecting these in one fluid motion. Many elements will help us to achieve that. Let's learn those connective movements:

• Wipers
• Spirals
• Jumps
• Spins
• Rolls 
• Hip Switches
• Scissor Legs
  

2. Practice of Seated Transitions

3. Practice of Supine Transitions

4. Practice of Prone Transitions

5. Mobility to improve deep Primal Squat

The primal squat is a relaxed position at the bottom of the deep squat. An average healthy person of any age should be able to drop into a primal squat and stay in that position for up to ten minutes without discomfort.

The primal squat promotes better mobility and nourishes and strengthens connective tissues in the lower body. It also aids digestion. If you find it hard to do a basic primal squat, chances are you have a limited ankle mobility. Not to worry, though. The accurate position can be perfected by regular practice. Let's learn some exercises that will improve our Deep Primal Squat:

• Standing to Squat spinal Wave
• Ballerinas
• Side Lunge Ankle Work
• Inclined Knee over Ankle with weights
• Props supported Squats (Wall, Bands, Frames)
  

6. Animal Locomotion:

• Panther Crawl

Panther crawls help develop full-body strength, stability, and coordination while improving shoulder and hip mobility. When you crawl, your body is under continuous tension throughout the exercise. This allows better stimulus for muscle growth and strength building.

• Komodo Dragon Crawl

Komodo Crawl The is a low-to-the-ground movement that uses push-up movements with a greater range of motion and stretches on the shoulders and hips. It  helps develop upper body strength, enhance core stability, improve hip mobility, and increase total-body coordination.

• Gorilla Walk

Gorilla Crawl is a deep squat movement that heavily involves lower and upper body and can strengthen an entire body when performed in a slow and controlled manner. This movement activates a wide range of muscle groups across your body, This is a true full-body burner—no muscle group gets left behind. 

• Contralateral Gorilla

Contralateral Gorilla Crawl is a more advanced variation of the primal gorilla crawl, emphasizing coordination, core control, and fluid movement. It’s a staple in mobility disciplines like Budokon and animal flow training, where opposite limbs move together—right hand with left foot, and vice versa. It has the same benefits as listed above Gorilla with an extra focus on coordination, balance and much more involvement of hip flexors. This crawl demands synchronized movement between opposite limbs, which lights up your neuromuscular system.

• Chimpanzee

The Chimpanzee Crawl is a primal movement inspired by the way chimpanzees move through their environment—low to the ground, agile, and powerful. It involves squatting deeply, placing your hands forward, and swinging your legs in a wide arc as you shift your weight side to side. The motion is fluid and rhythmic, combining elements of crawling, squatting, and lateral movement.

• Spinning Monkey

The Spinning Monkey crawling pattern is a dynamic, rotational, animalistic variation of cartwheel often used in movement disciplines like Animal Flow, Budokon, and functional mobility training. It combines lateral locomotion with a twisting, spinning motion that challenges coordination, balance, and spatial awareness.

In this pattern, you begin in a deep squat or low monkey crawl position, then rotate your body 180 degrees or more while transitioning your hands and feet in a circular motion. The movement mimics a monkey turning or spinning mid-crawl, often flowing into other movements like squats, rolls, or lunges.

• Cobra (Worm) Crawl

The Worm Crawl mimics the undulating motion of a worm moving across the ground. Unlike traditional crawling, the worm crawl emphasizes a wave-like contraction of the body, moving from head to toe. We are using a wave-like contraction of the spine and core to inch forward. Arms and legs assist minimally—most of the movement comes from the torso. This pattern builds spinal mobility and segmental control, and massively strengthens your shoulders, back and the core.