Importance of rudimentary movements

A human body is a system of levers interacting with each other in intricate ways. Even walking is a complex process composed of many simple movements of the neck, shoulders, arms, spine, pelvis, legs, ankles. All together they provide numerous variations of the outcome. That is why you often see people walking in a unique way which might give them a splendid performance or conversely a spate of pain and discomfort in different body parts.

Therefore If the basic movements cause structural disturbance of the spine or the pelvis then they need to be rethought and tuned before learning any new elements or routines such as handstands, dancing, boxing, running, etc.

For example, In Gymnastics you don’t train every single element entirely separately. It will take you ages, for the women’s routine on the uneven bars has about 7000 building elements. That is why in the first place you have to make those simple moves of which any routine is built biomechanically sound. There are about 10 of them, 3 of which you see in the video.

In the first part of the video, you see how a simple upward movement of the arms causes the spine to flex and the pelvis to tilt. The former pushes the rib cage out and the latter results in the lower back arching. With this happening, there will be no solid anything. If you do a handstand - it will be shaky and heavy, if you are a boxer - your punch will be weak, a runner - you will run into various knee/lower back complications. If your lifestyle is mostly sedentary - the everyday movements - bending, squatting, reaching out with the arms, walking - might eventually lead to lower back stiffness, chronic pains or the shoulders impingements, numbness, etc.

What is the fix? - you must rethink them. Right perception will trigger a biomechanically optimal chain of locomotions. Otherwise, with the faulty perception, you will have to patch the move by throwing in an extra out-of-tune core or glute engagement. Yes, it might visually fix the problem but will leave the move itself inefficient. Besides, it takes a lot of focus which disappears as you get progressively fatigue.

Another thing to keep in mind. With faulty rudimentary movements any drills you perform to improve the muscle strength will do so but it also will make those flaws worse. When the stronger muscles pull stronger in an ineffective way it might potentially cause more damage and lead to more serious health complications.

Hence, It is imperative to improve the mechanics of the basic movements before beginning more advanced fitness activities. Importance of rudimentary movements is not to be ignored.