Can you get down on the floor, twist, reach in all directions and get back up again? Does it feel pretty free and easy?

If it’s harder than you think it should be, you’re not alone.

We really are supposed to do this without a lot of thought or concern, but somewhere along the way we can lose it. Injuries, habits, and simply not moving as much as we should can make this kind of freedom feel lost forever.

But it’s not, locomotion practice is how we can reclaim it. “Animal moves” is one term for it, but what it really means is moving our bodies with confidence and control. And that should absolutely be part of being human.

Why should you care about crawling on the ground—and maybe getting a few weird looks while you do it?

Because it’s likely the missing piece in your training.

It builds strength, mobility, and control in ways traditional exercises don’t, reconnecting the parts of your body that were meant to work together.

This disconnection can sneak up on us; maybe you bend over with straight knees to pick stuff up off the floor because you know squatting down will make your knees hurt, or you begin to dread reaching overhead to grab a dish on the top shelf.

These are signs of that lost body integration, and they all come down to three connected abilities that locomotion practice rebuilds.

• Strength you can rely on anytime
• Mobility through your whole range, not just the easy parts
• Control and confidence to move smoothly in any direction

Move Better than 95% of the Population by Using Locomotor Exercises to Build Strength, Mobility, and Motor Control

Here’s the gist:

In short, training with locomotion will give you greater agility and control as well as strength and mobility. It’s a very efficient form of exercise anyone can benefit from.

How Locomotion Rebuilds Strength, Mobility, and Control

At its core, locomotion is simple; it’s just moving your body through space. You stand up from your desk, walk across the room to grab your keys, and then you head out the door to your car.

That’s all locomotion, and when we break it down, there’s two kinds of movement happening back and forth within it:

• Closed Chain – when a limb is fixed and the rest of your body moves around it
• Open Chain – when a limb moves around freely

Walking is a nice practical example of this, when your foot’s on the ground it’s the base of a closed chain for that leg. When you step forward the freely swinging leg becomes the open chain movement. Put your hands on the ground and crawl and the same actions are happening for your upper body too!

So what does this mean beyond just being a neat biomechanics terminology lesson? 🤔

It’s useful because we need both types of movement for our bodies, and unfortunately most of us don’t get enough, and as the old saying goes:

“Use it or lose it!”

One great distinction in locomotion work is that the very act of putting your hands on the ground to move makes your spine and “core” automatically more involved. You simply have to work harder right away, and that’s a good thing! This is a stimulus we don’t always get in our day to day lives, and once you start it improves your upper body strength and mobility very quickly

Another is how the movements change our normal orientation in space. Check out the position of the Bear walk here. Butt up, head down, weight on your hands. 👇

Most of our days are spent upright with the head level and on “top” of the body. In the Bear, you are inverted (upside down) and this simple change of position has a host of distinctive upshots:

• One benefit is the traction of the spine in this position.It’s often enough to gently decompress your neck and upper spine. Combined with active motion, it relieves tension you may not even realize you’re carrying.
• Another benefit is the shift in body position, which changes circulatory and respiratory responses. This can counteract the long periods of sitting we have to do at our desks and commuting.

So you can see that in the GMB Praxis Method, locomotion isn’t just crawling around for fun — it’s part of a complete practice loop. You Prep your body to move, Practice with intention, Play with variations, Push into challenge, then Ponder what improved.

These are just a few of the broader benefits of practicing locomotion exercises in general, let’s take a look at some specifics.

The Four Foundational Movements Every Adult Should Practice

Once you start practicing locomotion, you’ll notice something right away: these movements feel familiar. Not because you’ve done them in your workouts, but because your body already seems to know them.

Crawling, squatting, and shifting your weight on your hands and feet are all patterns we used before ever stepping foot in a gym. They’re baked into being human.

We just stopped practicing them.

And yes, they’re fun. But don’t let the simplicity fool you. These patterns have been used in gymnastics, martial arts, and calisthenics for decades because they work. They teach your body to support itself, shift efficiently, and handle load from every angle.

Our method uses many variations of the Bear, Frogger, Monkey, and Crab. All of these movements have you down on all fours, moving your body through space.

The goal isn’t to “master” these moves or become a professional crawler. The goal is to use them as a structured, scalable way to rebuild the kind of capability that makes your daily life feel easier, and your training feel more connected.

👇

Why Crawling Builds a Better Back and Shoulders

Our backs are very complex, but we can talk about it in the general terms of the big movements it performs: forward bending, backward bending, side bending, and rotation.

Keeping our back straight and “long” in crawling movements require our muscles to work hard!

This is where stability and control come into play, as we have to contend with forces and stress from all angles when alternating our arms and legs in a crawl.

How Your Spine Works During Crawling

The contralateral movement pattern (right leg moving forward with left arm, and right arm moving forward with left leg) cause spinal rotation and side bending. So we have to use our muscles to control these motions.

It’s important not to think of “locking” the spine in place; instead it’s all about appropriate control of motion.

We don’t want to move around with a stiff back, we want a spine that is strong and mobile at the appropriate times.

The positioning also counteracts the two primary issues in the upper back, the classic slumped forward posture from sitting at a desk or steering wheel, let’s improve that!

Why Your Shoulders Love Closed-Chain Training

The scapula provides the “moving platform” of the shoulder girdle. Reaching forward and overhead, as well as lifting and carrying, the shoulder blades move to help your hands do their thing.

This situation is reversed when your hands are placed on the ground and your body moves around them. In this case, your shoulder muscles resist different types of forces.

This is necessary for optimal shoulder girdle performance in the many activities we do every day and in sport. Practicing and training them are keys to maintaining and improving shoulder health.These animal movements automatically do this for you!

Also the infamous “rotator cuff ” muscles are activated in a unique way in these positions.

By keeping your elbows close to your body and rotating your fingers outward, and actively pushing through into the ground works the rotator cuff in a more functional way compared to typical band or dumbbell exercises.

While those open-chain exercises are great for strengthening weak muscles, incorporating closed-chain movements as soon as possible provides a more complete approach for better results.

Strength That Helps You Relax (Yes, Both Can Happen)

Another great benefit is how locomotion helps to relax your back and shoulders. This can seem counterintuitive, how can strengthening exercises help you relax?!

Well, when you crawl, the upper body becomes the stabilizing counterforce as the load comes down through the hands and upper body. This is the opposite of standing, sitting, and walking, where our low backs can take the brunt of that force. So we are getting some relief of low back tension at the same time we build up our upper body strength. That’s a great tw0-for-one deal!

Animal movements can also give your overworked upper traps a much-needed break.

For many people, the upper trapezius is tight and overactive—thanks to stress, tension, and the strain of carrying and lifting throughout the day. But when you flip your body upside down, you give it a chance to do something different.

The upper traps still contract, but under a different and lighter load. This shift helps break the cycle of constant tension, reducing strain and promoting better movement.

How to Add Locomotion to Your Practice (Without Complicating Anything)

As you can see, it’s not just about crawling around on the ground just for the sake of it. There are numerous benefits to moving mindfully this way, and playing with the various positions and movement.

Here’s our tips for getting started with locomotion in your training:

You can get a lot out of making crawling of any kind a prominent part of your practice.

The movements above are the four main exercises you can work on. But there are many more variations you can explore, but often, the ability to explore a movement confidently comes from first getting comfortable with the standard form of that movement.

Your Wrists Will Adapt — Here’s How to Support Them

When starting out with locomotion exercises, some people are surprised to find that their wrists get sore.

I mean, what do you expect? 🤣 You probably don’t put your full bodyweight on your hands very often, so it makes sense they’ll need time to adapt.

Here’s some tips for avoiding wrist pain in locomotor exercises:

You can see that jumping into long sessions of animal movement without an adequate ramp-up period is going to be a mistake for most people. But the benefits are worth being patient and learning to control your weight distribution as you build strength and mobility in your wrists.

When You’re Ready: Simple Ways to Make Locomotion More Challenging

If you think animal moves are easy, this is for you. With just a couple of very simple tweaks, you’ll find you can build a LOT of strength with this type of exercise:

Again, this will be way more difficult than it looks in the beginning, and even experienced trainees can get discouraged by these variations at first (especially those from a weightlifting background).

Just go slow and stick with it. Deliberate practice does make you stronger.

And in case you’re wondering…