Sequences: Self-Assessment

The ‘best’ training program for you is always going to be a function of your background, goals, and current situation.

Our curriculum is based on systematically building your body’s capabilities and translating those into movement abilities with progressively increasing complexity and focus on transitional movement.

That’s a lot of fancy words, but it just means this:

You’ve got to find out where you are before you can decide where to go next.

‘Assess – Address – Apply’ is one of the cornerstones of the GMB Method, and learning to assess and repeatedly re-assess your own movement will pay off with more effective training – by providing the current situation portion of the ‘best program’ formula – over the lung haul.

👉 Using self-assessments in your training

If you’ve been training for a while and want to see if GMB Sequences is appropriate for your level of movement skill, the following assessment will help.

The Sequences Self-Assessment

Essentially, we’re using the high monkey movement as a test of your:

• ability to support your weight with arms locked
• ability to lift your hips above your shoulders with control
• relative left-right symmetry of movement capability
• shoulder and hip mobility in the squat and inverted positions

If you can perform this movement comfortably in both directions, that displays a degree of body control that most beginners simply don’t have.

And keep in mind that we’re not saying you need to have “mastered” this movement (whatever that even means) to proceed…

❌ You don’t need to hold a long pause.
❌ You don’t need to go fully vertical.
❌ You don’t need perfect symmetry on both sides.

✅ You do need to feel comfortable performing this movement as a baseline and working up from there.

And if you can’t, no worries: that’s exactly why we made Elements.

People who’ve done several years of dance or martial arts – or who played multiple sports in school – can often perform basic movement patterns without too much trouble, even if they’ve never specifically practiced them. Likewise, there’s a lot of different movement training styles around, and if you’ve practiced Animal Flow or something similar, you may have already developed a strong foundation.

Great! You’re ready for the next step: Sequences.

Sequences is our new program designed to add more complex movements to your palette and teach you to combine them fluidly and thoughtfully.