Caveman Mobility: 6 Moves to Keep You Young & Active
A MovNat Inspired Guide to Mobility Training
There’s a way we move when we’re young, and a way we move when we’re old. When we’re young, everything feels light and easy: we crawl, sit on the floor, run, and jump. It’s a joy to move. You can see it at any playground. But then there are the parents, glued to park benches and their phones. For them, basic movements have often become unsteady or downright uncomfortable.
As we age, the movements we avoid often become sensitized to pain, leading to chronic avoidance. We get stiff. Stuff aches. And it sucks. But it doesn't have to be this way.
In this article, I’ll show you how to reclaim that youthful ease of movement and mobility. I’ll begin by exploring the role of stretching and strength training. In that section, I’ll bust more than a few internet myths. Then I’ll argue for the benefits of a natural-movement-based mobility routine. After that, I’ll show you how to implement the training along with my 6 favorite movements. Putting this into practice helps me with everything from playing like a kid with my kids to tackling the vaunted Spartan Ultra 50-kilometer-long obstacle course.
If you want to skip around here are links to each section:
If you want to take a deeper dive, check out Erwan Le Corre’s “The Practice of Natural Movement: Reclaim Power, Health, and Freedom”. It’s available on Amazon. Or you can check out MovNat’s certifications and online courses.
Use It or Lose It: Why We Lose Mobility
Before we jump into the solutions, let’s get clear on the challenge. As we age, a few things start working against us. First, we get weak. After the age of 50, we begin to lose about 15% of our strength each decade, with some studies suggesting that this decline can be greater and start as early as our 40s. You may want to move like your kids, but you simply lack the strength.
Second, we become less flexible. Your body removes ranges of motion that you don’t use. How many 40-year-olds can touch their toes?
Consequently, our Central Nervous System (CNS) learns to avoid movements we haven’t performed in a while. Thus, the movements we avoid can become sensitized to pain, stiff and restricted, and weak and unstable.
But the issue isn't merely physiological; there's also a significant psychological component. It's as if our subconscious no longer trusts those unused movements, 'tricking' us into avoiding them. Even for otherwise fit people, there’s a 'use it or lose it' effect on even basic movements.
Given all of that, how do you build and maintain youthful mobility? Well, there is a lot of nonsense online, so I’d like to take a few paragraphs to clear the weeds.
Busting Myths: The Role of Strength Training & Stretching
Okay, you want more flexibility. How do you achieve it? To gain more flexibility, many people turn to passive stretching. This is a mistake. Although stretching increases flexibility, it isn’t the kind of flexibility you want.
Stretching does not improve your flexibility by elongating your muscles, nor does it enhance your strength. Instead, it desensitizes you to stretch related pain and movement inhibition. That pain is there to keep you from using ranges of motion that are weak and unstable. It’s there to protect you.
Consequently, scientific studies routinely show that stretching fails to reduce injury risks, enhance recovery or increase mobility.
Moreover, large ranges of motion can actually increase injury risks and certainly decrease power and strength output. Basically, you don’t want ranges of motion that don’t include strength. And even when strength is present you don’t want ranges of motion you won’t use regularly.
If stretching is out, what’s in? Fortunately, the solution is quite simple. Good old fashioned strength training simultaneously builds both strength and flexibility. When you lift weights using a full range of motion, studies show that you can actually significantly lengthen your muscles. Thus, in contrast to stretching, strength training is found to not only increase flexibility but also reduce injury risks and improve mobility.
Do you strength train? If you want to reclaim youthful movement, you should. If you need help building an evidence based strength program that you can do at home, you can check out these articles:
Having said all that, even an intelligently designed strength program (like that found in the articles) leaves some gaps. This is because there are movement patterns that are important for general mobility but next to useless for strength training. And sometimes there just isn’t enough overlap to achieve that coveted sense of easy, youthful movement. For instance, Romanian Deadlifts will get you touching your toes, but a strength program is unlikely to make a cross sit get up comfortable. Consequently, even an accomplished strength athlete can find natural movements challenging. This is particularly true, if you’re on the back side of 40.
So, without further ado: Let’s fill those gaps!
Filling the Gaps: the Benefits of Natural Mobility Training
Natural movement fills in the gaps left by traditional strength training. It builds strength, particularly eccentric strength, increases practical flexibility and teaches your CNS which movements are safe and useful. As I see it, there are four categories of benefits.
Movement Freedom and Joy: Our ancestors moved a LOT! A lot more than the basic strength training movements. And they kept moving well into their old age. You see this in the world’s Blue Zones. Blue Zones are the regions of the world with the highest percentage of centenarians. In the Blue Zones, the elderly routinely use a lot more movement than the typical Westerner. Movement is something we evolved to do; do well; and keep doing as we age.
Active vs Sedentary: Mastering the movements below moves you into a more active lifestyle. For anyone who wants to become extremely comfortable in their body, these movements foster that confidence. This is especially true of adventure focused athletes. If you intend to tackle OCRs, Adventure Races, or spend lots of time outdoors, these movements will come in handy. And once they’re easy, you will use them more often.
Longevity & Durability: If you manage to avoid death by chronic disease, then odds are high you’ll die from a fall. Falls are a common cause of premature death among the elderly. The movements below are a great way to reduce this risk. In fact, one study found that elderly adults who could sit and rise from the floor using only their feet were significantly less likely to die from any cause.
Anecdotally, my own injury resistance is far higher when I have these movements in my routine. As you’ll see below, additional durability is another benefit you’ll get at any age, because these movements teach you to catch and hold your weight in a wide variety of positions.
Active Recovery and Warmups: Finally, these movements are a great source of active recovery or warm up. They don’t overly stress your muscles or joints, but they do push blood and other fluids around the joints and tissues.
My Top 6 Natural Mobility Movements
Lover Body Mobility
For lower body mobility I like to use four MovNat inspired get ups. These are four different ways of getting down to and up from the floor. They fill in the movement gaps not addressed by traditional lower body strength training. Additionally, they can be integrated into and useful for outdoor trips, playing with kids and catching yourself in a fall.
In less sedentary cultures you find elderly people routinely use them as part of their everyday life. They should be easy for any able-bodied person of almost any age.
If you’ve never tried them before, you’ll likely find them anything but easy. That’s ok. It just takes a bit of practice to make them feel inconsequential.
1. Deep Knee Bend Get Up
First up is the Deep Knee Bend Get Up. This movement is an efficient way to get up and down without using your hands. It builds strength in your ankles and feet and enhances motor control in your hips and ankles.
Deep Knee Bend Cues:
Build Breaks: Descend slowly and smoothly, enhancing your ability to catch and hold your weight in odd positions.
Knees Over Toes: Ensure your knees move forward beyond your toes as your heels lift off the floor.
Kiss the Floor: Gently touch the floor with your knees before ascending.
To Make It Easier: Place a block under your knees to reduce the range of motion.
To Make it Harder: Stand on a block to increase the deficit.
Remember: This movement is not strength training! It’s effective without the need to feel a burn or breathlessness. Aim for this movement to feel as natural and effortless as sitting down in a chair.
2. Cross Sit Get Up
You may have seen this movement before, as it's prevalent in ancestral communities and was used in the longevity study cited above. This exercise uniquely strengthens and enhances the durability of the outer ankles and knees, while also increasing hip mobility.
Cross Sit Cues:
Starting Position: Begin by crossing your legs and standing on the outer edges of your feet.
Build Breaks: Descend slowly and smoothly, enhancing your ability to catch and hold your weight in odd positions.
Final Position: Lower yourself into a traditional cross sit, then rise back up following the same path.
Switch Sides: Ensure balanced training by switching the leading leg.
To Make It Easier: Place a block under your bottom to reduce the range of motion.
To Make it Harder: Add weight.
Remember: This movement is not strength training! It’s effective without the need to feel a burn or breathlessness. Aim for this movement to feel as natural and effortless as sitting down in a chair.
3. Side Bent Sit Get Up
The Side Bent Sit is decidedly less common. I’ve only seen it associated with MovNat. But it’s a terrific movement for improving hip mobility. It’s also a surprisingly useful way to stand up once you get used to it.
Side Bent Sit Cues:
Starting Position: Start on the floor in a side bent sit.
Transition: Rise up onto your knees, then bring your leg around into a split squat, and finish by standing up.
Build Breaks: Descend slowly and smoothly, enhancing your ability to catch and hold your weight in odd positions.
To Make It Easier: Place a block under your bottom to reduce the range of motion.
To Make it Harder: Add weight.
Remember: This movement is not strength training! It’s effective without the need to feel a burn or breathlessness. Aim for this movement to feel as natural and effortless as sitting down in a chair.
4. Deep Squat Get Up
The Deep Squat Get Up is the hardest of the bunch. It takes a ton of hip and ankle mobility compared to the other three. You’ll want to start by sitting on blocks to shorten the range of motion. Unlike the other three, you may need to practice everyday to make it all the way to the floor. But once you get there, you can maintain it with just 1-2 easy sets per week.
Deep Squat Cues:
Starting Position: Start from a standing position with your heels close or even touching.
Build Breaks: Descend slowly and smoothly, enhancing your ability to catch and hold your weight in odd positions.
Final Position: Sit back onto your butt.
Before Rising Up: Kick your heels in close. If they are too far forward, you’ll never stand back up.
Shift Your Weight: You want to shift your weight by leaning and reaching forward.
To Make It Easier: Place a block under your bottom to reduce the range of motion.
To Make it Harder: Try a single leg get up. It requires less mobility, but more strength and joint stability.
Remember: This movement is not strength training! It’s effective without the need to feel a burn or breathlessness. Aim for this movement to feel as natural and effortless as sitting down in a chair.
Upper Body Mobility
For upper body mobility, I like to use two MovNat inspired crawls. Crawling is a very basic movement that should feel inconsequential but often doesn’t.
5. Bear Crawl
The Bear Crawl provides an efficient method of staying low, passing under objects and moving quickly with a lowered center of gravity. It also builds full body muscle coordination, agility, joint stability and mobility. It dramatically improves shoulder stability and health. And develops loads of functional core strength. It will make you an overall better mover and better at obstacle course racing.
Bear Crawl Cues:
Starting Position: Hands beneath your shoulders with a flat back and your knees close to the ground. Hands beneath your shoulders and your knees close to the ground.
Right with Left: Your left hand should move with your right foot, and vice versa.
Avoid Bunching Up: Make sure your feet and hands are taking similarly distant steps. If your feet start taking bigger steps, you will bunch up.
Forward and Backward: Practice moving both forward and backwards.
To Make it Easier: Use your knees.
6. Crab Walk
The Crab Walk provides an efficient method of staying low while maintaining visibility or moving down a treacherous hill. It also builds full body muscle coordination, agility, joint stability and mobility, and it dramatically improves shoulder stability and health.
Crab Walk Cues:
Right with Left: Your left hand should move with your right foot, and vice versa.
Stay Low: Your butt should remain close to the ground.
Avoid Bunching Up: Make sure your feet and hands are taking similarly distant steps. If your feet start taking bigger steps, you will bunch up.
Forward and Backward: Practice moving both forward and backwards.
How to Train & Build a Program
The purpose is to generate and maintain an overabundance of general mobility and strength so that you are more inclined to use it, and so that you can maintain it into old age. You want crawls and get ups to feel inconsequential.
Intensity: You don’t want these movements to interfere with your strength training. Nor are they a particularly good way to build muscle. Thus, I highly recommend you keep the intensity low. Don’t push yourself to failure. Don’t add weight, if it turns the movement into a strength exercise. Don't chase the burn. On a scale of 1-10 your effort level will ideally be around a 5 or lower. In practice, I do as little as a single set of 5-10 reps or crawl as little as 10 feet 1-2x.
Frequency: If you keep your intensity low, you can do this as often as you want. In practice, I reserve the movements for warm ups on strength training days and active recovery on rest days. They also get organically sprinkled into my day as part of my active lifestyle.
Volume: To keep these movements inconsequential, I recommend doing at least 1-2 sets per week. To make progress, you can train a movement every day. Just be sure to keep the intensity low. Again this isn’t anything like traditional strength training. It’s more like yoga!
When to train: There are two ways to drop these into your strength training routine.
As a Warm Up: You can do them as part of a warm up. Warm ups shouldn’t last more than 10-15 minutes. A single set of each of the movements is a quick way to warm up your whole body.
As Active Recovery: You can run through them on your rest day as part of your active recovery. This is my primary way of adding them to my program. On rest days I’ll spend 10-20 minutes running through these and sometimes some other natural movements.
Closing Thoughts
Master these six movements and you’ll be moving better than most 20 year olds. They tie beautifully into everything from playing with kids to tackling obstacle course races. Plus, if you stay consistent, you’ll still be doing them in your 70’s or even 80’s, making you one of the coolest, and most active grandparents!
So what do you think? Ready to build some natural mobility? Which exercise are you going to try first? I suggest picking one and sticking with it for at least a month. Good luck and thanks for reading!
If you enjoyed this article, I think you’ll like, Rail Walking: How to Build Ninja-like balance for your next OCR
