Locomotion-based exercise is a new and niche perspective in exercise science. It’s about putting weight on the distal points of your limbs to move across space: in layman’s terms, consider an exercise program that has you working on your crabwalk form for fifteen minutes.
In my experience, it is more about building cross-body coordination by iterating on functional gross-motor patterns than more conventional approaches to developing strength or agility. The movement patterns can be combined and iterated on infinitely depending on your imagination. This allows it to be a form of exercise that is both a physical challenge and a DIY mental puzzle. It will not get you a beach-bod physique, but it will allow you to integrate more complex movement patterns into your everyday living. Strength is built as it relates to completing the movement pattern.
Serious calisthenics practitioners, such as those who train with rings, complain that it won’t get you the same strength results as a more classical approach; they argue that locomotive patterns are better for conditioning in martial arts, gymnastics, and dance. They’re probably right, but the average person might benefit more from training movement patterns than training in a fixed point in space.
To mention the “mental puzzle” aspect, I like to think this approach to fitness makes me smarter: there’s a strange math that goes into saying, well, if I want to do this movement combination, and NOT run into a wall, where do I start? All this while touching base with major muscle groups in coordination that just don’t get to work together in more conventional approaches
I have worked with this form of training for about five months now and I can say it is the most intelligent and accessible approach to physical fitness I have so far encountered. I take this pretty seriously and have completed several conventional approaches to fitness: 5x5, aesthetic barbell training, /r/bodyweightfitness’s “Recommended Routine”, Pavel's Simple Routine, and marathon training. I value low-equipment approaches to training that allow me to move across space with greater freedom. So imagine instead of doing 10 push-ups, I spend ten minutes doing a bear-walk around my living room.
There are a few programs that cater to more complex locomotion patterns and related functional fitness movements out there. I use GMB fitness and would recommend it to beginners over any other program. Here’s my take on what’s out there:
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MovNat, when you study their offerings, overcomplicates the approach.
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Gymnastic Bodies is for seriously conditioned athletes. I would recommend searching the difference between a bear walk and a lizard walk to see why. While I may want to try this program in the future, it is not in my wheelhouse today.
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Animal Flow IS very cool, the movement patterns, however, come closer to a yogic or breakdancing aesthetic. I may want to look into this program when I feel I have graduated from GMB.
GMB came recommended to me personally by a trainer who understands my background and goals. It is the best program I have encountered; I’ve already completed Elements+ and just rebooted the program because I had so much fun with it. It’s challenging! And I’d say you could expect a lot of deep squatting and putting weight on your hands for anywhere from 15-45 minutes a session. But I am so satisfied with the results I need to share it with the world :)
Thanks for reading!