What is an Animal Movement Exercise in Martial Arts?

• We all have a misconception that martial arts depend only on the techniques and skills utilized while fighting in a particular combat sport. Also, you may think that if you want to win in any combat sport, you have to learn skills and techniques as much as you can and practice and train them until you become a master at it. But this is not quite right. Of course, techniques and skills are crucial for winning in any combat sport, but these are not the only things that you require in a combat sport. Your body strength, how active you are, what is your stamina. All these things serve as the backbone for fighting in any combat sport.

• You should have these things if you want to win in martial arts. You can only apply techniques if you have enough strength and good stamina and are physically active. For bodily strength, stamina, and activity, you have to do a lot of workouts. But the most important are the animal movement exercises. These  exercises are enough for building your strength. This article will explore animal movement exercises or animal flow and some exercises you definitely need to consider if you are a fighter in a combat sport.

Animal movements or animal movement exercises are the type of exercise that simulate the movement patterns of animals. These are also known as flow animals or flow animal movements. These are done to improve the strength, flexibility, and coordination of your body. Animal movements are of various types, and there are lot of movements in this category of exercises for fighters. You have to mimic the movements of animals.

The first question you may ask is, why do you even need to do animal movements in martial arts? What is the benefit of that? What unique benefits does it give you that other exercises don’t give you? So, let's answer this by discussing the significance of animal movement exercises. Following are some points that illustrate the importance of the animal movements;

• Animal movement exercises increase the flexibility of your body. While doing animal movement exercises, you do various types of movement in various directions. You use many joints of your body in doing the movements you have never done before. This increases the flexibility of your body. This increased flexibility of your body helps you to execute all types of techniques while fighting in combat sports. Executive techniques become easy for you whether they require flexibility in your body or not. You become better than others in the manner that some techniques and skills in combat sports require high flexibility of your body, which is now easy for you.

• Animal movement exercises increase the mobility of your body. In an animal movement workout, you try to mimic animal movements, which forces you to do various unique movements that you have never done before. You extend your body beyond your body’s normal range of motion. Your joints, while being flexible, also become more mobile while doing animal movement exercises because now they are extended to the range as long as they can be extended. This helps to increase your body’s mobility while doing animal movement workouts.

• Animal movement exercises increase the coordination of your body. Your body involves various joints, tendons, connective tissues, bones, and ligaments in executing animal movement exercises. Proper coordination in your body is necessary for executing all these movements. So, animal movement workouts develop and increase coordination in your body.

There are a lot of animal movement exercises to incorporate into your workout routine. You will be confused as a beginner. Although all animal flow exercises are beneficial, you can adopt any movement into your routine. But the following are the best animal movements that you should start with;

• Cat crawl is the most basic but arguably the most powerful animal movement exercise. This crawl teaches you to use reflexive strength and requires the body to move as a unit, just like walking. We are always shifting weight from side to side and moving the spine to facilitate this movement. The basic crawl connects our upper and lower body through the core. Start on your hands and knees and lift your knees to hover just off the ground.

• Pick one hand up and reach it forward while letting the opposite foot move forward. Your body knows this pattern. Even if it is not easy right away, continue to alternate arms and legs, moving yourself forward, allowing the shoulders, hips, and spine to move how they want from our cat.

• The ape traverse is one of the most functional on this list. Watch someone stand up from sitting or land from stepping off a fallen log and you will see the ape pattern. Sometimes, it is the most efficient to shift weight from our legs to our arms and shoulders for just a moment. So, to perform the ape traverse, we start low and crouch to the ground. We reach our arms in front of us in the direction we want to go. Shift the weight into our upper body.

• We now use that weight shift to pull our legs back behind us. Start small and get the hang of this weight ship. Then, you can gradually reach further and make the ape traverse more dynamic by jumping your legs back to your body. One of the great things about the ape is it gets us moving sideways. So we start to activate a chain of muscles that can easily become dormant in most of us.

We can transition cat crawl into what we call bare by simply straightening the knees and lifting the hips upward. we love this crawl for stretching the back side of the body, including the hamstrings and calves. Nothing changes in the pattern. Only the body position changes.

• The crocodile crawl does two very important things for our body. First, it gets us out of a straight line and moves us from side to side in an exaggerated fashion. The second is it asks us to use more mobility from the hips and the upper spine in order to rotate to each side which can improve your mobility without actually stretching. Begin in a low lunge position with one hand down right inside of your front foot. Take a snapshot of this position in your mind.

• Because to perform the crocodile crawl, we just need to get to the same position on the other side. We do this by reaching the other arm forward and across our body. As your weight shifts forward, step your back leg into the next lunge position. Notice this will rotate your body, making your chest face side to side. This one can be challenging in the beginning, but once you work out how to get to that next low lunge, it will become second nature.

• The frog jump is not the most functional way to move as human beings. But we like it for one main reason, and that is upper body strength. The frog jump develops foundational pushing strength built from the ground up. If you have a goal of developing a handstand someday, the frog will help you on that journey. To perform a frog jump, start in a squat and reach the arms out in front of you. Shift your weight into the hands.

• Now, pull the legs forward with you by taking as much weight as you can in the upper body, much like the ape. Frog jump can also allow you to work on some hip mobility by widening the knees and keeping the spine low. You can track your progress by seeing how long you can hover your feet off the ground. You can start by just sliding your feet back to meet your body. But before you know it, you may find you are able to hold your feet off the ground for a couple of seconds. That is huge progress.

• The crab walk is important because you press the ground away in the opposite direction behind you. This is great to bring balance to the shoulders by placing them into extensions something that we don't do too much in our daily lives. It is also great for the legs to pull rather than push.

• Remember the cat crawl; the crab is performed in the same way. The only difference is your chest will be facing up to the sky. Move one hand and the opposite leg simultaneously to move you in the direction of your legs.

The crawl switch can allow you to practice your crawling patterns in a tight space, but it is good for the shoulders and links the cat and crab. Start with your crab position and shift your weight into one arm. Now, bring that same side leg underneath your body. Let the other hand reach over the top and rotate you into your cat crawl position. Now reverse the movement. This is one of the best movements for shoulder rotation and balance. Doing it slowly will challenge your functional strength immensely.

• So once you start to feel comfortable with these basic crawls, try learning them in reverse. Backwards is not necessarily harder. Just like the crawl switch is a transition from the cat to the crab you can play with and get creative with different transitions between these fundamental crawls. In that way, you may learn some new movements on your own. So, how many sets and reps of animal movements are meant to be explorative? Even though there are some general guidelines, there is no right or wrong. Your style will definitely look different than others. Maybe you will come up with some calls on your own.

• So you should listen to your body if you are in your backyard for all the distance of your lawn or maybe your hallway or from one tree to the next. Or you can just put on a timer and explore the crawl for 30 to 60 seconds. Animal movements are great workouts. You will get your heart rate up, and you will work your muscles in new ways. But the real juice of these movements is in longevity. If we can keep our relationship with gravity strong for as long as possible, then we will live long and enjoyable lives.

• Often, we get the question aren't you embarrassed to do these in public? Sure, in the beginning, yes! But after some time, it seems quite natural. The only time anyone stops and stares is because they are interested or to say something positive. You would be surprised at how most people are mostly encouraging others to be healthy. This may sound dramatic, but crawling has changed the lives of many people. You can hope it does the same for you.

Animal movements or animal movement exercises are the type of exercise that simulate the movement patterns of animals. These are also known as flow animals or flow animal movements. These are done to improve the strength, flexibility, and coordination of your body. 

Following are some points that illustrate the importance of the animal movements;

• Animal movement exercises increase the flexibility of your body. You use many joints of your body in doing the movements you have never done before. This increases the flexibility of your body.

• Animal movement exercises increase the mobility of your body. In an animal movement workout, you try to mimic animal movements, which forces you to do various unique movements that you have never done before. This helps to increase your body’s mobility while doing animal movement workouts.

• Animal movement exercises increase the coordination of your body. Your body involves various joints, tendons, connective tissues, bones, and ligaments in executing animal movement exercises. So, animal movement workouts develop and increase coordination in your body.

Following are some of the best animal flow exercises:

• Cat Crawl

• Ape Traverse

• Bear Crawl

• Crocodile Crawl

• The Frog Jump

• The Crab Walk