02.05 Concept- Macro & Micro Movements — Transcript

02.05 Concept- Macro & Micro Movements — Transcript (English)

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Transcript

In Baseworks, it is useful to distinguish between micro and macro movements.

Macro movements, or otherwise gross body movements, are visible body movements.

To bring the arms up, or to bring a leg back, would be an example of a macro movement.

Micro movements, on the other hand, are almost invisible.

Drawing the shoulders down or actively spreading the fingers without visible movement would be an example of micro movements.

Many Baseworks movement patterns are micro movements.

The amplitude of the micro movements should ideally be as low as possible.

However, in many videos you can see that movement patterns such as drawing the shoulders down or undulating the spine are quite visible.

There are two reasons for this.

One reason is that when we teach, we often exaggerate the micromovements to make them visible.

The other reason is that it is easier to perform a movement with a higher amplitude.

So you can always first start from a slightly exaggerated performance of micromovements and then work on making them less and less visible.

What’s important is that with any micromovements, it should feel like you’re constantly, consciously engaging the muscles in a particular pattern.

You can also think of micromovements as sketching, as if you’re constantly drawing fine lines with every point of your body, which eventually creates a line that fits your intention.

Micromovements have many functions.

Micromovements help to relieve muscular tension.

Micro movements keep the brain consciously communicating with the muscles, which contributes to better body awareness and better control of the muscles.

Micro movements also can be very meditative because they allow the spinning of the sensory motor loops to completely fill your entire awareness.

Using the Baseworks terminology, micro movements are also instrumental in establishing the state of Distributed Activation, and also they are an expression of the principle of active stillness.

There is one notable exception for how we use the word micro.

In press-up sometimes we would say micro-bend the elbows.

This is also sometimes referred to as baby press-up.

The goal of micro-bending the elbows in press-up is not to make the movement completely invisible, but rather to moderate the intensity while still maintaining a rigid and straight line from the feet through to the head. as a result adhering to the principles of Intensity Modification and Symmetry & Gridlines.

So the most important point to remember is that when practicing Baseworks, if you hear certain instructions and it seems like following them doesn’t result in any visible movement or significant effort, it doesn’t mean that you’re not doing anything.

By engaging in micro movements, you are working on body awareness, control, and relaxation.

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• Transcribed by: Auto-import
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• Date: 2026-02-03