02.11 Concept- The 6 Principles of Movement — Transcript

02.11 Concept- The 6 Principles of Movement — Transcript (English)

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Transcript

In the previous lessons, we’ve learned to talk about Baseworks forms using concepts such as macro movements and micro movements and movement patterns.

And we’ve looked in detail and practiced three Baseworks forms: Squat, Start Tilt, and Simple Cross Inflection.

The macro movements in these forms are not that unique.

You might have experienced something similar elsewhere.

What makes these movements unique is how we perform them.

For every macro movement, there is always a combination of micro movements applied on top.

And in the conceptual video, “The Meaning of Form,” there was an animation that invited you to visualize forms as empty shells or contours that we fill with movement patterns, kind of like a coloring book, but instead of colors, we use muscular activation.

You may have noticed that in the three forms we looked at, in all three of them, we were, for example, drawing the shoulders down.

And from a conventional fitness point of view, maybe it’s not immediately obvious why we need to do that.

And maybe at the first glance, it seems a little bit random, but there is nothing random in Baseworks.

Baseworks is very systematic.

Of course, we’ll continue to learn about it on a practical level as the course goes.

But in this lesson, we will outline the six general principles that organize which movement patterns we use in which form and and why.

You’ve already heard about some of these principles, such as Distributed Activation and Gridlines and Symmetry.

So in this lesson, I’m going to give you an overview of these six principles.

And I will also mention some cues that you may hear in Baseworks practice that are related to each principle.

At this point, there’s absolutely no need to remember or try to extensively understand this.

You will encounter more information in the following lessons, which will gradually help to experientially understand these principles.

Here we’ll simply introduce them so that you recognize them when you encounter them.

So the six principles are Distributed Activation, Micro Movements, Gridlines and Symmetry, Fixing-Separating-Isolating, Intensity Modification and Natural Breathing.

Distributed Activation refers to a state where every muscle in the body is activated at a low intensity in any movement.

A squat may be perceived as a leg strengthening exercise, but in Baseworks we want your shoulders and your arms to be active all the way to the fingertips.

Why do we need Distributed Activation?

There are several reasons to use this technique.

In some forms, Distributed Activation results in evenly activating muscles surrounding joints, which helps to reduce and prevent compression in the joints.

And people who have experienced physiotherapy may recognize some movement patterns in Baseworks as what a physiotherapist might do, only you do it to yourself.

Also, when we contract more muscles than we minimally need to hold the body in a certain position, the muscles begin to help each other, reducing the load on each particular muscle.

And this is especially important for people who start being relatively weak, and therefore Distributed Activation offers a more comfortable path for developing strength than many conventional approaches.

Then the next important consideration behind this technique is that when muscles are contracted, you feel them better.

So Distributed Activation contributes to building body awareness.

And another insight from neuroscience of movement is that there are multiple levels and multiple pathways that control contractions of the same muscles.

And many of them are unconscious.

So when we consciously engage almost every muscle, we make it more difficult for these automatic movement programs to take over.

Remember when we said that Baseworks is like hacking back control over your self-driving car, well Distributed Activation is one of our main tools to achieve that.

And of course, there are also many other benefits in Distributed Activation related to the mechanism of muscle contraction and relaxation, which are relevant to developing flexibility and reducing muscle tension.

Which movement patterns are related to Distributed Activation?

Whenever we grip or traction something, press something against each other, that is related to Distributed Activation.

For example, cues such as “draw the shoulders down” or “spread the fingers” or “pull the feet away” or “push the balls of the feet.”

And also the extension of the spine while drawing the shoulders down also brought the activates muscles in your entire trunk, resulting in a state of Distributed Activation.

The next principle is Micro Movements.

Broadly speaking, we need micro movements to release physical tension and also to help our attention.

On a physical level, micro movements, especially combined with Distributed Activation, act like light massage.

And when it comes to our attention, micro movements keep us engaged and increase the amount of sensation that we can feel in the body.

The movement patterns which are related to micro movements are the undulating movements of the spine or the rib cage, and also the act of kind of playing with movement patterns that result in Distributed Activation. for example, we spread the fingers and then we draw the shoulders down.

And then we keep lightly moving within that state in the form exploring what it feels like.

The principle of Gridlines and Symmetry.

The idea here is very simple.

When we move, we imagine certain lines in space and we’re trying to follow these lines with different parts of our body.

And this is not only limited to hands or feet, but also our pelvis, shoulders, knees, elbows, and several points on the spine.

Normally our natural movements are quite asymmetrical because the brain just decides where our feet and hands need to move and the rest of the body just follows automatically.

You know, when you need to reach with your hand, you don’t think about how the shoulder is going to move in this movement.

Your body handles it automatically.

So when we consciously follow the grid lines and try to maintain symmetry, it disrupts automatic movement patterns.

It’s just as simple as that.

And the principle of Gridlines and Symmetry is related to macro movements.

For example, our arms are often at the shoulder level, creating this straight line.

And then when we tilt, we respect this line and we keep it without breaking.

And breaking the line will look, for example, like this.

So in Baseworks, we often keep our feet hip width apart.

We keep the hips uniform to the upper torso.

We don’t open the shoulder to the side or hip to the side.

And we keep our shoulders at the same height, or pelvis, or hip bones at the same height.

We tilt forward over the midline, and from spinal flexion, we extend the spine to become as straight as anatomically possible.

The principle of Fixing-Separating-Isolating is what allows us to create a step-by-step progression in building understanding and control over more and more complex movements.

Automatic movements are often a combination of multiple movements that we cannot separate because they get activated all at once.

Fixing-Separating-Isolating it’s like untying a knot.

You fix a strand and then you pull on the other one and eventually you get all these strands separated and then you can rearrange them into whatever pattern you want.

And again, Distributed Activation is very important as a foundation for Fixing-Separating-Isolating because it is much easier to prevent an unwanted movement in a body part if the muscles are already contracted.

An example of this principle is any time we work in a step-by-step progression.

For example, arms out in line with the shoulders and then as we tilt the movement is isolated in the spine and the arms and shoulders are fixed.

They don’t move in relation to each other.

Or for example, if from here we twist again, we don’t want our pelvis to automatically turn following the movements of the upper body.

Then Intensity Modification.

For Intensity Modification, we will have an entire segment dedicated to it, so I’ll keep it very brief here.

The idea is that in Baseworks, we don’t want to do anything that results in pain, tension, or extreme effort.

And we respect grid lines and symmetry.

This is also part of Intensity Modification.

Examples of cues related to intensity modifications are, for example, don’t go too deep into a squat if you feel you’re tired.

Or if you feel burning in your hamstrings don’t go too much forward when you bend forward.

Or if you cannot interlock your elbows without breaking the shoulder symmetry then just adjust the position so that you can keep the symmetry in movement.

And the last principle, Natural Breathing, is that we use breathing as an indicator of effort.

In Baseworks you need to stay concentrated and sensitive, your heart rate may go up depending on the movement dynamics, but you should always stay within the range of effort where you would be able to speak normally without any shortness of breath.

And we don’t use breathing to push through the challenge in Baseworks.

Natural Breathing is also tightly linked to Intensity Modification.

So these are the six principles that summarize the quality of movement in Baseworks.

Again, no need to memorize these principles or the associated cues, but from now on as you go through the movements, perhaps you will notice that the instruction cues are not random and they have a specific purpose.

And to wrap up with this section in the next practice lesson, you will do one more Baseworksform, the Star Form.

It is very simple.

Basically, your legs are wider than he puts apart, arms, shoulder height, and you spread the fingers.

And as you follow the instructional cues in the video, in the next lesson, try to focus on the following.

Notice how the instructed movements result in Distributed Activation.

Don’t forget to perform micro movements.

Notice how micro movements lead to reduced tension to help better feel the muscles.

Pay attention to the arm line, respecting the grid lines and symmetry, and try to hold the form for a little longer than the video and bring your arms down when you feel that your arms start getting tired, which would be an example Intensity Modification.

So on this note, let’s move to our last practice lesson in this segment.

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