BIOMECHANICAL ANALYSIS

PRIMAL PATTERNING A FOUNDATION FOR MOVEMENT ANALYSIS, REGRESSION, PROGRESSION AND FUNCTION

By Paul Chek

INTRODUCTION My career has taken me from trainer of the US Army Boxing team, to clinical massage therapist, to conditioning specialist and now to holistic health practitioner. During this time I have worked with numerous physical therapists, athletic trainers and orthopedic surgeons to resolve the issues of patients suffering from orthopedic and neurological impairment. This clinical experience led me to a comprehensive analysis of the relationship between necessary and unnecessary human move- ments and necessary and unnecessary lev- els of strengthening and conditioning in any given pattern of movement. The result of this was the development of the Primal Pattern

® system of movement analysis (1).

The Primal Pattern system of movement analysis is based on a retrospective study of the selective pressures of nature and the anthropomorphic evolution of man as the foundation for human movement. There are seven Primal Pattern movements that represent the keys to optimal human function. These are the movement pat- terns necessary for survival in our natural habitat; the one we lived in before cars, washing machines, flush toilets and all those conveniences of modern life. The point here is that although we now have many ways to make our lives less physi- cally demanding, our bodies are still anatomically the same as 100, 500 or 1000+ years ago. To be a healthy, func- tional and resilient human being, we should all be able to meet Primal Standard. Primal Standard is achieved when an individual can perform all seven Primal Pattern movements efficiently with just their body weight.

The seven Primal Pattern movements are: ■ Squat ■ Lunge ■ Bend ■ Push ■ Pull

22

■ Twist ■ Gait (walk, jog, sprint)

By combining two or more patterns, all other movements can be made such as getting into a car which is a one-legged squat, with a lateral shift, combined with a twist. Of course, the environmental demands of many people will require a higher level of functionality than just meeting Primal Standard, for example ath- letes, firefighters, nurses who have to lift patients, construction workers and so on. These people will want to be able to per- form all the Primal Patterns with a level of functionality that meets or exceeds the demands of their particular work or sport environment. For example, a competitive tennis player will require more explosive emphasis on the twist and lunge patterns than a construction worker who will need more endurance capabilities in the bend, pull and push patterns.

To better understand movement, and more importantly, movement dysfunction in the adult human, it is necessary to review the developmental sequence that occurs in the embryo and infant. Unless infant development occurs in the correct sequence and with correct timing, the axial skeleton will not function properly. This leads, amongst other problems, to spinal instability with too much stress through the spine, especially when the arms and legs are loaded. Each phase of development provides the foundation for the next, so if one is missing or disrupt- ed, then there will be corresponding prob- lems in the adult; when axial motion is compromised, extremity overuse and injury is common.

EMBRYOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT The human foetus starts as a single-celled organism, which is the amoeba stage of development. As cell division proceeds, the neonate progresses through a series of steps mimicking evolution, leading to something akin to a jellyfish or starfish.

The starfish has its mouth at the centre of its body, in the same way that a foetus is provided with nutrients through the umbilical cord attached to its body-cen- tre. Naval radiation is the term used to describe this stage of neonate develop- ment during which, like a starfish, it moves its extremities around its 'mouth' the umbilical cord. The head and tail of a neonate are considered extremities until it begins to effectively move its arms and legs. This stage continues for the first two to three months while the motor nerves to the extremities myelinate.

The foetus is like a fish bathed in the oceanic environment of the womb. It is not greatly influenced by gravity, as it is buoyed by the amniotic fluid, and there is no differentiation of tonic and phasic muscles. It is subject to the rhythms and hormonal fluctuations of the mother, as research has shown that all the hormones in a female's body cross the placenta. This literally means that the foetus is programmed by the mother's mental, emotional and physical reality, which in turn is heavily influenced by her relation- ships with those around her, especially her partner/husband/father of the child. In much the same way that the baby of an alcoholic mother can suffer from foetal alcoholic syndrome, so can a stressful environment and disruptive relationships disturb optimal neonatal development in a multitude of different ways.

INFANT DEVELOPMENT Once born, the baby begins to develop its first spinal curvature as it works to lift its head up from the prone position. The dif- ferentiation of the tonic (postural) and phasic (primer mover) musculature also starts to occur as demand for aerobic metabolism creates a dominance of slow twitch muscle fibres in the postural/ stabiliser muscles of the neck extensors, pectoralis minor, long and short heads of the biceps and the wrist flexors.

The baby now moves into the reptilian www.sportex.net