Previously, the 3 basic movement skills were raised.
These were:
- Getting off the floor from lying on your front
- Getting off the floor from lying on your back
- Walking at least a mile carrying a load
These use the primal movement patterns and the vast majority of us have been able to do them since the age of 2.
We can therefore advance these and actually start to develop them as a physical practice to improve our health, with very little other equipment.
If you have not exercised for a while, or have pre-existing medical conditions, please do consult your GP or practice nurse for a health check before starting any program.
As a test day, start by going for a brisk walk, sufficient to get you slightly breathless after 10 minutes, then aim for a mile, or 20 minutes. Once in a safe place and once you are warm, get on the ground. First, from your front, get up. Then from your back.
If that was challenging, or you struggled to get up, your first month would be simply practicing until you can do 10 from both front and back.
Once you can do that, you can add some more load.
With nothing more than a couple of bin liners, a reel of strong tape, an old rucksack and a bag of builder’s ballast (sand / gravel mix), you can create all you need for a very effective workout.
Fill a bin liner with a few kilos of the ballast. Tape it into a strong, short sausage shape and place this in another bag for safety. Create a few of these, of differing weights.
Once you have the weights, put sufficient in your rucksack to equal 5-10 kilos then do a 30 minute walk at a brisk pace.
Once back, adjust the load in the rucksack to about 2-5kg and perform 10 front get ups with the bag on. The, taking a sausage across your shoulder, perform 5 with it on the right before doing 5 on the left. As you get stronger, increase both the load in the rucksack for the walk and the getup challenge.
You should find that that provides a decent workout and can act as a gateway to more training techniques.
The Camford Clinic 