Quick Guide: How To Plan Your Movement Training and Practice
When you first start moving, you don’t really know how to put together a training plan. You may doubt yourself, whether you are missing out on something important. Especially if you don’t have a teacher around you 24/7, you want to be certain about what needs to be worked on.
After spending years and years of teaching various movement systems, here are some tips and resources that will help you create your ideal movement practice.
Since we all prefer different styles and disciplines, I’ll cover the most basic structure. I will highlight the key pillars of your training and then give specific examples of movements, fields, practices and routines to include.
The Key Pillars of Your Movement Practice
Over the years, I have been very fortunate to dive into various movement practices with some extraordinary teachers. Although each field as its own nuances, this broad view on movement has allowed me to discover the following basic structure:
Single Movement Training: training of several different movement and exercises relevant to your discipline
Examples: Rolling Vinyasa, Muscle-Up, shoulder roll
Physical Training & Care: develop strength, conditioning, flexibility and a healthy diet, in order to be in the best physical shape as possible.
Examples: Calisthenics & conditioning routine, nighttime stretching, fasting
Skills & Knowledge: create a large body of knowledge and wisdom across different disciplines and practices
Examples: take a class in a new field, study different philosophies, read about movement skills, watch videos of different movement artists
Awareness: experience and connect with your body on a deeper level; mentally, emotionally & physically
Examples: Breathwork, meditation, Feldenkrais, conscious yoga
Unification: combine all of the elements above into a single flow of conscious movement
Examples: Katas in Martial Arts, Yoga Flows, Free-Form Movement Flows
Examples From Henry’s Personal Practice
If you are new to the tribe and not so familiar with my movement practice yet, I can guarantee you that I am heavily invested in different fields and love to practice grappling, yoga, handstands, acrobatics, free-form movement, breathwork, meditation, and so much more. As you can imagine, I am not living beyond time (yet!) and therefore cannot practice everything at the same time.
In the past, I struggled with the fact that growth I can’t work on and grow in all of my beloved movement practices. This is also how I came across these key elements of training. As long as I include all of them to a certain degree in my day, I am fulfilled and confident to grow another 1% towards my personal best version.
Example 1: Focus on Grappling & Mobility
There are times, where I am fully immersing myself into the world of Brasilian Jiu-Jitsu. It’s such a deep art form that you could study nothing else for an entire lifetime and still not be finished. At the same time, I very much enjoy the physicality of the practice, as I am working into my strength and flexibility, whilst not completely destroying my body.
Whenever I am in this grappling bubble, I like to use most of my energy on becoming a better and more technical fighter. Therefore, I don’t have much capacity for new movements or skills outside of BJJ. Instead, I try to take the best care of my body as I can. I try to sleep a lot, include lots of stretching and mobility into my workouts, and make sure to fuel myself properly with food & supplements.
A fantastic add-on for this type of training are free-form movement flows. They help in calming the body and mind, stretch out tension through active mobility and can be included as warm-ups or extra practice. With the grappling-focus, I usually like to use breathwork as a tool to calm down at night (try out Wim Hof Method or 4-7-8 breath).
Example 2: Focus on Yoga & Handstands
And other times, when I am diving deep into the art, science and philosophy of yoga. In this case, I either start with meditation or breathwork early in the morning. Right after or throughout the day, I will dive deeper into asana practice. The yoga styles I practice (mostly Budokon & Vinyasa) are physical demanding, so I not only work on new movements, but also on developing strength & flexibility.
Afterwards, I might choose to work on certain skills like handstand variations or arm balances, which I can later include in my flows for the final unification. Whenever focusing my practice on yoga, I like to include some calisthenics training, especially pulling exercises on rings and bar. At night, I like to follow a gentle stretching class to slow down or read a mindfulness-related book.
Example 3: Focus on Free-form Movement, Acrobatics & Dance
If you enjoy dance and movement connected with music, this routine might work for you. Personally, I like to start with a short meditation and tuning into my body, before warming up with the help of music. Many contemporary dancers like to use images or concepts as a way of warming up and developing their expression. But you can also work on certain basic moves and practice technique that way.
Later in the session, I like to include specific skill training and that’s where the tricks and acrobatic movements come into the picture. Usually, you might have ten to twenty good tries, before you should move to the next move. In the end, I try to include the new skills into my flows, by either creating a short choreography or moving in sync with the music. Additionally, you may want to include recovery and awareness tools, like fascial releases, some basic stretching or bodywork.
I hope these examples help you a little bit in understanding the framework that I follow. It does not matter much, which focus you set for your own practice. As long as you include all of the key elements, you becoming a magnificent mover.
Conclusion – The Ultimate Movement Training Plan
When you enjoy more than just a singular movement practice like combining yoga, martial arts, dancing, acrobatics, handstands, HIIT workouts or others, it is hard to follow the full guidance of a single teacher. At the end of the day, you have to become your own teacher and guide.
„So you have to be your own teacher and your own disciple, and there is no teacher outside, no saviour, no master; you yourself have to change, and therefore you have to learn to observe, to know yourself. This learning about yourself is a fascinating and joyous business.“ – J. Krishnamurti
Yes, creating your own movement plan is much harder than simply following a pre-written template, but equally more rewarding. Once you find peace with the changing nature and fluidity of your practice, you will also become more fluid in your movement. Take these elements as an inspiration, and be open for your own personal journey.