ACSM’s Health & Fitness Journal®: July – August 2023 | Quadrupedal Movement Training: A Brief Review and Practical Guide
Quadrupedal movement training includes exercise sequences in which all four limbs make contact with the ground, such as hand-foot crawling. These programs are reflective of the “fundamental movements” philosophy of functional fitness, which is the idea that an individual’s proficiency in a few simple but important movement patterns determines their ability to perform complex movement patterns. However, evidence for the link between simple and complex movement performance is lacking and conflicts with accepted models of motor learning. Nevertheless, quadrupedal movement training is a safe and engaging mode of exercise that promotes total body stability, coordination, range of motion, and proprioception.
