In 2010, the Animal Flow workout program introduced the world to quadrupedal movement training (QMT), a ground-based style of fitness that draws inspiration from animal movements. While QMT, or primal fitness, has spent the better part of the past 15 years stalking the fringes of the fitness industry, the workout has recently roared back in popularity thanks to a renewed interest in calisthenics.
“We're still seeing this body weight-training boom coming out of Covid,” says Tonal coach Kristina Centenari. “A lot of people didn't have access to equipment, and they got to understand the benefits of calisthenics.”
The key to QMT’s appeal—and the billions of views amassed by the #primalmovement hashtag on TikTok—is how accessible it is. It’s an equipment-free (and also just free) workout that you can do anywhere. And the research supports its claims about improving not just mobility and stability but also flexibility, which has recently been linked to longevity. “It comes back to this idea of functional fitness,” says Centenari. “Like, how can you move through life better?”
What are the actual benefits?
As a form of
functional fitness, QMT is all about strengthening the body’s weak links to improve your overall physical resilience and real-world readiness. “The idea here is that if you need to get down low and then get back up, or support yourself on your hands, or sort of lean in a weird way, you've built some familiarity with your body,” says Ben Supik, founder and CEO of Activate Body Personal Training in Baltimore, MD. “We want to make sure that the body is well suited to prevent injury—not just when we're going about everyday life, but in weird situations, too.”
Granted, nobody’s out here bear-crawling down the street, but it’s movements like this—along with the crab reach, beast activation, and travelling ape, to name a (slightly cringe) few—that can unlock new mobility and put you more in tune with how your body moves through space. “There's research to show that when you’re in this quadrupedal base position—with your hands and your feet on the ground—it really does improve coordination,” says Centenari.
Overall, getting down on all fours with QMT can help you improve your mobility and stability, and it’ll also make you stronger.
Click for how to go beast mode.
