The Origins of Primal Pattern® Movement Training Part 1

I’ve talked about the most important movements for optimal human functioning, namely Primal Pattern® movements, a lot on the CHEK Blog over the years.

I developed Primal Pattern® movement training — the system for classifying movements for assessments and exercise prescriptions — in 1988.

As Primal Pattern® movements have grown in popularity, few people really know where or how these concepts were created in the first place.

Lots of physical training programs are using the name and concepts but haven’t been trained by me or anyone else directly about them.

I’ll share some of my personal history from working with the U.S. Army National Boxing Team at Fort Bragg, N.C., to moving to San Diego and working with orthopedic surgeons and other physical therapists in a rehab environment in this first of a two-part series.

Shortly after I started working in the medical environment, a lot of doctors and physical therapists got very nervous and insecure about me using what we call functional exercise today with patients even when they had serious issues like herniated discs or other injuries.

In the conventional world, these professionals would put these injured patients on their backs or on machines and avoid functional exercises entirely. But these experts felt I was doing things with patients that were very dangerous, yet they couldn’t deny they were working well.

Then, you’ll learn how I developed what became Primal Pattern® movements…

If you want to learn more about Primal Pattern® movements as you watch this short video series, read my books, How to Eat, Move and Be Healthy! and Movement That Matters.

Love and chi,

Paul