5 Movements Humans Need Forever (simple guide)

Not another 20-year-old influencer telling us how to reverse our age. To grow old is beautiful. It's not the enemy. The enemy is losing our human capabilities. Most of us start in the pursuit of big muscles and big weights. But we trade those aspirations for a body that lasts with lifelong mobility and fluid movement in our later years. My buddy Grant from Smooth Movement faced the aches and pains and body decline early. He stopped trying to set PRs and started building a body that he could trust for decades to come. Today we teamed up to give you five movements that we think will build a body that you'll have fun aging in. No equipment, no sales pitch, just two buddies sharing some good movement. The biggest inspiration in my practice

is what shows up in real life. So when I find myself here as I'm weeding in the garden and realize I do the same thing while playing with my nieces and nephews, tying my shoes, changing attire, I know this is a movement that I want to maintain. I call this the cowboy squat. With every step I take, I'm getting older. I used to resist this through obsessively optimizing, overloading, and maxing, as the kids call it these days. I'm already sounding like an unk. The truth is, aging is a process that every human goes through. But it doesn't have to be a decline. What if we use it to become wiser and more seasoned? I used to load up heavy weights on squats until I realized I cared more about mobility and function over absolute strength. That's why these cowboy squat variations have become my go-to. This move improves lower body mobility while also building up single leg strength in positions with real life carryover. Take a small step back into a split stance. Drop into a squat, pouring a little more weight into the front leg. Start out with an accessible range. Slow it down and feel the connection work its way up the legs. As confidence develops in this base move, open it up to other useful squat options. Deepening the range by touching the knee to the ground. challenges big toe extension and illuminates the entire kinetic chain. Untucking the toes to drop down into the resting cowboy expresses more flexion through the hip, knee, and ankle while also opening up the lower part of the back leg. Shifting weight over the front leg into that head overfoot position spiralizes the movement, giving it a more locomotive feel. Take this into steps, and now you're grooving this mobility into how you walk and run. This is a perfect starting point for powerful lowgate exercises like the duck walk, pistol squats, and shrimp squats. All great moves for building resilient and athletic legs to carry you through life. Cowboy squats build legs that last, but we're just getting started, so saddle up as we take it to the ground. Most basic

way for humans to become strong with no equipment needed. Push the ground with your legs. shoulders. Now, doing hundreds of push-ups will certainly build your upper body, but the rocking push-up integrates the whole body. We want function and real life usefulness. The rocking push-up builds the connection from feet to legs to core to shoulders. What's better than integrating a squat and push-up? It's probably why Mike Tyson did hundreds of these in training. They're the athletic version of a push-up. The horizontal plane of motion makes you change direction, decelerate, accelerate. These are the qualities of athleticism. And much like the cowboy squat, we get full extension of the toes, which is at the heart of human functionality. We develop that springy, bouncy, explosiveness, qualities to hold on to as we age. Grant and I agreed that we wanted this list to be attainable for the majority of people. The rocking push-up is approachable because anyone can get started on their knees. Notice you begin in a child's pose position. Great for stretching the lats and deep hip flexion. You push the hips forward and receive the ground with your shoulders. We find this push-up is easier to keep your chest open and your shoulders wide. This translates to better posture, better shoulder mechanics. Breathe in on the way forward, out on the way back. As you begin to feel stronger, you simply load the toes instead of the knees. Hips fully flex and extend. Shoulders push at different angles. You got to try these.

Move number three keeps us on the ground. It's something Grant and I have connected over for years. It's no secret Josh and I love crawling. We both have countless videos that highlight this movement as one of the best ways to build functional and integrated strength using nothing but your own body weight. While it's powerful to embody locomotion of the cat, crab, monkey, and lizard, we forgot one pretty important animal, the human animal. But how does a human actually crawl? Let's get on the ground and explore this. I learned the cat crawl first. I was told hands under shoulders, knees under belly button, keep the butt low, the knees 1 in off the ground. This technique is key for connecting with baseline stability and mobility. But after crawling over the last decade, sometimes I just want to open it up and crawl in a way that feels natural to me. as a human. Widen out to create a little more space for the spine to breathe. Pull a little higher into the hips to take some pressure off the knees and ankles. Root down through the hands and feet. Wake up the core by lifting opposite limbs into a march. Play with a stationary crawl to dial in that coordination. When you're ready to cover some ground, take slightly bigger strides, ones that allow you to move more freely through the spine, arms, and legs. You may notice this natural tendency to shift your weight and even rotate through each step. Go with it. Feel the spiral through your hips, spine, and shoulders. And notice how you're not resisting movement with your core. You're actually creating movement through your core. This crawl syncs up the entire body and lights up the brain. Most of all, it feels human. And as I get older, especially with the times that we're living into, that feeling is what I want and need to groove into my body. Now, let's level up with a skill that every human must have. There's a

study that shows people who can get down and up from the ground with ease tend to live long. Probably a good reason to work on it. To get up and down takes some strength, but also a large amount of mobility from the hips, ankles, and spine. It represents longevity. Grant and I think it's a very practical way to work on humans most fundamental position, the deep squat. I love to start with the bottoms up approach. Sit on the ground and place a hand directly to your side. Opposite knee bends and we press into the ground to lift the hips. Now bend the other knee and start to take the weight into your legs. Now, it may look like this if your hips are tight or you lift your heels because your ankles are tight. We start where we need to. But as we become stronger, we start to work on the full expression starting from standing. First, find your deep squat position and then put that hand down to your side. Straighten the middle leg and then set the hips down. Find a nice tall seated position and then reverse the movement. Make sure that you pass through your deep squat before standing back up. The secret sauce is using movements in your life and training that ask you to display mobility like a real human on a daily basis.

basis. Nothing is more human than tapping into rhythm. It's no surprise that human cultures have embraced dance since the dawn of time. We see unique styles, expressions, and purposes of rhythm across the entire world. All of this sounds great, but what if you feel resistance to dancing? What if you literally can't dance? You can just do this. Step side to side. That's it. This is all you need to connect with your rhythm. This simple step will improve your body awareness, balance, and coordination on and off the dance floor. But let's not forget the most important part. This is fun. This feels good. And anyone can do it. The simplicity gets you out of your head and into your movement. Now you're able to express yourself what you feel in the moment in the music. So if you want to stomp, stomp. You want to sway those hips? Do it. To quote this Japanese proverb, we're fools whether we dance or not, so we might as well dance. See how deep you can go within the simplicity of the sideep. You may be surprised at what you find in the pocket. You can also add a ball change. This weight shift and coordination is clutch as you expand into different steps and styles. Yeah, I want to send it. I want to look cool and be impressive, but knowing that I can connect with the true essence of dance through a simple sideep is incredibly freeing. And that is all I need to be human. This was a lot of fun to make. Drop us a comment. Let us know if you vibe with any of these movements. Check out Grant's channel. He has some super valuable stuff no other fitness influencer is doing. If you want to move more like a monkey, human animal method below. I'll see youall on the next