{"schemaVersion":1,"id":"en-hub-mouvements","type":"hub","pillar":"movement","locale":"en","translationGroupId":"hub-mouvements","slugPath":"movements","title":"The fundamental movements","shortTitle":"Movement","summary":"The Movement pillar answers one question: how does the body produce this movement? Six families of movement — squat, hip hinge, pushes and pulls — provide a reading grid for almost every exercise, joined by walking and running.","level":"beginner","estimatedMinutes":4,"synonyms":["movements","patterns","motor patterns","squat","push","pull","hip hinge","walking","running"],"blocks":[{"id":"b1","type":"paragraph","content":[{"kind":"text","value":"The Movement pillar answers the question: how does the body produce this movement?"}]},{"id":"b2","type":"paragraph","content":[{"kind":"text","value":"Exercises are countless; ways of moving are far fewer. Six families are enough to describe most resistance movements: squatting down, bending forward by folding at the hips, pushing in front of you, pushing overhead, pulling towards you, pulling from above. A bodyweight squat and a back squat belong to the same family: the same joints work, in the same order."}]},{"id":"b3","type":"paragraph","content":[{"kind":"text","value":"Two movements escape that grid and joined the pillar later: "},{"kind":"link","value":"walking","href":"/en/movements/walking","external":false},{"kind":"text","value":" and "},{"kind":"link","value":"running","href":"/en/movements/running","external":false},{"kind":"text","value":". They are not loading patterns but ways of travelling, and they were missing while eight pages in this corpus referred to them to explain what a muscle is for. What separates them from each other, incidentally, is not speed but the presence of an instant with no support."}]},{"id":"b4","type":"heading","level":2,"text":"What a movement page contains","anchor":"what-a-movement-page-contains"},{"id":"b5","type":"paragraph","content":[{"kind":"text","value":"Every page describes a movement, not one single technique."}]},{"id":"b6","type":"list","ordered":false,"items":[[{"kind":"text","value":"What the movement is for: what it moves, and in which direction."}],[{"kind":"text","value":"The phases, broken down: descent, bottom position, ascent, lockout."}],[{"kind":"text","value":"The joints involved and the direction in which they travel."}],[{"kind":"text","value":"The muscles that produce the movement, those that assist them, and those that stabilise without producing any visible displacement."}],[{"kind":"text","value":"The variations tied to build or to equipment, and why two people doing it correctly may not look alike."}],[{"kind":"text","value":"The common misunderstandings, corrected without any value judgement."}]]},{"id":"b7","type":"paragraph","content":[{"kind":"text","value":"Technical vocabulary stays minimal. The term "},{"kind":"term","value":"kinetic chain","definition":"the set of segments and joints that move together during a movement"},{"kind":"text","value":" is defined the first time it appears on each page where it is used."}]},{"id":"b8","type":"heading","level":2,"text":"How to work through the pillar","anchor":"how-to-work-through-the-pillar"},{"id":"b9","type":"paragraph","content":[{"kind":"text","value":"The simplest approach is to start with the movement you already practise, then follow the links to the structures that produce it in the "},{"kind":"link","value":"Body","href":"/en/body","external":false},{"kind":"text","value":" pillar."}]},{"id":"b10","type":"paragraph","content":[{"kind":"text","value":"Two pairs are worth reading together: the horizontal push and the horizontal pull on one side, the vertical push and the vertical pull on the other. Setting them side by side brings out what separates them: the direction of the load and the orientation of the segments change the role of each muscle, without making the movement better or worse."}]},{"id":"b11","type":"paragraph","content":[{"kind":"text","value":"The squat and the hip hinge also read well in parallel. Both bend the hip and the knee, but in different proportions, which shifts the load between thigh, hip and back."}]},{"id":"b12","type":"callout","tone":"caution","title":"A description, not an instruction","content":[[{"kind":"text","value":"These pages explain how a movement works. They prescribe no load, no number of repetitions and no technical correction suited to any particular person, and they do not replace direct observation by a qualified professional."}],[{"kind":"text","value":"If a movement causes pain, the answer is not to be found on a biomechanical analysis page."}]]},{"id":"b13","type":"heading","level":2,"text":"What the pillar connects","anchor":"what-the-pillar-connects"},{"id":"b14","type":"paragraph","content":[{"kind":"text","value":"A movement is where the other pillars meet. It calls on structures described in the "},{"kind":"link","value":"Body","href":"/en/body","external":false},{"kind":"text","value":" pillar, it consumes the energy described in the "},{"kind":"link","value":"Energy","href":"/en/energy","external":false},{"kind":"text","value":" pillar, and repeating it produces the changes described in the "},{"kind":"link","value":"Adaptation","href":"/en/adaptations","external":false},{"kind":"text","value":" pillar."}]},{"id":"b15","type":"paragraph","content":[{"kind":"text","value":"It is also the pillar most exposed to received wisdom, because every movement comes with instructions passed from gym to gym. The pages therefore separate what belongs to mechanics — verifiable, described in the literature — from what belongs to training preference, which varies with goals and with people."}]},{"id":"b16","type":"heading","level":2,"text":"The eleven movements of the pillar","anchor":"the-eleven-movements-of-the-pillar"},{"id":"b17","type":"paragraph","content":[{"kind":"text","value":"The first six are the ones that structure resistance work: squat, hip hinge, pushes and pulls. Two have joined them, each posing a problem the other six do not. The "},{"kind":"link","value":"lunge","href":"/en/movements/lunge","external":false},{"kind":"text","value":" narrows the base of support and makes sideways control of the pelvis a constraint in its own right. The "},{"kind":"link","value":"loaded carry","href":"/en/movements/loaded-carry","external":false},{"kind":"text","value":" removes the movement of the load altogether: everything in it becomes holding."}]},{"id":"b18","type":"paragraph","content":[{"kind":"link","value":"Rotation","href":"/en/movements/rotation","external":false},{"kind":"text","value":" has since joined them: it is the only pattern that plays out in the horizontal plane, and the one whose origin is most often misplaced — the range comes from the hips and the thoracic spine, hardly at all from the lumbar."}]},{"id":"b19","type":"paragraph","content":[{"kind":"text","value":"Sport-specific movements are not part of this set."}]},{"id":"b20","type":"shapierAction","actionId":"exercises-library","label":"Find exercises for each movement family","description":"Picking concrete exercises for each of these movement families happens in the Shapier library; Body Lab only explains how these movements work.","webTarget":"https://shapier.app/en/exercises","appTarget":"shapier://exercises"},{"id":"b21","type":"relatedContent","title":"Every movement in the pillar","targetIds":["en-movement-squat","en-movement-hip-hinge","en-movement-lunge","en-movement-horizontal-push","en-movement-vertical-push","en-movement-horizontal-pull","en-movement-vertical-pull","en-movement-rotation","en-movement-loaded-carry","en-movement-walking","en-movement-running"]}],"relations":[],"authors":["equipe-editoriale-shapier"],"reviewers":["Thanh Chau"],"references":[],"review":{"publishedAt":"2026-08-02","reviewedAt":"2026-08-02","reviewDueAt":"2027-08-02"},"limitations":["This entry page describes how the pillar is organised; the detailed analysis of each movement, its sources and its limits sit on the pages concerned."],"seo":{"title":"Movement — the eleven fundamental movements explained","description":"The entry point to the Movement pillar of Body Lab: squat, hip hinge, pushes, pulls, walking and running, and what each page describes.","canonicalPath":"/en/movements","image":"/og/en/hub-mouvements.png"},"app":{"offlineEligible":true},"version":1}