Three Movement Principles

Move in all ways and always move.

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Fragments from imaginary dialogues

“Brian Johnson expresses the three most important areas of one’s life as a triad:

The Big Three

Energy
Work
Love

If you were to create a triad of guiding-principles for movement, what would they be?”

“My triad would be:

Quality
Quantity
Variety

Quality expresses how well you move. This is a very deep principle, transferable to any other area of your life.

Two aspects of this principle are:
– Presence (awareness of your own body and the environment; called Touch in Parkour).
– Efficiency.

As a side note, a good way to assess Efficiency is by paying attention to how much sound you are making. The aim is to move (and land) silently, like a cat (called Stealth in Parkour).

Quantity expresses how often you move. The goal is to maximize movement throughout the day, to creatively

weave movement into the fabric of your daily life

, in the words of Frank Forenchich. This has no upper limit. The metaphor I like to use is that of ‘perpetual motion machine‘. 

Two aspects of this principle are:
– Discovering movement opportunities.
– Creating movement opportunities (‘creating space’ for movement throughout the day).

Variety expresses how varied you move. The goal is to move your whole body, not just parts of it. To move in as many planes of motion as possible. To move all joints through their full range of motion (especially your spine).

Two aspects of this principle are:
– Exploring movement possibilities (climbing, balancing, swinging, jumping, swimming, dancing, etc.).
– Improvising.

You don’t need to know any fancy movements. Simple is beautiful. Make stuff up. Have fun with it.”

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The greatest purpose of movement practice is to unlock profoundly meaningful experiences. (Rafe Kelley)