Quadruped
About Quadruped
Strengthens your hands, wrists and shoulder girdle
Helps you to align your pelvis and rib cage and discover the neutral curves of your spine
Engages your core musculature
Activates your big toes
Quadruped is a foundational position from which many strength training movements originate. Like all foundational positions, this shape is not as easy as it seems!
I offer many cues in this video and in the notes below. Do not feel pressure to understand them all right away. Focus on one cue at at time until it becomes natural, then choose another to try.
The point is not to get everything “just right,” but rather to use these technique tips as anchor points for your exploration. Allow these technique tips to help illuminate your habits of behavior, your stuck spots, your weak spots and your blind spots.
We study and practice movement technique not to become perfectionistic and uptight in our movements, but to provoke possibilities and expand our repertoires so that we can have fresh experiences of ourselves and the world around us.
Technique Tips
1. Place Your Hands Slightly Wider Than Your Shoulders
2. Put Your Knees Directly Under Your Hips
Your knees should be directly under your hips and remain hip distance apart, no wider, no narrower. I call this your “Railroad Tracks.”
Your thigh bones should be perpendicular to the floor.
3. Tuck Your Toes Under
If this is uncomfortable on your toes and feet, you can lengthen your toes. But do work slowly over time toward being able to tuck your toes under.
4. Engage Your Hands
Spread your fingers wide and make a big handprint into the floor.
Ground strongly into your pointer fingers and thumbs as well as that side of your palm. There can be a tendency to fall passively into the pinky finger edge of your palm, which is not ideal.
Suction cup your hands to create an arch in your palms.
Energetically lift out of your wrists to shift the weight a little bit away from the bend of your wrists and more into your hands and fingers.
Grip with your finger tips.
5. Spin Your Elbow Dimples Forward
Rotate your arms so that your elbow creases look forward (more or less). This will point your elbow bones toward your legs (again, more or less).
Energetically hug your inner elbows toward each other.
Put a slight bend in your elbows. Do not hyper-extend your elbows.
6. Set Your Shoulders
Relax the round part of your shoulders away from your ears. Keep the ball of your shoulder on the socket. Gently slide your shoulder blades down, toward your back pocket.
Spread your shoulder blades wide on your back so that you are not sagging passively into your shoulder girdle. When you spread your shoulder blades wide, can you sense how this lifts your rib cage away from the floor?
If you tend to hyperextend your elbows, put a slight bend in your elbows in this position.
7. Position Your Torso
Without dropping your head or rounding your shoulders toward your ears, make as much space between the front of your body and the floor as possible. Pull the front of your body straight up away from the floor.
Pull your breastbone into your body.
Position your pelvis in the just right position: Not too tucked, not too arched.
In this neutral position, there is a connection between your rib cage and pelvis, between your breastbone and pubic bone. They are aligned. Can you sense this?
Another way to think of this is that you will have a slight hill in your upper back and a slight valley in your lower back.
8. Breathe
Can you hold this position and breathe?
Can you allow your belly to relax? Then, can you tone your belly? Ideally, you can be both relaxed and engaged in this position. Both options should be available to you.
Can you practice a Core Activating Breath?
As you exhale, can you feel the muscles at the base of your pelvis and lower belly lift up toward your heart? Can you feel your ribs knit together and drop down toward your pelvis?
As you inhale, can you maintain some of your abdominal contraction and feel your waistline and lower rib cage expand laterally? Can you fill your rib cage, particularly your middle back, with air? Can you keep your face, jaw, neck and shoulders relaxed as you inhale?
9. Is It Harder Thank You Think?
This position might seem simple, but when done with intention, it’s actually a lot of good work.
The key is to find a relaxed engagement: Not too tense, not too loose.
Progressions
The following shapes and moves build upon the Quadruped Shape:
Quadruped Hover
Shoulder Blade Push Up —> Kneeling Shoulder Blade Push Up —> High Plank Shoulder Blade Push Up
Quadruped Push Plus —> 3-Point Push Plus —> High Plank Push Plus
Quadruped March —> March to Crawl —> Bear Crawl
Bird Dog Lift Offs —> Bird Dog
Kneeling Plank —> High Plank
Quadruped Push Up —> Offset Push Up —> Kneeling Push Up —> Push Up
Quadruped Row —> Renegade Row —> Bird Dog Row