You are a locomotive pendulum

What’s unique about these patterns - they have a cyclical nature. And a pattern that is cyclical allows for a recycling of energy in the body.

This is such an intrinsic part of mammalian physiology that the nervous system has dedicated networks BELOW the spinal cord for locomotive patterns. These central pattern generators don’t involve the primary motor cortex. They are reflex arcs; they bypass the brain entirely.

This means… you don’t walk the way you learn to write. It can be seen on infants - you don’t need to push their legs forward; put the weight on one leg, and the opposite leg immediately swings forward in the natural gait mechanic.

Interestingly, CPGs are clearly evident in animals, less so in humans. The fact that CPGs are a bit harder to detect in humans hints that our modern choices deprive us of this basic capacity, that we are losing an innate efficiency in how our bodies operate.

Ido Portal introduced a while ago the idea of locomotive patterns as a practice. They are still potent over a decade later.