Connecting the Body: What Naihanchi Teaches Us About Movement Efficiency

By Pedro Bernardy, NASM-CPT, CES

Martial Arts Instructor | Movement Efficiency Specialist

I recently came across an excellent discussion by martial artist and instructor Chris Denwood on connecting the body through Naihanchi Kata. Chris explored several concepts that immediately resonated with me: winding and unwinding the body, using the spine rather than relying exclusively on hip rotation, maintaining a connection between the elbows and the core, and allowing force to travel sequentially from the ground through the body and into the hands.

These observations closely parallel something I have been exploring throughout more than fifty years of martial arts practice and, increasingly, through my work in fitness and corrective exercise:

Movement Efficiency.

Naihanchi gives us a particularly useful laboratory in which to examine it.

Chris Denwood’s Original Explanation

Reproduced with permission.

Connecting the Body in Naihanchi

By Chris Denwood

In this video, I explore a few details within Naihanchi Kata that can help us better understand how movement is generated and transferred through the body.

Rather than thinking about the arms and legs as separate actions, we look at how the feet, hips, spine, shoulders and arms can work together as a connected sequence.

Some of the ideas covered include:

• Using rotation, flexion and extension through the spine, rather than relying solely on hip rotation.

• Developing the feeling of winding and unwinding through the body.

• Allowing movement to travel sequentially from the floor, through the hips and spine, and finally into the hands.

• Understanding the difference between weight distribution and muscular/torsional loading in Naihanchi dachi.

• Keeping the elbows connected to the core rather than allowing the arms to become structurally disconnected.

• Bringing movements back through the centre when transitioning between positions.

• Priming the hip before lifting the leg, rather than simply trying to lift or drive it upwards.

• Using the reaction force from the foot contacting the floor to contribute to the subsequent technique.

None of these ideas need to be exaggerated. In fact, as they become more familiar, much of what is happening internally can become increasingly subtle.

The important part is to slow things down initially and pay attention to what you can feel. Explore how tension is created, where it is stored, how it is released, and how one part of the body can influence the next.

Hopefully, there are a few useful details here for you to take back into your own Naihanchi study.

As always, I encourage you to experiment a little with the aim of understanding the underlying principle and then finding it within your own movement and practice.

The video referenced is a short segment from a recent vDojo live workshop with Chris Denwood. The platform is currently closed to new members. Anyone interested in joining his vDojo when membership reopens should contact Chris directly.

Chris’s observations provide the starting point for the reflections that follow, where I explore their relationship to my own approach to Movement Efficiency.

The Technique Is Not Where the Movement Begins

When we watch someone perform a punch, our attention naturally goes to the fist.

When we watch a kick, we watch the foot.

But what we see is often only the final expression of the movement.

A well-connected punch doesn't begin at the fist. The body interacts with the ground, force travels through the feet and legs, the pelvis and spine participate, the shoulder and elbow remain connected to the body's center, and the hand becomes the final point through which that coordinated movement is expressed.

This distinction is fundamental to Movement Efficiency.

The question isn't simply:

How much force can I produce?

A better question is:

How efficiently can I organize my body so that the force I produce reaches its intended destination?

Those are very different questions.

The Body Is a System, Not a Collection of Parts

One of the limitations of learning movement by breaking it into pieces is that eventually we can begin to think of the pieces as independent.

Turn the hip.

Move the arm.

Lift the knee.

Rotate the shoulder.

Step.

Strike.

These instructions can be useful while learning, but the human body does not naturally function as a collection of independent mechanical parts.

It functions as a system.

The feet influence the legs. The legs influence the pelvis. The pelvis influences the spine. The spine influences the shoulders. The shoulders influence the arms.

And importantly, that relationship works in both directions.

Good movement is therefore not simply a matter of making individual muscles stronger. It involves improving the timing, sequencing and coordination between parts of the body.

Naihanchi gives us an opportunity to explore these relationships within a relatively constrained environment.

"Use Your Hips" Is Only Part of the Story

For generations, martial artists have heard the instruction:

Use your hips.

There is nothing wrong with that instruction, but it can easily become an oversimplification.

Powerful and efficient movement involves much more than simply rotating the pelvis.

The spine can rotate, flex and extend. The torso can wind and unwind. Muscular and connective tissues can accept tension and subsequently release it. The feet interact with the floor while the legs, pelvis and torso organize themselves around those forces.

The result can feel less like assembling several individual movements and more like loading and releasing a spring.

This is where the concept becomes especially interesting.

We don't necessarily need more muscular effort.

We often need better organization of the effort we are already producing.

Connection Does Not Mean Rigidity

This is an important distinction.

When martial artists hear words such as structure, connection or stability, there can be a tendency to create excessive muscular tension.

But stiffness is not connection.

If I tense every muscle in my body, I may feel very strong and stable, but I have also reduced my ability to respond, redirect force and move efficiently.

What we are seeking is something more sophisticated:

stability without unnecessary rigidity and mobility without loss of structure.

The elbows provide a good example.

When the elbow becomes disconnected from the torso, the arm may begin working largely on its own. Smaller muscles around the shoulder and arm then have to do work that could otherwise be supported by the body's larger structure.

Keeping the elbow functionally connected to the center allows force to travel through the body.

That does not mean pinning the elbow against the ribs.

It means maintaining a relationship.

This idea of relationship rather than position is important throughout martial arts.

Weight Distribution Is Not the Same as Loading

Naihanchi-dachi offers another fascinating lesson.

Two practitioners can appear to have almost exactly the same stance while experiencing something very different internally.

The percentage of body weight over each foot may be similar, yet the muscular and torsional loading within the body may be completely different.

This leads to questions that I believe are far more valuable than simply asking whether the stance looks correct:

Where am I carrying tension?

Where is that tension coming from?

Can I feel how the feet are interacting with the floor?

Is tension being stored somewhere in the body?

Can I release it without first creating another unnecessary muscular contraction?

Can the position I am currently occupying naturally produce the movement that follows?

Now we are no longer simply copying a stance.

We are studying movement.

One Movement Creates the Next

Another principle Chris discusses is bringing movement back through the center when transitioning between positions.

I think this deserves particular attention.

In efficient movement, one technique does not necessarily stop before another begins.

The first movement creates the conditions for the second.

The second creates the conditions for the third.

Consider lifting the leg in Naihanchi.

We could simply contract the muscles necessary to pick the leg up.

Or we can first organize—or "prime"—the hip so that lifting the leg becomes a continuation of something already occurring within the body.

When the foot returns to the ground, that contact is not necessarily the end of the technique either.

The ground reaction force can contribute to what happens next.

The movement becomes continuous.

Ground → foot → leg → pelvis → spine → shoulder → arm → hand.

Eventually, even that description becomes inadequate because these events overlap.

The body begins functioning as a unified system.

Slow Movement Reveals Inefficiency

One of the most valuable suggestions in Chris's discussion is also one of the simplest:

Slow down.

Speed can hide mistakes.

Strength can compensate for poor mechanics.

Momentum can disguise unnecessary movement.

Slow practice removes some of those disguises.

When performing Naihanchi slowly, we can begin asking ourselves:

Where did that movement actually begin?

Where did I unnecessarily tighten?

Where did the kinetic sequence stop?

Did I lose my connection to the ground?

Did my shoulder move independently from my torso?

Could I accomplish the same movement with less effort?

What happens if I change the sequence slightly?

This is where kata can become something much more valuable than the memorization and repetition of techniques.

It becomes a form of movement investigation.

From Gross Movement to Subtle Movement

When first exploring these concepts, the movements may need to be relatively large.

We may deliberately rotate the spine, load the hip, feel the foot against the floor or exaggerate the winding and unwinding of the torso.

That is part of learning.

But we shouldn't confuse the learning exercise with the ultimate objective.

As the nervous system becomes familiar with these relationships, the movement can become smaller.

Then smaller again.

Eventually, much of what is occurring may become almost invisible to an observer.

This is something I have found increasingly fascinating as I have grown older in the martial arts.

Advanced movement often looks like less movement, not more.

What disappeared was not the mechanism.

What disappeared was the unnecessary motion.

Movement Efficiency and Longevity

This is also where my martial arts practice intersects with my work as a personal trainer and Corrective Exercise Specialist.

Movement Efficiency is not valuable only because it can improve a punch.

It can influence how we walk.

How we turn.

How we get up from a chair.

How we maintain balance.

How we lift something from the floor.

How we recover when we stumble.

And ultimately, how well we continue moving as we age.

If a person continually uses unnecessary muscular effort to accomplish ordinary movement, the cost of movement increases.

If we can improve alignment, sequencing, balance, coordination and appropriate relaxation, movement can become less expensive.

That matters to the martial artist.

It also matters to the 70-year-old who wants to continue climbing stairs, gardening, traveling, playing with grandchildren—or practicing kata.

Kata as a Laboratory

This is why I continue to find kata valuable after more than fifty years of martial arts training.

The outward sequence may remain essentially the same.

We change.

Our understanding changes.

The questions we ask change.

At one stage we may be learning where to put our feet and hands.

Later we may investigate application.

Later still, we may become fascinated by structure, balance, timing, breathing, tension, relaxation and force transmission.

Eventually the kata becomes a laboratory for studying ourselves.

Chris Denwood's exploration of Naihanchi is an excellent reminder to look beneath the visible technique and investigate what the body is actually doing.

Experiment.

Slow the movement down.

Feel where tension develops.

Notice how one part of the body influences another.

Then gradually remove whatever isn't necessary.

For me, that process captures the essence of Movement Efficiency.

We begin by learning techniques.

With enough years of careful practice, something interesting happens:

The techniques begin teaching us about movement itself.

About Pedro Bernardy

Pedro Bernardy is a NASM-Certified Personal Trainer and Corrective Exercise Specialist who has practiced martial arts for more than fifty years. His approach to training integrates martial arts, corrective exercise and the principles of Movement Efficiency with the goal of helping people move more effectively throughout their lives.

His teaching emphasizes that strength and technique are only part of human performance. How the body organizes, coordinates and transfers movement can be equally important—whether the objective is martial effectiveness, physical fitness or maintaining healthy, productive movement as we age.