To engage with « quadrupédie » is to engage with the heart of the practice.

We craft our spiritual strength through physical exercise, and our physical hardiness through mental practice (mens sana in corpore sano—sound mind in a strong body.)

~ Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle Is the Way p139

Stany Foucher recently wrote a book, Art du Déplacement: Au delà du saut. I’ve been working on translating it for my own reading. I’m working from the epub version of the book¹, writing my translation work longhand into a notebook. I don’t simply want to read this book, but rather I want to apprehend this book.

Across the book, « quadrupédie » (quadrupedal movement, QM) emerges as a keystone practice that represents the philosophy, training method, and deeper personal aims of Art Du Déplacement (ADD). Physically, it develops endurance, coordination, strength, and resilience. Mentally and emotionally, it is a proving ground that challenges ego and invites reflection. Pedagogically, it is both an entry point and a path toward mastery. Culturally, it expresses the distinctiveness of ADD: its grounding in effort, humility, authenticity, and transformation.

Definition and Status in ADD Practice

In L’Art du Déplacement, QM is not treated as a peripheral or auxiliary exercise—it is placed front and center as one of the most essential tools in the discipline. Stany considers it the highest-ranking physical practice in the system, revealing both his methodological priorities and the broader role that QM plays in training. Its repeated appearance in formalized pedagogy underscores its status.

• Priority — « Je place la quadrupédie tout en haut de la liste des meilleurs exercices pour l’Art Du Déplacement. »² “I place quadrupédie at the very top of the list of best exercises for Art Du Déplacement.”

Physical Demands and Benefits

Quadrupédie is a deeply demanding and developmentally rich form of movement. It requires us to mobilize the entire body—fingertips to toes—and simultaneously trains endurance, strength, mobility, and coordination. The book presents multiple examples of long-distance or high-volume QM drills that serve to build not only physical capacity but also resilience. It is depicted as the kind of exercise that enhances one’s robustness for all other movement training and protects against injury.

• Total-body involvement — « …des bouts des doigts jusqu’aux orteils, en passant par toutes les articulations entre les deux. »³ “From the fingertips to the toes, passing through every joint in between.”
• Conditioning and mobility — « …une bonne condition physique qui vous permet de mieux encaisser les entraînements. »⁴ “…good physical condition that helps you better handle training sessions.”; long-term effects on joint preparation and movement longevity⁵
• Endurance-focused work — Examples include: ‘100 QM steps on stairs’, ‘300m traversals in QM’, ‘High-repetition squat/QM drills’⁶
• Mental — « …développe considérablement la force mentale et possède donc une application concrète… »⁷ “…greatly develops mental strength and has practical application…”

Mental and Emotional Dimensions

The physicality of quadrupédie is linked to mental and emotional processes. QM is consistently portrayed as unexpectedly challenging, even for seasoned movers, evoking humility and surprise. These physical challenges are not merely athletic hurdles—they become emotional thresholds. When practiced in a group setting, the hardship catalyzes shared vulnerability and mutual support, reinforcing trust and social bonding. Furthermore, repeated emphasis is placed on how QM invites practitioners into a more reflective and internalized state, revealing the emotional texture of effort and perseverance.

• Surprising difficulty fosters humility — « Je n’avais jamais imaginé qu’un exercice aussi simple pouvait devenir aussi intense. »⁸ “I never imagined such a simple exercise could become so intense.”
• Bonding through shared hardship — « Lorsqu’on fait du physique en groupe, on crée des liens très forts.” »⁹ “When we do physical training in a group, we create strong bonds.”; mutual support during difficult sessions¹⁰
• True training begins — « …c’est quand ça commence à être difficile que l’entraînement démarre véritablement, c’est au moment où l’on voudrait s’arrêter que le combat commence. »¹¹ “…it’s when it starts to get difficult that the training truly begins; it’s at the moment when you want to stop that the real struggle begins.”

Pedagogical and Methodological Role

Quadrupédie is also framed as a pedagogical pillar. It’s not simply a good exercise—it’s a medium through which core ADD training principles are taught. The book links QM to structured formats like “Les 101,” indicates its centrality in warm-ups and preparation, and treats it as a diagnostic for intensity, form, and commitment. More abstractly, it is also described as a key threshold into the experience of flow, making it not just physically fundamental, but mentally integrative and spiritually resonant.

• Used as an instructional foundation — « Le chemin de fer de Williams Belle. »; « Les 101 de Laurent Piemontesi »; Training formats¹²
• Vehicle for accessing the state of flow — « Je peux savoir que je vais parcourir plusieurs centaines de mètres en quadrupédie… »¹³ “I may know that I’ll be covering hundreds of meters in QM…”; preparation for flow-state through commitment to sustained physical intensity¹⁴

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1. I have a system for keeping track of my own page numbers, which I note as a face number (FN<n>, line <n>) which correspond to my printed copy of the ebook. I’ve included them here for my own reference. ↩︎
2. 3 Physique/Agir, §Les Meilleurs Exercices (FN049, line 8) ↩︎
3. 3 Physique/Agir, §Concepts d’un Training Yamak (FN040, line 34) ↩︎
4. 3 Physique/Agir, §Intérêts du Physique, 2. Développement (FN038, line 28) ↩︎
5. ibid. (FN038, lines 24–35) ↩︎
6. 3 Physique/Agir, §Les 5 Piliers, La Force Endurance (FN043, lines 5–14) ↩︎
7. ibid. (FN043, lines 20–21) ↩︎
8. Partie II: Le Corps, §Le Lac (FN034, line 8) ↩︎
9. 3 Physique/Agir, §Intérêts du Physique, 5. Lien Social (FN039, line 32) ↩︎
10. ibid. (FN039, lines 1–12) ↩︎
11. 3 Physique/Agir, §Concepts d’un Training Yamak (FN039, approx. line 41) ↩︎
12. 3 Physique/Agir, §Conseils et Applications Pratiques, Les Meilleurs Exercices, Les Meilleurs Entraînements (FN049, lines 39–43) ↩︎
13. 10 Flow, §Une Attitude Àdopter (FN122, line 37) ↩︎
14. ibid. (FN122, lines 33–42) ↩︎