MovNat
(Taken from an email from a close friend)
“I read an interesting article the other day in Men’s Health about a system of physical fitness called le Methode Naturelle. It was developed 100 years ago by a French Naval Officer named Georges Hebert. He was stationed on a Caribean island when a volcano erupted. He sprung into action, leading his men into panicked crowds of people to help them escape the deadly lava rushing though the streets. Only 700 people survived, largely because of him. Hebert was affected by all the people who died, and had a realization about the modern human animal: “The modern world, Hebert believed, was producing hollow men who focused on appearance and forgot about function, At the same time, they stopped exercising with the wildness of kids and instead insulated themselves from risk. The cost, he felt, was far more destructive than they might think.”
Throughout his travels, he observed that indigenous people from Africa, etc. were in amazing shape. He wrote “Their bodies were splendid, flexible, nimble, skilful, enduring, resistant and yet they had no other tutor in Gymnastics but their lives in Nature.”
So he created his own method of physical training, le Methode Naturelle, with the ethos, “Être fort pour être utile”–”Being strong to be useful.” His method focused on ten essential skills: walking, running, jumping, walking on all fours, climbing, balancing, throwing, lifting, defending and swimming. He created outdoor training facilities that were like modern day obstacle courses to challenge these skills. He had a rule: no competing, because he believed that when you try to beat the other guy, you are testing the other man’s weaknesses and not your own.
MovNat
The article I read was about a Frenchman today named Erwan Le Corre who is reviving and improving upon the forgotten practice in the Brazilian rainforest. He says: “I meet men all the time who can bench 400 pounds but can’t climb up through a window to pull someone from a burning building. I know guys who can run marathons but can’t sprint to anyone’s rescue unless they put their shoes on first. Lots of swimmers do laps every day but can’t dive deep enough to save a friend, or know how to carry him over rocks and out of the surf.”
I find this whole concept fascinating and powerful. On Le Corre’s website, movnat.com, he decries “zoo humans” and the modern human as out of touch with our natural wild human ability and character. Coming across this training method is beautifully timed for me, because I have felt unsatisfied with my current workout regimen. I run for many miles. Then maybe pushups and situps. Weights bore me, so I don’t lift them. And I get in no better shape. I know my body is capable of more. I want to challenge myself, I want to run barefoot, I want to swim, I want to jump and climb trees, I want to unleash the power of the human animal that is caged in this consumer and appearance driven society, I want to get into the best shape of my life, but not so I can show off a six-pack at the beach, but so I can “be strong to be useful”, knowing my abilities, fearing nothing, stength of body and mind, fortitudo.
Check out Le Corre in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKGF-ErsJiI
And his website: http://movnat.com/
Here is the full article, worthy read about the revival of this method: http://www.menshealth.com
MovNat
And more on Hebert himself: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_H%C3%A9bert
Cheers to a beautiful Saturday brothers.
- another Zoo Human, set on breaking free from his cage”
