The Fitness Explorer

MovNat:

My first exposure to MovNat (pronounced Move Nat) was reading the 2009 Men's Health article "Fitness to Survive in the Wild".  

I was intrigued not only with Erwan Le Corre's MovNat but also its similarity with it's distant cousin Parkour - "the art of movement".  This is not surprising as there is common ancestry, both are based on the early 20th Century Methode Naturelle. (Natural Method) by George Hebert - "be strong to be useful".  MovNat contains much more of its ancestor's DNA signature,  modernised to maximise efficiency and with additional categories of movement.

Components of Fitness:

Even though I felt I had covered a great base of fitness with Crossfit/300 style training, improvements in nutrition and having gained formal qualifications in Personal Training.  I still felt there was something missing.  Some of the components of fitness such as balance, accuracy and agility don't have the same prominence as the areas covered by strength, speed and power.  In order to progress to being proficient in all fitness domains, I had to explore them with equal dedication.  MovNat seemed to speak my language, but at times seemed too abstract.  Was this suitable only for those who loved the outdoors?  What about those who don't mind an indoor environment to train (like myself)?  Anyway I subscribed to the newsletter, waiting for answers and assigned this to the 'interesting list'.  I then moved on to my next workout of the day.  

Little did I know there was time for more personal development.

So what happened?

Since then I've read Frank Forencich's book 'Exhuberant Animal' (and attended seminar's exploring natural movement), read several books on Evolutionary Fitness, researched Paleo nutrition and studied movement based therapy to manage low back pain.  All of these experiences have re-affirmed my belief that highly varied movement across many disciplines is more important than a specific fitness 'regime'.

I watched the MovNat video: "The workout the world forgot" (see below) again.  It then dawned on me, this was all about the expression of natural movement, variable, adaptive and functional.  This got me excited again!

The highlights:

Erwan and Vik (Erwan's assistant) imparted their knowledge via theoretical and practical presentations, personal experience, inspired debate and tests.  Erwan challenged us both physically and mentally by his passion and philosophy.  

"Power is nothing without efficiency, accuracy and control"

Erwan's instruction was sublime, scaled to the abilities of the group as well as providing individual instruction.  Erwan was patient, but tough when required to ensure safety and skill development was paramount.  Vik's encouragement and anecdotes were refreshing.  The correct balance between instruction and hands-on tuition. 

Metaphorphosis:

Everyone on the workshop experienced significant development, tasks we struggled with on day 1 we found much easier to perform on the final day.  

Of course the process continues, and I look forward to working on these skills as opportunity presents itself.  The diversity and varied ability of the attendees allowed us to focus on the efforts of pulling together as a team and pushing ourselves to the limits.

Summary:

I realised my search for the ideal workout programme, or prescription is not what MovNat is about.  It is a lifestyle, engaging the mind and body to explore fundamental movement patterns, in the context of the environment you are in.  Breaking out of the confines of modern life to re-engage with nature, adopting a 'real-food' diet, and sharing this knowledge in a pragmatic fashion.  

This workshop allowed me to create workouts combining these essential movement patterns in a fun and interesting fashion.  Using various degrees of intensity, and interaction with the natural environment - (the only limitations being your imagination).  

I want to be prepared for anything in the fitness domain, and MovNat seems to offer the highest level of variability, natural movement, breadth, skills transfer and scalability I have experienced to date.  The possibilities are endless.  Many times on this course I realised brute-force was not enough, intelligent application and technique was often just as, or more important.  I will now incorporate MovNat into my workouts, in conjunction with my other training.

Now I am back in England, there is only one area where I strongly disagree with Erwan, (with the British climate) I will be doing these workouts indoors as well as out!!!

Thanks Erwan, Vik, Allie and all involved that week in West Virginia, helping me to explore my true nature.