MovNat

Rolan

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Jul 3, 2013
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126
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London/Shropshire, England
This is something new that I've discovered, and would like to share it here. Now, this is most likely against the grain of advice given here in terms of physical training, and understandably so. In my brief experience though, I'd say(for ME) the beneits outweigh the negatives. So what is MovNat? Moving naturally through nature's terrain;

Born in the French countryside, Erwan Le Corre's youth was filled with outdoor activities. This was the gym where Erwan learned physical fitness through running, climbing, crawling, and jumping. At the age of fifteen Erwan began the study of karate, receiving his black belt at age eighteen. From there Erwan went on to explore a broad range of activities including Olympic weightlifting, rock climbing, triathlons, trail running, and Brazilian jiu jitsu.

After exploring all these sports, but finding all of them lacking due to specialization, Erwan started developing his own methodology. He researched ancient physical fitness practices and put together ideas for an approach that was about a broader understanding of human movement and health. Using this knowledge and his experiences he created a system for training and coaching he called MovNat.

[BBvideo 560,340:1ro2so15]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKGF-ErsJiI[/BBvideo]

Basically that is highly advanced version of it but you get the gist.

Here's a cool interview with the guy. Part 2 can be found at the end;

http://breakingmuscle.com/interviews/featured-coach-erwan-le-corre-part-1-roots-movnat

We would do these crazy workouts in Paris, consisting of climbing very high scaffoldings, swimming across the Seine River at night, in the winter, in the cold with no electricity type of thing. Jumping from roof to roof, running barefoot. It was really completely unique, completely unregulated and untamed.

Here's the MovNat site;

http://www.movnat.com/

So I had my own experience of this recently. I just went out and said screw it, and really went hell for leather. I ran along rivers, swung on trees, swam across lakes, jumped across ravines. Climbed things, jumped on things, crawled under things, I sprinted, I balanced, I gripped and clambered up and down things. All out in the wild. Anything that came across my path.

It was a helluva work out, with no goals in mind, no numbers to beat and no structure or rules whatsoever. I deliberatley chose the harder path throughout, and this mean I had to excercise a really wide array of movement, muscles and fitness. I had to use all my strength, agility and quickness. Sometimes I had to do quite dangerous things, like climb up old rusty railings or jump across a ravine with a significant drop. Other times I would have to go under the water to find a way through. It was a really intense eperience and I got more scratched up than I ever have previously.

The downsides? The obvious, meaming it requires quite a lot of sustained exertion(although you choose your pace and can stop at any time to observe the scenery), and sometimes it was impossible to avoid mouthbreathing(such as when I was sprinting up woody hills). Also It 'can' be dangerous.

The upsides? Besides the obvious, which is a really functional fitness, there is the forging of a close relationship to nature and you immediate surroundings. What I really noticed however, was that it was an extreme challenge to my sensory faculties and intelligence; My creativity, bravery, decision making, intuition, impulse, strategy-making, innovativeness, spontaneaity were all really tested. My awareness was also excerised. If I had to make a jump and slipped alittle on the landing, I noticed that I would become aware of opportunities, such as something to hold onto which prevented me from falling into a really deep part of the river. I would constantly and intuitively find creative ways to move past obstacles.

I think in a healthy-ish person, any stress this type of movement causes is somewhat countered by the unusual stimulation it creates within you. Beats the hell out of running along a road for 2 hours!
 

Peata

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Joined
Jun 12, 2013
Messages
3,402
Reminds me a lot of the type of play I used to do as a kid growing up on in the country with fields, woods, creeks, barns, etc. all at my disposal anytime. We would do stuff like that - not all those things one after the other constantly, but we definitely were active in that basic fashion.
 

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