This weekend I took a MovNat seminar (an updated interpretation of La Methode Naturelle) with Erwan Le Corre, and it was effing amazing. To perform true natural movements is to “fall in love with moving”, as Le Corre puts it. Moving should challenge your physical capacity, but it should above all else be enjoyable.
I was a little nervous prior to the seminar, convinced that the other attendees would all be experienced Parkour traceurs with superhuman abilities, and then there’d be me– wondering when the double unders were going to start. I was also concerned about being comfortable, as Greg and Summer had both warned me that the outdoor training was very windy and cold. I pictured having to belly-crawl over frozen earth, toss boulders effortlessly into the air, climb spindly saplings to the top using only my pinky finger. I was, of course, mistaken, but only about the degree of intensity. We did belly crawl, but indoors on a wooden floor. We did throw rocks, just not boulders. The climbing took place on a pullup bar, not a sapling, and I was allowed to use both hands (and legs!) to get up.
We spent most of the day engaging in physical play and exploration, with a sprinkling of technique to round things out. The great thing about the human body is that it already has an excellent knowledge of how to move… but occasionally one must unlearn an artificial pattern in order to be more efficient. Running was the big example of a pattern to un-learn… sneakers and running shoes encourage a serious heel strike on each stride, which means that with every step your front leg must absorb the impact of 3-4x your bodyweight. Ugh. A better, easier way to run involves landing softly on the mid-foot, and allowing gravity to pull you along. The day after a 10 km run, only your calves should hurt. If your quads are sore, you’re doing something very wrong.
My least favorite drill involved leaping into and vaulting over a park bench. I would watch others perform the jump, think “I can totally do that!” and as soon as I began my approach the bench would seem to triple in size and pointiness. I could picture all the ways I’d get hurt. Erwan was happy to break the movement down into very simple steps, allowing me to begin a training progression that would eventually lead to a full vault, sans fear. According to the MovNat philosophy, this means that I should work heavily on jumping. Sigh.
I loved the idea of a workout being “play”, more fun than work, and engage your whole focus. If you can chat or watch TV, you’re not connected to what your body is doing. I could very clearly imagine an entire workout based around heaving big rocks into a lake… can’t wait to get some other MovNat-ers together in the new year to go outside and have some fun!
