Natural movement training with Natural Mobility is a method of training based on cultivating the skills and quality of physical fitness that are natural and innate to all human being, but easily lost when we get swept up by the conveniences of modern living.
Our bodies are not meant to be this disconnected from nature, living in a sterile and artificial environment. Our biology demands movement and a raw connection to nature in order to maintain balance.
If you remember being a child, running, jumping, climbing, and finding creative ways to use your environment to move? This is Natural movement.
The Way to Reconnect with your True Nature
In this approach to training, we practice and teach natural movement techniques and philosophy in a progressive, well-structured way, with lots of technical breakdown, and an emphasis of cultivating efficiency in movement and a mindful body awareness in practice. Anyone can benefit from improving their natural movement, from elite athletes, to the average person just starting (or restarting) their fitness journey. You don't need to be fit to move, but you need to move to be fit.
Natural movement is a broad approach to training that is shared among many disciplines, notably, Methode Naturelle (aka Hebertism), Parkour, MovNat, and more. The vision for many of these disciplines is to create systems of fitness and physical education that trains the full spectrum of human movement skills with the goal of developing physical competence for real-world application. The system of MovNat shares a common ancestor with Parkour: Methode Naturelle from which the modern military obstacle course was born. To learn more about the origins of MovNat & Parkour, check out my article about it:
The Goal of Natural Movement Training
Natural movement involves training practical skills that carry over into the real world. The ultimate goal of the Natural Mobility system is to develop our efficiency in movement, restore our function and form to its natural biological balance, and become adaptable and responsive in our movement, both in physical activity and regular daily life activities.
Natural movement training works on the level of building robust fitness and functional strength, but also on the level of restoring balance, developing mobility, and correcting posture through the reconnecting with the movement patterns of our ancestors, necessary for maintaining vibrant health, and a high quality of life that can last as long as we live, rather than wearing us down.
The Skills of Natural Movement
Natural movement training includes locomotive skills:
Ground movement
Walking
Running
Balancing
Jumping
Climbing
Swimming
Manipulative skills:
Lifting
Carrying
Throwing
Catching
Combative skills:
Striking
Grappling
Practical, Functional Movement Patterns
Natural movement fitness involves the progressive development of human movement skills. These skills include crawling, climbing, running, squatting, jumping, throwing, balancing, lifting, and more. The result of reconnecting with your body’s natural movement abilities is that everything you do will feel different. Any sports or activities you do will feel easier, mundane activities like playing with your kids, doing chores, even getting out of bed will feel like you’re in another body. A complex and adaptable practice of movement patterns clears the mind and restores the mental state to one more restful and receptive.
Your body’s response to practicing natural movement will surprise you, and the resulting peace of mind, competence, and relaxed poise will reveal to you what it feels like to be your true self.
This type of exercise is mentally engaging, challenging and fun. It is easy to develop a natural, balanced physique just by getting better at these abilities, and progressing from your starting plateau through toward the discovery of your true self.
Real-World Fitness
Natural movement is all about reconnecting with the movement patterns that make humans what we are. After some time out in nature, returning home, we often hear people say "back to the real world", but it's actually the other way around. Our civilized world is a co-created illusion, and the actual "real world" is what we find in nature. Many of the challenges to our health result from this disconnection with nature. Spending time in nature is helpful, but moving as nature demanded of us is also necessary to maintain balance in our bodies, especially when it comes to preventing and reversing the deterioration we see people go through in modern life. Check out the link below for a more detailed dive into natural movement as fitness for the real-world:
Get in touch with Alex if you would like to train in this method, or if you would like some guidance about where to start.
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