By Joe Nuss | Photo By Don C. Harris/ http://www.harrislightcraft.com
We’re surrounded by concrete and metal and glass and cables and asphalt. Like a mouse on a wheel, we repeat the same exercises over and over, getting faster and faster and developing a certain degree of fitness, of course. But for all our repetitive motion, yes, even our swimming, cycling and running outdoors, we’ve become too specialized and too detached from nature. Our overspecialization in unnatural settings, believes French-born triathlete, rock climber, martial artist and trail runner Erwan Le Corre, not only has no practical application, but has disconnected us from our natural selves. This disconnect, he believes, is the root of chronic pain, obesity, depression, and general lack of vitality that plagues people all over the world. It’s a plight, he says, of a race of zoo humans.
“We all suffer from this zoo human syndrome that disconnects us from our true nature, from the strong, healthy, happy and free humans we were meant to be” says Le Corre. A look at the rising rates of obesity and Type II diabetes are obvious indicators of this plight, but it’s not just limited to sedentary people, he explains. Even elite athletes suffer from this condition he says pointing to repetitive use injuries like shoulder problems with swimmers, lower back pain with cyclists, and bad knees and shin splints with runners. Le Corre believes it’s all a consequence of our unique condition of living in what Desmond Morris originally termed, The Human Zoo.
With recent statistics citing that one in five Americans will suffer from severe depression at some point in their life, and more and more psychologists recognizing “nature deficit disorder” in people who suffer from depression, it would appear that Le Corre is right — we do need to get back to nature, or in his words, “Explore Our True Nature”.
One look at the YouTube video of Le Corre reveals exactly what he means by “true nature” and it’s a far cry from running trails in your favorite trails shoes. In the video, Le Corre, barefoot and wearing only a pair of shorts, runs on a trail, jumps from boulder to boulder, lifts logs the size of trees, climbs trees, picks up and throws huge rocks, free dives in the ocean, pushes trees while swimming, and clings to rocks while gigantic waves crash over him. Obviously, Le Corre doesn’t advocate “trying this at home” but the video strikes poignantly at his point that we’ve lost our ability to move the way our ancestors did.
The video, titled “The Workout the World Forgot”, is based on Le Corre’s system called “MovNat”, or movement naturale, which is designed to re-train people to correctly and efficiently perform basic skills like walking, running, jumping, balancing and even breathing. While the video itself is centered around a more intense version of MovNat that Le Corre calls his “expansion” class, the exercises are completely scalable to the abilities of participants of all ages, most of who register for his “re-awakening” seminar.
One participant, Don Harris, recently attended Le Corre’s “re-awakening” class at a mountain lake.
“Don Harris, doesn’t exercise,” Harris laughs at himself, “but I was very interested in Erwan’s natural approach, especially the barefoot running.”
Harris, a 38-year-old photographer from Oklahoma, had been suffering chronic back pain throughout much of his adult life. With weekend wedding shoots at nearly ten hours a day, Harris was in constant pain due to the physical demands of his job when he learned about the Vibram Five Finger shoes, which Le Corre recommends for participants who aren’t ready to go completely barefoot at his seminars. It was actually through Le Corre’s recommendation of the shoes that Harris learned of MovNat.
“The shoes helped a lot in reducing my pain, but not completely,” said Harris. “That led me to believe there might be something I could learn from MovNat.”
Harris admits, that he was a bit intimidated by the physical aspect of the course, but was willing to try anything to help heal his chronic pain. “I thought, if nothing else, it would be a nice little camping trip with catered meals,” Harris jokes.
Yet, even with the scalability of the course, Harris had doubts about completing it after the first day. “Erwan was great about it,” says Harris. “He really took the time to work with me and is such a genuine, caring and positive person, I wanted to give it another day. But, it wasn’t until the night of the second day, that I realized something had changed. My second day wasn’t any better than the first, but when I went to lay down in my tent for the night, committed to quit the next morning, I realized my pain was gone. It was amazing.”
“It was quite a transformation,” agrees Le Corre. “In the next couple of days the group actually came up with a nickname for Don, we called him ‘The Unstoppable’ because he was like a man on fire, a man without limits, so much that I had to convince him to take it easy sometimes.”
While Le Corre doesn’t promote amazing transformations like Harris’ he does believe his “re-awakening” class will help put everyone on a path to becoming strong, healthy, and happy. His “expansion” class will be a great fit for more advanced athletes looking for a new challenge.
During both the “re-awakening” and “expansion” MovNat classes, everything is done outside, 24/7, with participants in Le Corre’s seminars sleeping in tents. While the classes are designed to re-introduce people to the way our ancestors moved, participants aren’t expected to hunt and gather for food like the way we used to. Le Corre provides three healthy vegetarian or paleo-type meals a day, for participants, who come from varying backgrounds.
“I believe that people are craving for meaning,” he says. “They are bored exercising as a chore to lose weight or look good. People want something that enables them to be strong in a useful way and MovNat will provide that. MovNat will greatly increase your preparedness so that you have the ability to respond to practical challenges.”
For Harris, MovNat changed his life inexplicably. Two weeks after the class, he was still free from pain even during his marathon wedding shoots. “Best of all,” says Harris, “I went from only being able to play with my five-year-old daughter for about 15 minutes to now nearly two hours!”
For Le Corre, the initial success of MovNat has encouraged him to move to Boulder, CO, where he will focus on promoting the benefits of natural movement. “My vision,” says Le Corre, “is to make natural movement normal and culturally acceptable. If you saw someone in a park doing Yoga or Tai Chi, you wouldn’t think anything of it, but if you saw someone doing something so simple as running and jumping, or climbing a tree, you would think that person is crazy. My vision, is to change people’s perceptions of natural movement, so one day, when you see that person in the park executing the movements people were created to do, you will simply think, ‘that’s MovNat’. Everyone deserves to be strong, healthy, happy and free and MovNat can provide that – you just have to be willing to have the courage to take that first step.”
For more information on MovNat, please visit http://www.movnat.com.
