Frank Forencich's Exuberant Animal“World’s Fittest Man”?
[singlepic id=145 w=320 h=240 float=left]Oh nooooooo, they did it again…listen people, I have never claimed such a thing, first off because I am personally bored with the notion of ranking, secondly because there are plenty of other seriously, incredibly and impressively fit guys out there!
And what I say here is not out of some fake humbleness. It’s just reality.
My ambition has never been that anyone look up to me, but to inspire others to move in a natural way again so they be proud of themselves, happy with their own nature and also rediscover nature in a more simple way. If I want to be best at something, it is probably about coaching and spreading the philosophy and practice of natural movement and to offer the best coaching system in this field and focus on education.
So please let me happily decline that rather embarrassing title that truly doesn’t make any sense to me. I am just a normal guy that, despite nearing 40, can still move naturally well enough. So if there is one title I would rather claim it could the “World’s Most Annoyingly Fit Man” just because THAT one is truly hilarious!
So, what is it that I am talking about here? I am talking about what I believe is another fantastic article about MovNat by Graham Averill of Blue Ridge Outdoors magazine and another in-depth insight in my philosophy of movement.
I would like to thank my friend Will Harley, editor of the magazine and an amazing ultrarunner himself for offering to write an article about MovNat and for helping to spread the word to another quarter million in the US!
Thanks guys for your enthusiasm about MovNat and a big “Hello!” to all Blue Ridge Outdoors mag readers!
Erwan Le Corre
On a side note: I am familiar with the popular designations, but there are no such names as “monkey” walk or “crab” walk in MovNat. We don’t mimic animals. We just move the way humans are designed to move. It’s all perfectly human movement when you understand their contextual applications. But after all it can be nice to feel like a crab sometimes, you guys should try 
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I don’t know, I would think Jack LaLanne would get the title of “World’s Most Annoyingly Fit Man,” since he’s almost 100 but still works out 2 hours a day harder than men half his age. I think I’d still rather sign up for the movnat plan though, and congradulations on another great article. Get well soon.
Great article, and Blue Ridge Outdoors is in my neck of the woods! And excercising this way, in being much more fun, interesting, and natural, encourages people to work out more, unlike boring repetitive methods indoors that have become the norm. Although you emphasize MovNat as being naturally human, and not mimicking animals, I’m sorry, but I LIKE to imitate animals, and they give me great ideas and inspiration when roaming the outdoors–but it is true that no matter how vivid my imagination, in actuality I must still remember I’m a bipedal primate! Or get seriously injured! But it makes things fun…….
Jack LaLanne is a true inspiration to many, including me. Not because of his fitness method, but because anyone watching his old videos can still get fascinated by his amazingly contagious passion for a natural and healthy lifestyle, a talk he’s been walking until now indeed.
Lane, like I said, if you want to feel like a monkey, others like panthers or others like crabs, it’s all good. In the end, we’re still human animals
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Hello Erwan,
If been following you for quite a while and signed up for the news when the first version of the website went online and again on the new version.
But except for the 1st newsletter in april i never got any news (and i now at least one of my friends did get any too) and i wanted to ask if it is a bug or if you consider the newsartikels, your artikels (The Roots of Methode Naturelle for example) and videos not worth a newsletter.
greetings,
Samson
I was recently in a Cherokee, North Carolina coffee shop and I picked up this magazine. Had a lot of really good articles in it, but this article in particular caught my eye. I was interested by the natural movements of the workout routine and it has inspired me to add in some other fundamentals while I do my specialities of cycling and running. Hopefully, I can train some more of my muscles and I can get away from the constant beating of my legs that I have put on over the past few years of just running and cycling everyday…
Samson, you are right, every valuable additional content deserve a newsletter, we’ll make sure one is sent systematically. But in any case the content is still there and accessible for you to catch up
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Josh, forget about muscles if you want to fully understand the MovNat approach. Graham Averill who wrote the article made the same “mistake” when he goes “I don’t want to miss a muscle group”.
You don’t target body parts in MovNat but only have one focus: how you move and perform.
What happens to your muscles is not a finality, but merely the outcome of your action and nothing more.
What you seem to be tired of in your sport is not only that it is always the same muscles that you stress, but that you always stress them the same way since your movement patterns are always the same. Give your legs new movement patterns and new types of efforts and they will be happy again.
It is very likely that your body and mind are unhappy because of a very narrowed physical expression due to your specialized objectives and all the downsides that stem from such an approach.
Give your body and mind the primal variety of movements and efforts they are designed to deal with and that they are probably craving for and you will radically change your own experience of exercising.
Mr Le Corre,
Thanks for helping bring the outdoors back into “workouts.” Most of my clients STILL don’t understand why I don’t have them do “vanity exercises” isolating a muscle group! Some folks just don’t get it. It’s hard to combat years of reading Muscle and Fiction, Shape, and listening to mass media.
I have been trying to think of places here in North Carolina to have you come do a workshop, as there are some wonderful hikes, climbs, rivers, etc. here. Maybe your friend the editor can come up with something?
Thanks again. Keep up the great work of bringing people back from unnatural machines, to natural movement!
Hello Mr. Le Corre,
I have a quick question. I’ve been doing workouts that incorporate all of the movement areas you endorse (running, jumping, lifting, etc…). It’s all good, but I just want to know if crawling on all fours, on the ground, is really a natural movement for people? It seems to me to be a bit awkward and not completely natural for a bipedal human to do. Do you recommend doing it when up high, on a balance beam, tree, or on a wall?
Thanks
Matt
Chad, the seminar(s) I intend to hold in the USA in the late summer will be held in West Virginia. I guess it is close enough from where you are right?
Matt, moving on all fours, and all variations of movement in close contact with the ground, is extremely natural to human beings. You still lack of situational mindset, an essential aspect of the MovNat philosophy. Think real-world situations where you could have to move on all fours: a riot, getting to the ground and trying to reach safety, hiding behind a low wall while moving forward or backward, crawling under any low obstacle, moving through a narrow tunnel, approaching animals, that it is stalking or hunting, climbing up an inclined branch on a tree so lower your center of gravity and be able to hook it if you get off-balance, climbing up a steep and slippery slope, climbing down the same slope, having to ensure you don’t slide down in an uncontrolled manner, etc…
Not natural to humans? Not natural to Zoo humans indeeds, but very natural to any human still living in nature or suddenly having to face challenging or threatening situations.
Think situations, you will understand what MovNat is truly about. That’s what you prepare for, practical, real-world circumstances.
Bonjour Mr. Le Corre,
I am a Montrealer eagerly looking forward to your US seminar.
In the meantime, I am trying to use what I have read about Movnat to exercise (or “play” as I now refer to it). Being a Zoo human, I find my imagination is limited when it comes to finding new movements to work with… I have been searching with moderate success to get new ideas, but find while there are many demos of Movnat and related methodologies (eg. Méthode Naturelle, Wildfitness, Parkour…), I cannot find clear listings or directions of specific exercises or movements I can apply in my Movnat excursions. I have seen your scans of Mr. Hébert´s work identifying a few exercises and wonder if there is a similar set of directions (illustrations, pictures, written guidance, etc.) for Movnat that we enthusiasts can refer to to expand our play excursions.
Merci in advance and hope to see you in West Virginia soon (if the US authorities keep giving you a rough time, I am sure the Canadian authorities will be happy to grant you a Visa….
!!).
Chris
PS. Thanks for the motivation and helping to turn “exercise” into play (an attitude I plan to pass to my 4 year old daughter (though I think she already has it and I should really be learning from her !!!)).
Hi Chris
I will provide some basic training tips later this month.
But I am legitimately keeping 95% of my work for my book (“MovNat, the Philosophy and Practice of Natural Movement”), that will unfold my whole approach and training method.
If you come to one of my seminars, they cover a lot and after such an event you become self-reliant and can actually practice MovNat on a very solid basis.
Thanks for the positive feedback.
Great stuff! Can’t wait for the book. Have started to incorporate some of your ideas. Came across MovNat as part of research on moving to a more movement based and not muscle based program. It seems to me that your program allows for working out on consectutive days and not the strict Mon-Wed-Fri versions which would fit most people’s schedule better since with life commiments many of us can go 2-3 days in a row and then can’t workout for a couple of days. Is this assumption correct?
hello I am quite knew to this workout I am from Mobil, Alabama it is a great workout and I have gained alot of muscle so far doing the MovNat challenge. I do a number of activities such as baseball, and scuba diving this workout is real I can feel a difference in my muscle type its not bulky but its feels stronger and more useful. I just feel like my body is getting use to the surroundings I am using and wold like tips on how to gain more useful muscle.
I like to say “show me how well you move and I will tell you how fit you are.”
Of course, I am not talking about salsa or tango.
So it is movement, natural movement and how practical and adaptive it is that tells me how skillful is an individual, while their body shape can be a deceptive indication. Big guns? Big chest? 6 packs? So what? Show me that in action!?
Bulky muscles can be just a dumb hypertrophy of fibers…to be useful, they need to be smart and to make them smart you need to train optimum movement patterns to create the right neuro-muscular connections.
That process doesn’t happen when working out in muscle isolation, but when you move the body as whole.
Again, you don’t train your muscles so you develop the skills. In MovNat, you train skills so you develop skills. Any physical or physiological change in your body is a necessary adaptation, not a finality. It is not about growing muscles. Muscles may grow as an outcome, no more.
To answer your question Bill, how often people train all depends on their own possibilities or objectives. But with MovNat it is indeed possible to train 5 minutes here, 5 minutes there, or 15 minutes of high intensity, when lacking time. It is very adaptable to people’s own schedule.
Erwan – a lot of information so far has been based on the natural movements themselves. What about the fuel that gives you the energy to perform these movements. Do you have a particular diet that you choose to follow or is it as natural as the workouts you perform?
Ryan, not as much information as you seem to think, and there is also in my opinion a lot of confusion when it comes to natural movement, is it bodyweight exercises exclusively, is it lifting logs and stones not metal bars, is it fitness drills in the woods, is it yoga…natural movement could be a ragbag accumulating all sorts of conventional, context-free movements seen as “natural”.
Of course, I will talk about specific natural movementS and their techniques, but above all I will unfold my perspective of natural movement as a whole approach, the overall philosophy and practice of natural movement that I call MovNat, and the Natural Movement Training System that goes with it.
As regarding diets, well I am very bored with “diets”, I do not follow any, I simply feed my body with natural food, I mean to specify “natural” since there is more edible junk easily available in our society than actual natural food. When I say food (should be needless to add “natural” actually), I mean natural one, as found in nature, fruits, vegetables, nuts, eggs, seafood, fish or meat that I tend to eat mostly raw while avoiding food products, i.e processed food that doesn’t look like what you find in nature, and totally excluding edible junk. Simple.
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I am not going for more complication and sophistication than that when it comes to alimentation and leave it to either people passionate about the subject, people which fragile health truly depends on a finely-tuned diet and last for the kind of self-absorbed people with control-freak tendencies
MovNat teach us to use our bodies as a useful machine rather than a beauty accessory. The motion and skills performed by your body may or may not build big muscle, its all according to your adaptation level.
i picked up a copy of the magazine on accident hoping to use it to insulate ice cream i just bought (yes, ice cream, >.< it was good) and ended up reading it. i’ve gotta say, i just thought the title was the writer’s opinion and didn’t judge cause of it. I was mostly attracted to the article though cause it said you run bare foot, and no matter what shoes i use i tend to get shin splints… so maybe i’ll try that out.
awesome exercise idea. i’m glad you thought it through!
I advise to switch to barefoot running, making sure to make it safely and gradually, not radically. Now even though barefoot running can solve many problems, it won’t solve much and can actually cause other types of issues if your running form doesn’t change to a truly natural form that is optimum and respects the laws of nature and movement.
Contrary to what many seem to believe, that’s not only a ball of the foot striking vs heel striking.
I also advise reading “Born to Run” by my friend Christopher McDougall. This book, that is already a best-seller, is an eye-opener about the whole shoe industry and how technology fails to provide any real solution to runner’s health issues, and actually tend to cause or maintain the problem.
i’ll try to fix my technique as well.
Thanks for your advice!
Good luck then
I am reading Born to Run and it is a page turner. I am not a runner but still am enjoying it. I am a teacher of pre-schoolers. and ever since I read the Men’s Health article, I have been watching my little ones at play. Their running style is great, and they run with such fun and pleasure. Not only running but everything they do, is so spontanious and free. I teach them to climb trees (my passion, and at 55 I can still do it quite well!) and they can fly up those trees. My point is that your MovNat is much more human moving than people might think. Children do things the way that their body tells them to do it. From movement, to sleep to eating. I think MovNat is wonderful and would love to go to your training.
Bonjour Erwan,
Wow what a great article, it encompasses the Real world, natural, fun, playful approach to health and wellness (and life) that I so resonate with, belive in and do my best to model and teach, it’s just common sense really, unfortunately however common sense is the last common of the senses aye!
Huge Kudos to you Erwan for leading the charge and re-awakening the masses to get back in touch with themselves, re-discover their child like wander and their bodies through this ‘Movement’!
As a Daddy (most important title I hold) to a wonderful lil 6 year old girl and the CFO (Chief Fun Officer) of an outdoor natural movement based Fit Camp here in Houston, I love this quote of yours from the article…
“Kids are our guides. They show us the way. They have no predefined notion of fitness. It’s all play and exploration.”
Amen my friend time to get out of the gyms and question the CW (Conventional Wisdom) approach to ‘working out’…time to get abck to basics…and get outdoors and ‘play out’…just MOVE (walk, crawl, swim, jump, throw, run barefoot preferably, etc) and have FUN!
Train MOVEMENTS not Muscles!
Form follows FUNCTION!
Thanks so much for this, i LOVE IT!!!
To Your Healthy Success!
Jared Maidenberg
I use the Vibram Five Fingers are those good enough to start out on
Thanks Joy, and people of your age that are still active and moving well are quite an inspiration to me and should be an inspiration to everyone in fact!
Jared, thanks for such a positive feedback. Yes kids show us the way, because their movement is playful, exploratory, practical and above all it is adaptive.
However, in adults or in…”zoo humans” we need a method that goes beyond the pure exploratory mode, and actually this goes as well for fitter, but specialized athletes or anyone willing to train/learn optimum natural movement while skipping much of the trial and error process and while preventing injury, which is fundamental in more aged individuals.
In MovNat, there is a structured training type that actually prepares very efficiently for full adaptive exploratory movement in nature.
The distinction can be seen in the “MovNat at Wildfitness” video where a structured training is followed right away by free exploration in nature (by the beach!). Moving free, i.e in an adaptive way not creative way (context-free unpractical creative moves are not part of natural movement) in nature or any environment being the ultimate goal.
Chase, that’s a good choice, but I would personally go for FeelMax shoes, they don’t have the cool design of the FFs but they have actually a much more barefoot touch and are more practical I think (I have tested both products).
I am a 45 years old man from germany. And all that i can say is: This is my new way to workout body and soul!!!
In this summer! Oh yes!
I have your name seen at the website from Dominik Feischl: http://naturtraining.blogspot.com/2009/06/die-methode-der-natur.html
He is an sports-journalist from austria and a strong guy who loves train outdoors and he had with a professional climber Jürgen Reis a web-podcast to hear and download mp3-Files about training and all around this theme.
It called http://www.power-quest.cc
Oh, that was a very great think to hear an interview on power-quest … sometimes!
But sorry Erwan, i begann to babble … but i am so enthusiastic and full of energy about your ideas of movement. Can you conceive to give a kurse in gemrany?
Okay … not to long! Sorry, my english is not good but i hope i can verbalize what i feel!
Many regards to you Erwan and all readers!
Sorry Erwan(“Shit”)!
A little correction:
Oh, is would be a very great thing to hear an interview with YOU Erwan on power-quest … sometimes!
Frank
Dominik has indeed contacted me some time ago and I have agreed to do an interview so it should be done in a near future I guess.
Oh, that ist great Erwan! I am in wait mode (smile)!