Gray Cook, FMS Founder, participated in a MovNat workshop in West Virginia with his family. What does he think about his experience?
“I wrote a book on Movement. It’s actually called “Movement” and it scientifically supports MovNat principles and methods in every way. However, in the presence of these great instructors I was humbled – in a good way. A way that gave me hope for my children’s future children. I’ve been looking for a tribe of modern fitness professionals that appreciates the raw adaptability of the human flesh and spirit. A tribe that seeks to nourish both in a process that looks more like play and exploration than working out or posting points on a board. A tribe that creates natural movement with superior fitness as a favorable byproduct.”
Jonas Colting, Swedish professional triathlete and author of three books, 2-time winner of Ultraman World Champs, 2-time medalist of ITU World Championships, Long Distance.
This was the best spent five days of my triathlon career! I’ve been on countless camps for my professional triathlon but this camp was constantly challenging my body in new ways and my learning curve was constantly pointing upward.
I believe that MovNat, and the entire philosophy that Erwan teaches, is crucial for my continuous improvement. Not only in terms of athletic prowess, but even more regarding health and long term durability.
I am painfully aware of the single mindedness of athletic skills and with MovNat there’s an entire new world of physical movement and skills to work on. Being a world class athlete doesn’t mean that you automatically qualify as a skilled MovNat-athlete. In MovNat we all need to be able to crawl before we can walk! All athletes serious about understanding the full grasp of functional movement should meet Erwan and attend a MovNat-camp!”
Steve Maxwell, Strength & Conditioning Coach
“I enjoyed the MovNat course very much. In the week of training with Erwan, I feel my movement skills were greatly enhanced. I was faced with my own limitations and fears as some of the things we did were quite challenging. I rediscovered the skills and abilities to do a lot of stuff that I hadn’t done since I was a kid. The playful, joyous nature set during the course made learning fun. Erwan is a great coach and teacher. I thought that his ability to break down, teach and guide people through complex skills was second to none. I see aspects of fitness in a whole new light as a result of this course.”
Anthony Landreth, PhD
UCLA Neurobiology, Silva Lab
Hi Erwan,
I want to thank you for your guidance and patience at the workshop. The training was a life-altering experience for me in several respects. I feel much happier!
Before I left, I mentioned to you that I was noticing increased range of motion in my neck. I believe the alleviation of the pain is due to a combination of the movements we performed as well as the perception drills.
On a side-note: I’ve had some thoughts regarding human nature and human happiness that MovNat has helped me develop a bit further, through personal experience now (instead of mere theorizing).
Roughly, I’ve wondered whether natural movement might contribute to a sort of alignment of evolutionarily more recent and ancient motivational structures in the brain. Perhaps time spent in natural movement counteracts the mind/body’s internal conflict between the contrived physical and attentional demands of modern society (affecting neocortex) and the demands of the ancient subcortical structures that account for the development of universal movements. For example, time spent in natural movement might satisfy primal needs for movement that might otherwise be starved by the compulsion to sit at a desk for school or a keyboard for work. Maybe that’s why it feels so good to move when we make time for movement–because a motivational imbalance (as opposed to a muscular imbalance) has been addressed. The body generally uses hedonic signals (good and bad feelings) to train habits. If we are programmed for natural movement, then it would make sense that we should derive pleasure from natural movement, just as children derive pleasure from play.
Thanks again-Tony
Erwan,
I am sharing this with you because:
It may help someone you know
It may help you recruit for MovNat
I am damn excited about it!!
When I was 35 years old my doctor told me I was a “walking heart attack” (his words) because of my high cholesterol/triglyceride levels. I have been fighting the battle ever since but mostly without success as I won’t use statin drugs. I had a physical in March and my doc was concerned enough to give me “the lecture” and asked that I come back in a few months to have blood work done to see if my readings had improved (the “lecture” implied that I change my diet, ride my bike, etc.). Honestly, I didn’t make many changes until my week at Summersville. Just for kicks I scheduled the blood work on Monday 7/19. I really wasn’t sure, with all the fats, healthy as they may be, what the results would be. The doctors office called today. Total cholesterol dropped 20%, LDL (the bad stuff) dropped 17%, and triglycerides dropped 50% (BAM!!!!) and HDL (the good stuff) increased over 5%. Ya’ll, that was basically accomplished in ONE WEEK of Paleo diet and MovNat training (wait!, I think I will refer to that as MovNat playing).
Most of you, healthy and young as you are, may not appreciated this. This is huge.
Down 6 lbs since Summersville. Going for that one, solid, hanging, straight armed pull-up. If you have any folks my age who are considering attending a workshop but have some apprehension please pass along my email and/or phone number as I will be happy to talk to them. MovNat was the change I was looking for but couldn’t quite identify or figure out on my own. It may very well have changed the course of my life.
Peace, Jesse Tate
“I became intrigued by the concept of MovNat because I’ve been looking for some way to use my entire body to it’s fullest without being bored in a sterile gym environment. I had my reservations upon signing up because I’ve never been particularly athletic and tend to have a remarkably high ‘klutz-factor’. Thankfully, when Erwan Le Corre says it is fully scalable, that is the truth. Each participant had different strengths and weaknesses and he was able to work with us all. Most of the skills practiced were skills that could be worked on and achieved by anyone. Though a few skills were strength-dependent, if we weren’t strong enough to actually do the certain skill, we gained the knowledge of how it can be done and ways that we could improve to eventually get the strength. The experience was phenomenal, not only in the mind-boggling number of skills introduced, but also in the sheer hospitality of Mr. Le Corre. He and his assistant bent over backwards to make sure that we were all comfortable and well-fed, which made the strenuous training sessions easier. Mr. Le Corre was also fervent about sharing his lifestyle and diet with us, which resulted in learning much, much more than just work-out stratagems.”
Laura Roth
I have been playing competitive sports my entire life, and for the last 3 years I have been competing in Mixed Martial Arts. Many elite, professional athletes cross train MMA in their off-season because it is widely regarded as one of the most challenging and effective conditioning methods out there…plus it is a lot of fun! I have had 4 cage fights and many more submission grappling matches; and so with that background I tell you that the MovNat Expansion course seriously kicked my butt! I consider myself to be in really good shape but the Expansion course really exposed a lot of my weaknesses and my overall general unpreparedness. The expansion course is a lot of hard work and a lot of blood sweat and bruises, but it is one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life. The coaching of both Erwan and Vic was extremely effective in that they are able to scale any movement or ability to each particular individual. I never knew there were so many ways to get up and over a wall!!
Since I have returned from my expansion course I have since built myself a mini MovNat course in the woods near my home. I also frequent playgrounds and parks as Erwan and Vic taught us all how to construct our own MovNat courses. Never have I had so much fun while doing something this challenging. To anyone who is considering one of Erwan’s courses DO IT! The experience is life changing physically and mentally. It is guaranteed to be one of the most challenging experiences of your life…but I also guarantee that it will be the most rewarding, as well.
This course changed my life for the better! I will be attending as many of Erwan’s future courses as possible! I am officially a MovNat addict! You will be to!!
Bryan Garlick
Philadelphia, PA
Hi Erwan,
I wanted to share my 2-month update with you…
I am ecstatic to report that I no longer have “chronic knee issues” – in fact, my knees are completely normal with full range of flexibility!! I’m having a friend take pictures tomorrow to show you that my butt goes all the way to my ankles when I squat. I’m still careful with how fast that I do it but I CAN DO IT. I am running 2.5 miles completely barefoot and use Vibrams for my hiking – pictures will show the incredible mountains just in front of my door as well as the coolest “natural” park in front of the Palm Springs Art Museum (again 2 min walk from my house) that I use for my “gym”. I didn’t even see this space – that is in the full open – until I returned from Brazil.
As we know everyone is obsessed about if anyone has lost weight so you an tell them that I lost over 15 lbs! I think about 5 more to go until I’m back to my regular fit self. Nothing extreme – just moderate level exercise and delicious Paleo diet. I can’t tell you how good this feels to get back to my normal fit body. You really got to see me at the lowest point in my life but with your guidance I bounced back stronger than ever!
I’m still challenged by jumping – there seems to be a mental block and hesitation but I’m working at it a little at a time. The knees still have a slight cracking SOUND only – definitely no pain and NO INFLAMMATION – Yeah!!
I think the diet has really made all the difference to my physiological changes especially in the inflammation problems. Before I went to Brazil, I had such huge results in only 1 month and that was before I knew anything about training MovNat. But the combination of both MovNat training and Paleo diet has been incredible! They have completely changed the quality of my life as I was barely able to walk or climb stairs in January and a few months later my biggest problem is only a few extra pounds… and they will be history soon too!!
As I mentioned I an earlier email – I will participate in a 10K trail run (rock2rock) in Asheville, NC at the end of the month. It’s my first race ever and my goal is simply to do my best – wearing Vibrams, of course as it’s basically a mountain trail race.
Congratulations on all the wonderful things happening for you and MovNat! I can’t wait for the first DVD to come out as my I need help in being more creative in my workouts – that seems to be where I get stuck the most.
Warmly,
Michelle Globis, Palm Springs
Even with a background that includes six years of US Air Force Special Operations, four years of NCAA competitive swimming, and an entire adult lifetime dedicated to fitness and nutrition, I was AMAZED at the challenge, experience, and adventure that MovNat provided. The practical and scalable practice of the natural movement method that Erwan Le Corre is sharing with the world is something that anyone and everyone, no matter what walk of life they find themselves in, could benefit from learning about. MovNat is the most pure fun I have honestly had while doing something to enhance my health, fitness, and well-being… not to mention my life!”
Jason Smitka
Even though I’m nearly 70 years old, the scalability of your training and your personal encouragement every step of the way, allowed me to keep up (in most cases) with the younger men and women in our class. Your encouragement gave me the confidence and skills to successfully do things I would never try on my own. What a powerful experience. Many thanks for everything.
Bob McMillan
My name is Don Harris. I am a photographer in Tulsa Oklahoma. I have never liked to exercise. My job is rather physical and I could rarely motivate myself to go to a gym to “work out”. I have flat feet and have never been able to run with either speed or grace. I am 38 and for the past 23 years have lived with chronic, sometimes excruciating back pain for which no cause or cure had been found for me after many trips to “specialists.”
After photographing an all day wedding, the pain would be so severe in my legs and back that I would be non functioning the following day. I had purchased expensive work shoes and had been fitted with orthopedics. Nothing was helping. In desperation, I researched and learned of the “barefoot” movement and the philosophy of allowing your foot to move as it was meant to move. I have always gone barefoot when at home and I had noticed relief from pain when not spending long amounts of time in shoes. I purchased some completely flat, black “pool” shoes that had almost no support at all and no cushioning of any kind but allowed my foot to move on its own. I wore these to a wedding and to my surprise, my pain level decreased by half. Also, I could function the next day.
This lead me to do more research, and I found MovNat.com. I was intrigued with Erwan’s philosophy and the obvious results he had achieved in his own life. The world is so filled with half truths and charlatans. I have tried so many things to help myself. Some of it helped a little. But mostly, I experienced intense physical pain daily. When Erwan announced his first seminars I realized I could go to another back specialist and possibly have to have surgery, or at least get another round of pain pills. Or, I could drive to the other side of the country and live in the woods for a week and see if there was anything to the MovNat thing. I was not encouraged by anyone to go. Friends, family, doctor friends, all expressed high levels of doubt to me. Yet I went anyway.
My entire experience there could be a small book in itself. I was not prepared for what I found. The first two days were the most difficult days I had ever experienced. The pain was so intense that I began to wonder why I had come. Yet Erwan was so encouraging, so gracious, and so real. He did not make any claims or give me pie in the sky stories. He simply shared his philosophy of MovNat and shared himself as a person fully committed to it and to seeing people discover how they were meant to move and live. As beautifully fit as Erwan is, there was never the sense of “I am the master, you are the student.” There was never the sense he was trying to get us to be like or look like him. In fact, the whole week was not about him at all. Erwan scaled the class to each of our abilities. He gently pushed us, but did not force us. There was no sense that this was another fitness fad. Yet after day two, I did not see how I could go on. I felt like every bone in my body was on fire- not because of the training- but because of my own personal condition. I am used to dealing with intense pain and I am not sure of the exact moment I realized it, but that evening I became aware that I had NO pain in my body.
I thought it must have been a fluke or that it would return. But it did not. I told Erwan about it and I think he was just as excited for me as I was. The next day, I experienced a huge energy burst. I had not realized that the pain I was in was robbing me of tremendous amounts of energy. I was able to do things I would not have attempted. It really had nothing to do with being “in shape.” I was, for the first time in years, able to be myself. Without the pain, there was such a happiness inside of me. I did not want to leave. In fact, everyone at the seminar enjoyed just being themselves. No one was trying to impress anyone. The transformation that started there for me continues to this day. I am still pain free. I continue MovNat as my only “work out”. And if I get lazy, I am reminded with a bit of back pain, not to go back to my old ways.
The experience I had at that seminar was one of those life changing moments you look back on as one of the best times of your life. If you are looking for a NO BS approach to LIFE, not just exercise, please do not hesitate to come to a seminar. Everyone in my group left excited and feeling like our money, time, and energy was well spent. Erwan is for real. MovNat is for real. And the results you will see and feel in your own body are real too. Beating my body to death in a gym doing repetitive stress exercises just didn’t make sense to me. MovNat makes sense. And it WORKS!
Peace,
Don Harris