The Art of Manliness - #508： Break Out of Your Cage and Stop Being a Human Zoo Animal

00:00:00.000 i'm brett mckay here and welcome to another edition of the art of manliness podcast the

00:00:11.160 human body is capable of doing a wide variety of movements in a variety of environments but

00:00:15.220 my guest today argues that most modern people only do a few movements each day commonly find

00:00:19.780 themselves stuck in sterile surroundings and these confinements are sapping our physical

00:00:23.500 and psychological health his name is erwan liqueur he's the founder of the move net physical fitness

00:00:27.720 system and the author of the book the practice of natural movement reclaim power health and freedom

00:00:32.300 today on the show erwan explains what natural movement is and our amazing human potential for

00:00:36.300 walking running balancing jumping crawling climbing swimming lifting throwing carrying catching and

00:00:41.400 self-defense we then discuss the cultural forces that have disconnected us and our children from

00:00:45.320 our ability to perform these natural movements and have turned us into zoo humans erwan and i then

00:00:49.460 dig into the benefits of engaging with our natural movements from improved mental and physical health

00:00:53.340 to a greater sense of freedom and we end our conversation with erwan's actual advice on how

00:00:57.440 you can easily incorporate more natural movement into your daily life after the show's over check out

00:01:01.820 our show notes at aom.is natural movement erwan joins me now via clearcast.io

00:01:07.700 erwan liqueur welcome back to the show thanks brett i'm so happy so we had you on the show was a few

00:01:23.040 years ago to talk about the move net technique and you got a new book out the practice of natural

00:01:29.320 movement reclaim power health and freedom with natural movement and this book it's a beautiful book

00:01:35.340 but it also distills everything you've been teaching people about natural movement for several years now

00:01:42.320 for those who aren't familiar with this idea what is natural movement and then from there let's talk

00:01:49.000 about how your idea of move net the move net technique fits into natural movement natural movement is the

00:01:55.560 the term of coin to explain what it is for humans to move naturally and uh we could use a metaphor we

00:02:05.120 could imagine how wild animals move in nature let's say a mountain lion for instance what's the natural

00:02:14.200 natural movement for a mountain lion and obviously there would be a set of movement skills that that

00:02:20.960 feline uses in order to hunt and hide and avoid threats and well do everything the mountain lion needs to

00:02:30.780 survive and even to thrive in a wild environment so what would that be for humans and we have a set of skills

00:02:39.060 skills that are instinctual and universal that all humans can do and those skills are

00:02:47.460 all kind of kinds of ground movements like crawling rolling getting up getting down hiking and walking

00:02:56.560 stepping in every way possible and and running diverse locomotion skills you have also climbing and

00:03:05.560 balancing and then you can also manipulate objects lift and carry and throw and catch you can also defend

00:03:14.740 yourself you can wrestle you can strike and of course you can also move in in in water so humans are

00:03:24.040 incredibly versatile when it comes to their movement abilities natural movement abilities and that set of

00:03:31.180 skills that holds that entire scope of universal movement abilities that humans possess is what i

00:03:40.180 call natural movement so that's natural movement i think we all know these these this is stuff that

00:03:44.020 we do when we're kids and we'll talk a bit a bit about that here in a bit yep and they're instinctual

00:03:48.560 they're natural but they also have this thing called move nat and i think sometimes people confuse the

00:03:53.260 two and i think you did a good job distinguishing how move nat is different from natural movement

00:03:58.320 i like to say that natural movement is the it's the practice it's the the movement behavior as a as a fact

00:04:05.820 as a reality as a biological duty even i like to to call it that way and move nat is the method is the

00:04:15.580 method i've designed to help us harness that potential it's a little like okay everybody's got an innate

00:04:25.480 ability to defend themselves right you'll be able to try to avoid strikes or you know you have a an

00:04:32.980 innate ability to wrestle to the ground something like that but that that doesn't mean you're a

00:04:37.000 fighter it doesn't mean you're skilled at it but if you go to a an mma academy or some place where

00:04:43.880 we teach you skills then you become a skilled fighter and then you turn those innate abilities into

00:04:51.340 actual you know mastered skills by learning techniques so the same apply exactly the same

00:04:58.940 applies to all our other natural movement abilities we can turn them into skills but to do that you need

00:05:06.220 a method and that's what move nat is about so in a lot of people need move nat today to you know this

00:05:13.020 this very regimented technique to teach these movements these natural movements because for a lot of

00:05:18.740 modern people they've forgotten to do these very basic universal instinctual movements that not only

00:05:26.020 they've forgotten it so that means that you know we all that's where we all start natural movement

00:05:34.680 when we're kids we start crawling we start standing and walking and you know prior to any instruction

00:05:43.400 prior to being taught what's the proper way to exercise we have a crazy effective instinctual program

00:05:53.900 within us within ourselves within our dna again universally regardless of ethnicity gender all those

00:06:02.020 considerations you look at all kids around the planet and they all start their movement journey the same

00:06:10.520 way and it's true that then we forget it because of a number of cultural influences that drive us away from

00:06:20.480 those behaviors and that actually never let us fully develop that potential that physical potential and

00:06:29.120 movement potential in the first place so we it's not just that we need to reawaken to those movements

00:06:36.420 we literally for most people literally need to learn what they were never enabled to acquire and develop in the first place

00:06:48.180 because it's a process that was interrupted that was obstructed that's a fact well and you call this the the this

00:06:55.700 this these cultural pressures that prevent us from even developing some of these natural movements that are very basic

00:07:02.420 you call it the zoo human predicament right yeah well that's a term that was coined by you know a zoologist called

00:07:10.160 desmond morris who wrote a book called the human zoo where he examined the behaviors of people living in cities and

00:07:18.320 then you realize that in those man-made environments you also have man-made behaviors and that include a

00:07:26.460 complete lack of complete lack of movement not complete in the sense that of course there are still day-to-day

00:07:31.640 movements that we do but compared to the movements that we would normally do especially in natural

00:07:39.260 environments in the past and when i talk about our past we're talking about hundreds and thousands of years of

00:07:45.260 life and survival in one environment then compared to that reality of the past

00:07:52.020 movement behavior today is extremely shrunk it's extremely minimal but in that sense minimalist

00:07:59.720 in terms of movement is not a good idea it's it's hard in us we we have become really inept and that's

00:08:07.600 that's one aspect of what i too called you know the the zoo human predicament it it's not good it's just not

00:08:16.340 good yeah it creates a movement poverty like you might the only movement you might do is get up from a

00:08:21.700 chair walk to another room walk out of the car sit in the car walk out from the car that might be the

00:08:27.860 only movement you do but then you you are not doing things like jumping or climbing or maybe jogging or

00:08:35.300 hanging from something which are things that your your body is also capable of doing movement poverty

00:08:40.820 it's a it's it it's in fact a a modern prejudice that's self-inflicted and also culturally inflicted but

00:08:48.680 that very few people notice that they are it it's a reality in their life so like you like you said and

00:08:57.420 i wrote about it in my book what people's physical behavior is made of on a day-to-day basis you know

00:09:06.060 for most people it's simply to uh sit and stand and sit again and stand again and walk a few short steps

00:09:16.260 and and that's it there's no there's no variety where's the jumping where's the crawling where's

00:09:21.100 the balancing where's the hanging and climbing the the hiking the stepping up stepping down stepping over

00:09:28.020 stepping through on diverse terrains where where's the lifting you know picking up heavy things carrying

00:09:34.020 them throwing or catching where's all of that where's all the variety of movements that used to be part of

00:09:42.920 our day-to-day reality as humans and in a modern lifestyle those movements are gone and so that

00:09:51.980 movement poverty what happens is that physiologically it has adverse effects on your physiology on your

00:09:59.840 function on your but also on your cognition on your well-being on your levels of energy and

00:10:06.040 ultimately on on your quality of life right and but the nefarious thing about it the thing it sneaks

00:10:11.840 like you can be okay with movement poverty for you know good stretches of time right because like you

00:10:18.240 don't like people you don't need to jump you don't need like we don't run hunter-gatherers carrying loads

00:10:24.480 across logs or whatever but even in this modern world there will come a time when you might have to do

00:10:30.180 something like it and because you haven't done that for a long time you injure yourself like you

00:10:36.040 talk these middle-aged guys who they go through the life getting up you know standing up walking to

00:10:41.760 work whatever and they bend down to pick something up in their yard and they just they throw their

00:10:45.880 back out right and it's because they haven't been they haven't been practicing different movements and

00:10:51.560 once they try to do something they haven't been doing they injure themselves exactly it happens all the

00:10:56.660 time especially because those movements are natural right so everybody expects that at any time they

00:11:04.060 can do them spontaneously and then yeah you can easily get injured and that's number one the reason is um

00:11:11.480 it's because you never practice those movements actually your body is not ready for them maybe part

00:11:16.920 of your brain neurologically you're like oh yeah i got that i got this but when you do it your tissues are

00:11:24.040 like uh excuse me sir when's the last time you've you've done that and we're not happy with this

00:11:29.300 and and and then you feel pain you feel something is is tweaked uh you're wondering if that's it

00:11:35.900 oh i said i'm 35 i'm old now too old but that's not true you know i'm i'm nearing i'm pushing 50

00:11:43.980 and i'm super dynamic man i still can't jump and climb and run and do all these movements because

00:11:49.400 i've never stopped doing it i'm not obsessed by it i'm not doing it like crazy i'm not training

00:11:55.600 every day but i'm definitely in a phase of you know continuous maintenance of my skills of my

00:12:04.500 strength and condition to be able to perform those movements at any time including without warm-up

00:12:12.700 so physiologically i'm i'm staying ready and i'm not doing that by doing some unrelated

00:12:20.120 programs unrelated movement or drills i'm staying able and ready and prepared for such movements and

00:12:31.380 such efforts by regularly practicing those exact movements and efforts i want to be ready for

00:12:41.560 that means that in my physical practice there is everything is involved climbing is involved

00:12:49.220 jumping is involved running is involved lifting and carrying is involved running and diving is involved

00:12:56.760 all of it is involved and that's the only way that you you stay ready because we're talking about

00:13:03.520 real world performance real world capability you cannot assume that you are ready

00:13:10.140 so if tomorrow whatever happens and you're like oh i have to jump down that little obstacle it's

00:13:15.880 nothing just like you know 20 years ago and boom and that's it you just effed your knee because

00:13:22.640 you never verified that you were still able to do such such things such movements such real movements

00:13:32.040 and because for too long you you have been physically idle maybe you've been lacking sleep chronically maybe

00:13:40.180 you've been eating foods that are super inflammatory you know a number of lifestyle patterns that you have not

00:13:46.440 taken care of physiologically they hurt you but number one reason why you you may hurt yourself trying to do

00:13:54.800 those movements is simply because you never do those movements see there's yeah there's a there's a

00:14:00.040 physiological consequence of of movement poverty injury things like that but there's also like a

00:14:04.820 psychological consequence of movement poverty whenever you just do the same thing over and over

00:14:10.000 again there's a lot of people who are lacking vitality they just feel depressed and like monotone

00:14:15.060 about their life and you argue that natural movement can actually be a remedy or part of the remedy of

00:14:20.000 that malaise well the mental part of practice is very important well let's not forget that in the first place

00:14:27.780 your body does not do anything it's by itself right you have a brain to operate your body it the brain is in

00:14:36.480 command and what's the brain the brain is your intention it's what you're what you're seeking what you

00:14:44.120 want what you want to do with your body what you expect from it what you expect from your training all

00:14:48.460 of that matters a lot the great thing about natural movement is that when you when you train

00:14:53.020 you don't expect um some kind of indirect outcome to the time and effort that you put into your

00:15:04.200 training right it's it it's straightforward it's it's instant verification instant gratification

00:15:12.860 not necessarily that everything you do makes you happy and that you're satisfied but it's instant

00:15:18.540 gratification in the sense that say you jump over an obstacle you're trying to do it effectively

00:15:24.660 you're trying to do it efficiently you're trying to get better at it more and more skilled more and

00:15:30.300 more relaxed more and more accurate that's not a physical thing it's all mental it's about being

00:15:38.520 mindful so that reconnects you with the here now that's the beauty of it it's not only that

00:15:44.240 all the movements you do with move nat are practical means you don't have to scratch your

00:15:49.780 head and wonder well what's the functional you know benefit of this or that if you can't see it

00:15:56.540 as you do your movement then it's very likely that whatever drill you're doing is actually not

00:16:02.960 functional it's it's that simple so when you jump an obstacle when you climb you're going to

00:16:09.460 get on top of something you're going to balance across something there's an interaction with the

00:16:15.900 real world even if it's in a gym even like there's some of our gyms you know they're they're custom

00:16:21.680 made for that kind of practice or that could be in your backyard that could be at the local playground

00:16:26.640 that could be in the woods but there's an interaction with the real world that can't be denied and not

00:16:34.360 only cannot be denied it's the core of the practice and in most modern programs that connection with the

00:16:44.100 real world is completely removed and it makes training less realistic as you train and and that's a

00:16:54.600 problem because man to feel to feel good to feel that you're doing something real you need to do

00:17:01.600 something real and so there's more to this there's a little more to this brett it's not only that you

00:17:06.580 will experience that realness in real time as you practice but it will also give you instant feedback

00:17:15.980 as of where you at in term of your competency in term of your capability real real time when you jump

00:17:25.560 over an obstacle and doesn't have to be you know something dangerous it can be done in a way that's

00:17:32.940 progressively you know that's safe and progressively difficult well nonetheless you may have to deal

00:17:39.640 with some of your fears and then you have an instant feedback of how you did it where you were you stiff

00:17:45.960 where you afraid where what happened in your mind what how did that translate into physical behavior

00:17:51.620 maybe of symptoms of you know physical symptoms of stiffness of rigidity of of lack of inaccurate

00:18:00.040 timing and things like that there's a number of manifestations physical manifestation because of

00:18:06.460 your mind is not streamlined as you as you do the movement so all this is the mental aspect of practice

00:18:15.040 that in many ways is removed from other programs that's really there in move that and and what it is going

00:18:24.100 to give you is a sense of reality which is really missing in our virtual era more sense of reality

00:18:32.980 the here now because you can't you can't think about anything else but what you're doing at the moment

00:18:38.320 you're doing the movement you're doing the movement you are fully in it because you get to adapt in body

00:18:43.740 and mind to the very variables the context that you're dealing with and then ultimately it gives you

00:18:49.740 self-confidence it gives you self-esteem it gives you an ability to anticipate it gives you there's many

00:18:57.320 many benefits to your mind that go beyond the physical side of training and that's very important

00:19:04.940 and i also think it's just fun like these these movements are fun crawling on the ground is fun

00:19:10.800 you know hanging from a tree limb is fun balancing on things this is stuff you did as a kid and if you

00:19:17.420 it's been maybe 20 30 years since you've done anything like that and you do it again it makes you feel

00:19:21.080 like a kid again yeah that's those natural movements they are definitely reminiscent of what we all

00:19:27.020 universally experienced as kids when we're kids we were again there was no idea no notion of what's

00:19:34.320 proper exercise and how to isolate muscles and count repetitions and go through you know structure

00:19:39.480 programs and i'm not saying that there are no benefits to such approach actually it's actually

00:19:46.260 also part of the move net method it can be absolutely structured but we don't remove those movements that

00:19:55.360 are just natural to us and that's why they are instinctual when we're kids we crawl we we jump we

00:20:00.880 balance we hang we do all these movements and it was indeed a lot of fun because it was freedom it

00:20:06.080 was freedom it was also naturalness means that's the program capital t-h-e the program the original

00:20:13.880 and everything else is an invention it's man-made it's based on whatever science study anatomy you know and

00:20:20.720 whatever analytical understanding of the human body and how it should move and how it should

00:20:29.000 best exercise but that's not what the original program by design is but and by design we're also

00:20:36.480 talking about you know the design of the of the human body but also uh the the experience of a long

00:20:45.140 long line of people of human beings before us living that natural life in the wild i'm not

00:20:53.140 romanticizing this i'm not saying hey let's all go back to that all i'm saying is that there's a reason

00:21:00.040 why we instinctually move naturally in all all those diverse ways of crawling and kneeling squatting

00:21:09.520 hanging jumping and landing and so forth there's a reason why we do this it's because that is what is

00:21:18.720 necessary to our very survival at least in our past circumstances so now everything seems to have

00:21:28.740 become optional but from an evolutionary psychology perspective the drive to do it is still there from a

00:21:38.260 biological perspective and necessity to do it it's still there always have always will there's no way

00:21:44.820 you can erase so much experience so much memory just because we modern humans have decided to change our

00:21:54.200 ways of life to make them more convenient it's great that we have many conveniences but we can't lose what

00:22:01.780 we have acquired and if we dismiss that then we suffer there are numerous consequences for dismissing those

00:22:11.000 the move natural movement behaviors so of course when we reintroduce those movement behaviors again in our lives

00:22:20.900 it's a lot of fun it's liberating it's exhilarating it's like wow why did i ever stop and you you may wonder

00:22:29.000 why did we ever stop because truly what have we created that that beats that that's better well so

00:22:37.640 let's talk about you've you've been talking about there's different cultural forces that have you

00:22:41.380 know stifled natural movement i think one obvious one for people just the way we work it's very sedentary

00:22:46.260 you go to a desk and you sit and you're doing you know very abstract work on your computer but besides

00:22:51.560 that what are the other cultural forces that have you know stopped people from you know fully

00:22:56.780 developing natural movements that they they have wow there's so many it's it started with the idea

00:23:04.220 that we're not we're not animals and indeed we're i mean we're an amazing species where we are unique

00:23:13.580 but at the same time with culturally and that's for a long time uh you know forced ourselves to

00:23:22.300 separate ourselves from nature and even from the nature in us you know like not going barefoot

00:23:29.980 you know always clothing ourselves elevating ourselves with chairs and uh you know not sitting

00:23:36.140 on the ground not being in touch with nature physically that you know like hey don't don't crawl

00:23:43.500 it's dirty nature is dirty dirt is dirty the word dirty comes from dirt so dirty you know when it's a

00:23:53.600 dirty it's like a rejection of dirt it's a rejection of earth it's a rejection of the very uh of creation

00:24:01.020 of you know whatever you call that of a universe of the earth of the very material that we originate

00:24:09.880 from physically speaking at least we to say that we come from nature that we come from earth that

00:24:17.800 we're made of it we're made of dirt that's not a romantic idea it's just a fact it's a scientific fact

00:24:24.760 and when we try to separate ourselves from from that environment from those elements from those forces from those

00:24:31.880 forces from those energies we we pay a price because we don't feel good because we need those we need

00:24:40.120 nature we need the the fresh water streams we need the the wind in our hair we need to feel the ground

00:24:46.840 under our feet we need to look at real light breathe real real air we need that to thrive there's no way around

00:24:56.440 this so that that's number one and then ultimately economically we've created technologies we've created

00:25:05.080 jobs that do not necessitate us to to be physically active to produce and um so that's what we do that's

00:25:15.960 what most people do every day well and we all need a job but at the same time the unfortunate part of this

00:25:23.320 is that like you said those jobs they they are abstract they force us to sit all day and to look

00:25:29.800 at screens now what nobody's working all day i mean we have some free time the problem is even that

00:25:39.080 free time people still keep sitting and looking at screens and even when people go exercise which is

00:25:46.120 very commendable well let's say they do they do that three times a week so that's three hours all right

00:25:52.280 three hours a week they're going to go exercise they're going to go exercise in gyms that are

00:25:58.440 artificial environments they might sit and you know between sets and reps and whatever they might sit

00:26:08.840 and chat and maybe look at their phones so they're going to be physically active only half of that time

00:26:13.880 so that's one hour and a half that's 90 minutes and maybe at least half of that type of exercise is

00:26:21.240 going to be spent sitting because you sit on machines to exercise trying to isolate your muscles

00:26:27.320 so that's 45 minutes that are maybe done exercising in a non-sitting position

00:26:36.760 maybe you're running on an elliptical or something and maybe you're still watching at some tv screen something

00:26:44.840 so even the way most people exercise is still artificial but in any case even if you truly are

00:26:53.080 physically active in terms of of training for 45 minutes total grand total in a week even an hour and

00:27:00.680 a half that's not even that's what two percent of your wake time in a week two percent what is the rest

00:27:08.360 made of more sitting more standing more maybe walking a few short steps that that that doesn't

00:27:18.840 that doesn't impact your physiology much that doesn't do that much good for you

00:27:26.280 so what you need is a completely completely different strategy because to really thrive physiologically and

00:27:33.320 we talk about physiologically the way movement behavior is going to

00:27:40.040 beneficially impact your physiology is also going to beneficially impact you neurologically

00:27:47.640 if you want to do that if you want to achieve that you need a completely different strategy

00:27:52.760 and you also need a strategy because like we've said there are cultural influences that work against you

00:27:59.560 and you need a strategy so that you can basically

00:28:05.880 resume a movement behavior that otherwise is gone that not only nothing

00:28:12.440 in your day-to-day life a life necessitates that you do that that you jump that you run that you climb

00:28:20.280 that you that you that you crawl you don't have to do it you don't have to do it to procure food

00:28:26.200 to to to stay alive you don't need it you can skip it you can dismiss it your call

00:28:31.880 but when you do that you throw away a lot of who you are as a human person as a human being

00:28:39.640 you you dismiss a lot of your potential a lot of your potential energy and capability in your life

00:28:49.080 you basically dismiss a lot of life in your life by doing that so that strategy is to

00:28:58.760 reintroduce in your day-to-day

00:29:01.640 movement physical behavior a lot of those lost forgotten movements a little by little more variety

00:29:09.560 more volume more frequency so we're not talking about super hard grueling

00:29:19.240 physical ordeals you know for half hour and one hour three times a week we're talking number one

00:29:28.520 with a frequent micro sessions of movement whenever possible

00:29:34.920 people before work during work if possible during lunch break after work on weekends add

00:29:42.760 movement to your life step by step reintroduce that lost variety of movement that used to be there

00:29:53.400 in our ancestors lives well i mean one of the other cultural forces you've talked about and written

00:29:59.000 about a length about is just even our idea of physical fitness today and you actually you wrote

00:30:04.120 a history an article about the history of physical fitness we have on art of manliness.com put a link

00:30:08.360 to it but you talk about you go back a hundred years ago thousands of years ago like physical fitness

00:30:14.600 physical training was very designed to help people do what they needed to do so a lot of the physical

00:30:20.280 training came out of the military and so you go back to roman times or even greek times you could

00:30:25.480 find records of them doing training that was designed to help them be better warriors but as we've

00:30:31.560 get into the 19th century the 20th century physical fitness took a shift away from that sort of very

00:30:38.280 practical functional idea of fitness to what you call it the the whole whole point is aesthetics right

00:30:45.000 just do you look good naked basically yeah hey not that there is anything wrong

00:30:52.360 with looking good naked actually it's even it's a it's one of the legit expectations of a physical

00:31:01.320 training there's nothing not only there's nothing wrong about it it's it's awesome if you can develop

00:31:08.360 a good-looking body and feel great about it that's great my point is modern fitness programs have almost in

00:31:17.080 their entirety evolved to be obsessed with that and to only focus on that exclusively so not only

00:31:24.440 it's a priority it's an exclusivity there's nothing else you're truly looking at and uh yeah definitely

00:31:31.640 that's over that's a generalization but still for most people when they think of exercising the number one

00:31:41.320 right away thought is how is this going to make me look i want to look better i want to look good

00:31:51.480 hey that's great but you want the image when you're not interested in the function

00:31:58.680 how's that because for because until now until modern times i mean seriously in the past in the time of my

00:32:08.360 grandparents and and and everybody else before them before them like if you were to walk around trying

00:32:16.440 to show off your amazing body people will laugh at you but if you were to be able to show some real world

00:32:23.720 capability like being able to lift something really heavy to run a long distance to climb like a high

00:32:31.640 tree very high do something like that people would be like whoa the guy is strong the guy's capable

00:32:37.560 guy stuff no that mean that meant something it didn't matter what you look like it mattered

00:32:42.920 what you were able to do it mattered what was your capability that would give you respect that would

00:32:50.040 make you be appreciated by your community by other people not the size of your biceps

00:32:56.680 not the shape of your chest because that alone is not an indication whatsoever of what you're actually capable of

00:33:05.640 doing in the real world i can you know i go to a gym to regular gym i take these guys out of the

00:33:12.520 environment and they can be and i'm not saying that in a cocky way just i just it's just a reality

00:33:20.200 most of these people are they're going to be destroyed just running for 15 minutes

00:33:25.080 especially if you take them on wild terrains and we're not even talking about

00:33:32.200 having to clear some obstacles on the way because they never trained for that so they train they just

00:33:37.960 trying to have big muscles you know a guy who does body boulder is not a guy who does power lifting or

00:33:47.480 olympic lifting or strongman training that's completely different it's at least if you do all the free that i

00:33:57.720 mentioned last you're looking at some real results of

00:34:03.320 actual capability at least one aspect of it it's not the whole complete scope it's at least one aspect of

00:34:10.840 it they don't really care about how you know how big they look they look at how big they can lift or

00:34:17.400 or carry how big they can manipulate because at least there is that mindset of it means something

00:34:24.440 it's it's real in the real world it's useful potentially in the real world if you apply that

00:34:30.120 mindset to every other skill and aspects of strength and conditioning that you may need to be truly

00:34:36.360 capable to operate in the real world then you want to add a number of training

00:34:44.520 to your training number of practices to your practice we're going to take a quick break for

00:34:50.120 your word from our sponsors and now back to the show yeah i mean i think specializations there's

00:34:57.240 nothing wrong with specialization if that's what you're going to do if you're going to be you decide

00:35:01.080 you want to be a power lifter and you're going to compete then you need to specialize but for most

00:35:04.920 people you don't need to deadlift 800 pounds right but you you do need to have some strengths yeah you

00:35:11.080 know i i do power lifting and there was a point in my training when i was doing barbell training

00:35:15.960 where my coach said look you're generally strong you know you can take life on and you can allow you

00:35:21.320 to live and do things you want to do you have to decide now if you want to you know specialize and

00:35:27.800 just do this and you know you're going to rip the injury the risk for injuries going to go up

00:35:31.400 it's going to hurt and whatever and you have to like not focus on other aspects you have to make

00:35:35.240 that decision and i made that decision i wanted to do that i wanted to compete but i think a lot

00:35:39.400 of people they see that and they're like well i want to do that but also run you know fast you know

00:35:44.200 mile i want to be able to do this it's like you can't do that you have to make a decision but if you

00:35:48.920 just want to be overall generally healthy you you have to have this variety of movements in place

00:35:54.680 yes exactly and you know well brett that is your choice and it makes you happy and you're good at

00:36:00.280 it and i know that as long as you feel that you're satisfied and that your body can keep keep up with

00:36:07.720 it then you should absolutely do that specialization can be great it can enable people to achieve their

00:36:15.800 their own greatness and provide a ton of satisfaction with just one support one endeavor once like like

00:36:25.720 we said one special specialization and also uh specialization in sports have contributed amazingly

00:36:36.360 to the understanding of human biomechanics and best training protocols to achieve particular results

00:36:44.840 in a particular aspect of human performance but the same way your coach told you hey um or you said

00:36:55.400 you know not not everybody's going to be capable of lifting 900 pounds absolutely correct not everybody

00:37:01.480 is going to be able to lift 450 pounds and that's that's okay my point is the overwhelming majority of

00:37:12.440 people don't need to be great at any of those particular specializations they don't need to specialize most of us just

00:37:23.480 don't need to specialize what we need if somebody somebody's health overall is not really that great

00:37:32.200 if somebody's physical capability overall is not especially great you don't need to pick

00:37:44.680 one sport you don't need to pick one specialization and to put all your time and effort in that when uh you

00:37:52.280 could really thrive by embracing what we originally do or we were supposed to do as humans which is to

00:38:00.680 to to practice all those diverse movements again the same way we were kids when we were kids we're smart

00:38:07.880 we just followed the program the the the natural design program we did all of that and it made us super

00:38:18.680 super strong super capable super and super happy full of energy every day it's not just because we were young

00:38:27.960 it's because we were doing this because look there's tons of kids today they don't move naturally a lot

00:38:36.680 because they're given screens from a young age and they sit all day looking at screens do you think that

00:38:42.760 those kids are have boundless energy and they they are super happy and all no and yet they're young

00:38:49.560 so it's not about youth it's about behavior the reason why we felt young and we felt energetic was

00:38:58.360 because we were following the program that natural movement program that's built in in all of us and

00:39:06.120 that we just forgot and need to reactivate so you know brett even if you are specialized and because you want

00:39:14.280 to achieve that greatness in that particular field that you love you you don't have to pursue

00:39:20.840 performance say in jumping or crawling or climbing or balancing and all of these movements but it

00:39:27.800 doesn't mean that if you practice some of them a little every day that you will it will not help you even

00:39:34.760 to be even more thriving physically and to even better prevent injuries when it and and why not

00:39:43.000 even support greater performance when it comes to that power lifting specialization no that that's true

00:39:50.360 like i've continued so i've been to a move nat seminar and i continue to do incorporate move nat into my

00:39:56.280 just my daily daily life like i'll you know do a ground routine where i'll be doing some crawls and

00:40:02.680 backwards and forwards a crab crawl tripod transition things like that that just they're fun they feel

00:40:08.520 good but at some movements particularly like they've helped me with my my power lifting i feel like i'm 0.66

00:40:12.840 very tight in my chest and in my shoulders so that crab crawl or you know you're on your your your butt 0.80

00:40:20.840 and you're kind of you know inverted yeah yeah we call it that really opens up my chest now that feels

00:40:26.760 good another one like before i shoulder press just hanging from a bar you know that's a move a

00:40:33.000 natural movement technique i'll just hang from a bar and that really opens things up and i'll kind of

00:40:37.240 do some swings from side you know side to side so yeah i mean i it's definitely you're able to

00:40:42.920 incorporate this stuff along with the specialization in fact i just had a podcast interview with a guy just

00:40:48.680 wrote a book about the importance of breath even if you are a specialist it's important to have a

00:40:53.240 breadth of knowledge and he talked about this idea of a t-shaped individual and it's usually the most

00:40:58.920 innovative people in science or in you know technology they specialize in something in an

00:41:05.160 area but they continue to nurture or develop other practices outside of that so he talked about a lot of

00:41:12.360 noble prize winners are they they're more likely to be artists singers musicians compared to the general

00:41:19.640 public so those are examples of people who specialize but at the same time are diversifying it sounds like

00:41:24.520 you're saying the same thing you can specialize but you should probably still diversify because that can

00:41:28.040 actually improve your specialization right exactly and in fact you only diversify in the sense that

00:41:35.480 you have specialized in the first place you know it's just like a mma mixed martial art you only have

00:41:41.800 to mix them because they were specialized in the first place originally the the martial art of the uh

00:41:49.000 the samurais was made of all of that they were trying the sword and other weapons and then they will also

00:41:55.000 train you know empty hand kind of skills so they would do elements of judo element of jujitsu elements

00:42:04.440 of karate elements of aikido it was it was all there and so then everything branched out

00:42:13.160 and became specialized and then ultimately you bring that all back into one whole approach

00:42:21.800 and practice and then you have mma so you only need to diversify when you're specialized but nobody's

00:42:30.520 specialized originally nobody's a mono mover that's again that's one of the cultural influences of this

00:42:37.320 modern world hey pick your field pick your specialization you got to choose one you can't

00:42:42.520 have them all why not why not oh because i can't i'm not going to be reaching a level of a competitive

00:42:51.320 level and so what it's not about being at the level of the elite at the level of those who actually

00:42:59.320 because you can only reach an elite when you specialize right so uh you take any of those highly fit

00:43:07.000 athletes in whatever area but they're going to suck at the rest you know or they're not going to be

00:43:14.840 that good at least because originally you have natural movement and all those specialized sports

00:43:21.880 they all come from natural movement and not the other way around so you see when you have a practice like

00:43:27.720 move that they're not saying oh wow they've they've mixed lifting with some parkour stuff and then uh

00:43:35.400 there's some running and uh you know you mix those sports together and then you have what's called

00:43:40.200 move that excuse me but originally there's natural movement where if you want to survive in the wild

00:43:46.600 you'd better be able to climb the tree to jump over the obstacle to run the distance to lift and carry

00:43:52.600 heavy things or people and to do all those things because if you can't do it all you're in trouble

00:43:58.920 you're not going to make it that's the reason why we have that movement potential that's not thanks to

00:44:04.600 specialized sports all specialized sports were enabled by the fact that we have a natural movement

00:44:11.240 memory and potential in us so you look at uh whatever sport soccer okay what are you doing you're running

00:44:19.720 you you look at tennis what is tennis well it's a it's a striking movement it's it's a basically a

00:44:27.800 throwing movement it's the throwing biomechanics that was used for hunting stuff okay well then you put

00:44:34.600 instead of having a spear in your hand now you have a racket and of course there are other modifications

00:44:42.200 but you're basically running and throwing at the same time and what and and you're also somewhat

00:44:47.720 catching with the racket as you throw you can look you can interpret or analyze any modern sports

00:44:55.800 through the scope of what movement patterns are involved that were originally used in the wild for

00:45:04.520 our survival and that will really change your you know the way you look at those sports so you look at

00:45:13.080 any manipulative specialization that it is olympic lifting power lifting you look at all of that and

00:45:19.800 you make the same conclusion that what you're trying to replicate is not just physical it's basically a

00:45:26.360 practical mindset to to achieve a practical outcome that serves the purpose of just staying alive and

00:45:35.160 thriving so another cultural force so there's there's the idea that we have to specialize that's a cultural

00:45:41.080 force there's an idea that you know in the fitness industry that the focus should be on aesthetics

00:45:46.120 only and not being able to move and be useful and be yeah useful in the world but another cultural 0.87

00:45:52.920 force that i think prevents people from doing natural movement things like climbing trees or hanging from a

00:45:59.640 branch or whatever is that people think it's weird it's like well you don't do that when you're 25 years

00:46:04.920 old and you could have done that when you're 10 but you're grown up now don't do that you look like

00:46:09.880 a weirdo yeah it reminds me of that song by uh super trump the what is it the logical song yeah yeah yeah

00:46:17.880 yeah yeah yeah right it's um yeah you're taught to be reasonable sensible cynical it's uh yeah that's another

00:46:28.680 cultural influence that's pretty pretty negative is that you're not supposed to do that and you're not

00:46:36.920 supposed to do that because you're not supposed to be that that's too much freedom now that's too much

00:46:43.640 yeah it's too much freedom hey it's i don't know it's like if you have a wild animal or or maybe a

00:46:51.080 tamed animal in a cage and they see their their wild counterpart walking around outside this

00:46:58.680 prigging to you know bother them because the wild counterpart has the freedom they they don't have

00:47:07.720 anymore so you know when uh it's just like when when people are trying to limit you they want to limit you

00:47:15.960 because your ability to do something is a reminder that they've they've lost it for themselves so it

00:47:25.080 buffs them so in order to not be bothered instead of saying hey maybe i could have the same freedom

00:47:32.840 maybe i could unleash myself a little give myself a little of slack and just becoming more free and

00:47:39.960 and greater and have more fun how about i do too no we're gonna be like hey if i can't do it i'm

00:47:47.880 going to prevent you from doing it it's it's a basic negative kind of psychology thing and so

00:47:56.120 a lot of and that's very uh pervasive in our in today's society and it's an unsaid unseen

00:48:04.280 kind of limitation we even have learned to self-impose those limitations oh i can do this why why tell me

00:48:20.040 why well i don't know it's not done i don't know well you don't even question why it's not done why

00:48:25.000 is it that you can't do it because you were made to believe that you can't do something those are

00:48:31.640 cultural limitations we're talking about so yeah an adult is not supposed to be climbing a tree

00:48:38.440 a person is not supposed to be barefoot those are this doesn't hurt anybody right does it

00:48:46.840 actually it makes people stronger makes people happier makes people healthier it makes people

00:48:54.600 more free and that's a beautiful thing so why do you want to limit that what happens with those

00:49:01.080 self-limitations is that say if you want to do that you want to go to a park you want to do those

00:49:06.200 movements and before you know it you have that inner voice that's not even your own

00:49:13.720 that's telling you hey well are people gonna think but really who cares you're actually what bothers you

00:49:20.280 what bothers you in your head is what you assume people are gonna think it's what you think of people

00:49:33.960 may think that limits you and you know what that's not on people it's on you what do you want do you want

00:49:42.600 to be free do you want to have more freedom starting with freedom of movement do you want to achieve that

00:49:51.320 physical capability that's real that's useful in the real world or do you want to stay confined to

00:49:59.880 limited goals even when it comes to fitness to go to the gym and just be like okay i just want to increase the

00:50:05.800 size of my biceps and maybe a little broader shoulders maybe bigger chest and that's it

00:50:11.480 try to not skip leg days i'm sorry that's i'm just gonna say the way it is that's a limited goal

00:50:19.640 you can achieve amazing bodies not necessarily bulky but you know muscular lean and that actually

00:50:27.080 can do real thing in the world by trying to move that the the idea that you you shouldn't do those

00:50:32.520 things like you shouldn't climb trees or crawl around on the ground like that starts when you're

00:50:36.840 a kid in some for some people it's like hey yes especially with boys hey quit rolling around quit

00:50:42.360 roughhousing settle down don't oh don't climb that tree it's dangerous you know we've you read about 0.89

00:50:48.120 schools getting rid of recess so they can focus on you know test scores or they found that recess is

00:50:54.200 too dangerous and so they're trying to you know reduce reliability so they change playgrounds so like

00:50:58.520 there's sort of these weird plastic bubble looking things that aren't any fun it's criminal yeah so

00:51:04.280 it begins then and so you even have kids who are you leaving school physically inept it's criminal

00:51:11.560 it's it's it's just gonna kill the kids even more and it's gonna kill their physiologically to begin

00:51:18.120 with because there are windows of physiological development if you miss them it's hard to catch up

00:51:26.040 later or it's not even possible to begin with because your tissues need to grow strong and healthy and

00:51:32.920 develop in a certain way at a certain age and what it takes for that it's not just proper food like

00:51:39.800 really nutritious food it's also proper movement it's also those movements you can't not have them in

00:51:47.800 a day-to-day in the day-to-day life of the of the kid and that's why you see now young kids they're already

00:51:55.000 their bodies look dysfunctional it's not just that they are of a weight and i'm saying that you know

00:52:00.200 with with sadness because it should never happen to me that's that's criminal that's a real prejudice

00:52:08.280 it doesn't matter that the kids they are whatever the you know the social background it's that's not

00:52:14.680 the problem the problem it's it's a cultural thing that happens to all of us so what they do in in

00:52:20.760 schools where they remove recess or they remove any opportunity for the kids to move because they're

00:52:27.960 going to hurt themselves and the schools are afraid that they're going to be sued and this can what kind

00:52:33.080 of society is that it's criminal because we're going to raise entire generations of kids boys and girls

00:52:40.440 because girls also can and deserve and have the ability to be very capable physically you know that's not a 1.00

00:52:49.720 gender thing i mean my i have a girl she's nine years old she's crazy capable physically and i've not 1.00

00:52:57.800 even retrained her but i have enabled her just like i do with my my two boys to do things that a huge

00:53:09.400 vast majority of parents do not let their kids ever do jump over obstacles climb trees

00:53:15.880 do all you know run barefoot do all these movements so it's almost like we're we're breeding a different

00:53:23.480 species or something now and not only will there's other physiological consequences but there's also

00:53:29.320 mental and psychological consequences which i think is it's ironic what they found what researchers are

00:53:34.440 found on on schools that actually incorporate a lot of movement throughout the day and give the kids more

00:53:39.320 recessed like test scores actually go up compared to kids who are just in this the school and

00:53:45.640 underneath fluorescent lights in their desks sitting still like they're those kids are actually doing worse than the

00:53:50.840 kids that were getting outside and playing and having fun exactly brett now you got me fired up yes because you

00:53:56.360 know the brain that solves all the movement problems and you have movement problems to solve especially when again you

00:54:03.320 interact with complex environments so basically if you jump so to jump a jump implies you launch

00:54:13.800 your body you properly to be airborne then you are airborne then you land okay so that alone is a very

00:54:20.360 sophisticated process now if you add to that the fact that your brain needs to calculate the exact

00:54:26.440 place where is your feet are gonna land to actually land accurately and safely and there's a gap and there's

00:54:37.480 potential danger and the surface where you're gonna land it's not even even it's not even maybe stable

00:54:45.720 there's a lot for the brain to calculate and that calculation is not done by counting you know by doing

00:54:53.000 equations in your mind it's redone by by by the amazing piece of technology of biotechnology

00:55:00.200 which is the brain and it happens in milliseconds

00:55:05.000 and so you're gonna jump and your brain is

00:55:09.480 wired it's geared it's entirely structured and designed for that number one not for

00:55:17.560 formal education not for academics you have a brain for complex movement within complex environments and

00:55:28.280 complex context a context context made of the environment all the variables of the diverse

00:55:35.000 demands of the environment and the situation you're dealing with so that could be a lot of

00:55:40.120 look when you move through those unpredictable environments that's nature basically you're a fortune

00:55:49.000 teller because you move from point a to b and that once when you're at point b it becomes your point a

00:55:56.600 and there's a next point b and the next point b becomes point a and then there's a next point b and so

00:56:02.360 on and so on and so on you keep moving and your brain is a fortune teller your brain can tell how you're

00:56:11.480 going to get there that's pretty amazing how what foot is going to step where what hand is going to be

00:56:19.720 hanging from where and where you're going to end up and it's got it it's pretty unbelievable like you can't even

00:56:27.240 have robots do the same

00:56:31.240 and so the same brain

00:56:35.560 that's originally originally designed

00:56:39.160 for for that natural movement is the same brain that's going to

00:56:44.360 do your mental math that's going to do your abstract thinking that's going to memorize

00:56:50.680 whatever you know that's going to learn all these all those other aspects of your commission

00:56:56.840 are enabled because again you have a brain for natural movement in the first place so there's

00:57:02.600 there's that evidence and that's the reason why when you train natural movement when you do move

00:57:07.800 nat you you will score better in school when you move your brain functions better we even have a

00:57:16.520 scientific study actually that proves that look if i was done with move nat movements

00:57:21.960 and uh that proved that it it boosted working memory which is how fast and how well you process

00:57:29.560 information another aspect a principle of natural movement that you talk about in the book is the

00:57:35.880 environment so there we have a poverty of movement there's also in a way because of our modern life we

00:57:41.720 have a poverty of environments like we see sort of the same very smooth frictionless

00:57:47.880 surroundings like whether it's our home or our office and so there's a lack of diversity

00:57:54.760 that prevents us from i guess exploring the full range of movements that we are capable of doing

00:58:02.760 that's another one of those other uh cultural influences that have to do with um

00:58:10.760 not directly with behaviors themselves like so when we said hey don't move you're

00:58:14.920 going to get dirty you're going to break a leg that's influencing your your behavior that's

00:58:21.320 impacting your mindset and ultimately it becomes self-limiting so what you're talking about here is

00:58:27.400 the cultural influence that stems from the environments we've designed for us to live

00:58:35.000 collectively modern environments that are very boxy very flat very linear very stable very predictable

00:58:45.160 and basically very sterile they're convenient they're comfortable but from a movement perspective

00:58:55.080 it removes a ton of opportunities so when kids grow up in those environments

00:59:05.000 what's interesting is that at least for some time before before the second aspect of that cultural

00:59:12.200 indoctrination is taking place where it is in their mind that they're you know consciously or

00:59:18.760 unconsciously they end up telling themselves well no i can't move i can't do that it's going to be loud

00:59:23.880 my parents adults around me are going to be annoyed so i should just behave and be still

00:59:28.600 but before that sinks in in their young psyche it doesn't matter to them that those environments

00:59:37.880 are unnatural it doesn't matter to them that those environments are artificial they will move naturally

00:59:43.000 no matter what they will crawl under the table they will climb up the the table or the chair and jump

00:59:51.880 off if you let them they will uh they will climb up your curtains if you let them they will vault over the

00:59:59.320 couch you know they they will crawl up and down this this stairways what i mean is that the behavior is

01:00:07.880 their natural the natural movement behavior is there regardless of the environment and that's similar to

01:00:13.080 what wild animals do if you bring a a raptor in a city they're not going to turn into a pigeon if you

01:00:21.960 bring a a wolf into a city or in an apartment they're not going to start behaving like a chihuahua 0.65

01:00:30.200 just because the environment changes because their mindset has not changed and they're still

01:00:36.760 very willing to be the wild eagle and the wild wolf that they are

01:00:40.760 you know you can't tell them to be something else you cannot tell them to be a tamed species with a

01:00:47.800 tamed behavior they have a freedom they have that that strength they have that innate power it's not

01:00:56.440 been removed from them and it manifests into their physical behavior so what we're talking about is that

01:01:04.280 that that mindset that normally enables us to become strong and capable autonomous human beings is

01:01:15.640 taken away from us in many ways as young children and movement natural movement is a big

01:01:24.280 is a huge part of it because you take away the movement man you take away all the fun you take away all the

01:01:32.280 the the the potential for strength and capability in your life and self-esteem and self-confidence

01:01:40.600 and even again cognition how it boosts your cognition so it's a huge huge amount of you

01:01:49.320 that's being taken away from you it's it's a it's not good well so erwan we've been talking about very high

01:01:57.160 level uh about natural movement and the benefits and what prevents us from doing those sorts of

01:02:02.840 things but let's talk kind of specific let's say someone's listening to this and they want to get

01:02:06.760 started what's the easiest what's something they can start doing today to start incorporating more

01:02:12.040 natural movement into their life there are very simple ways you can start to reintroduce that

01:02:21.000 lost variety of movement and frequency of movement that i've been i've been talking about you know when

01:02:28.920 you look at your day-to-day movement behavior and you realize that it it is truly made of very very

01:02:37.400 simple overly basic movements and positions such as again standing or walking a few short steps to the

01:02:46.200 next seat and and sitting a lot and that you you do that from morning to evening basically that's the

01:02:53.240 case for most people there are simple strategies to to address that but first off you need to really

01:03:02.040 make that realization that there is movement poverty in your life and you want to make your movement

01:03:08.600 behavior richer so let's take a simple example for instance how do you brush your teeth

01:03:14.440 why don't you brush your teeth in a deep squat because otherwise when do you ever deep squat and

01:03:22.200 today in modern populations like a lot of people have lost an ability to deep squat at all or to be

01:03:31.400 comfortable holding that position for say longer than 20 seconds so that's a very simple example can you

01:03:42.360 brush your teeth in a deep squat

01:03:44.440 can you read a book or look at your smartphone in a kneeling position otherwise when do you ever kneel

01:03:51.640 and that could explain why why it is that you're not comfortable in a kneeling position you see before

01:03:58.040 looking at some fancy or very specific say programs for mobility that you're gonna be scratching your

01:04:07.880 head thinking when do you ever find the time to do that and to commit to that but you lack mobility

01:04:15.160 maybe the reason is because you've been lacking natural movement all that variety of natural movements

01:04:21.080 and if that is the cause to your lack of mobility it's very likely that's also the antidote

01:04:27.640 so all you got to do is to find every opportunity you can to add and to bring back those lost natural

01:04:37.960 movements in your day-to-day life it really doesn't have to be complicated do more kneeling do more

01:04:44.280 squatting get up and get down to the to the ground to the floor you know whenever you're home whenever you have

01:04:51.320 some free time do it that's where it starts and by the way yeah those movements are we call them ground

01:04:59.080 movements they are you know they're not spectacular it's not like a powerful jump where you have a

01:05:07.240 a challenging landing and if you miss you could rehearse yourself that kind of thing that that's

01:05:11.480 also part of the move net training by the way but that's not where you start you don't start climbing

01:05:18.120 high on a tree if you're not ready for it you don't start walking across a fallen tree over

01:05:25.400 you know a stream of raging waters with the possible possible risk and consequences and danger

01:05:32.200 you don't do that that's not where you start look most people they not only they cannot deep squat

01:05:39.480 they have they are completely unable to get down to the floor and back up to a standing position

01:05:47.800 without using their hands so i invite our our listeners to just try this right now you start from

01:05:56.360 standing and you find a way to get to a sit position without placing your knees or your hands

01:06:05.960 on the floor and then to get back up number one can you do it most people will realize that they cannot

01:06:13.880 do it and those who can do it might find themselves actually you know stiffening holding their breath

01:06:21.720 being off balance being slow being uncomfortable which are signs of lack of efficiency means that it's

01:06:30.280 not fluid movement it's not it's effective you manage to do it but it's hard to do it's not comfortable

01:06:37.240 to do or not maybe not even pleasant to do maybe you felt some some pain some stiffness some some problems

01:06:44.120 doing it and so you see if you can't do those simple movements and how much of your function have you

01:06:51.960 already lost and if you've lost those fundamental aspects of your function what does that mean to your

01:06:58.920 movement freedom what does it mean to uh you know to your quality of life so before you try to do

01:07:09.480 you know those some of those uh say iconic movement that move that is known for you're gonna lift and

01:07:18.200 and shoulder a heavy log walk on uneven terrains you're gonna climb a tree you're gonna jump from rock to

01:07:24.440 rock you're gonna do all those beautiful powerful uh skillful movements that's awesome that's what you have

01:07:32.680 in mind to be able to do one day but if you want to self-assess a little just see where you're at doing

01:07:40.680 those simple movements and if you find yourself being a little in trouble being challenged with

01:07:46.920 movements you thought were were going to be easy and then you realize oh well well it's not so easy

01:07:52.040 that's because you haven't been doing those movement in so long so that's where you start

01:07:56.840 a deep squat bring one knee to the ground or to the floor then kneel then get up and get down then

01:08:04.440 use your hands use no hand crawl on all four do a few steps forward a few steps backward roll on your

01:08:11.960 back hang from a wall hang from a tree branch you know if you have a backyard that's wonderful maybe you

01:08:19.880 can uh we do a lot of awesome movements just using two by fours it's i i'm the one who introduced that

01:08:26.840 simple tool two by four it's just like you know a few bucks just borrow one you can just put it down

01:08:34.520 on the on the floor in the backyard and as you watch a show or something you can do balancing movements

01:08:42.200 so there are very simple strategies like that to to get started and you can again self-assess and you can

01:08:49.480 you can do that on your own and then if you find yourself being not so skillful not so

01:08:57.640 comfortable and that's maybe a good time to look into you know my book or come and train with us

01:09:05.000 because we're going to teach you how you can do exactly the same movements and even minimal movements

01:09:11.320 but with much more technique much more movement quality much more efficiency because that's what we teach

01:09:16.920 last thing i want to say is that you see natural movement is is truly universal means that everybody

01:09:23.960 can do it to some extent and anybody could at least you try to jump and actually jump but that doesn't

01:09:30.440 mean you're going to do it well anybody can you know get down and get back up and there are diverse

01:09:37.000 ways to do that it doesn't mean that you're going to do it well it doesn't mean that you're going to be

01:09:41.160 successful at all of your movements and what we're going to teach you is efficiency in natural

01:09:46.360 movement that's what we teach that's what the move net method is about and what i love about that

01:09:50.520 it's so easy it doesn't you know the set aside time like for like move net time you can just do it

01:09:55.880 throughout the day in your normal life so some of the things that i've done that i've picked up from

01:09:59.800 various move net instructors is whenever like yeah like when you're reading a book or working on your

01:10:04.280 laptop for example instead of sitting at a desk put your laptop on the couch and sit on the floor

01:10:10.200 right and do different positions so like i like the side bend sit when i'm um and also i'll bend

01:10:16.200 you know sit on one side and move to the other it's uncomfortable at first because you know i

01:10:20.680 haven't sat like that in a while um and then sometimes i'll move to a deep squat while my laptop's on the

01:10:25.880 couch another one yeah that just hanging like having a bar that you just grab and you just hang for a

01:10:30.840 little bit and i the two by four we have a two by four in our house it's like a four foot long two by

01:10:36.760 four and just walk on it balance kneel in a balanced position stand back up that's excellent

01:10:43.400 brett and uh you see it does not take time off of your occupations because you can do it as you

01:10:52.200 you do what you you need to do it doesn't cost any money it doesn't cost time it it costs very

01:10:57.480 little energy actually it's not like uh well it's some it's not really exerting you and and

01:11:03.480 but it's beneficial it's so effective it's so beneficial it's beneficial not only to your

01:11:08.840 physiology it's beneficial to your work because some movement will activate areas of the brain

01:11:16.040 make it more alert and that transfers to you being more productive more sharp more clear in your in your

01:11:25.400 work well rwan where can people go to learn more about move not in your book well that's move

01:11:30.600 not dot com m-o-v-n-a-t dot com and the book is available on amazon and other you know like

01:11:39.000 barnes and noble so in a title again is the practice of natural movement and um if that book is uh you

01:11:51.240 know a lot of people say it's uh it's it's an amazing book it's also it's a textbook by that they don't

01:11:59.000 mean that it's complicated all they mean is that they're surprised by the sheer volume of information

01:12:04.680 that i shared in that book and there's about less than 20 of the the overall material that's

01:12:12.520 that's dedicated to what can be called a manifesto it's the the philosophy behind natural movement

01:12:17.800 that's in 12 principles and it's important to really deeply understand because it's really packed with

01:12:24.440 insights as of why we want to practice movement to to approach our physical training that way so it's

01:12:32.840 a very important foundation but what that means that 80 of the book is really the how to it's a hundred

01:12:39.320 percent practical it's really entirely there's no fluff in there is no you know like nerd information

01:12:47.160 that you don't even know what to do with uh it's really practical it's every bit of information in

01:12:54.360 there is about teaching you how to move better how to do these movements how to make progressions

01:13:03.000 what are the details of a particular technique depending on a particular environment so if we talk about

01:13:11.320 jumping we're not talking about one or two jumps we're talking about several jumping techniques and

01:13:17.640 the same goes for getting up and the same goes for hanging and climbing and and all of those other

01:13:25.720 skills so it's uh it's almost like an encyclopedia some call it the bible of natural movement but

01:13:32.040 really what it is is it's the move that method because natural movement is not a method move that is a

01:13:38.280 method natural movement is the concept that i've delineated and make popular in the last decade

01:13:45.400 before that nobody knew what it was or they would have some random explanation or you know people were

01:13:52.120 asking me what is a natural movement so i had to define that but the book is really the book about the

01:13:57.480 movement method it's how do you relearn all of this well very good well erwan liqueur thanks

01:14:03.000 for your time it's been a pleasure it's been a real pleasure brett absolutely and by the

01:14:08.040 the way i really love what you do really sharing an amazing wealth of information and inspiration

01:14:15.240 for men who want to reclaim you know what it is to feel strong but also healthy like

01:14:21.720 good to reclaim the goodness of of being a man thank you so much erwan my guest today was erwan

01:14:29.480 liqueur he's the author of the book the practice of natural movement it's available on amazon.com

01:14:34.120 and bookstores everywhere and you can find out more information about move nat at move nat.com

01:14:38.280 also check out our show notes at aom.is natural movement where you can find links to resources

01:14:42.760 where you can delve deeper into this topic

01:14:51.480 well that wraps up another edition of the aom podcast check out our website at

01:14:55.160 art of manliness.com where you find our podcast archives there's over 500 episodes there and we've

01:14:59.160 also got thousands of articles we've written over the years about natural movement move nat physical

01:15:03.240 fitness how to be a better husband better father you name it we've got it and if you haven't done

01:15:06.920 so already i'd appreciate if you take one minute to give us a review on itunes or stitcher it helps

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01:15:17.960 always thank you for the continued support until next time's brett mckay reminding not only

01:15:21.880 listen to the aom podcast but put what you've heard into action

The Art of Manliness - May 15, 2019

#508： Break Out of Your Cage and Stop Being a Human Zoo Animal

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