“MovNat” by Dirigo

June 6, 2012
Well, it is the Wednesday before my MovNat class and I am questioning why I signed up. I know I want to learn to be one with my body and learn to crawl, jump, climb and learn movement skills, but I feel I will be out of place. Maybe I should stop worrying about what others will think and looking like a fool, and think about what I will learn, instead of being afraid of how I will look. I am stepping out of my comfort zone, and stepping over the edge.

MovNat 1-day Workshop: June 9, 2012
This is my year to conquer the Mahoosuc Notch and I am looking for some skills to help with this adventure and MovNat seemed to fit the bill.

I got to the Rock Creek Park Tennis Center at 8:32 and found the parking lot overfilled with soccer playing kids. Tournaments and class reunions were the theme of the day!

I grabbed my stuff and headed over to the tennis center and noticed a guy, a very fit looking guy, standing near the wall in front of the center.

Kellen Milad was our instructor for the Movnat workshop. He is RKC & FMS certified, so that really spiked my interest.

Movnat is a concept based on the zoo human and founded by Erwan Le Corre.

“The “zoo” is a modern, global and growing phenomenon generated by the powerful combination of social conventions, technological environment and commercial pressures. Increasingly disconnected from the natural world and their universal biological needs, zoo humans are suffering physically, mentally and spiritually.

Are you experiencing chronic pains, are you overweight, do you often feel depressed or do you suffer from frequent illnesses and general lack of vitality?

These symptoms indicate that you are experiencing the zoo human syndrome. Modern society conditions us to think that this is normal and unavoidable. Through this education process, your body will heal, your mind will be strong, your spirit will be happy and free.”

We started the day introducing ourselves and telling why we were there. Many of the people were just like me so I had nothing to fear. I had the thought process that all would be trainers, but most were beginners. There were cross fitters, and hikers, and people who hated the gym and some who just wanted to learn a new way to get fit.
The first part of the day we learned about changing bases of support and new concepts movements.

The basic principles of Movnat are:
Posture/breath
Tension/relax
Sequence/timing
Point of control/Point of support.

We did some drills to practice what tension and relaxing in our bodies felt like, and then we got to work.

Our first lesson was learning to walk. Yes, I said learning to walk. Most people do not walk right. Most of us took our shoes off and learned to walk without a heal strike. We did some drill of pretending we were walking over things and going under things.

We practiced running, and how it felt to land on the ball of the foot instead of on the heal, and we also practiced the odd ways to run, to see the imbalance that it causes. I learned that spending time barefoot, you really get a sense of the ground and what is underneath you. Because of my foot issues, I didn’t spend much time barefoot, but I am going to try to be barefoot more.

The next progression was balancing. We found a log that was in the park and the tree had a short and wide end. We walked across the log and had to pivot around to face the opposite way.

The next couple of things we did for balance on the log was squatting, lunging, and doing a triangle on the log.

This concept was to find 2 points of contact on the log and balance your body over the log. One hand and one leg were the points of contact.

Crawling was the next concept and we headed to an open area of grass in the park to roll around on the ground.

This was a very itchy experience, but once we all found to be rather harder than it looked. As babies we all crawled but as adults we find this very hard. Many of us were over-thinking the process and found that our hands and legs were not moving the way they should. It was also noted that many people crawl with their butts stuck in the air and it we were reminded of posture all along the way.

Jumping was the next thing to learn and this again was hard for some people. Part of this has to do with fear of falling. We learned to hip hinge and use of our arms to assist us and to have a soft landing.

The climbing part of this workshop was hard because the situation was not optimal for learning. There was a large class reunion at the park and children were all over the place, including the swing area and play areas. We went to the swing set and found a small space and Kellen demonstrated the dead hang, and let us all try it. Being vertically challenged Kellen had to help me get up on to the bar, and I did hang for a few seconds.

The bar was very large and the heat of the day had made it very slippery. Those of us with small hands could not get a good grip so we couldn’t stay up that long. Kellen gave us some excellent tips for how to practice on our own to get more proficient at the skills. We did a few more hangs and learned to swing our bodies as we were hanging.

The last 2 things we learned today was deadlifts, and carrying. Since I have been training kettelbells, I feel I have a pretty good deadlift. We walked into the woods and found some very large rocks and brought them to a small grassy area. We were taught the proper form of a deadlift and I thought that even though I am good at deadlifting, it is difficult to deadlift something so uneven.

The rocks were not like a kettlebell handle, and you really had to think about your hand placement. We also were given the opportunity to bring the rock up to chest level and carry it. I picked a medium size rock, for me, and did a good job handling it.

The final thoughts of the day were to “have fun with what we learned”. Kellen said “show us how you perform in the real world, and we’ll show you how fit you are”. True that!

June 12, 2012
Pouring rain outside so I went to the gym, but did some MovNat. Jumping, crawling, deadlifting, and balancing, and yes, I did get some strange looks, but that’s Ok as I will keep practicing!