What is natural movement?
Natural movements are functional skills such as running, jumping, climbing, balancing, crawling, lifting, carrying, throwing and catching, swimming and wrestling.
Check out this blog post for more in depth information about practicing natural movement.
Why should we be doing it?
Most of us spend the majority of our lives sitting for prolonged periods – at our desks, in our cars, on our sofas.
This prolonged inactivity has been linked to an increased incidence of cardiovascular disease, obesity, type 2 diabetes, certain cancers and increased all cause mortality.
It also has negative impacts on the musculoskeletal system: over time, our bodies adapt subtly to the chair shape, making us unsuited to other less frequently performed movements, and prone to back pain and injury.
Even for those of us who try and exercise regularly, we tend to engage in repetitive activities such as running, cycling or bodybuilding, which can lead to overuse injuries, chronic pain and immobility.
Relearning these innate skills that came naturally to us as children will help make us more well-rounded athletes, improve mobility and reduce the risk of overuse injuries.
These movements also have practical, useful applications in our everyday lives.
And in their purest form they help reconnect us with nature, by training outdoors using the natural environment as our gym when possible.
How do you practice it?
See the sample natural movement workout on this website, and check out these movement proponents: