Exercises
The gym is fully kitted, the t-shirts are printed, and the inaugural workout has taken place — meaning that the StrengthBox is ready for opening! We hope to see some of you in the Toronto area, so feel free to drop a line or arrange to stop by for a tour.
Continue reading about Natural Movement and StrengthBox Workouts
How hard can it be? Well, now that I’m EXPERIENCED, it’s not hard at all. And I got plenty of experience last Christmas making my first medicine ball, and if you haven’t read my post on that particular gem of an evening, I suggest you do it right now. It’s worth the effort and you’ll learn everything not to do in the meantime.
This weekend, Erwan Le Corre was in town to do two one-day MovNat seminars in Oakville at Total Balance Fitness. Having had the opportunity to train with Erwan in West Virginia this summer, I was anxious to see how he would train and coach in an indoor environment. After all, I had collected enough scratches, scrapes and thorns in West Virginia to completely associate natural movement with nature in the raw. How do you take that experience inside?
Continue reading about MovNat revisited: the Toronto clinics
Once you add kettlebells to your workout, it’s hard to go without them. They’re inexpensive, completely portable, and hard to beat for developing core strength, power, stamina, endurance, and overall coordination. They can be used for size and strength programs (typical 5×5 routines) or in longer metabolic conditioning circuits like the one above.
Continue reading about Run, Swing, Clean and Press: Kettlebells and Running!
When I first heard about MovNat, I pictured myself running barefoot through the jungle, leaping from trees and swinging from vines. After all, MovNat founder Erwan Le Corre looks a bit like a short-haired version of Tarzan in his YouTube videos, as he skillfully moves through some stunning natural backdrops. His approach seemed refreshing and seemed to take the notion of functional fitness one step further. It seemed “right”.
My last few vacations have been characterized by self-imposed demands to make time for some tough workouts. While I enjoy time relaxing at the beach as much as the next person, my need to stay active seems to overrule my agenda. Past attempts to squeeze in workouts involved everything from packing portable resistance bands in my luggage to doing pull-ups on hotel doors. While it’s possible to devise bodyweight routines that you can do in your hotel room, I realized quickly that these workouts just weren’t in the spirit of a vacation. They felt like obligations and certainly nothing like pleasure. Not to mention the fact that it seemed senseless to tote workout equipment along on a holiday!
Continue reading about Vacation Workouts inspired by Natural Movement
This being the last weekend of the summer , the last thing on my mind was spending time indoors at a gym. Today I opted to train outside, a great idea no matter what the weather (although today was glorious)! Training outdoors doesn’t mean endless jogs around the park or at the beach. I find one can be much more productive by finding a quiet space and working on some basic bodyweight exercises, combined with some adrenaline pumping drills.
Continue reading about Outdoor bodyweight exercise routines: Not a walk in the park!
According to the fossil record, our evolutionary line has us walking upright since the days of Australopithecus Africanus (say that ten times fast) and Homo Erectus, some several million years ago. So it comes as no surprise that walking upright on two legs is pretty easy for us modern-day Homo Sapiens. It should also come as no surprise that choosing a less efficient way of moving around is pretty difficult – and can provide the basis for a great dynamic warmup or even a challenging workout.
Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending a two-day CrossFit Running & Endurance Specialty Certification course run by Carl Borg. I was very humbled by my lack of knowledge and experience when it came to running form, and it showed! Learning to run as an adult is a challenge–as the Nike ad commands, aren’t you supposed to just DO it? Well, let me say that there actually is a lot to think about when you break things down. Trying to use ground reaction and muscle elasticity to ones advantage instead of using muscle power is a huge leap in learning!
Continue reading about Striving for an Efficient Running Form
Recent Comments