MovNat Thailand December 2010
In the last week of December, I attended MovNat camp in Koh Lanta, Thailand. MovNat stands for natural movement -- the philosophy is that movement is our true nature. The modern world, however, has converted people into "zoo humans" -- we spend most of our time indoors, typically sitting, away from nature, and, even when we do exercise, our movements are completely unnatural and functionally useless -- e.g. running on a treadmill or doing bicep curls. MovNat represents an opportunity to return to our evolutionary roots and move naturally.
Erwan LeCorre is the founder on MovNat -- he had studied a variety of different martial arts and trained in different areas -- some Olympic lifting, some 'extreme training'. The other instructor was Vic -- a former French Navy SEAL who speaks seven languages and also has a background in martial art and deep-sea diving.
Koh Lanta is an island in southern Thailand -- after an hour flight from Bangkok to Krabi, we rode a shuttle bus (including two short ferry trips) for about two hours.
The typical day was breakfast at 7:30, then training started at 8:30. We broke for lunch at noon, and then had free time from 1pm to 3pm -- most of used this time to nap, as we were exhausted from all the training, especially in the sun. I joked to Vic that the nap was the best part of the day -- they should just eliminate the training and focus on the naps. MovNap!
We had a good group of MovNat-ers. There was a British woman firm Dubai who started with us but left after 2.5 days because she wasn't having fun. Bryce was a Austalian in his mid 20s who had just finished a job teaching english in South Korea. Tate was a Coloradan who had trained may thai Thailand and has traveled worldwide as a freelance writer. Paul was a Frenchman who is a barefoot enthusiast and helps MovNat with some of their IT work. Johan was an Austrian dentist in his mid 60s who likes to swim. We all got along well together, which was important since we spent almost all of our waking hours together for a week. Bryce was definitely the best athlete, he was able to do all the skills.
The base of the camp was a small "playground" which Erwan and Vic had set up at the resort. There was a variety of logs secured to trees in the clearing -- we climbed on, over, and under them. We practiced balancing on the logs, while walking, squatting, and turning. Erwan and Vic taught us how to climb up and over a log, as efficiently as possible (in case we needed to do it multiple times). We also learned how to climb a tree (with no branches) -- I was poor at this, due to lack of flexibility in the hips (all that time sitting in front of the computer doesn't help). We also practiced climbing up a rope -- using hands and feet, and just hands (I couldn't do that). It was a lot of fun learning these new skills, and I can see how they would be useful in real life.
All the training was done barefoot. I wore sneakers the first session but quickly ditched them after seeing everyone else train barefoot. The rest of the guys were comfortable with it -- several of them were used to running or training in bare feet. I was a little slow in following them while walking on gravel, as my feet weren't used to that. But as far as running and jumping around in bare feet, I did reasonably well. We also mostly trained with our shirts of because it was so hot.
One of the days we took a boat ride to a small island. We snorkeled for a while, then practiced swimming while holding our breath. One of the exercises was to swim under the boat, from one side to another. We also learned some basic lifesaving techniques -- Vic pretended to be drowning, we each had to swim out to him, dive under the water to bring him to the surface, and then swim, while holding him, back to the boat. That was challenging and fun.
We also did some training on the beach. We learned some basic self-defense, threw some rocks and spears around, learning some swimming techniques. We did a 10-minute "combo" workout -- forward rolls on the beach, run across the beach and then through waist-high water, then swim ~15 yards while holding breath -- that was a lot of fun. The worst part of the camp for me was after we trained on the beach -- we had to swim back to our resort, but at 7pm, it was almost dark. It turned out to be a 15-20 minute swim, and there were several times I didn't think I would make it. By the time I got out of the water I was panting, out of breath. For the others, it was an easy leisurely swim.
All the meals were Paleo. Breakfast was either an omelet or fruit salad with coconut milk and nuts. Lunches were raw vegan -- usually a big salad which we doused with coconut oil for fat. I found the lunches to be less than satisfying after a workout. Dinners were the best meal -- we had beef curry with coconut, beef/chicken kebabs, a seafood platter, a whole fish. Most meals included fruit for dessert -- watermelon, pineapple, dragonfruit, and some others which I didn't catch the names of. We ate all our meals together sitting on cushions outdoors with a view of the beach. After dinner, we had a presentation a few of the nights. Topics included a background on the Paleo diet, stresses of modern life and how to reduce them, the importance of sleep, and general lifestyle advice. It was a little strange seeing a PowerPoint presentation after training in nature all day, but the content was researched and presented very well.
The last day we had a two hour training session in the jungle, part of the national park. We started jogging on one of the trails. Then we came to a big log and we each individually climbed up and then down in on all fours. To ensure that the training was intense, while each person climbed,the rest of us dud squats, planks,and pushups. After climbing on the log, we then jogged until we found a relatively smooth and flat part of the trail, which we sprinted on. One section we came upon some trees with skinny trunks and we all had to hold on with all fours for 60 seconds straight. At the end we came to an area with a waterfall and a small collecting pool. We each balanced on a log in the pool,then walked accross the bottom on the waterfall with eyes closed (to encourage proprioception), then waded across the bottom of the pond on all fours with ours heads under water, then clean+jerked a heavy log (some just dead lifted it). We did that circuit a couple times then ended with a breath-holding contest underwater. That ended the training, it was a lot of fun using the jungle as out gym. We walked backhand at the end we got to ride elephants as a little treat.
The week after our camp, Erwan and Vic conducted a camp for French people. The following video is a good summary of what we did.
Overall, I enjoyed the MovNat camp very much. It was a lot of fun, I learned a lot of new skills that I'll incorporate into my exercise regimen. Erwan and Vic were both great coaches, and I enjoyed training with all my new friends. I even appreciated the worst part, the night swimming. I am going to have to figure out a way to MovNat while at home. Scaffolding could be a good substitute for tree branches—I can climb on, over, under, and up it. I’ll definitely do some barefoot running. And I can run, crawl, tumble, jump, and climb through the wooded areas of Central Park. I definitely plan on going to another camp, either in Thailand again, or one in the US. I recommend it for everyone!
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