I don’t have anything against man buns, but it seems to be one of the pre-requisites to lead the new fitness trend, which is based on so called “natural movements”. The theories and methodologies are taught by people who entitle them with colorful names, which often include one of the following words: natural, fit, flow, movement, organic, etc…

 

The fitness industry, like many others, is subject to trends. From classical gyms and machine training for muscle isolation, to the usage of equipment like the TRX or the vibrating platforms, to CrossFit, to the “natural movements” and to all the inventions and reinventions still to come. As an active exercise professional, I feel the responsibility to educate the people to be critical and judicious, so that they can avoid falling into shams and become able to take the best and most informed decision possible.

 

I have, thus, decided to make this video for three reasons:

 

1.    To get your attention.

 

2.    To let you know that in our sessions we also train and master these physical competences.

 

3.    To alert you to the volatility and incoherence of the fitness trends.

 

The type of exercises that you can see in the video, which you will encounter in a lot of these “new” training methods, are very interesting in terms of motor control and overall mobility and stability. I can safely say that being able to perform them is extremely pleasurable and surely enhances my perception of physical self-efficacy. I am in strong favor of the idea that, if you don’t have any specific physical goal, you should strive to be proficient in all the physical capacities that our body allows. These included. I’m actually so much in their favor, that I took my time and effort to master them. But it is not to these specific types of exercises that I want to alert you. It is to a class of individuals and companies that, inside this new trend, make millions of people believe such absurd propositions as:

 

·     Sleeping in hand rails is healthy for your spine;

·     The best equipment for upper body or lower body is this one or that one;

·     Gyms and all machines suck;

·     We should spend our time learning to play sports with our non-dominant limb to work on our brains;

·     Balancing a stick in our hands is a great hand-eye and foot-eye coordination exercise;

 

…among others. These are the people that discredit my profession. It is to this descent to the ridiculous, to fundamentalisms, and to the absolutist propositions of “should”, “must” and “the best for” that I want to alert you. To this subtle imposition of what is “the best training plan”, by the people who come up with and manage these trends, not necessarily this one in specific. To people that speak with too many certainties and in an absolutist manner about any type of training without taking into account individual variability and people’s goals and limitations. 

 

Let it be clear! I amin favorof any type of training, as long as it is capable of bringing about the proposed benefits, and that participants are well aware of the inherent risks of its practice. I am against individuals and companies who sell themselves, trying to make people believe they have the key to “physical success” and that build themselves with fundamentalist and absolutist affirmations, discrediting all other diverging practices.

 

See you Sunday,

 

André Sousa

 

PS: I’m capable of doing most of what you see in the video because I’ve been practicing, for more than 10 years, one of the oldest types of “natural movement” practices: Capoeira. You should give it a try.

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