by Joshua Simmet

Created on: June 26, 2009   Last Updated: June 30, 2009

Summer is the season in which most people vow to get or stay in shape. Everyone wants to develop a beach body. So most people resolve to join a gym or go running every night. Running and working in a gym is all well and good but often after getting a gym membership attendance is scarce. But with the proper dedication one can use a number of different alternative training methods to get and stay in shape. Two such methods are Crossfit and MovNat.

Crossfit is a hardcore workout program that uses muscle confusion to increase strength. Everyday a different workout, the workout of the day, is released on their website. These workouts are intense and extremely difficult, often something like three sets of one hundred handstand pushups and one hundred pull ups. Most people will be unable to actually do the workouts immediately, and will take weeks if not months of training before able to complete it. However by working hard and doing as much of the workouts you can everyday will eventually build enough strength to complete the workouts. Now because of the extreme nature of the workouts it can be easy to cause an injury if done alone or without any form of supervision. But honestly the rewards outweigh the risks, since all it takes is a little care to avoid injury.

MovNat is something that I am actually a practitioner of. It is the philosophy of natural movements that have been forgotten in today's society because of a sort of domestication of the human race. It involves the traditional movements of walking, running, climbing, swimming, jumping, throwing and catching, lifting, balance, and carrying. Practicing these movements creates a more general and complete workout. Climbing trees, using fallen logs as balance beams, swimming, and carrying heavy things are all part of a MovNat work out and can be done in a local park or right in the backyard.

Another thing that I train in everyday is Parkour. The practice of getting from one place to another as quickly and efficiently as possible using only the human body to overcome obstacles. At first glance Parkour and MovNat may appear to be the same thing, and in many ways Parkour comes from MovNat, however MovNat is more complete since it includes things like swimming, lifting and carrying.

There is nothing inherently wrong with joining a gym or just going running every night, but since I started doing both parkour and MovNat I can honestly say that I will never go back to a gym and just going out for a run is completely out of the question anymore.

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