Bring back Public Hanging In 2014! by Tony Riddle A.K.A @theprepdoctor

Get a grip!

By Gloves Club Founder Tony Riddle.

I look to my children as my educators in movement. They never seize to amaze me, they teach me every day and I get to pass this knowledge on to others. That's right, It isn't just us, that educates them, our kids are our educators too!
They crawl, squat, jump, lift, carry, throw, balance, walk, run, hang and climb all with ease and great skill, fearlessly I would like to add.

In return, I have to encourage, not discourage their movement practice.  I have to show great examples of this too.

If I don't, who will?

Some compromised, frustrated PE teacher who has been entrusted to look after the physical health of my child, that's who!

Well not on my watch!

The irony is;   I go off and study with the best and re-learn the very things that my kids have inherited from me and are already naturally skilled at.  This is what I class as my duty as a parent and a tribal elder, if it is something I have lost. I need to go out and gain the skill to coach them.

In a world obsessed with the intellectual mind.

We of course want them to do well academically, but to take these beautiful movement systems away with "Sit down, Don't move, Absorb this, Get down from there, Come away from the edge and Be careful of that, along with the usual chorus of of fear based crap" is a bloody outrage!

If like my daughters, you were carried around in a sling you would have learnt the pushing, pulling, grabbing and extension reflexes early. If you were kept in a baby carrier, a buggy and a car seat you have had these systems taken away. Bam! that's the attachment theory right there!
We could even be so bold as to call it "the movement connection theory" or "the movement disconnection theory". depending on where your base camp is.

Movement that should come naturally to us all

A baby/toddler will learn to grab and grip earlier than anything else. They will climb earlier than many of their other locomotive skills.  Brachiation is fundamental to us; hanging, pulling, climbing are all just as fundamental to us as running. We were in fact tree dwellers and climbers before we became runners.  (if you believe in evolution like I do ) Yet most can't hang on a bar and hold their own bodyweight in their hands due to their lack of grip strength  for more than 20 seconds, and this is where reductionism has its place. You need to know the code to break the fear and build the layers and strip the movement right back. Look at the end result and be able to trace all the way back to where the individual is compromised, have the unique set of Liam Nielsen skills to select the 20% input towards the 80% of output, and not get caught up in selecting BS movements like the Lat Pull down that have no over lapping theory to that end result.

If you put your fingers out to a baby they will grab and grab on surprisingly tight and won't let go.  If you lift them up, they still won't let go, their vice like grip will remain. You can literally walk around the room with them "ATTACHED/CONNECTED" to you.  I am talking about a baby here. I am not talking about an athletic type, who can lat pull, morning, noon and night, but can't hang for shit and marvels at James bond hanging from an elevator for all of 12 floors!

In fact for a large proportion of the zoo it's like an emotional bomb going off in their head to even think they could carry out what should be natural to them. Don't forget a lot of people have been containerised for so long it would be irresponsible to coach them without the correct prep work. They have lost the "HOW TO" but it doesn't mean they don't have the desire to, or the hardwiring (inherent knowledge). It is more the case that the only perception they have had of exercise is to sit in another container pushing levers like a chimp in an experimental lab. "Push this handle 15x and you will receive 1 muscle group and a protein bar."

Shoulder injuries are just as rife as knee and lower back problems. It's time we all got a grip and started hanging around a different kind of bar! We can blame the compromising chair and footwear for a multitude of sins, but the lack of hanging and climbing is just as detrimental to our innate movement system. That's "innate" not "inept"movement system!

Time to Take The Gloves Off and Toughen UP.

Climbing specifics:

Prep the hand with specific hand and wrist  prep drills as this is where you need to recognise bodyweight. Re-educate the grip and grip strength. Prep the shoulder and the scapula from its zoo cage so that the individual who can't lift his hand higher than his shoulder to change a light bulb can then hang, can then pull with a straight arm, then pull with a bent arm, can then muscle up, can then gymnastic ring pull up and finally can learn how to climb. Yeah, who would have guessed it,  hanging on a bar is actually a micro skill of the macro skill of climbing.

Yes squat, yes go barefoot, but please don't neglect a good hang out with your mates!

Gatekeepers, Code Breakers and Deconstruction. by Tony Riddle A.K.A @theprepdoctor

by Tony Riddle A.K.A, The Prep Doctor

Coach Ben Medder and I were out doing our usual walk to hunt for food today and were discussing what it is that we do. I'd said that I had hit a bit of a cross roads of late as my coaching method is forever evolving and new techniques are developing, but I always revert back to my filter. Pick up a new training method, learn it, have an affair with it, some sordid, some not so sordid and then return back to my wife for a strong maintenance level,  incorporating my prep and mobility system to make it more refined.

That's enough about me, but how about the client? My conclusion is that I am having to break the code to each individual I see. To be able to coach them out of the containerised zoo and unlock the gates to give them freedom of movement and freedom of mind before they become a specialist or generalist.

The average Joe has spent most of their lives being told, "Don't do that, be careful of this, oh that's too dangerous," and for their first years of their lives carried around in a car seat like they are the latest fashion accessory. Locked in a cage when underneath it all,  they have a very sophisticated movement system crying to get out. We are designed in our earliest years to shuffle, roll, crawl, grab, kick, reach and extend. This is then carried into later years with sitting for prolonged periods of time, locked in another posture in yet another container preventing them from carrying out what they are designed to do: squat, crawl, balance, stand, walk, jump, climb, swing, run, carry, throw, fight. It is of little wonder why people have such difficulty moving. To do something you have been prevented from doing for so long is bound to stimulate the internal lion. Weight loss is no different on the emotional spectrum. "Oh you fell over, poor you, boo hooh, have a chocolate bar, "and bam, your cuddle that you needed at an early age became a chocolate bar and for the rest of your life the moment you need a hug you reach for the Snickers!

So what is it that I actually do?

It's great to be able to perform handstands, ring muscle ups, Olympic lift, fight,  barefoot run, crawl around mimicking various animals and turn paleo, this has been the easiest part and without blowing my own trumpet, it comes 'naturally' to me. The hardest thing in the world can be taking the most compromised and containerised clients and converting them into the great movers and eaters that Mother Nature had first designed them to be.

Yep, you have to walk your talk, whether you are a generalist or a specialist, but what's the point if you are a coach and can't find the right code to release the human from the cage to convert 'them' into the generalist or specialist? Aren't you simply adding to the problem, don't we want to actually heal people and get them out of the zoo? It comes with a huge responsibility to get it right, to use the right filter and select the right cues, this shouldn't just be guess work, you're playing with someone's life you selfish fuck!

Most that come to see me fit into one or more of these categories: Injured, have niggles, are over weight or are generally fearful of movement. Well, no shit Sherlock, what a surprise. A life of being told "not to" and then we come along and say "do". Without the right information it would be virtually impossible to get them to bust moves like a couple of my own movement influences Erwan Le corre and Ido Portal without emotional turmoil.

 Broken

This applies to all, not just those that are already broken:

Cross fitters

Barefoot runners

Boxers

Fighters

Climbers

Dancers

The list is endless, but with each of the above you have to consider how long you will get away with what you are doing before someone comes a knocking at the injury door. I have coached lifters, barefoot runners, cross fitters, and all with terrible mechanics but sadly they only come to me when they are broken. Wouldn't it be better to serve your apprenticeship and get the tools to prep correctly and teach yourself and then others before you and the discipline you teach gets a bad rep? Or are you too impatient to get it right?
Unless of course you were lucky enough to grow up in a barefoot climbing colony and have the fundamentals already!

It's all in the "HOW TO"

In fact for a large proportion of the zoo it's like an emotional bomb going off in their head to even think they could carry out what should be natural to them. Don't forget a lot of people have been containerised for so long it would be irresponsible to coach them without the correct prep work. They have lost the "HOW TO" but it doesn't mean they don't have the desire to, or the hardwiring (inherent knowledge). It is more the case that the only perception they have had of exercise is to sit in another container pushing levers like a chimp in an experimental lab. "Push this handle 15x and you will receive 1 muscle group and a protein bar."

Movement that should come naturally to us all

Climbing has been equally important in evolutionary terms as running and yet most can't hang off a bar for more than 20 seconds, and this is where reductionism has its place. You need to know the code to break the fear and build the layers and strip the movement right back. Look at the end result and be able to trace all the way back to where the individual is compromised, have the unique set of Liam Nielsen skills to select the 20% input towards the 80% of output, and not get caught up in selecting BS movements like the Lat Pull down that have no over lapping theory to that end result.

Climbing specifics:

Release the hand with specific prep drills as this is where you need to recognise bodyweight, educate the grip. Prep the shoulder and the scapula from its zoo cage so that the individual who can't lift his hand higher than his shoulder to change a light bulb can then hang, can then pull with a straight arm, then pull with a bent arm, can then muscle up, can then gymnastic ring pull up and finally can learn how to climb. Yeah, who would have guessed it,  hanging on a bar is actually a micro skill of the macro skill of climbing.

Flogging dead horses in search of the unicorn when all along the most prized Pegasus had been hiding underneath the invisibility cloak!

I agree as coaches we should all learn the macro skill to be able to demonstrate, but please ensure that you prioritise gaining the knowledge in learning the skill of how to break the code and deconstruct using the appropriate micro skill network; the gateway to real results and one that will keep clients moving for the long game, not the short quick response.

I will end with the words of  Liam Nielsen: "What I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you."

It's Not Bragging If You Can Back It Up by Tony Riddle A.K.A @theprepdoctor

by Gloves founder Tony Riddle

Kenny Weldon is an old school boxing coach who has better results than anyone. Kenny doesn't wrap anyone up in cotton wool and wouldn't hesitate to put them straight. His knowledge was passed down from his grandfather to his father, and finally to him. He speaks with conviction, confidence and is committed 100% to the truth. He doesn't pull any punches (excuse the pun), but this is what makes a good coach. It's the truth that has been passed on from generation to generation. I had the benefit of 7 days with Kenny and yet it would take 10,000 hours to master his knowledge.

You don't make friends this way

There is a problem with this approach though, and I'm sure Kenny wont mind me saying this: you simply don't make any friends, it's lonely out here, people either think your mad or a genius. When you surround yourself with the anti-BS crew then it's so much harder to communicate any other way than to be frank with people, with the usual response that "he doesn't pull any punches" or "he could be more personable" or even "arrogant twat" when the truth of the matter is I can't tell you another way than this. This I believe is what we call integrity!

I started out as a Pilates practitioner, before it became the global marketing model that it is today. Now we have piloxing, Yogalates and other diluted products that will have Joseph Pilates turning in his grave but hey, what does that matter when all you can see is dollar $igns fla$hing before your eye$!

We are starting to create a picture here; a coach is someone that should be honest, speak the truth with conviction, is consistent and committed to the cause. How many people do you know with these attributes in a financially incentivised world? Financial gain has become more important than anything else. So the purist becomes even more protective of their own model in fear of someone else reducing it down and repackaging it to make a quick buck!

As a result there aren't many coaches with these values alive today as they are mainly recognised once dead, taking their knowledge and philosophy to the grave in fear of someone taking it from them.  In the process of wanting to educate, they get lost in protecting their intellectual property and there we have it, it's lost and from what little documented information is left, the truth gets reduced down until unrecognisable.

Return to Life

Joseph Hubertus Pilates was a movement coach, and his philosophy was 'Return to Life through Contrology'. He would look at the decline of health in a modern world and change one's health with a whole education in movement, breathing and diet. I taught this method for 10 years, until I met Dr Nicholas Romanov, an outstanding movement coach who educated me in the natural laws that Joseph Pilates had written about in his only two publications. It had all come together, it was that moment for me, that Eureka moment. I now have my coach's anti-BS filter and nothing gets past it.

To have the knowledge you must also have the skill to communicate your method. Dr Nicholas Romanov is a genius, but one that sadly gets lost in translation. He is incredibly protective of his work and lives in fear of it being taken. I once set a meeting up for him at Speedo. There we are, in the board room with the director of the Speedo aqua lab and Nicholas wouldn't allow them to take his model to their scientists in fear of them stealing it. This could have been worth millions to him and could have given him the recognition he deserves, but no, he walked away, not willing to drop his label of POSE. You see he wasn't interested in the millions this could have landed him. It isn't about the money.

Old school coaches were purists, and people back then were generally less sensitive and could cope with the truth. Today people have high expectations and lower self esteem and can't cope with the truth without breaking down. Generation LAB BRAT is upon us and it now takes a special pedigree of coach to coach the mind and movements of the modern human.

A trainer firstly needs to recognise that sitting someone on a piece of equipment and rep counting and naming Greek DJ's isn't coaching. In fact it is feeding and fuelling the fire of the weak and de-conditioned. You might as well give them a Snickers and a can of Coke on their way out and be done with it.

Personal trainer or coach?

Is there something different between a personal trainer and a coach? Here at Gloves we believe so. A personal trainer generally gives a client what they want and are governed by the zoo. Sit down and train those Greek DJ muscle groups, brachioradialis this and pectorals that. Well in the coaching world it is different. We give you what you need, yes the Greek DJ's are important and should be an integral part of your own knowledge and if questioned you should know your origins and insertions backwards. But your client doesn't need to know them, unless of course that's all you have! You are more like the dodgy mechanic making "dodgy wheel bearing"comments. 

Personal trainers are not osteopaths, they are not physios, (don't get me started on physios - don't think they know what they are. Is it acupuncturist this week or Pilates practitioner next week?). What they really need is the result. The intellectual mind has no idea how to move the muscle that you are referring too, as it lives in the future. By the time you have made the conscious decision, the window has changed. It's the escalator theory. Step on the escalator and it's not working, you have an immediate reaction - why didn't it move? Your mind predicted the movement based on previous examples of going up the escalator. This is called predictability. If you really want to discover more it's called Bayesian theory.

Aristotle: Thoughts, desire, action

Create the right thought, you're the coach -  that's your job. You are there to change their perception and create thought, don't just leave them hanging onto what the fucking DJ's name is. In the morning who cares, it's his set (repertoire) that played out. There is nothing more satisfying than having the ability to analyse movement and have the correct filter and prep work to correct and alter the compromised habitual modern day movement system, without trying to apply the zoo model of impressing someone with your repertoire Greek DJ's.

Well this is your chance. Our ultimate game is to change the industry and actually help people. Eventually we are looking at grass routes and educating the young and keeping their own amazing movement systems developing so that we don't have to be part of the same zoo system. Keep rehabbing them, that's a "business" we don't want. In the meantime it is the job of the elder -  something that we refer to as the tribal elder - to make that difference. We need more elders to make a difference. A shift in paradigm has to start with as many adult voices until it becomes loud enough for the hard of hearing and compromised to hear.

Sharing the knowledge

We have developed our Fundamentals Coaching System and have launched courses for Personal Trainers to have the access to our coaching knowledge. There's no point in us holding onto information as we want to see a change in the industry. Technique is king, the wider the foundation in technique, the higher the physiological pyramid you can build and the masses will start to listen. Help us make them listen, don't just think, let's start to act. So if you want to learn the repertoire to teach your clients how to, crawl, run, jump, balance, climb, carry, lift and hit to become healthy, strong and injury proof then this is for you.

Level 1 includes:

• How to apply Natural laws as your filter to minimise the risk of injury
• Bodyweight prep drills for good hand and foot mechanics
• How to use video analysis in your practice
• Posture and alignment drills for running
• Locomation fundamentals
• Boxing fundamentals and hand pads
• Plyometrics for rehab
• Lifting mechanics
• Gymnastic strength drills

When: 16th &  17th November 2013

Time: 10 am - 6pm
Location: The Gloves Club

Price: £300 for two mind-altering days

Those that we feel competent in teaching our model will be certified and their details placed on our website as a Gloves coach with access to future education.

Book now

Move Like Joe by Tony Riddle A.K.A @theprepdoctor

 by Tony Riddle, Gloves Club founder

To understand one religion you must go away and study them all.

Understanding the system of body weight is one of the biggest pearls I have been given (thank you Dr Nicholas Romanov). It is an amazing coaching cue and depending on how deeply you want to look into it, will change the way you move and approach any exercise. If you understand and are mindful of your own weight and where it is in connection to the earth, be it through your hands, feet, backside etc., you can carry out the correct balance between muscles on or off and understand how our system is stacked much more efficiently. It's a system of support and action. This is my support and now my mind can now carry out the right action. Without the understanding of the support the action will be flawed. Education into body weight has been and still is being taught by modern great minds of movement: Dr Romanov, Lee Saxby, Kenny Weldon, Ido Portal, and Erwan le Corre to name but a few.

Support-Action-Equilibrium

I was first introduced into the concept of body weight by Dr Romanov and from then my perception of coaching has changed forever. Working side by side for many years with the world's best barefoot coach Lee Saxby has meant I have had access to some great knowledge. He has been another great inspiration to me and many pearls of wisdom gained - for me this one was huge: Dudley Morton



New York City 1936, the same time Joseph Pilates was kicking around the Big Apple, Dudley Morton broke the code to the human foot. He broke the foot down into units of body weight. For those who are not familiar with the importance of body weight, body weight recognition is at the top of the hierarchy. If you don't understand where your weight is, sadly your movement will be grossly compromised.


This is where practitioners go wrong and end up obsessing over making tiny adjustments. "Contract this, pull in that, tense this and tuck in this" and not a hint of this in the classical content of Return to Life Through Contrology. If you really want to "ape the animals" you should have an understanding of your body weight in both hands and feet. I can't imagine cats and dogs running around pulling their belly button in and tensing their glutes. These should really occur naturally and not to be forced.



There's text in Return to Life Through Contrology that refers to correct standing posture and where your body weight should be poised (the ball of the foot). This is exactly where Dudley suggests body weight to be in standing posture, yet broken down through looking at the evolution of the human foot. The big toe and ball of the foot should be the loaded point in stance and has huge leverage capability.



Every practitioner who teaches movement that involves the conversion into becoming an upright being should have an understanding of where the body weight should be in the human foot. It is no coincidence that Joseph Pilates had invented toe-correction equipment and exercises, he had a great mind and like Morton understood the importance of good foot mechanics. I wouldn't be surprised if the two great minds had met.



It is through Dudley Morton that we know the human foot to be one of the most complex and neglected parts of the human body. It has points of leverage, points of balance, three rocking actions each with specific changes in speed. 70% of the information from our proprioceptive system comes from the base of our support when upright, enabling us to make the correct subconscious judgement between muscle action and tendon action. And yet most have no understanding of the sensation of where their weight is when standing let alone carrying out basic fundamental movements, walking and running.

If you don’t understand the mechanics of the foot and have no understanding of where your weight is, then the ankle joint can’t function correctly, from the ankle joint, to the knee joint, to the hip, to the pelvis, to the lumbar to the thoracic spine. With a combination of seated posture and all these mechanical movements out of kilter you will be recruiting from all kinds of systems that are not designed for the actions you desire, resulting in the same annoying procedure of "tense this, pull in that, tighten this and tuck in that". Muscle tension is then created and this is where practitioners generally get it wrong. Instead of looking at the mechanical movement, they look at strengthening and stretching for the areas they perceive as weak or tight. If you don't sort out the structures from the base of support you will keep having to offer the same strength and stretch model and this is what I would call symptom relief, nothing more. This still doesn't equip you with the tools to move like Joe - you only become strong at the exercise you are being offered. As soon as you stand up and walk across to the car park from your class of "Classic Pilates" the system reverts back to the same position you walked in the door to your session with.

Neck endurance

It is my personal mission to go in search of what inspired the Joseph Pilates movement system, the one that can be read about in his bible Return to Life Through Contrology. Surely we owe him that much. Remember, to understand one religion you must go away and study them all. Well to move-like-Joe, you have to go away and study them all. The move-like-Joe-movement system: head wrestling, boxing, hand balancing, gymnastics, running, quadrupedal, circus performance. From a purely selfish standpoint as a man, these are far more attractive disciplines from Joseph Pilates past.

Re-Mastery: It wasn't just meant for dance. by Tony Riddle A.K.A @theprepdoctor

 by Tony Riddle, Gloves Club founder

Recently I ran a campaign through Facebook for pilatesrunning.tv All in all this was a great success, apart from the odd strange comment every now and then, but hey that’s social media right? As Gloves coach Ben informed me, "Tony its rather like promoting your business in a bar."



What really captured my attention was what seemed to be an invitation to a Pilates conference. The particular conference is being held near my home town Windsor, so as you can imagine I was delighted! Now this might have been a touch of arrogance on my behalf, but all the same it led me to post back asking if it was an invitation to present. To which they replied "This is a classic Pilates event that. We aim to keep that way."

From boxer to gymnast Joe was so much more than portrayed today 

Well! I didn't realise that you had decided what is classical. Really, this is only your interpretation of what is classical. They are advertising Pilates for men - yeah that's classical. Hopefully you're referring to Joseph’s head wrestling, acrobatic hand balancing and boxing systems then if you really want to get men interested? You have to look at what the great man trained in himself, right? 

It still amazes me how pretentious practitioners can be with the labeling of "classical Pilates". Do they know what classical means? It would be impossible to find a classic Pilates method taught in the way the great man had in his own thoughts, as it was his whole philosophy.

The same could be said for Georges Hébert’s méthode naturelle. We now have descendants of his model: Parkour, Free Running and the closest to it by far, Erwan Le Corre’s MovNat. The difference is that these systems are not called the Hébert’s method and therefore aren't claiming to be classical ambassadors.

If you take Joseph Pilates original model of Contrology, before his practice had switched to the rehabilitation of ballet dancers from the New York City ballet it looked, and I'm 100% sure would have, felt very different. The classical work as far as I am concerned can be seen from rare footage of Joseph outside in the natural environment showing great awareness of body weight with not a leotard in sight.



From head wrestling to boxing,  Joseph Pilates was the great movement master coach who had many systems of movement which today have either been forgotten or misinterpreted. You only have to read Return to Life or Return to Health through Contrology to know the system meant so much more than is being taught in Pilates studios around the world.

Unfortunately bodybuilding isolation exercise has entered the world of Pilates, the same as it has with the strength and conditioning minds of modern movement coaches today. This is a general practice of developing muscle for muscle's sake which looks great in the mirror, but sadly doesn't equip you with the ability to move like Joe!



Not a movement you would see in your average Pilates studio!

Thankfully there are many other systems from his era and from the same school of thought that are now seeing a huge revival: body weight exercises, old school lifting techniques, old school running techniques, animal movements, gymnastics, Strong Man exercises and hand balancing are all becoming mainstream, and I think the granddaddies of these great disciplines would be pleased. There are some really fantastic systems coming through, systems that are being taught by coaches and teachers with a great understanding of the fundamentals.

Systems like these are inherent. We really do have them in there, somewhere, just waiting to be unleashed. In fact, we all have a far better natural understanding of movement until that sad day comes, when we're introduced to a chair or take our first class at school and sit down for long periods of time and become non movers!



Classical?

Movement is a skill, whether that's running, walking, climbing, balancing, throwing, jumping, lifting, carrying, swimming, defending or crawling (quadrupedal movement). In fact we shouldn't really stop there. Sex, child birth, breathing, digestion, even bowel movements require skill, skills that seem to be slowly taken away until we are no longer capable of our own survival. But not only are they skills, they are also fundamental needs, needs that are nearly all neglected. No wonder there are so many pissed off people out there. Perhaps if we started to put as much focus on the fundamental needs of movement as we do on all of our other needs, we would be much healthier and happier.



As much as they try we can re-learn. We can eat naturally, move naturally and as a result digest and poop naturally. We can squat correctly which in turn can help us stand, walk and run naturally, but again as these are skills they have to be coached back in to our system, and this requires a coach. We should look at coaches as tribal leaders, ones that can educate us in our fundamental needs to become more skillful at being Human again.

What does it mean to become a movement coach? - by Tony Riddle A.K.A @theprepdoctor

Most days of the week, I find myself presenting on the subject of injury free movement, motor skill milestones, and the 10 natural movements of man to coaches, clients and the members within our club (Gloves Boxing Club).  Personally, I see this as an education that is valuable to all humans - not just the people who practice - as these subjects are of course all entwined. In fact all movement is, it just depends on how it is performed.

Without the understanding of the fundamentals of human movement you are simply teaching movement for movement’s sake - great for the T-shirt muscles and mirror performers, but completely useless for strong, fit and healthy athletic individuals.

For some reason the health and fitness industry went off on a bit of a tangent towards the use of seated equipment to train leverage into the system. To me this has always seemed absurd: sit down all day and then go to the gym and make yourself even stronger at being seated! But luckily we are starting to see a shift in that paradigm. I would say, and this is only my opinion, that the current education in the health industry, is more midstream than downstream.  Rightly so as only the dead fish go down stream!

No "workout of the day" here, with
Ben Medder

Movement has changed of late and we are now bombarded with terms like core stability, functional movement, kettle bells, Cross Fit, barefoot running and TRX, to name just a few. TRX for instance shows a real likeness to gymnastics, and even the Pilates tower. TRX has become a bridge or even a transition to understanding some of the natural movement we can offer, and helps you understand bodyweight, but still applies the unnecessary muscular action that we have been so indoctrinated with. Cross Fit workouts have high repetition/volume and “work out of the day” - great if your coach hasn’t his own mind and can’t configure a routine that is specific to your own requirements and needs. But don't get me wrong, if the TRX or the Cross Fit coach understands how to teach correct technique, these methods are certainly better than static seated machines and a "repetition counting" Personal Trainer.

Climbing - an essential movement,
with Ben Medder

 The problem is that these systems of movement are just part of an even larger system, the same as we are a system within an even larger system. The system I’m referring to is the 10 natural movements of man and the evolution of man and where that sits in our social system, ecosystem, solar system etc etc. We have a tendency as a species to apply reductionism to everything we can lay our intellectual minds on, but only nature has the answers and the knowledge of the Natural Laws in movement is essential for the modern day coach to learn to become an upstream thinker.

Barefoot running, a favourite of mine, has now been accepted by the performance market. But without coaching the individual back into becoming a barefoot runner and how nature had intended with the correct posture, rhythm and technical ability, the participant usually gains an injury along the way. This can be said for all movement. If you look at the discipline you are looking to coach and have the knowledge of the natural laws as your filter to analyze and prescribe, you will create a skilled being. 

The hierarchy in all movement is posture and the understanding of this is fundamental for the coach. You will understand how to make movement efficient and injury free for your client. Most clients will come to you with the desire to lose weight and get fit/fitter, but without the fundamentals in place, you heighten the risk of your client picking up an injury and with the injury comes the inability to train or the fear of movement. Not quite the desired effect the client was looking for!

If your client doesn’t look good, you won’t look good, and believe me this isn’t the best way to build a business within a very competitive market.

It can a sneeze to create an avalanche by Tony Riddle A.K.A @theprepdoctor

It Can Take a Sneeze to Create an Avalanche

by Tony Riddle, Gloves Club Founder, with contributions by Ben Medder

Tony Riddle, Gloves Club Coach

Having been a movement specialist for 15 years, I have seen some great and sometimes bizarre developments within the industry, but nothing can compare to the huge shift in paradigms that barefoot running created. 

Barefoot running, once seen as a weird cult of long haired tree huggers has been flipped and has stamped it’s presence on the industry. It’s the new trend, bizarrely a new trend that has of course been around since the days of persistence hunting, but a trend all the same. I’d like to thank Chris McDougal for this shift.  His book ‘Born to Run’ has put the running back into jogging.

Lydiard would be proud, although he is, of course, the father of jogging, which for those that are not “in the know” originally meant slow running. This means the same running technique and cadence, but at a slower speed, un-recognisable from today’s hybrid movement known as jogging, which we can thank Mr Bowerman (ed: Bill Bowerman, founder of Nike) and the first conventional running shoe for. To be honest he is not entirely to blame, foot wear is just a small piece of the puzzle, unlike what Chris McDougal’s picture has lead us to believe.

It is actually a romantic idea to think you can kick off your shoes and run barefoot. The running posture that old-school legendary coaches such as Lydiard and Percy Cerutty had the experience of coaching, can only been seen in the Kenyan runners today and yes, that is what I would put their great success down to.  The Kenyans are not being subjected to 80% of their day confined to a desk or slumped on the sofa yet even conditioned athletes in the West are compromised by the devil’s work. But yet barefoot running is just just a small portion of  of man’s movement birthright. We are ‘Born to Run’, but we are born to do so much more. There are in fact 13 natural movements, that man/woman should be able to carry out and when I say carry out, I mean how nature had intended you to, with the correct posture, allowing you to apply the laws of nature and remain injury free.  I would now like to introduce you to what is known as ‘natural movement’ and for some, this is where you might experience the same emotional response that others before you experienced with the barefoot running brigade, but please take the time to read on.

What is natural movement?

It has been well discussed by many, particularly in evolutionary medicine, that our genetic makeup is still that of the hunter-gatherer. Our current “software” or way of thinking that has led to many modern inventions is still housed in our Paleolithic “hardware”. To cut a long story short – in prehistory, most humans knew how to move well through their environments naturally. Only the most agile and strong humans could catch their prey, or escape from predators – it was essential to have certain human movement capacities to survive. Our ancestors were strong, agile, coordinated and had good spatial awareness, flexibility etc. These attributes can still be seen in surviving indigenous tribes today with not a yoga/Pilates studio in sight. Many practitioners from the past and present recognised the physical prowess of the hunter gatherer, but some, can and should be recognised as the grandfathers of natural movement; Georges Hébert is one of those grandfathers

Georges Hébert creater of "the natural method"

Georges Hébert was an officer in the French navy, who served all over the world prior to World War I and later became a teacher of physical education. Travelling the world, he became particularly inspired by the natural athleticism of indigenous peoples in Africa and elsewhere – “Their bodies were splendid, flexible, nimble, skilful, enduring, and resistant and yet they had no other tutor in gymnastics but their lives in Nature.” Whilst stationed on a Caribbean island in 1902, Hébert coordinated the rescue of island natives from a devastating volcanic eruption. Despite saving hundreds, many still perished due to being unable to save themselves. He came to the conclusion that the average human of the time, was ill equipped to survive such catastrophes. They had become detached from their roots as hunter-gatherers, from a time when humans were strong, capable and able to help themselves, and most importantly others, if the need arose.

He realised the weight training regime used by the military was building muscle for muscles sake, (similar to body building movements of the present day) without promoting dexterity and speed and essentially had little ‘real world’ usefulness. In its place he developed ‘Le Méthode Naturelle, or “the Natural Method.”

The 10 fundamental movements of man

The essence of Herbet’s Method Naturelle is to teach 10 fundamental movements that humans should posses and was essential to a hunter-gatherer’s survival.  They are: walking, running, jumping, quadrupedal movement (crawling), climbing, balancing, throwing, lifting, defending and swimming.
To return man to his birthright, as Georges had intended, requires a skill, and each one of the 10 movements is a skill in itself. Just as we have now discovered with running, these need to be coached back in to make the necessary change: we have the hardware to execute the 10 movements; we just need to change the software. If you like, we can refer to all 10 movements as “the macro skill” and each one component as “the micro skill”. If we could perform all 10 movements, we would be connected on a physiological and psychological level, true mind and body. We can see Georges Hebert’s work in modern day Parkour, Freerunning, MovNat.

Erwan le Corre, founder of MovNat

Erwan le Corre founder of MovNat has seen a huge explosion in interest for his method which has extensive likeness to Le Méthode Naturelle. The best way to describe Erwin’s method would be “wild uninhibited movement” and for some, it again stimulates the “tree-hugger response”.  I will always remember the time whilst on Primrose Hill with Erwan Le Corre.  There were about 10 of us carrying out some of the quadrupedal movements that Erwan had demonstrated to us.

The same sense of connection to the earth started to set in that I had first experienced with running truly barefoot, but unlike running, there’s is a real connection with the people with you as you start to work as a team/tribe.  It’s like a proprioceptive feedback mecca and for at least 10 minutes I had forgotten the restrictions of society until one voice shouted across the park: “look at those idiots!” The most amazing thing about this incident was that all the children wanted to join in, but the parents were too fearful to let them.  Those same parents probably participate in large classes of hot yoga, housed in poorly lit and confined rooms, but hey the animal in captivity has to be exercised some way or another.

“Old school” boxing and natural movement

I own a gym, Gloves Boxing Club, and some find it unusual that we coach natural movement at the club, but even the old school boxing coaches had a great understanding of the natural laws.
Movement coach Ben Medder has been at the helm of the introduction of natural movement to our bodyweight principle classes and it has now become the most popular class and it is easy to see why. The class starts to perform like a tribe, their inhibitions start to leave the room after a 2 minute warm-up and the gym takes on a whole new role, from boxing club to play ground.

Bernard Hopkins, a modern day natural mover,
so efficient he'll do push-ups between rounds!

Many old school (and some modern) boxers became world champions without ever using weights and certainly not isolated bodybuilding-type exercises. The use of bodybuilding was highly discouraged as old school coaches believed it made their fighters “slow”.  After all bodybuilding creates false tempos, long levers and develops injury prone athletes.

From boxers such as the great Sugar Ray Robinson to Mike Tyson, a modern boxer by “old school standards”, when he was in his prime, you see a trend that their training was simple, yet highly effective bodyweight exercises (or calisthenics as they were often referred to back then). There were no fancy gadgets or the promise of shortcuts, that’s so common throughout today’s health and fitness industry. The heavy influence of bodybuilding culture and doctrine – such as emphasis on isolation exercises and nutrition for extreme “mirror muscles” – had not yet taken effect. Functional strength, specific strength endurance, mobility and speed were the priority. The old school boxer could easily output multiple, high rep sets of bodyweight exercises, such as push-ups, pull-ups, deep knee bends (squats) and roll-ups.

An old school boxer was, and indeed needed to be, as naturally strong for his bodyweight as possible. Runners will recognise this ideal from the term “power to weight ratio”. Their muscles could be described as “whipcord” strong – flexible, fast and powerful. They could easily go 15 or more rounds, with a much higher punch volume and output than today’s bouts. Conversely big muscles are heavy, slow and require more oxygen and energy – both of which a boxer needs to preserve to remain effective in the ring, just as a long distance runner needs to maximise their oxygen efficiency and fuel stores.

How to apply natural movement to performance sports

So is boxing a natural movement? No, it is not, but the natural laws can be applied to it to make it efficient and reduce the risk of injury. In fact one of the 13 natural movements is defense so we could consider boxing natural, but it’s the movement patterns that were taught to the boxers of old that I would consider closest to natural movement principles. This generation of boxers used movement to develop the macro skill of boxing: running, throwing and the quadrupedal movement for the understanding of bodyweight in ones hands.

This is the same rule that in my opinion can and should be applied to most performance sports. Look at the result you want to achieve and look at how the 13 natural movements overlap into the one discipline you focus on. Mountain running for instance would require: running, jumping and quadrupedal movement for vaults and moments when descents and ascents are too hardy for the biped.

So the natural movements can really be considered as foundational for each individual discipline within running or within other sports and the skill is the application of each movement to the specific demands of the sport or discipline.