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The Practice of Natural Movement: Reclaim Power, Health, and Freedom

Erwan Le Corre

4.24 · Rating details · 85 ratings · 13 reviews

Erwan Le Corre, creator of the world-renowned fitness system MovNat, is on a mission to reintroduce natural movement to our modern lives with the most ancient movement skill set: walking, running, balancing, jumping, crawling, climbing, swimming, lifting, carrying, throwing, catching, and self-defense.

Try to imagine an out-of-shape tiger stepping on an exercise machine to ...more

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Paperback, 336 pages

Published August 25th 2015 by Victory Belt Publishing (first published September 9th 2014)

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· 85 ratings · 13 reviews

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Dec 05, 2019 KDV rated it it was amazing

Shelves: nonfiction

Very thorough!! I got lots of ideas for strength building/improved mobility but, more importantly, lots of ideas for varying ways to sit/lay in front of my woodstove this winter while still helping stretch and restore my body. Yay! This book is long as hell and you will want to revisit it, so borrow it from the library first and then buy it for reference if you like it.

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Jun 30, 2019 Nathan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-own

This is a powerful textbook that is full of a wide array of functional movements and practical recommendations. I appreciate the detail the author provides for each movement, with a plethora of images to show proper technique. He also structured the book in a way so that it progresses from fundamental movements to increased complexity. I will be utilizing this as a reference in the future as I structure my own movement practices.

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Feb 05, 2019 Mark rated it it was amazing

This is one of the best books I’ve read on any subject, and by far the best book I’ve read related in any way to fitness. The information inside has the power to not only help you transform your body, but to elevate your life.

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Feb 11, 2020 Martina rated it it was ok

Meh! I wish the author presented more science and less dogma. If I'm told do do things a certain way, I'd like to know why--not just take it on blind faith. Although the premise of the book makes a lot of sense, Le Corre turns his wonderful initial concept into pure drudgery and tedium. Somewhere along the way, the joy got lost. ...more

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May 17, 2019 Tom Hood rated it really liked it

Shelves: self-improvement

So let me start this off with I've been following MovNat and Erwan Le Corre for over a decade and have attended multiple certifications. So my expectations for this book where fairly high because Erwan has been talking about releasing a book like this for sometime. However when I started reading this surprisingly hefty book I realized that this wasn't really written for me. It is really written for a complete novice to Natural Movement, not someone who has been practicing for 10ish years. I say So let me start this off with I've been following MovNat and Erwan Le Corre for over a decade and have attended multiple certifications. So my expectations for this book where fairly high because Erwan has been talking about releasing a book like this for sometime. However when I started reading this surprisingly hefty book I realized that this wasn't really written for me. It is really written for a complete novice to Natural Movement, not someone who has been practicing for 10ish years. I say that because the first rather long chapter of the book seems to be trying to convince the reader of the importance of Natural Movement. Like the reader didn't already want to practice Natural Movement and didn't already know its importance for a healthy lifestyle. So it is quite possible that others got a lot more out the first chapter then I did but for me it was all a repeat of the MovNat's website, videos, and articles. I am not saying that exact articles from the MovNat website were copied into this book. Just that a lot of the information had already been provided to me before.
What I really had been hoping for was more information on programming and how to set up an efficient workout routine with natural movements. There is a small section covering that but the book doesn't really dive in as deep as I hoped. I realized now that a simple programming scheme is probably the point. Every individual has their own starting point, their own environment, and their own goals. Every program will be different. Not what I was hoping for but I was probably hoping for something that doesn't and shouldn't exist. This book provides the tools for developing your own plan. And there are a lot of tools.
The second half of the book is focused on individual movements and how to efficiently and safely conduct them. And boy are they detailed. I would argue almost too detailed and long but again I had been provided with some training on most of these movements before during MovNat certifications. I knew the proper way to do them. Others, without that experience, will appreciate the effort Erwan went through to describe them. For me this was mostly a great refresher and I realized that some of the movements I had been doing wrong or inefficiently but I still started to skip entire steps or just skim them if I felt it was a move I was already comfortable with. I will reference this section in the future as I start to add some of the more complicated movements into my program.
You may get the impression that I didn't like this book. To the contrary I agree with everything within in. I just found myself skipping entire paragraphs near the end because there was more I already knew then there was new information. I am very grateful for the new information I was provided like the section on breathing and the breakdown on some of the more complicated movements.
In summary, if you are like me and have some experience with Natural Movement then you won't get as much out of this book because, well, you already know a lot of what is within. However if you are new to Natural Movement either as someone who is out of shape or someone who specializes in another fitness method then I highly recommend picking this book up. It makes a detailed argument for why everyone should have these skills, for both their own health and for assisting others, and provides the tools to start practicing Natural Movement.
PS: Only giving 4 out of 5 stars has nothing to do with what I said above. It has to do with the format of the sections in the book. The pages are organized in two columns of text with the intention of reading the left column and then the right column. However when a section ends it will end so that the text columns for that section are lined up next to to each other. It's done so that the title for some of the sections can span the width of the page. Unfortunately the next section is positioned really close to the previous section so that on multiple occasions I wasn't clear on whether I am suppose to continue reading down the column or jump to the right to finish a section. It might not be clear from this description what I am talking about, and maybe I'm just an idiot and everyone else had no problem, but it occurred enough to be distracting so minus 1 star. ...more

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Dec 02, 2019 Jim rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

One of the most pleasant books to hold. The paper texture and the weight were ideal. Visually very impressive from the font and color choices to the photographs which give you enough detail to perform the movements.
The manifesto was impressive well written and edited. The exercises logically laid out and presented. By following the exercises you will be able to strengthen your body and make it more functional and overcoming your current weaknesses. In my case they are plenty. This is in part to ...more

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May 03, 2020 Colin rated it really liked it

Great argument for calisthenics consisting of most common forms of movement (running, jumping, hanging, lifting, squatting). Could have been much shorter, and would have loved if there had been full workout routines instead of just listing each type of exercise.

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Feb 04, 2021 Emily VA added it

Shelves: started-and-abandoned

Read bits here and there, but didn’t get sucked in enough to finish it before I needed to return it.

Interesting, if somewhat pompous, point of view. I enjoy the MovNat exercises - maybe I’ll come back to this someday.

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Sep 20, 2019 Ryan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Very detailed with a lot of photos! Great for trainers and people who are trying to vary their movement style. A bit detailed for laypeople and honestly was a bit wordy for my taste. Interesting, though.

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Jul 15, 2020 Brad marked it as to-read

AoM podcast episode #508

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Oct 03, 2019 Bojan Avramovic rated it it was ok

Od početka čitanja pokušavam da shvatim da li je knjiga pisana za trenere ili široku čitalačku publiku? I evo do kraja nisam uspeo da shvatm. Predugačko, preopširno, neočekivano razočaravajuće

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Jan 10, 2019 Jurgen Rose rated it it was amazing

A massive encyclopedia of natural human movement concepts. Revolutionary perspectives will change your paradigm of what it is to be healthy and fit. This is a dense tome that you will not just read, you will refer to it for years as it reveals its secrets to you.

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