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Animal Moves: How to move like an animal to get you leaner, fitter, stronger and healthier for life
Animal Moves is a groundbreaking new workout playout program from Darryl Edwards that utilises the functional and primal movements of the animal kingdom as inspiration for an exercise regimen that will have you the king or queen of the jungle in no time. Future-proof your body and reconnect with the fitter, stronger and healthier you with over 40 functional exercises, fun activities, and three, four-week fitness programs.
With the help of its innovative 28-day movement plan, Animal Moves empowers you to move with more ease and efficiency when performing functional movements and to make everyday activities easier and more enjoyable. The compound movement exercises in Animal Moves targets the whole body at varied intensities enabling people of all fitness levels, and all ages, to lead more active and dynamic lives.
Follow Darryl's easy-to-follow instructions, tips and photo illustrations
With the help of its innovative 28-day movement plan, Animal Moves empowers you to move with more ease and efficiency when performing functional movements and to make everyday activities easier and more enjoyable. The compound movement exercises in Animal Moves targets the whole body at varied intensities enabling people of all fitness levels, and all ages, to lead more active and dynamic lives.
Follow Darryl's easy-to-follow instructions, tips and photo illustrations
- GenresHealthFitnessNonfiction
196 pages, Paperback
Published April 16, 2018
122 people are currently reading
237 people want to read
About the author
Darryl Edwards
11 books16 followersDarryl Edwards is a former investment banking technologist turned movement coach and author. He is the founder of the Primal Play Method and a physical activity, health and play researcher.
The Primal Play Method fuses the science of evolutionary biology with exercise physiology and play psychology.
Darryl wants to inspire humans regardless of age, ability or disability to transform their health by making physical activity fun and engaging.
His work has featured on documentaries, TV, radio, podcasts and international press.
Darryl is author of the best-selling book "Animal Moves" and has released a range of fun fitness cards for adults, juniors, infants, office workers and fitness professionals called the Animal Moves Decks and a children’s picture book called “My First Animal Moves”.
He regularly presents as a keynote speaker at events worldwide. His April 2019 TED talk "Why working out isn't working out"—has now been viewed over a million times!
Darryl resides in London, England and publishes about playful living at PrimalPlay.com.
The Primal Play Method fuses the science of evolutionary biology with exercise physiology and play psychology.
Darryl wants to inspire humans regardless of age, ability or disability to transform their health by making physical activity fun and engaging.
His work has featured on documentaries, TV, radio, podcasts and international press.
Darryl is author of the best-selling book "Animal Moves" and has released a range of fun fitness cards for adults, juniors, infants, office workers and fitness professionals called the Animal Moves Decks and a children’s picture book called “My First Animal Moves”.
He regularly presents as a keynote speaker at events worldwide. His April 2019 TED talk "Why working out isn't working out"—has now been viewed over a million times!
Darryl resides in London, England and publishes about playful living at PrimalPlay.com.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 17, 2018
To understand why Animal Moves is so important, you need to first understand something about Darryl Edwards, its author. Darryl is a recovering analyst programmer, technical team lead, data architect, and technical architect who had a wildly successful career in Silicon Valley. After having a serious personal epiphany when he realized going to the gym to workout may result in the appearance of fitness, but doesn’t translate into functional fitness.
Thereafter Darryl approached the subject of fitness with the same detailed and comprehensive analysis he had been professionally trained to do in tech: He went through every commonly practiced form of exercise, everything from Crossfit to Movnat, in an effort to discover the most functional form of fitness there is (the most practical and broadly applicable to a new unique real life scenario). Having independently discovered that when we eat what we are naturally inclined to eat, our bodies perform at a much more healthy and optimal level, he applied this analysis to fitness and - after repeated disappointments with other ways of exercising - had another epiphany: when we go out into the world and do what we would naturally be inclined to do, play with each other, we gain a much more optimal level of functional fitness.
Make no mistake, for Darryl, playing doesn’t mean that there is no intelligent design to the sessions. Having studied so many different methodologies and theories of fitness, he has had the benefit of being able to integrate the aggregate knowledge and overall take-aways into his planned play sessions. The end result is you go out and have fun like you did when you were a child and, losing yourself into the pleasure of the experience, you unwittingly exercise all the major muscle groups in your body. It is no coincidence he also used to perform magic as a hobby: he has managed to disguise a serious intense workout as a game, misdirecting you into having a blast all the while you are actually enhancing your functional fitness level.
Although Animal Moves falls short of disclosing his entire secret playbook, given only to those who complete his certification course, Animal Moves does give you a healthy dose of FORTY functional movements, and provides you with a simple and easily accessible four-week fitness improvement plan, applicable to *all* ages, *all* lifestyles, *all* ability levels, and *all* fitness levels - with photos showing you how to do the moves. It also explains why movement is so important - for the entire generations of people sitting in front of their workstations for 40+ hours every week - even summarizing the latest up to date research on this issue.
Let me make this clearer: For a mere ten bucks, you get the electronic version of Animal Moves for kindle (an app is available for iOS devices) so you can carry the Animal Moves in your pocket for easy access when it comes time to do the exercises - making it both extremely affordable and extremely practical - and a detailed guide for you to do very time-efficient workouts with no equipment or gym membership cost. Both the electronic and the 196 page paperback include the same color photos guiding you to a new level of personal health.
There are therefore no more available excuses. Thanks to Darryl and Animal Moves, workouts are now fun, easy, extremely time-efficient, and are available at almost no cost to *everyone*. And, as analyzed in this book, the costs to the alternative sedentary lifestyle are far more expensive.
Animal Moves comes with my highest recommendation for those needing to get off their @$$es as much as for those who are at what they think is a peak fitness level, who I would encourage to pick up the book to put their fitness to the test, if not to discover a more fun way to get there. Having finished the online Animal Moves course while the Animal Moves book was being written, simply reviewing Animal Moves has motivated me to do another four weeks. I strongly suspect it will do the same for you.
As with all my reviews, no one paid me a penny. Enthusiasm for things that are excellent is its own reward.
Thereafter Darryl approached the subject of fitness with the same detailed and comprehensive analysis he had been professionally trained to do in tech: He went through every commonly practiced form of exercise, everything from Crossfit to Movnat, in an effort to discover the most functional form of fitness there is (the most practical and broadly applicable to a new unique real life scenario). Having independently discovered that when we eat what we are naturally inclined to eat, our bodies perform at a much more healthy and optimal level, he applied this analysis to fitness and - after repeated disappointments with other ways of exercising - had another epiphany: when we go out into the world and do what we would naturally be inclined to do, play with each other, we gain a much more optimal level of functional fitness.
Make no mistake, for Darryl, playing doesn’t mean that there is no intelligent design to the sessions. Having studied so many different methodologies and theories of fitness, he has had the benefit of being able to integrate the aggregate knowledge and overall take-aways into his planned play sessions. The end result is you go out and have fun like you did when you were a child and, losing yourself into the pleasure of the experience, you unwittingly exercise all the major muscle groups in your body. It is no coincidence he also used to perform magic as a hobby: he has managed to disguise a serious intense workout as a game, misdirecting you into having a blast all the while you are actually enhancing your functional fitness level.
Although Animal Moves falls short of disclosing his entire secret playbook, given only to those who complete his certification course, Animal Moves does give you a healthy dose of FORTY functional movements, and provides you with a simple and easily accessible four-week fitness improvement plan, applicable to *all* ages, *all* lifestyles, *all* ability levels, and *all* fitness levels - with photos showing you how to do the moves. It also explains why movement is so important - for the entire generations of people sitting in front of their workstations for 40+ hours every week - even summarizing the latest up to date research on this issue.
Let me make this clearer: For a mere ten bucks, you get the electronic version of Animal Moves for kindle (an app is available for iOS devices) so you can carry the Animal Moves in your pocket for easy access when it comes time to do the exercises - making it both extremely affordable and extremely practical - and a detailed guide for you to do very time-efficient workouts with no equipment or gym membership cost. Both the electronic and the 196 page paperback include the same color photos guiding you to a new level of personal health.
There are therefore no more available excuses. Thanks to Darryl and Animal Moves, workouts are now fun, easy, extremely time-efficient, and are available at almost no cost to *everyone*. And, as analyzed in this book, the costs to the alternative sedentary lifestyle are far more expensive.
Animal Moves comes with my highest recommendation for those needing to get off their @$$es as much as for those who are at what they think is a peak fitness level, who I would encourage to pick up the book to put their fitness to the test, if not to discover a more fun way to get there. Having finished the online Animal Moves course while the Animal Moves book was being written, simply reviewing Animal Moves has motivated me to do another four weeks. I strongly suspect it will do the same for you.
As with all my reviews, no one paid me a penny. Enthusiasm for things that are excellent is its own reward.
August 25, 2018
There is nothing quite like this out there. Primal, natural movements themed by moving like animals with a 28-day program of functional moves which I’ve completed a few times from beginning to advanced. Lots of fun too for kids of all ages. I’m a BIG kid of almost 50 and will continue playing out. Love it!
June 14, 2019
A Different Type of Workout
I like to try different kinds of exercise, and this book caught my eye as something I hadn’t seen before. Some of the exercises are easy, others challenging. I’ve read the entire book, but am still working through the exercises. I’ve lost a few pounds, along with the exercises I’ve also tried to cut out the junk food.
I bought the e-book, but it would be best to own the print version. Since I have yet to learn all the moves, I have to keep stopping and scrolling to the examples on pages further in the book. I should write out the day’s plan and then go to the section where the exercises are demonstrated.
I found the photos and print adequate for describing how to do the exercises correctly. I realized that I do take exercise too seriously, and found it difficult to lighten up! I would recommend this book to anyone looking to add something different to their cardio/strength routine.
I like to try different kinds of exercise, and this book caught my eye as something I hadn’t seen before. Some of the exercises are easy, others challenging. I’ve read the entire book, but am still working through the exercises. I’ve lost a few pounds, along with the exercises I’ve also tried to cut out the junk food.
I bought the e-book, but it would be best to own the print version. Since I have yet to learn all the moves, I have to keep stopping and scrolling to the examples on pages further in the book. I should write out the day’s plan and then go to the section where the exercises are demonstrated.
I found the photos and print adequate for describing how to do the exercises correctly. I realized that I do take exercise too seriously, and found it difficult to lighten up! I would recommend this book to anyone looking to add something different to their cardio/strength routine.
September 8, 2018
This is a very good book for people that are looking for a new way of exercising and incorporating more fun and challenge to their workout routines. I found it very useful and would highly recommend it to everyone.
August 24, 2020
Great Fitness
This is a straightforward approach to getting started with a simple, though not simplistic, fitness plan. Try it! You’ll be pleasantly surprised.
This is a straightforward approach to getting started with a simple, though not simplistic, fitness plan. Try it! You’ll be pleasantly surprised.
October 2, 2025
wonderful information
This book has wonderful insights and I like his outlook on movement and exercising. I would highly recommend reading this book. Even though I bought and read it on Kindle, I’ll probably buy the physical copy too.
This book has wonderful insights and I like his outlook on movement and exercising. I would highly recommend reading this book. Even though I bought and read it on Kindle, I’ll probably buy the physical copy too.
November 15, 2021
A novel concept that explores how we should be moving like animals. I enjoy the fun elements as well as the science too!
December 30, 2018
Very basic information and did not provide anything insightful or new. Was hoping to hear more about the philosophy and benefits of primal movement and being.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews