Chapter 2: Instinctual - The Practice of Natural Movement

“The very essence of instinct is that it’s followed independently of reason.”

 

—Charles Darwin

 

Through evolution, biological features—including Natural Movement behavior and abilities—are transmitted from generation to generation within a given species. Evolution in that sense is not something that happened a long time ago; it is an ongoing process from the past to the present time, and you are part of it.

Do you remember the very first moment when you started moving? You probably can’t because it was at such an early stage in your life. (As a matter of fact, you already moved to some extent in your mother’s womb before you were born.) Experts call the early stage of a child’s motor development the “developmental stage,” and it involves not just the physiological aspects of a child’s physical growth but also his or her fundamental motor skills, ability to move around, and ability to manipulate the environment. This is the early development stage of our Natural Movement. The acquisition of movement skills is so important to your future life and survival ability that your movement-development journey begins before you can even form a thought or articulate a word. Because it is a foundational component of your biological survival agenda, Natural Movement is a powerful, evolutionary drive that is an instinctual, innate behavior.

For this reason, infants start moving naturally without the need for any instruction or even visual demonstration. They follow a species-specific developmental sequence and hierarchy of movement patterns that takes place almost totally similarly in every child. It is species-specific because it has to do with the evolutionary make up and movement aptitudes of our human species: You won’t see young children consistently flapping their arms as young birds instinctively do with their wings as a preparation for flying. Flying is part of the Natural Movement of most birds, but it’s not part of Natural Movement for humans. Kids may later pretend they are birds for fun, but at the stage I’m talking about they are not pretending to move like other animals, and they’re not “pretending” to move like humans, either; they’re just instinctively starting to move like humans.

There is a voice that doesn’t use words. Listen.”

—Jalal ad-Din Rumi

 

During the first months of their lives and before they can even walk, infants learn to keep their heads erect when they’re upright, to roll from the side to their backs, to raise their positions with their arms when lying on their bellies, to grasp objects with their hands and arms, to sit alone, to crawl on their knees and hands, and then to pull themselves to a standing position and so forth until they can walk on their own. While many parents pride themselves on thinking that they “taught” their children to walk, the truth is that they merely assisted them. As for the acquisition of all those other diverse ground movement patterns during the child’s first months, it definitely took place without any intervention from the parents, and those movements are not necessarily less complex or difficult to acquire than walking. I’m not saying that verbal instruction or visual example cannot play a part in a child’s movement development at a later stage, but at that very early stage they are superfluous.

I’m also not saying that children and adults could unveil their whole Natural Movement potential solely through instinct without any kind of guidance. For instance, whereas the most basic grappling, kicking, or punching patterns are innate in young children, one must learn and drill techniques to channel, enhance, and extend a basic instinctive ability to fight into an advanced fighting capability and skill.

Don’t you dare underestimate the power of your own instinct.”

—Barbara Corcoran

 

Even at that later stage and while learning techniques through self-teaching or someone’s instruction, instinct—or a genetic program that is deeply rooted in our brains and cellular memory—keeps playing a major role in the continuous development of greater movement skills. Similarly, despite their total lack of conceptual or scientific knowledge relating to the proper ways to exercise or become fit, our ancestors were unquestionably physically strong, agile, capable, and resistant enough to survive some of the harshest circumstances of wild life. In other words, if modern fitness equipment and methods of exercise had been necessary for early human beings to develop themselves physically, and if we had had to wait until science had defined the laws of and programs for optimal physical development, our ancestors wouldn’t have survived, and we wouldn’t be here today to discuss the subject. Furthermore, we still would have to send fitness experts—along with exercise equipment—to some the most remote areas of the planet to instruct hunter-gatherer tribes in how to be “in shape” so they can survive.

Over the years, I have taught many fitness coaches who spend their time indoors, doing muscle-isolation exercises and working on fitness machines, and although their muscles have looked good on paper, their ability to run, jump, balance, climb, and so forth in natural environments were questionable at best. Mainstream fitness and Natural Movement are not the same at all; they don’t have the same purpose or method, and they logically produce incredibly different results. Instinct, necessity, observation, common sense, practice, and real-world experience was all our ancestors had to work with, and it is all that the millions of people who still live close to nature have as well. Their physical development took place organically, symbiotically, experientially—in other words, naturally. It worked thousands of years ago, and it still works quite well.

Would you ever imagine that young children would spontaneously do segmental, mechanistic, simplistic, repetitive exercise drills such as biceps curls or “crunches” to get fit and start their physical development as prerequisite strength training and conditioning before they could perform actual natural movements? Of course not. That’s because such a conventional approach to physical fitness is in no way a part of our instinctual, natural process for movement and physical development. No science-based training protocol could replace, or even improve, the evolutionary “program” that is naturally built in to all of us. Instead, children develop the full range of human Natural Movement aptitudes through instinctual practice. It is a drive so strong they cannot resist, and it pushes them to be moving almost continuously during their wake time, even when adults around them aren’t remotely as physically active in terms of variety, frequency, volume, intensity, or complexity of activity. Although adults mostly sit on elevated surfaces without much movement or variety in their positions, young children sit on the floor in many different ways, always transitioning and constantly in motion; they won’t stop crawling, rolling, turning, twisting, pushing, pulling, reaching, grasping, throwing, and manipulating, even before they can kneel, stand up, walk, balance, run, jump, climb, and so on. Do not mistake my meaning: Ground movements are not “simple” movements. They are sophisticated patterns and skills that many adults are surprised to discover that they need to remember how to do properly. However, children are still able to do complex ground movements because of their instinctive drive to move.

Young children, fortunately, have no concept of social convention or other restrictions that might inhibit their instinctive exuberance for movement. Any environment presents itself as an opportunity to explore, practice, and develop their innate movement abilities. It is not something children consciously plan to do at a certain time, in a certain place, in a certain way, and for a certain outcome (or to show off on social media). It is a subconscious impulse—a pure expression of who they are as young human animals. They cannot help it: They are growing!

Deep inside of them, children know that they must move to grow strong, and any environmental context will do, whether it’s an outdoor, natural space or an indoor, man-made, artificial one. Children crawl under a table like they crawl under a fallen tree or climb on top of a couch like they climb on top of a small boulder. They don’t expect and don’t really need a special place to express their instinctual movement agenda; they practice opportunistically. Although adults and experts are quick to label such activity as “creative,” in fact it’s a tremendously pragmatic and practical approach. Children explore nearly limitless variations of movements, most of which are fundamentally useful and others that might look “crazy” to the reasonable grown-up who has culturally and socially formatted movement behaviors. Are children really creating new movements, or are they simply replicating the movements that every other child of their age is doing somewhere else on the planet, and that generation after generation of young children have also done since the dawn of mankind?

We like to believe that children are only playing. Indeed, they are at play, but that kind of play is not purely about fun. The way children play can be risky, or even aggressive and brutal. They instinctively push their limits. They challenge themselves and take risks. If we were to have adults participate in similar activities, most of us would likely drop out quickly, finding this kind of “child’s play” too hard, too difficult, or too dangerous. Our so-called “grown-up” bodies would most certainly not be able to keep up, as if they weren’t even built for such Natural Movement activity.

However, without any teaching or consideration for subjective rules and conventions, kids spontaneously express their splendid human physicality through energetic movement with incredibly effective simplicity and total freedom.

Yet their explorative practice is not just random. The “program” within each and every one of their cells demands certain results and the development of particular skills, at a certain level of performance. There is nothing random about it. When you notice a child repeating the exact same movement—such as a jump—many times in a row, it is not only because of the pure enjoyment they get from that action but also because repetition is the key to acquisition. I have observed my own young children joyfully exploring almost every variation possible of swinging, spinning, and hanging from an adult-size gymnastic ring, and I have also witnessed them repeating the exact same move time after time after time with total focus just a moment later; they don’t smile, they aren’t seeking approval, and they don’t get distracted at all. To them it’s both fun and serious, both free and dedicated—a thoughtless yet mindful practice.

My point is that it would be a mistake to label children’s movement activity as “play” only. Although it looks random, it actually is purposeful; although it looks exploratory, it is often systematic and repetitive; although it looks only playful, it actually can be hard, challenging, and risky. Children are instinctually practicing the very skills that are, from an evolutionary perspective at least, supposed to ensure their survival, and it takes both playful, and sometimes serious and not-so-playful practice. Play is one of the components of an overall instinctive strategy for optimum physical development. Such “work” is never boring or a chore to them. Most often it provides tremendous enjoyment and great satisfaction even when their so-called play gets tough and scary.

The Physical Idleness Predicament

 

Unfortunately, under constant pressure of social conventions and the irresistible comforts and distractions of modern life and technologies, this instinctual drive for moving might, in most cases, seemingly disappear or significantly decrease in intensity. Even though the example set by parents, or the lack thereof, will rarely dissuade very young children from moving intensely within the safe environment where they’re usually confined, as the children grow older their drive for movement is often greatly influenced by the example of their parents and other adult associates. When the adults whom children look at every day of their lives are never physically active, sit all day, and can’t kneel without pain or squat without falling backward, children may subconsciously assume that this is a normal condition and that Natural Movement is superfluous, limited to what adults can do, a behavior that is not “appropriate” in most social situations, and even something one must avoid engaging in because it is too dangerous.

The pursuit of normality is the ultimate sacrifice of potential.”

—Faith Jegede

 

The number-one reason why some children lose their instinctual drive to move the way they’re naturally designed to isn’t just the lack of example of healthy, vibrant adults—or other children—who are physically active daily, but the ubiquitous presence of the exact opposite example: adults and/or other children who limit themselves to standing up and walking a few steps to the next seat. Next to the strength of instinct, mimicry is the most potent behavioral instinct that shapes who we become. (As the saying goes, monkey see, monkey do.) This is because humans are highly intelligent, social animals who learn a lot through direct observation of older humans. If a young child’s adult role models for movement behavior provide poor examples, it is likely that the child’s movement behavior will not be as “rich” as it should be.

I was personally blessed to have parents who not only encouraged me to go outside and move but who would also show me diverse examples, though only partially, of what Natural Movement is. My parents frequently would take me and my brothers and sisters in the woods, where we would hike for miles regardless of weather conditions. We also climbed boulders and trees, jumped off rocks to the ground or to the next rock, balanced on fallen trees, crawled through dense vegetation, slid down slopes, and so on. The proximity of such a natural “playground” was a blessing, but I was also fortunate to be shown such an example and pushed beyond my physical and mental limitations while participating in such healthy physical behavior with my family. How many modern children have seen their own parents climbing trees and have been encouraged to do so themselves, rather than being told by their parents to never climb a tree so they don’t hurt themselves?

It is impossible to overlook the extent to which civilization is built upon a renunciation of instinct.”

—Sigmund Freud

 

My siblings and I were, to use a current term, “free-range” children. I was free to go solo anywhere I wanted, especially in the woods. I actually wanted to be there as often as I could, first because I just felt great in nature, but also because I wanted to keep expanding my “range.” Would it have been the same if my parents had spent all their time in front of a TV screen and told me to not go outside or do “crazy things” such as jumping and climbing? My natural instinct for Natural Movement was fully supported both verbally and by tangible example—as I strongly believe it should be for all children. My parents were not “bad,” careless, or negligent; they trusted us and didn’t need to supervise us constantly in an overprotective manner. Yes, we took risks—a lot—but those risks were never unreasonable because we had experientially and progressively learned to be realistic about what we could do safely. Nothing bad ever happened.

Sadly, most children today are not only deprived of having a sound Natural Movement example, but they are literally prevented from going outside and taking the physical risks necessary for their optimal physical, psychological, and emotional development. Instead they are told to stay still, to stay put, to just sit, and to entertain themselves mostly through electronics. The message that movement gets you hurt, gets you dirty, and gets you in trouble is very loud, clear, and omnipresent. Which is more criminal: letting kids climb trees on their own and play outside in nature as often as they want, or keeping them indoors to watch TV and play with electronics on the couch when they’re not in school?

Those children who are lucky enough to at least play through free movement on playgrounds made for them show the way to adults, but those adults often won’t listen. The adults sit on benches and chat or are glued to their smartphones and never physically engage with their children. Every time I have been at a park, alone or with my children, I’ve been moving naturally. Children stop and watch, baffled to witness an adult who “speaks their language”—the language of human Natural Movement. Then they often try to follow me and do the same; they’re excited to be shown the example they’ve been secretly looking for.

We are collectively dealing with a modern health predicament. Lack of movement is a major part of the issue—in addition to unhealthy nutrition, stress, and sleep deprivation—and it’s causing an important diminution of our movement instinct and a shrinkage of our movement variability, frequency, and intensity. With this lack of movement comes an erosion of physical function in millions and millions of humans across the planet. Even though many modern sports or hobbies provide an outlet for each of our natural movement skills—for instance, playing Frisbee involves running, catching, and throwing—what proportion of people actually engage in such activities? It’s alarmingly low. Clearly, this is not just a childhood issue; it’s also an adulthood issue because either you might have lost your movement instinct as an adult, or you might be one of the unfortunate children who never got a chance to fully develop their Natural Movement potential. Regardless of the reason, you are suffering the adverse consequences of it, and as you become a parent yourself, you might not realize how this issue is passed on to your own children.

In principle 1, “Evolutionary,” I explained that in our modern, civilized, convenient lives, Natural Movement is no longer a survival necessity. It’s been relegated to a mere option—an accessory element of a so-called “healthy lifestyle.” There is close to no variability, no intensity, and no adaptability involved in our day-to-day movement.

What about fitness remedies or “solutions”? Most of us have at least one experience with the tremendous boredom incurred by conventional muscle-isolation or machine-based exercises at a local gym. We’ve never felt that those programs were based on our Natural Movement instinct, or satisfying to them, and the truth is that the overwhelming majority of people consider these programs to be a chore, or worse, a punishment for being out of shape. They are linear, predictable, mechanistic, reductionist, and sterile. They look and feel like factory labor. They are an extension of work.

However, remember the “Evolutionary” principle: Our bodies—and minds, for that matter—are designed for Natural Movement in nature, and both expect us to move and physically behave like our wild ancestors did. Although it is socially acceptable for an adult to “work out” on an exercise machine, it would be considered strange for an adult to move like children do, to move like wild humans do—that is, to run, jump, balance, crawl, climb, and so on—especially in places that are not “officially” designed for fitness activities. We have become, to a significant degree, domesticated creatures. Unfortunately, the process of domestication involves repression, diversion, distraction, subversion, and suppression of important natural behaviors. Our dysfunctional, limited movement patterns and activities reflect the effects of this process. It’s no surprise our instinct to move is gone in most of us! Neither is it a surprise that modern humans may “instinctually” attempt ineffective movements when they’re forced to physically respond to unexpected real-world situations. Instinct, in the absence of consistent practice and an overall healthy lifestyle, can take you only so far.

We need to stop tormenting our innate nature and begin nurturing it instead. Normalcy is not our friend; it’s a silent killer. Conventional wisdom is too often all convention and little wisdom. It’s time to make the physical expression of our Natural Movement instinct an intentional, constructive, beneficial act. Pay a visit to the playground and watch how children move. Young children truly lead by example because they have not yet been influenced by the fitness machines and trainers at the big-box fitness centers, and they are still free enough to follow their instinct to move.

Children haven’t fully developed their Natural Movement potential yet, but they are actively establishing the foundation for potential future excellence. They trust their human animal instincts, whereas adults are busy “teaching” them not to. We need to start seeing our own animality not as a “lower” plane of behavior in life, but as the manifestation of our biological foundation and essential biological needs that we should not deny. Are you hungry; thirsty; tired; sexually aroused; anxious to get outside; about to yawn, sneeze, take a deep breath, scratch your scalp, or smell your own armpits? Hello, Human Animal! There’s nothing to worry about; you are a biologically alive and active animal. Does it make you a “lesser” person to acknowledge this reality? Does it take away from your superb abstract intelligence, moral integrity, or even spiritual elevation? Not at all.

Spontaneous, explorative, instinctual reconnection to Natural Movement is the first phase of your journey to future Natural Movement mastery, and it enables you to rewire the entire system of your human body so that it goes back to its original mode and function. After you realize again the powerful simplicity and amazing potential that moving naturally holds for your health and fitness goals, it will be time to consider effective methods and guidance to bring your Natural Movement potential to the level it deserves (see principle 10, “Efficient”).