BFT

Although exercise may seem unnatural in a hunter-gatherer sense, it is also essential for most of us. Before free play-based exploration can take place, most people will find that they need to undergo a rehabilitation process of sorts. In my experience, most clients are so disconnected from their physical nature, that free play can quickly lead to injuries and other health problems because of pre-conditions in the body.

As a culture, we are in such a bad predicament that we can’t even do the things we need most. For instance, if you’ve been wearing shoes your whole life, trying to go for a barefoot trail run isn’t feasible until you get your body back to its natural state. It can take months before even walking barefoot on varied terrain is comfortable – let alone being able to play freely.

This leads me to a recent epiphany I had. Many people supplement their training programs with playful variety for fun and hope it doesn’t downfall to pure randomness. I think we’d be better off adopting a holistic training approach and allow for planned spontaneity within.

Exercise is essential in our culture, but its purpose, in part, is to eliminate the need for exercise.

than i found paul chek who talked about training in primal movememnt patterns, push, pull, lift, drag, carry,

now i use this amazing training at keg conditioning.com, we train with a manual labor philosophy, in life i will most likely need strength to push pull lift off the grand and lift over head, low back strength and grip strength are key area’s, we train outside all year round, filling the lungs with fresh air,

As a practicing Exuberant Animal that follows my feet and the training themes of primal, practical, play “with” the land until i “create” as the land. I have learned to play with the words that bore me and confine me, walk them through the literal understandings and then dance them into the Poets Foot in order to “make sense” of them.

I live off the grid, outside, keep my distance from walls, machines, electronics and the social specialization, in short; I live and play outside. Then i make my way back to the edge of the modern sedentary world, to this finger tapping machine and check out the “SeeFoots” latest posting, essays, training themes, call them what you will. I like to call them foot notions, or the Exuberant Foot Postings. For they help guide me in my exploration of crafting and cultivating a life and practice as a exuberant animal trainer. Foot postings that help me exit out of the words that bore me and no longer motivate my motion.

The SeeFoots sharings on “exercise” “exposes” for me another word that has cast a spell over my thinking and feeling on movement and form. I began not to trust the word “exercise” many years ago, because it sounded so much like the word “exorcise”! Has the stink of the carrot or the whip,(another foot notion you can find in the Exuberant Animal Training Manual).

So this one on “exercise” is an “exciting” foot posting for me to dance with and i am not talking about sitting on my butt and doing the “adversarial” dance in my head. As a Exuberant Animal i take it out in the wild to dance with it. I copy down the notions on a piece of paper from the garbage can (no need to waste paper, very few trees left) and then i take it out into the last of the wild and dance the posting, applying primal, practical playful movement and forms to my thoughts and feelings on “exercise”, while the sensuous organic flow of the wild is sensing its way into my soles.

It takes effort to work boring habits and words out of my soles, thoughts that have lead me into “not making sense”. They are stuck in me, minding and binding my muscles. So i have to play them out with movement and form, get a feel for what the SeeFoot has “exposed”. So i dance, play with sticks, ropes, stones, hang in trees, track down other animal kind, like a deer and begin a game, “explore” a rapore, go for a run with them, become “exhausted” from exuberant play. Then i build a fire and begin dancing and playing with the word “exercise” and see what creative thoughts “exit” out of my play time.

One thought that comes to me is the symbol “ex” in latin it means move out and it is the first letters in words like exuberance and exercise, exit. The word “exit” and “ex” has become a powerful symbol in guiding my practice. For i have “exited out” of shoes, walls, machine, getting my distance from them, playing them out of my body-mind. Earning and Learning ways to use movement and form that sustain my animal “exit”. To put it simply: I become “EXCITED”, (exiting the city) making sense with my feet. I can trust them.

Now i have found that i cannot get rid of the word “exercise” it has been culturally planted, rooted in my soles, root bound. What ever it’s original meaning was has became lost and sounds to much like “exorcise”. But i have learned in my exuberant animal practice that i can use movement and form and expand the meaning, weave in a new organic diversity of the word into my own playful understanding, transplanting the root meaning of words into the land. It is what you do with a root bound condition.

The SeeFoot’s foot postings “exposes” how the word “exercise” traps and cast a spell over me and shows the potion for dancing and breaking the spell, expanding the word “exercise” into a understanding that motivates me in a movement of “exploration”, using my practice of exuberance! So as i return into the city babble read or hear the word “exercise” or “exorcise”, i move it out, “exit” transpose it into the word “exuberance”. (If your not sure of the meaning of exuberance, then check out the website).

I literally walk, move the word “exercise” dance it out of my tissue. I “bore” my way out of the “dumb” meaning by using play, dancing out of boredom, out of the “boot camp exercising”,and focus on a foot camp of exuberance!

It is a great way to “make sense”, to play with these postings and craft an exuberant practice, breaking word spells. Dancing the understanding of the Exuberant Foot Postings (blog postings) that SeeFoot (Frank) shares. I deeply appreciate Frank’s postings. But it is up to or any exuberant animal to make the “effort” of crafting and cultivating them into my own personnel practice and then earn and learn the ways to share them, “present” them to others and our tribe of exuberants.

As an exuberant animal that has trained long in the last of the wild. I have learned this much about exuberance. It is a force of the land and i cannot own it, i can only move with it, clean up my thinking and feelings, free up abnormal habits, expose normal habits. Then pass the exuberant flow on to others, craft a practice that cultivates growth and frees me from the words that no longer “make sense”, words that suck the creativity and motivation out of me.

Like the SeeFoot says: “So maybe it’s time to go out for a walk and re-think your entire mission statement for the coming year. Your best bet is to give up on exercise right now; you’d be doing that soon enough anyway. Instead, resolve to get some more movement into your life, by any means possible.”

Exercise! Exorcise! words that trap,
I have heard their wisdom and i am still fat.

The experts say that is all you can do!
It is the only way to be healthy and move.

For you are a animal confined in a cage.
So get on the tread mill and work your rage!

Boring! Boredom! feelings that trap,
I have felt there wisdom and I am still fat.

The Exuberants say step out and play!
Learn to dance move in new ways!

For you are the animal that wills your talk!
So step out of boredom and go for a exuberant walk!

mick



My favorite part:

“Exercise is about repeating the known, but play is about extending into the unknown.”

Being human is about embracing novelty. Exercise, thus, is non-human.

Our educational systems focus on the known, rather than teaching how to explore the unknown. We need more exploration, both mentally and physically.

Best,

Brent

Another terrific essay. We’re so conditioned to accept “exercise” as a “must” without looking back to our childhoods (or to indigenous cultures) to see what it was that we did that brought us joy: playing, dancing, being physical.

Colin brings up a good question; I’d love to hear your thoughts on skill enhancement and free play.

Just yesterday, on my way home from the office, I was literally dancing down the sidewalk with my iPod. What a joy! Never mind what the neighbors were thinking.

Thanks,
Martha

When playing basketball with friends I would have to take frequent breaks because my midsection would become so cramped from the effort, and I didn’t even want to take the breaks. I played so hard that I could barely breath. It was great. I have never been able to create that kind of training effect when exercising alone with repetitive motions.