I just got back from a great vacation in cottage country, more specifically in Georgian Bay, Ontario. The title isn’t exactly true I wasn’t living totally primitive while on vacation but I did spend a solid 4 days without electricity and limited cell phone reception, which was an absolute treat! I just wanted to share some stories of my vacation and how they relate to fitness.
· In order to reach Robyn’s cottage we had to take a 45minute boat ride (this wasn’t primitive but I couldn’t help but imagine the effort it would have taken to get to where we were going if we didn’t have a motor boat, Robyn’s parents have cross country skied the distance in during the winter), which was just spectacular. When we arrived at the dock we hopped out of the boat and basically said good bye to our shoes and sandals… we spent the majority of our time in bare feet which is right up my alley as you are all aware! As I moved around the property my feet has to grip rock, moss, and sticks and compensate for the ground not being level in order to keep myself upright while walking. The reason this is so great for your body is that you can’t simply step one foot in front of the other, you need to consciously plan your route a few steps ahead… meaning you have to be aware of every step you take and to adjust your body for any change in footing. This is how primitive caveman had to move, they didn’t have perfectly flat surfaces to walk/run on so they had to train their body to be aware of what kind of surface they were travelling on and adjust accordingly.
· As I said earlier we arrived at the cottage using a motor boat but from then on when we left the cottage we usually hopped in a canoe or a kayak. I had only been in a canoe or a kayak a handful of times so it took a little bit of getting used to but once I got moving it was great. I am not exactly sure why I preferred the canoe to the kayak, maybe because I felt my legs were grounded in the canoe and I could be more powerful when paddling. These two methods of water travel are great workouts and I definitely worked up a sweat as we paddled around the bay looking at different islands, cottages, and birds. When we were paddling all I could think was no wonder every picture of a coastal Native American in a canoe was so ripped… you would have to be strong in order to battle the currents and waves of the water to collect food necessary for living.
· According to Paul Chek there are 7 primal movement patterns that were necessary for survival and they are: squat, lunge, bend (Deadlift), push, pull, twist, and gait (walk/run). There were some chores to do around the cottage and in order to get these chores done all of these 7 movements took place. The big chore that required all of these movements was the cleaning of wooden stove pipes… wow it must have sucked to be a chimney sweep back in the day. Three of us took the pipes down cleaned the ash and soot out of them, washed them in the water and then reassembled them. These are the kind of jobs that used to make up the workforce and now that desk jobs are more prominent we are seeing a large number of the population becoming overweight with poor posture and movement mechanics.
· Although swimming isn’t directly included as one of the primal movement patterns you wouldn’t be able to swim without combining the primal movement patterns of push, pull, and twist. I was told that a majority of French Canadians that used to inhabit the area couldn’t swim, which completely shocked me as I couldn’t imagine living that close to the water and not swimming. We swam daily… we would jump into the water to cool off, to play, to exercise and to bathe! If you couldn’t tread water, you would be in some serious trouble… so I am going to concede that the original habitants of the land could tread water and that is definitely a workout!
This trip really opened my eyes to the way humans had to live 50 years ago, 100 years ago, and thousands of years ago… as much as I love modern living and technology it is important to know what it took to survive in the past in order to influence the way we live our present lives!
Josh Neumann, BHK, PTS, TSCC-1
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