Exercise is all about defying gravity. The biomechanics of it fascinate me. Our bodies are simply levels of leverage systems, working together to create infinitely complex movement. We can do some pretty damn cool things with 206 bones and ~650 muscles. It’s just physics.
Physics is all about defying gravity, and at MFF, that means it’s all about Defying Gravity. However, sometimes picking things up and putting them just feels too simple.
I’m absolutely a fan at becoming brilliant at the basics. It’s the key to consistency. I also believe we should regularly learn new, complicated, what-the-hell-am-I-doing-in-space type exercises because it makes our brain really happy. I mean, we’ve basically evolved because of how we process movement.
Motor learning nerdiness accounted for, today I want to share with you three new moves that Ninjas at MFF will be seeing in Superhero Strength this month that I think are totally rad. We can take two routes to appreciating these exercises: The really serious one, or the really silly one. I think both are acceptable.
Section C of Superhero Strength this month includes three moves inspired by my absolute love for the Lord of the Rings series. These moves are the Gollum Get Around, Lord Elrond Lunge, and Oliphaunt Burpee.
Let’s look at the Gollum Get Around first. Inspired by Gollum’s spinning-in-circles display of excitement, I’ve taken an Ape Crawl which we used in our Circuit Party class previously, and made it a rotational variation. Here’s a demo:
Let’s compare that to Gollum’s movement in the end of this scene. (It’s literally the last 10 seconds, but watching the whole scene is a great idea, too.)
The Gollum Get Around is going to bring about a pretty quick metabolic response, that is, it’s going to make your heart beat fast. We’ll follow it by channeling the grace and elegance of the Elves of Rivendell. The Lord Elrond Lunge is actually a reverse lunge to single leg balance with kettlebell shovel. That doesn’t inform us of the intention to be as fluid as possible, and we’re working to ensure that the strength stability of men does not fail. Here’s a Lord Elrond Lunge demo:
Here’s a clip of Lord Elrond being the wisdomful bad-ass wizard that he is:
Now, we’ll journey to off to meet the Haradrim riding the Oliphaunt’s in battle. Watching Legolas get it done is important to understanding the complexity of this burpee:
So you’ve seen the Oliphaunt. Now we’re going to BE the Oliphaunt. Get ready for this one:
Guys, there is nothing serious about this burpee. It’s only a burpee. There’s a little swing-your-arm-in-circles move on the front of it. I do think that there’s some vestibular integration benefits of this particular move, after reading Carla Hannaford’s Smart Moves. Do I think we need to discuss the brain-body benefits achieved from the elephant manuever? No, we’re acting like Oliphaunt’s from Lord of the Rings, you’re allowed to play. This last move is about play. Play that happens to elevate your heart rate. A lot.
These three new moves have been a blast to include in our classes in Phase 7 at MFF. Maybe we should call it a cycle… it’s the Ring Cycle! Bwahaha that’s an opera joke, come on!
We’ll be exploring these new movements, finding a beautiful balance between ridiculous humans and serious fitness. It’s what happens at MFF every day. If you give one of these moves a try, please let me know. I want you to have as much fun exploring how your body moves as possible. Sometimes our moves are all about Defying Gravity, and sometimes it’s about practicing being the Superhero of the Shire.
Harold Gibbons 