• Calisthenics, the street as a gym

Officer and physical trainer of the French Navy, Georges Hébert (1875-1957) arrived at the village of Saint Pierre in Martinique to coordinate the evacuation of the, then, Gala Colony, ravaged by a catastrophic volcanic eruption in 1902. During On his expedition, Hébert watched with surprise how the native population of that place made a thousand turns physically to his "allegedly" perfectly trained pupils.

There, in full rescue mission, the French military clearly perceived how those privileged 'bodies' remained in pure ornament when it came to climb, jump or load. "Basically, he realized that it is not enough to have good hardware and that, to be operational and functional, you have to develop good software as well. Both must be trained by practicing the skills that are intended to be enhanced, without going around," explains Rafael López del Valle (@iberian_pangea), trainer and functional rehabilitator at Zentro Urban Yoga (Madrid).

And, from that moment on, he redesigned his workouts by turning them around a central axis: " Be strong to be useful ." This is how the so-called 'natural method ' was born. "It is one of the modern names we give to calisthenics , which was the gymnastics practiced in Classical Greece," says López del Valle.

How was that way of training? "It was designed for the development of a series of functions. It was not about acquiring a certain aspect, of developing specific muscles with an aesthetic purpose, but of some qualities."

FORCE AND MOBILITY

What disciplines groups this method? "When exploring the functions of the human body in search of a real application, different activities are mixed : quadruped, bipedia, climbing, swimming, fighting, lifting and throwing objects."

In the image and likeness (saving the distances), of those supermen with whom Hebert met in Martinique, the practice of this method makes us feel "stronger, more agile, more powerful and that we gain mobility in those ranges for which we are 'designed', "he says.

If you want to know more about the natural method, do not miss the report that will be broadcast tomorrow, Sunday, starting at 9 am, in 'Health per day' (Telemadrid program produced by UEtv). Georges Hébert himself would hallucinate with the body control that Rafael López del Valle boasts!

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