“In search of answers, I’ll take you into research labs, ancient training camps, and the minds of forgotten geniuses. I’ll take a fresh look at old myths and explore some recent examples of natural heroism, including an elementary school principal who fought off a school invader with her own two hands. The more I learned about the past, the more I realized a new rebellion is afoot, one led by revolutionaries who remember that human animals thrive in the wild. When Kelly Starrett couldn’t find a fitness center that met his leopard needs, he created one: outdoors, in a San Francisco parking lot. That same exhilaration from bloody knees and rope-burned hands is spurring the rise of obstacle races, like Tough Mudder and Spartan, and inspired something even more lusty and primitive: the ‘November Project,’ begun by ex-college oarsmen who decided one November to get back in shape. The November Project is free and open to all, and takes the ‘Be Useful’ ideology of CrossFit one step further: during blizzards, November Projecters will fan out and get their workouts by digging out their neighbors.
Natural Born Heroes visits all these rebels. It’s a rollicking ride, but always returns to its main tale: the story of ordinary people, just like you, who discovered how extraordinary they could be.”
~ Christopher McDougall from Natural Born Heroes
I picked this book up after reading Spartan Fit. It was one of the few books Joe De Sena recommended that I hadn’t read yet.
(I’m working on the others soon. For now, check out the Notes on other recs from that book including Unbeatable Mind, The Obstacle Is the Way, Meditations, Letters from a Stoic, On the Shortness of Life, Spartan Up!, The Paleo Manifesto, and The War of Art.)
Christopher McDougall is the author of Born to Run. He’s a brilliant story teller. In this great book, he weaves together a number of different narratives, with an emphasis on two: one about an extraordinary wartime adventure on Crete and the other about Natural Movement.
It’s a quick-reading, page-turning book packed with inspiration and Big Ideas on how we can each tap into the extraordinary superpowers latent within. (Get the book here.)
I’m excited to share some of my favorite Ideas so let’s jump straight in!
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