My first blog is a long time in coming. I owe it to people to provide information that will help them understand what they get if they want to train with me and what my perspective is on why this type of training is necessary. I’m currently out of the country and have some time on my hands, so I’m trying to take advantage of that time.

What it gets down to is this, I am VERY concerned for my fellow human beings’ health, fitness, and mobility, especially as they get older. Not just now but into the future as we continue to become more dependent on technology and eventually become a space-faring species. Although we have many opportunities to enhance our health, fitness, and mobility, our culture doesn’t emphasize those things as THE most important things to consider, and it shows. If we don’t learn some lessons from our ancestors soon, there will be detrimental impacts on our species for the long term. 

When you see me use the terms “our culture” or just “culture,” I’m referring primarily to Western Culture or WC. Examples of WC countries are European countries, the UK, Australia, Canada, and the United States. Many cultures in this world don’t have the level of technology and convenience WC countries do, so their movement patterns are more like our ancient ancestors. Subsequently, they don’t suffer from many of the maladies of being sedentary that WC countries do. I think we can have the best of both worlds if we adopt the perspective that healthy movement and fitness are essential. 

I offer four types of coaching: Natural Running training, Natural Movement training, Kettlebell training, and Home Habitat Assessments. I will write in more detail about those topics in subsequent blogs. For now, I will explain the concerns that led me to become interested in these topics, start training in these topics, and eventually become certified to teach these different training modalities. 

I am a 30 year veteran of the United States Marine Corps. At my 20-year mark, around 38 years old, I noticed that the physically challenging lifestyle I had been leading took its toll. My body began to stiffen, and I began to have knee and ankle injuries. I also began to have trouble maintaining the weight and body composition I wanted. I noticed that others my age were suffering the same issues. When I looked at Marines that were ten years older than me, they were in a much worse situation. They had all kinds of aches and pains and walked around like they were made of wood. That was alarming. Obviously, the problems I was running into are not exclusive to those that serve in the military, and I eventually realized it’s a problem the broader culture experiences. Up to that point, I had been very conventional in my outlook on diet, weight loss, exercise, lifestyle, and so on. So the traditional perspective on this would be that I was “getting older,” and all the things that were happening to me were “normal.” That wasn’t good enough for me, so I began researching how “normal” this getting older process was in the larger picture of our species history and other cultures worldwide. 

The real learning for me began in 2009 when I ran the Disney marathon and had HORRENDOUS plantar fasciitis and knee pain for almost a year after it was over. That was my 16th marathon, so I wasn’t new to running those distances and knew how to train for them. Exactly a year after that marathon and endless visits to my podiatrist, I discovered a book called “Born To Run” by Christopher MacDougall. See the recommended reading section of this site. This book’s information was my first hint that your average American, surrounded by technology and comfort, wasn’t using their body as nature intended. The key words there are “nature intended”. I also learned the running shoe industry didn’t necessarily base their running shoe technology on sound science or how the human body works when running. You would think using the baseline of a trained forefoot-striking barefoot runner (as nature intended) as a “control” versus a shod heel-striking “modern” runner (test subject) would help determine which types of footwear and running gait were better for the human body. That’s not what was happening.

Shoe manufacturers have gotten better in the past ten years. With so many minimalist options, all types of runners have better choices now. I’ll write more about that topic in a different post. So I spent a year training to run barefoot, culminating in running the 2011 Goofy Race and a Half Challenge. This Challenge consisted of running the Disney Half Marathon barefoot on Saturday and the Disney marathon on Sunday in 4mm Luna Sandals. I was physically fine after both races and enjoyed walking around the Disney parks with my family during the evening. In contrast to two years before, I could barely walk after finishing the 2009 Disney marathon with expensive, over-built running shoes.  

The realization I had been running unnaturally was a serious wake-up call. This made me wonder what other concepts I was duped into believing even though there was no evidence they would be helpful, healthful, or correct for a human animal. Once I got rid of my plantar fasciitis and knee pain by learning to run physiologically correctly, I began to look for other things I mistakenly believed. These tended to fall into two groups. They were either beliefs instilled through product marketing OR were the product of me never questioning misinformation I absently absorbed from the broader culture. I was interested in those things that would create maximum health, mobility, and fitness, especially as I got older. So my research began. 

Some of the things I learned were: 

* Most runners in our culture have no idea how to run based on how the human body functions

* People in our culture begin to stiffen and become less agile as they get older BECAUSE they get “casted” into specific body postures due to only being in certain positions such as sitting in a car or sitting on a couch instead of moving in all the ways the human body has evolved to move

* Maintaining fitness and mobility doesn’t require you to go to the gym to workout; instead, they are a lifestyle choice that can easily be maintained through a little bit of effort each day in your own home or pretty much anywhere you go

* Aging members of modern hunter-gatherer groups and other non-WC cultures tend to stay fit and mobile as they age, so aging doesn’t necessarily have to mean the end of these two things 

* Most people in our culture design their homes for comfort and aesthetics without considering fitness and mobility

* Most people in our culture avoid exposure to the outdoor elements of cold, heat, wind, and rain, which reduces physical and mental resilience. 

* In our culture, most people’s eating habits don’t seem to be decided through experimentation to see what works best for their health and body type but instead through whatever the latest news headline is, whatever they are being marketed to as healthy, what tastes good, or what’s cheapest

I’ve noticed many more things that I apply to my own life, but the items above led me to provide the services that I offer with Coach D’s Natural Running. I have not yet completed a nutritional certification, so I don’t offer any nutritional counseling services. 

The final key to understanding why I provide the services I do and why you should consider training with me or someone like me is anthropology. I dig pretty hard into anthropology, trying to understand how our ancestors moved, slept, ate, and lived day-to-day. The genus Homo has been around for about 2.5 million years, and anatomically modern humans have been around in our current form for about 200,000 years. Even though agriculture is thought to have begun 12,000-10,000 years ago, “modern” human culture has only been around for 6,000 years, starting with the Sumerian civilization. This means we’ve only had “civilization” for around 3% of our species’ total time on this planet. For roughly 97% of our species’ existence, we lived in the wild like other animals and eventually became hunter-gatherers living in tribal bands. 

This means we: 

1. We were exposed to the elements daily 
2. Carried heavy things regularly
3. Regularly climbed trees and rocks to find food or get away from predators
4. Walked barefoot on all kinds of uneven terrain 
5. Relocated regularly to hunted/gather food in new locations 
6. Were consistently exposed to the sun
7. Regularly engaged in periods of fasting when we couldn’t find enough food 
8. Sat on the ground, rocks, tree stumps, logs, and whatever else we could find to sit on 
9. Had to continually be on the alert so that we didn’t become meat for another predator

That 97% of what our species has experienced is still what our bodies need to keep us healthy and fit, mentally and physically. Our species is evolved from the ground up to be in motion. The comfort of our current culture is literally killing us. 

In our culture, we have gradually moved away from the environment that has molded and shaped incredibly adaptable, resilient, fit, innovative, bold human beings. We are shadows of our former selves. For many of us, our biggest accomplishment for the day is getting up in the morning and actually making it to work on time. Then the rest of the day is spent sitting around an office environment with air conditioning. Only to be followed up by going home in an air-conditioned car and sitting on a plush couch and staring at the enormous glowing screen in our living room for several hours while we mindlessly shovel sugar-filled food and beverages into the hole on the front of our face. Other than socially sitting around fires (versus TV) in the evening, our current lifestyles are quite literally the opposite of how we evolved. Your body and mind adapt to the stressors you throw at it. If neither ever experiences any stressors, then they get weaker and less adaptable. When I say stressors, I’m not referring to forcing your body to adapt to a high sugar diet (physical stressor) or the evening news (mental stressor). I’m referring to going out for long walks or runs (physical stressor) or learning a foreign language (mental stressor). 

I coach plenty of clients who have no interest in understanding how our ancestors lived and moved, and that’s fine as long as they are exercising. Nonetheless, my ultimate goal is to help people understand where they came from and why they still need to follow their ancestors’ examples of moving and living to maintain health, fitness, and mobility in the modern world. We are ABSOLUTELY becoming physically weaker with each generation, and the incidence of mental illness is rising. Our species is headed for disaster if we can’t figure out how to reconnect to the ancestral side of who we are and where we came from. 

Whether you are male or female, young or old, if you can’t do the following things, you need to do something to help yourself before it’s too late.  

• Get off the ground without using your hands
• Walk at least a mile relatively easily
• Do at least ten push-ups without using your knees 
• Be able to hang from a bar or straight tree branch for at least 15 seconds
• Roll up into a sitting position from lying on your back
• Comfortably sit cross-legged for at least five minutes
• Stand on each foot for at least 30 seconds without losing your balance
• Carry a 45lbs weight at least 15 meters (49 ft)

The choice is yours. Do you want to end up like the fellow in the orange recliner, or do you prefer to end up like the fellow in the yellow shirt? The former is obese and headed for poor health and immobility. The latter is fit and sitting comfortably in a normal human squatting position. Both are valid life choices. I’m not judging. I’m pointing out that you should actively choose instead of a choice being made for you through inaction or ignorance.

In this blog, I’m not going to preach, nor will I tell you what YOU should do. I’m going to offer perspectives that you may have never considered before; you make your own choices for how you want YOUR life to turn out. I’m here if you need me. 🙂

Regards,

Coach Warren Dickey