This book (and therefore this review) will interest you if you are into:
- health and fitness, strength and movement
- superheroes, and/or
- war stories
Now, I know they seem like a very, very strange combination of genres and yet the masterful storyteller that is Christopher McDougall managed to weave multiple ideas into one epic book.
This is an epic book.
So if it sounds like it's up your alley, keep reading and I'll tell you more.
Before writing Natural Born Heroes: The Lost Secrets of Strength and Endurance, Christopher McDougall wrote the famous (or infamous, depending on who you talk to!) and worldwide bestseller Born to Run.
While Born to Run draws on Christopher's extensive research and on the ground experiences of looking at how humans are, as the title suggests, "born to run", Natural Born Heroes seems to take the idea one step further suggesting that, not only are we designed to run, we are actually capable of far, far more than we realise.
McDougall weaves together, in a way I've never seen done this well before, multiple storylines and timelines into one magically cohesive and amazingly enjoyable book.
He used his incredible journalism skills to do extensive research into the goings on on Crete during World War II. He paired what he found with more research he'd done on Greek Gods and our basis for superhero characters. And somehow, somewhere in all that, he also researched the history of, and the heroes in, the natural movement circles.
I'm unsure whether Christopher is a better researcher or storyteller, but suffice to say it's his ability to do both these things so very well that makes this one of my favourite books I've read in, well, years.
Since reading is not my favourite way of learning, a book has to be really good to keep me reading.
Since I've become quite a capable writer, a book has to be really good to keep me reading.
And since I have so many things I want to study in this lifetime, a book has to be really good to keep me reading.
I read this book cover to cover, literally; I even read the list of book sources he cited as I was fascinated about where else I could learn more about natural movement and the further development of my own strength and endurance.
There is so much more I could tell you about this book.
I could tell you that I genuinely laughed, out loud, several times.
I could tell you that I actually said (more than once) to my partner some version of:
"OMG, I love the way Christopher writes. He's so freakin' good at this, I don't even know how he does it."
And I could tell you that I genuinely shocked at some of the things I learned about what the body is capable of doing that I've never ever seen anywhere before.
But you know what? If you like reading (and since you're in this group I'm kind of assuming you do 😋) and if you like engaging, exciting stories (and who doesn't?) and if you're interested in one or more of the topics I mentioned at the top of this post then I can wholeheartedly recommend you get your hands (or at least your eyes 😎) on this book.
And when you read it, if you're a health-fitness-strength-movement enthusiast like me, please do let me know how you found it and what you're doing to do about what you've learned.
Until then, I'll be off bouncing through the bush like the wild superhero I was born to be 😉
(Both book cover photos taken on my Google Pixel 2XL phone).
This book could explain those Parkour guys to me haha
My heart stops every time I watch them do crazy things...
You did great explaining it, I'm sold on reading it :D
🙌🙌 🙏🙏😁😁
Parkour - it definitely does! 😉
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