ABOUT NATURAL FITNESS

Our modern world is drastically changing us and not always for the better. We are all presently experiencing the de-evolution of the human condition.

We've engineered movement right out of our lives and forced ourselves into sedentary lifestyles. We work from home. We work on screens. We order in. We shop online. We are sacrificing our health on the altar of convenience. We have unprecedented access to more information than we’ve ever had in human history, but are not any healthier for it.

The health problems of modernity are directly related to the mechanized industrialization of everything. This can be seen historically with the shift away from classical Natural Fitness to a more fast-food entertainment approach. Gymnasiums began to look less like small Olympic Parks that emphasized a variety of environmental challenges like running tracks, obstacles, free weights, and wrestling/boxing rings and were transformed to resembled more of the industrial zeitgeist of machine based production.

The result of this assembly line philosophy was gyms crowded with machines void of the life bringing multi-plane movements that enabled us to build shelters, fabricate tools, and kill sabertooth tigers.

Historically, physical training has always been linked to human survival. However, after the introduction of nuclear warfare, the need to run, jump, crawl, lift, and fight became almost obsolete overnight.

Physical training became more about aesthetics and entertainment than survival or capability. And let's not forget the deep moral and ethical practices often linked to classical Olympic culture and traditional combat arts. Instead of training and competing as means of being useful to our families or communities, we praised the sculpted human form as an end in and of itself without realizing what we were losing.

Our ancestral brains developed through intense environmental challenges enabling us to not only survive but thrive. It is precisely this unpredictability that prompted our brains to grow larger and develop superior problem solving skills and heightened proprioception. Without fitness derived from the natural problem solving challenges of survival our brains have begun to shrink and lose elasticity while our bodies have grown diseased and frail.

Over the years we've systematically removed the very things that gave us the ability to tame our environment. This has led to a weakening populace that doesn't remember how to hunt or play.

The more elastic and supple the body is, the more useful it will be and the longer it will last. This type of athleticism is built through a balance between predictable and unpredictable training modes that more accurately reflects our ancestral survival way of life.

Being committed to general fitness practices that include strength, agility, flexibility, speed, and self-defense for the purpose of being useful will completely change your quality of life. Natural Fitness's focus on capability and adventure learning over aesthetics helps us excavate decades of conscious and sub-conscious programming fed to us by consumerism and popular culture.

By reclaiming our natural fitness, we can enjoy the adventure of movement and build a longer, healthier, and more fulfilling life. At ORTHDX (“orthodox”), every class, workshop, and skill session is built upon this classical model from our ancestral past. The facility itself was designed for its members to develop their bodies elastic strength and spatial buoyancy through adventure and exploration. 

Additionally, you will be amazed at how easy it is to enjoy fitness and movement in an environment that invites you to not only conquer yourself but also the world around you.

Life is an adventure. We should train to enjoy it.

David Welther (Co-owner, Training Director, Martial Artist)