I want to first thank everyone who purchased The Natural Method and helped it make it to the #1 best seller in the Physical Education category. The outpour of interest and recognition of Georges Hébert’s hundred-year old manuscript denotes the profound interest in the fitness industry to “do better”. I see it as a hugely positive step in the direction of education, foundation and organization in training, something that can be still lacking in the industry.

Many of my friends, be they peers or mentors, always relied on the substance of others to promote their philosophy, after making it their own, and it almost always led to phenomenal results with their clientèle, which then led to their own recognition as pillars in the community. And because I frequently mention them by name, I will not do it this time and rather give them a silent homage, although they all know who they are (and I could write a blog which would read like the phone book if I mentioned all without omissions).

Assimilation and understanding ought to always be the first steps, before applying or dispensing the knowledge, in my humble opinion. By focusing on the lessons of the first book and taking ownership of the process, I also (hopefully) was able to carry on the message of education by emulation, which the book promotes. Hébert talks about the ability to simplify the process of training so that even a non-expert can, with minimal education, conduct a model training session. The understanding and application of the process begets a unification of the trainees and then exponentially spreads. Any certified trainer ought to be able to emulate that process with their existing knowledge.

Why didn’t I release all three books at once? Outside of the time limitations and my thirst to share right away what my mind was getting blown away with, I wanted to avoid the potential of someone simply skipping to the exercises descriptions only and missing out on the process and sequence of the method entirely. Since most trainers have a basic understanding of exercises but, as I have observed, string together movements without a cohesive purpose, the first presentation of this trilogy removes the distraction of the shiny new toy or the dismissal of something already known.

I may be wrong in my approach, but I’ve always stuck to the execution of the basics, and good old Georges was way smarter than I can ever be, so instead of questioning his approach, I simply applied and interpreted his model in a quickly “digestible” amount of information. Also, because education benefits from rote, I stayed loyal to his repetitive style rather than subjectively abridge his work for the sake of making it shorter. Anything worth investing time in ought to stay with you past your initial reading. If the same information is repeated over and over, it’s likely to stick. Anecdote: this is how I got to drive a NASCAR at full speed for 20 laps, passing other slower cars multiple times, engaging in a high speed chase with a buddy of mine, because we spent 90 minutes hearing 5 minutes worth of instructions drilled into our brains in different fashions!