The purpose of the Natural Method is to develop individuals to become well-rounded athletes with a minimal physical aptitude requirement. It is not about who can deadlift the most, complete a triathlon the fastest, win a bodybuilding contest or become the winner of the (insert sporting event here). Those are just “extras”, very specialized goals that extend beyond the basics of the Natural Method, and are encouraged as they can represent an individual’s interest(s). But, for the civic duty, the Noble Cause of being able to help self, peers and country, the method boils down to the main activities of walking/marching (rucking also), running (distance or speed), lifting (heavy objects), throwing (heavy objects, or light ones for target practice), climbing (rope, scaling, free, training to overcome fear of heights), jumping (high or far), rescuing, swimming and combative techniques like boxing or wrestling.
The schematic to the left displays an ideal training area. This is from the original document, all in French, so allow me to translate each area for you. It is made up of a top strip (water area), a center field broken up into 4 quadrants and surrounded by a track, and a bottom strip, itself broken up. Please click on the image to expand it for clarity.
Upper left corner: Training area reserved for basic educational exercises, shadow boxing and simple games. The area is surrounded by 8 beams for suspension/off ground exercises.
The T-shaped shaded area is for the locker room. To its immediate right, connected, are 16 straight climbing ropes, using the building’s outer wall for the climbing drills. Right next to it is the boxing area (for actual sparring).
Below the “T” is a rectangle broken up into 8 areas, designated for wrestling.
To the right of the wrestling area are 8 more rudimentary bars for corrective, restorative exercises.
The upper right portion of the field is for jumping (top) climbing (center) and beams (bottom of upper right quadrant).
Separating the upper right and lower right quadrants is a 100-meter track for sprinting/speed training.
In the lower right quadrant are additional climbing and scaling, height training and rope climbing apparatuses.
Surrounding the 4 quadrants is a 500-meter circular track for endurance runs.
At the very bottom are 2 “strips” of training areas. The first one is an obstacle clearing area, with trees, walls etc. The bottom strip is divided into 3 areas: on the left, an area for weight lifting. Center: heavy objects throwing. Right: light objects throwing for target practice.
The very top strip is, in this example, a river used for swimming and water rescue drills.
From a personally opinionated standpoint, shared by many of my peers, people ought to focus on developing those minimal aptitude physical requirements before they should even concern themselves with vanity goals or other, and not fall prey to fitness marketing hype. The reality of every day modern life and its tasks tends to derail people into a form of specialty training that becomes a potential waste of their time, as the end goal, not being consistent with the reality of basic human performance and needs, is often abandoned. Don’t focus so much on losing the pounds, focus on doing the work and eating properly to become functionally fit (example chosen because of the most popular goal for people to get fit). Do it correctly, consistently, and you’ll get there!