Incredible You! - Move Like An Animal With Ido Portal

Which animal has the best movement on the planet? A monkey? A cheetah? A gazelle? No, according to Ido Portal, the animal with the best movement on the planet is you.

Diversity Through Movement

Many people have not yet heard of Ido Portal, he is the master of movement, he himself would probably call himself a student of movement. He has studied capoeira, gymnastics, parkour, and many, many more. If you have heard of him, it is likely through the work he has done with Conor McGregor, the irish MMA, lightweight champion. McGreggor

Portal points out that millions of years of evolution has left its mark on us; for instance, the human spine has the ability to explore ranges of movement that are quite aquatic. Even though we are bipeds, we still have quadrupedal movement locked in us, just ask any dad who has played horsey with his daughter!

So whilst a chimpanzee, swinging effortlessly through the trees, does so in a way that a human could never emulate, that's it for the chimp. She can only move in this manner, ask her to do a rhumba or cha-cha-cha, and she'll be stumped.

Through six million years of evolution, the chimp's arms have grown longer in proportion to its legs, it has developed fabulous upper body strength, and incredible hand-eye coordination.

Over the same period of time, the bias of human evolution has been focused on brain development. Areas such as Broca's area and Wernike's area, have allowed us to develop complex language structures, and the entire frontal lobe of the brain has enabled us to develop skills such as engineering, and mathematics.

So in between now, and the time us and chimps split from our common ancestor all those millions of years ago, the human body has not changed that much. However it is the brain development that we have all gone through, which allow us to move in a way that is at direct odds with our evolutionary needs.

Dancing Bears And Painting Elephants

We are fascinated if we see an animal dance, like one of those dancing bears in the Russian circus. We marvel at how somebody can train a bear to do something that it would not naturally do.

As a side note, the way people get bears to dance, or elephants to paint, is through extreme cruelty, and if you do not like cruelty towards animals, you shouldn't support these peoples shows.

So what delights us about a dancing pig, or a giraffe that can paint like Picasso? It is because these animals are moving in a way they don't have to.

The reason you never see a chimp break dancing in the wild, is because break dancing bears no evolutionary advantage on the chimp's life. It quite literally, has no use for dancing in any way, shape or form, so, chimps don't dance.

You on the other hand, dance not because you must, but because you can, human evolution of the brain, has allowed us to indulge in things that are merely fun.

So humans dance, and animals do not.

Building Our Movement Library

If you've ever watched one of @sirwinchester's dance videos, you would have seen him move in a way that you probably never have.

In fact, it is estimated, that when a person is in the process of learning dance, he can learn up to 400 new types of movement a week. This is because the movement we need to navigate everyday life, is not that diverse. We need to be able to at least walk, possibly run, climb stairs, sit and stand, and that's pretty much it.

However if you watch children at physical play, you see that there are so many more ways we can move. We tend to lose that incredible range of movement we have as children, although not for any other reason than through lack of practice.

That is essentially what Ido Portal is all about, he is really into exploring the various ways that we as humans can move. To tap into that well of genetic information we have hidden in our DNA, and build our library of movement, so that we can become freer, happier beings.

By studying Ido's brand of movement, you will learn to crawl like a lizard, or scuttle like a spider, you will learn discover that the agility you had as a child, still lurks within you.

So check out Ido Portal's website, and get into movement training, and explore the amazing potential of your body.

SO WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT MOVEMENT? ARE YOU STILL AS SUPPLE AS YOU WERE WHEN YOU WERE YOUNG? OR ARE YOU AS STIFF AS A BOARD AND JUST ACCEPT THAT'S THE WAY THINGS ARE AS YOU GET OLDER? AS EVER, LET ME KNOW BELOW!

More from the Incredible You! Series:

1. Incredible You! - Finding Your Flow State Superpower
2. Incredible You! - Move Like An Animal With Ido Portal

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