The secret weapon of Brazil’s UFC elite, ginastica natural, adopts animal-like movements to develop strength, flexibility and cardio.
But does it make you a deadly viper or a cowardly lion?
The instructor rests in front of the class in a press-up position.
The students mirror him, shuffling across the floor as he leads them through a series of movements designed to challenge their strength and co-ordination.
He twists quickly, switching his hips so that he faces the ceiling.
Then bounds along on all fours like a monkey, leading his charges around the room. A series of jumping kicks is followed by isometric squats. This is ginastica natural, and judging by the expressions on the faces of the tough-looking warriors being put through their paces, it’s harder than it looks.
Ginastica natural first came to widespread attention thanks to the Rickson Gracie movie Choke.
The documentary featured the legendary grappler and undefeated MMA fighter training on a beach, gracefully moving through a series of movements that the MMA community would later learn to be ginastica natural. Since then it’s been used by a wealth of Brazilian stars, like the Nogueira brothers, Junior Dos Santos and Roger Gracie.
While Vitor Belfort used ginastica natural to prepare for his August UFC 133 fight with Yoshihiro Akiyama, working directly with the creators of the system at his training camp in San Diego.
WHERE DID IT COME FROM?
A man named Alvaro Romano is credited with creating the system.
A keen surfer, he met the late Rolls Gracie back in the 1970s.
The Rio de Janeiro natives bonded over their love of the ocean, and Gracie introduced Romano to his family art of Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
Romano began learning with Gracie in his academy in Copacabana in 1976, starting formal training as a physical trainer a year later.
While studying at university, Romano began to devise a system of exercises that complemented the martial arts he and his friends practiced. Instead of using weights or machines, he used the one tool everybody has access to: the human body.
Drawing from jiu-jitsu and yoga for inspiration, Romano also introduced a series of movements unique to the style he called ginastica natural (‘natural gymnastics’ in Portuguese).
“One day in one of my father’s training sessions, he started to do some movements and he thought they looked like animals,” says Raphael Romano, son of Alvaro and Rio-based ginastica natural tutor. “Everything started with the monkey walk.
After that we started to develop some different animals. We went to the zoo many times just to watch how animals walk, their posture.
The goal was always to improve our body awareness, control and coordination.”
The result was a hybrid system designed for martial artists as a form of supplementary training. A full-contact sport like MMA leaves you sore and often with injuries.
Rather than break the body down, ginastica natural is a form of exercise that allows you to train hard while avoiding unnecessary injury.
PHILOSOPHY AND TECHNIQUE
The philosophy behind ginastica natural seems simple: stretch, roll around on the floor and move like an animal while making sure to have fun at the same time.
But it is a holistic system that can be practiced by anyone, from professional fighters to surfers and hardcore grapplers to housewives.
A fluid form of exercise, it contains over 500 techniques and movements. Most importantly, no two classes are the same.
A typical 45-minute group session will see the class run through approximately 50 moves with the intensity and difficultly adjusted to the level of the practitioners.
Stretching, core work, balance and bodyweight strength exercises flow thick and fast, with the instructor calling out the moves in a non-stop series of commands. There is no rest.
Special emphasis is placed upon stretches and mobility exercises that open the hips, with the class regularly returning to a default rest position between sequences, a stretch that resembles the yoga position known as ‘the pigeon.’
A tight piriformis muscle (gluteal region) is a common complaint among fighters and can cause back pain if not addressed, so plenty of attention is paid to loosening it off. The hamstrings and glutes are also targeted, with many stretches dedicated to these problem spots.
Spinal mobility and core stability are two areas that ginastica natural places special emphasis upon. For every exercise that stretches a body part, a counter-balance is struck by performing a complementary strength move.
Every movement flows into the next, and the class look like they are grappling without an opponent. It’s not just about stretching.
A lot of balance positions require the use of the upper body, with loads being placed through the shoulders at angles not uncommon in a fight. The cardio element of a ginastica natural session should not be underestimated.
Even on a chilly autumn evening, there are pools of sweat on the floor.
Then there is the breathing. The instructor reminds the class to breathe by repeatedly exhaling with a loud whistle; the tension created in the abdomen helps stabilize the trunk.
The class finishes up with a series of respiration exercises that slow down the heart rate, and a brief period of meditation occurs, although to the uninitiated it looks like they’re just having a lie down.
THE NATURAL APPROACH
In a world of sledgehammers, kettlebells and gas masks, ginastica natural takes exercise back to basics. “You can do it every day with different intensity and goals,” says Raphael.
“You will learn about your body, mind and soul.” And maybe even become a more lethal fighter.
Trying out ginastica natural
As with any specialized form of exercise, it’s always best to start with an instructor. The most important element of ginastica natural is the breathing, and beginners can often get this wrong.
“The breathing techniques provide the practitioner with great progress in mental and motor control,” says Raphael Romano.
“We teach fighters how to breathe before, during and after the fight.”
There are many videos of demonstrations, and its free-flowing nature makes it easy to improvise and introduce it into your training.
Those familiar with yoga will recognise many of the positions, and the animal movements and bodyweight exercises will be familiar to most grapplers.
“New sequences and exercises are being created every day to offer practitioners different and innovative ways to get to know and control the body and mind,” says Raphael.
> Fighters who train Ginastica Natural
It’s not just high-profile members of the Gracie family like Rickson and Roger who train ginastica natural, the martial arts stretches amongst an array of MMA superstars.
Just like the popular kids movie Kung Fu Panda, here’s our very own ginastica natural ‘Furious Five.’
1: Vitor ‘The Phenom’ Belfort
2: Junior Dos Santos
3: Antonio Rodrigo ‘Minotauro’ Nogueira
4: Antonio Rogerio ‘Minotoro’ Nogueira
5: Xande Ribeiro
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