Our mission is to help people who are seeking fitness in body, mind, and spirit to embody their personal potential and connect to the earth. This naturally leads to balanced people, thriving communities, and a healthy planet. The name Anima Sporta is Latin for "Basket of the Soul". This is in reference to our temporal inheritance- that which we wake up with each day and call our body, mind, and spirit. These are the gifts which allow your soul its unique expression and experience in life as a human being.
I have spent my life exploring movement in nature and Tarzan has always been my icon for primal human fitness. For over twenty years, I have searched for a fitness modality which expresses more completely human movement and nature connection. When I began Tribal Edge in 2002, I ran a class I called "Tarzan training" which caught some interest but lacked the cultural paradigm to support it. For years I experimented with integrating awareness, conditioning, and natural movement with fitness. Then along came CrossFit and a remarkable paradigm shift for the fitness world. Still, this did not fully represent what I was seeking. Now, in the wake of CrossFit's fitness revolution, there emerges a whole new "movement of movement"- Primal Fitness. I feel is now finally time to launch our unique breed of fitness training into a world that is ready to experience it.
Anima Sporta
Anima Sporta is the skill based, functional training modality that I have developed to awaken your inner nature, reconnect you to your body and the earth, and get you moving in a healthy, powerful way. This "fitness" modality is designed to bring you to a whole new level of fitting into your world as a healthy, awake human being. Now after 20 years of research and experimentation, and over a decade of coaching others to awaken their "inner nature" through awareness training, conditioning, and natural movement, I am excited to offer this to the public as a training system.
Anima Sporta is a fitness modality that offers training in the primal elements of the human experience: Awareness- our capacity to experience, Conditioning- knowing ourselves & our environment, and Movement- our ability to function. Before all else, these elements are the foundation of our daily performance and directly influence our quality of life. By simply seeing the world through new eyes, facing your fear of change and discomfort, and learning how to move in a naturally powerful way, your everyday activities will reveal more excitement, joy, and fulfillment.
By observing the basic movement patterns that you use, and need to use your whole life, we have created a nearly unlimited resource of exercises based upon real life needs. We simply take normal activities like getting up or getting down to the ground for example, break the movements down into drills that can be performed as a workout, and then reintegrate them into a smooth, powerful performance that makes it look and feel effortless. This process changes the way you move through life.
As you get better at performing, we increase the challenge by changing the conditions or by adding variations or combinations of the exercises. Working out takes on a whole new meaning that directly relates to your life, and that you can practice anytime- anywhere. The workouts are different enough that you do not get bored or plateau, but similar enough that you gain skill and see results in your performance.
Anima Sporta fitness is a system and a method of training for life. We focus on functional, skill based movement challenges that are real and useful to you and your tribe in everyday life. The workouts just happen while you are having fun. We do not focus on getting pumped and looking good, as much as performance and feeling good. At traditional gyms, you are often paying for a place to move your body without much skill or learning emphasized.
Anima Sporta offers you training and skills that are designed to make you better at whatever you want to be great at. Though we do have a gym, the space and equipment are less important and we change locations based upon the skills we are focusing on. Many of the sessions take place outside where we can apply our movement to a variety of real life challenges. While having fun and learning something new, you also get a workout and a new level of fitness, while feeling more capable and confident in your ability to take on life's challenges.
Anima Sporta is a series of group classes for all ages and abilities, and you don't need to be Tarzan or even want to be in order to benefit from this training. The Tarzan ideal is simply a model of human potential which offers a direction to explore. Having experienced both serious injury and illness which have at times limited my own capacity and performance, I have designed the Anima Sporta method to adapt to any limitations you believe you have. It starts you from scratch, with a fresh look at exercise, and progresses you gradually until you are performing and feeling better than you ever thought you could. For more information, follow the links to the Anima Sporta page and have fun!