For those people who like real adventure and a desire to know what it means and takes to be a hero, boy do I have a book for you.
Natural Born Heroes is one part World War II heist and one part history of sport science. While managing to weave a thrilling yarn about how a band of ragtag spies kidnap a Nazi general on the Greek island of Crete, McDougall also investigates the history of fitness on a large scale, covering martial arts, endurance sports, hydration, and nutrition. On one hand introducing true-life swashbuckling heroes who pulled off the impossible; and on the other, a journey from ancient Minoan society to modern day to explore what it takes to be a hero.
First it’s a detective story exploring how a team of misfit British spies and Cretan sheep rustlers could possibly kidnap a Nazi general in the middle of occupied territory and live to tell the tale. The author doesn’t sit back and armchair this adventure, he travels the world finding leading experts on human fitness to prepare for a trip to Crete to try and redo the unimaginable trek of the good guys.
Much like his last book chronicling ultra-endurance runners, Born to Run, McDougall puts himself in the middle of the action. He wants to cover the same ground as the story's protagonists, so he trains in parkour, natural movement, forging, nutrition, axe-throwing and sharp-shooting to prepare for a trek through the treacherous Cretan mountains.
The training covers: fascia vs muscle strength; how learning to throw transformed human capacity for sequential thought, imagination, and language; natural movement and the development of parkour; Pankration and development of Wing Chun; and echolocation.
One of the standout deliveries of the book offers insight into the gender and age gap in sports and performance. It points out that the difference in men and women’s performance in strength and endurance is very small and that a sport allows for more flaunting or peacocking of the body. Any skill gap that is so great between genders doesn’t make good evolutionary sense, because if men were that much faster and stronger than women, then they wouldn’t be able to mate very well. Basically it breaks the gender (and age) gap down to nurture not nature. The reason men appear so much superior is because we don’t raise boys and girls to play together. It also points out that sports specialization has led to an observer culture. Less and less participation, which of course leads to less fitness and cooperation.
Other cool/interesting things examined in the book include:
-Situational awareness and compassion as a survival strategy.
-Trials of endurance and strength as passage into adulthood.
-Weeds are good for you.
-There is a hydration conspiracy.
-How Churchill used magicians to win the war.
-Just how much of a badass Teddy Roosevelt really was.
-True movement requires risk.
-Fitness should be based on being useful.
-The rise of the gym is equal to the rise of obesity.
- Arnold Schwarzenegger ruined fitness for America.
All-in-all Natural Born Heroes is super informative, absolutely compelling, and downright inspiring. This one definitely goes into the Kung Fu Science Fiction High School library.