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Natural Born Heroes

Mastering the Lost Secrets of Strength and Endurance

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the bestselling author of Born to Run comes a book that inspires us to unleash the extraordinary potential of the human body and climb, swim, skip, throw, and jump our way to heroic feats.
"Redefines the heroic ideal, establishing heroism as a skill set rather than a virtue."—NPR Books

Christopher McDougall’s journey begins with a story of remarkable athletic prowess: On the treacherous mountains of Crete, a motley band of World War II Resistance fighters—an artist, a shepherd, and a poet—abducted a German commander from the heart of the Axis occupation.
To understand how, McDougall retraces their steps across the island that birthed Herakles and Odysseus, and discovers ancient techniques for endurance, sustenance, and natural movement that have been preserved in unique communities around the world.
His search takes us scrambling over rooftops with a Parkour crew in London, foraging for greens with a ballerina in Brooklyn, tossing heavy pieces of driftwood on a Brazilian beach with the creator of MovNat—and, finally, to our own backyards. 
“McDougall traveled to Crete to examine the physical and mental capacity of Greek war heroes [and] studied natural movement, endurance, and nutrition to understand how regular people are capable of extraordinary athletic feats.... We can all adapt the tools of the athletes featured.” —Real Simple

Look for Christopher McDougall's new book, Born to Run 2, coming in December!
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    • Publisher's Weekly

      February 2, 2015
      Journalist McDougall (Born to Run) travels to the Greek island of Crete to serve up a mixture of mythic heroics and still-applicable fitness techniques. There, with amateur historian Chris White's help, he explores how, in 1944, Greek partisans and British commandos abducted Nazi Gen. Heinrich Kreipe. Further delving into the Greek resistance, McDougall offers astonishing stories about shepherds turned partisans, George "the Clown" Psychoundakis, known to run over 50 miles nightly with a 60-pound pack on his back and on a diet of nothing but boiled hay, and Costi Paterakis, who ran cross-country to shoot, from a quarter mile away, a German commander about to order a massacre. He also documents contemporary heroes like the Pennsylvania elementary school principal who singlehandedly saved her school from a machete-wielding stranger. Throughout, McDougall pauses to consider what exactly makes a hero a hero, examining history, anatomy, physiology, and fitness. This book reads as a page-turning historical account, with fitness techniques and instruction embedded throughout. Readers, regardless of their fitness levels, should come to the end feeling both inspired and a little bit winded.

    • Library Journal

      November 15, 2014

      Researching his triumphant Born To Run, which spent a combined 206 weeks on the New York Times best sellers list, McDougall encountered legendary ancient Greek "all-day runner" Pheidippides, which led to his investigating the long-standing techniques for endurance, natural movement, and nutrition that allowed Greek soldiers of yore to run all night through the mountains. Even if you're not planning to run all night, these techniques could do a lot for you. With a 300,000-copy first printing.

      Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Publisher's Weekly

      June 29, 2015
      Veteran British voice-over actor Smith does his best to handle the wild ride of journalist/author McDougall latest book, which explores sports and fitness from scientific, historical, and cultural perspectives. McDougall examines a relatively little-known Allied success story from late in WWII, when a highly unorthodox unit of covert soldiers from the United Kingdom banded together with the local Greek Resistance to kidnap a Nazi general on the island of Crete. Smith does an effective job of juggling the distinctive accents from all over Europe in the primary story line. The challenge—for both Smith as a performer and for listeners—comes with McDougall’s continuous asides, challenging our current notions of what constitutes strength, endurance, and heroism, and highlighting the exploits of iconoclastic heroes from other points in history. Smith tackles the transitions as smoothly as possible, but audiences not steeped in the subjects at hand may still have a difficult time keeping up with the story. A Knopf hardcover.

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