Natural Born Heroes: How A Daring Band Of Misfits Mastered The Lost Secrets Of Strength And Endurance

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The best-selling author of Born to Run now travels to the Mediterranean, where he discovers that the secrets of ancient Greek heroes are still alive and well on the island of Crete, and ready to be unleashed in the muscles and minds of casual athletes and aspiring heroes everywhere. After running an ultramarathon through the Copper Canyons of Mexico, Christopher McDougall finds his next great adventure on the razor-sharp mountains of Crete, where a band of Resistance fighters in World War II plotted the daring abduction of a German general from the heart of the Nazi occupation. How did a penniless artist, a young shepherd, and a playboy poet believe they could carry out such a remarkable feat of strength and endurance, smuggling the general past thousands of Nazi pursuers, with little more than their own wits and courage to guide them? McDougall makes his way to the island to find the answer and retrace their steps, experiencing firsthand the extreme physical challenges the Resistance fighters and their local allies faced. On Crete, the birthplace of the classical Greek heroism that spawned the likes of Herakles and Odysseus, McDougall discovers the tools of the hero - natural movement, extraordinary endurance, and efficient nutrition. All of these skills, McDougall learns, are still practiced in far-flung pockets throughout the world today. More than a mystery of remarkable people and cunning schemes, Natural Born Heroes is a fascinating investigation into the lost art of the hero, taking us from the streets of London at midnight to the beaches of Brazil at dawn, from the mountains of Colorado to McDougall's own backyard in Pennsylvania, all places where modern-day athletes are honing ancient skills so they're ready for anything. Just as Born to Run inspired readers to get off the treadmill, out of their shoes, and into the natural world, Natural Born Heroes will inspire them to leave the gym and take their fitness routine to nature - to climb, swim, skip, throw, and jump their way to their own heroic feats.

Audible Audio Edition

Listening Length: 13 hours and 56 minutes

Program Type: Audiobook

Version: Unabridged

Publisher: Random House Audio

Audible.com Release Date: April 14, 2015

Whispersync for Voice: Ready

Language: English

ASIN: B00UIEXUUA

Best Sellers Rank: #8 in Books > Audible Audiobooks > Health, Mind & Body > Exercise & Fitness #17 in Books > Audible Audiobooks > Nonfiction > Travel #21 in Books > Audible Audiobooks > Health, Mind & Body > Health

Natural Born Heroes, by Christopher McDougall, is a book with a dual purpose. First and foremost, McDougall retells the improbable, World War II tale of Patrick `Paddy' Leigh Fermor and his rag-tag band of irregulars, who masterfully and audaciously abducted General Heinrich Kriepe from a heavily guarded section of Axis occupied Crete and took the general on a 19-day trek across the island. Fromer and the team had to hide Kriep in plan site, dodge Nazi patrols, and survive harsh terrain in order to bring Kreipe to a British boat that would take the captured general to Allied occupied Egypt. McDougall uses Leigh Fermor's cloak-and-dagger tale as a frame story to highlight his personal research on `the lost secrets of strength and endurance.' The book is a page turner and is quite successful in recounting Leigh Fermor's story, but is somewhat more idiosyncratic--yet still amazingly interesting and readable--when discussing the secrets of strength and endurance of its subtitle.In any book that shifts back from one story line to another, there is always the danger that an author might lose the reader. This is especially true when the second topic is more esoteric and technical in nature, as it is here. Nevertheless, McDougall kept me hooked from start to finish. The Leigh Fermor story is one of those true-life stories that is so outrageous that it reads like fiction. McDougall's enthusiasm for the secrets of strength and endurance is so infectious that I was swept away by that part too.

I have written a full review - aimed at readers who have already enjoyed Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen. Author Christopher McDougall made a name for himself with "Born to Run" and many of the readers of this new book will have come from this direction. My review will compare these 2 books, highlight the important areas of "Natural Born Heroes", and offer my opinions.Christopher McDougall's first book Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen had a very strong effect on me. It was the first book that I read in a long time that held my attention, entertained me, and had valuable information that was new and unique. Based on it's stellar popularity, I feel that "Born to Run" affected other readers in a similar way. I think that many of us are hoping that Christopher McDougall's new books will live up to the reputation of his first book. Please read on.#1 MORE DIVERSE INFORMATIONFirst, and most importantly, "Natural Born Heroes" is different than "Born to Run". "Natural Born Heroes" covers a much larger range of fitness-based information (functional fitness, muscle building, endurance training, nutrition, the human spirit, martial arts and boxing, parkour, Greek mythology), using stories from over 20 different people and information from well over 20 different sources.

What do the following have in common?· LeBron James· Brazil· Arthur Evans· Patrick Leigh Fermor· Tom Myers· Fairbairn & Sykes· Shanghai· Pankration (Greek)· George Hebert· Norina Bentzel· Xan Fielding· The Minotaur· Wing Chun· Steve Maxwell· The Arizona desert· John Pendleberry· a glass eye· Fritz Schubert, a/k/a “the Turk”· Erwan Le Corre· Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller· Dr. Phil Maffetone· Dwight Howard· William Banting· Hitler· Churchill· CreteIf you had a difficult time discerning connections, don’t feel badly about it (although the last three items provide a strong indication of one topic). These topics—among dozens of other possible examples—are tied together in the two books written by Chris McDougall as one book: Natural Born Heroes: How a Daring Band of Misfits Mastered the Lost Secrets of Strength and Endurance (2015). In this book, McDougall examines the German invasion and subsequent resistance movement on Crete during WWII. British Special Operations Executive (SOE) agents aided the Cretans during the occupation. These tales provide the central core of the book. Around this central core—fascinating and cinematic in its own right--McDougall constructs a second book about human performance from ancient Minoan culture to contemporary Parkour. In lesser hands this could have resulted in a mess, but as McDougall displayed in another favorite book of mine, Born to Run, he can weave and integrate stories as a master.

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