Primal Play Method with Darryl Edwards

Primal Play METHOD

"The most popular day to exercise is 'tomorrow'.

Let's face it exercise can be perceived as boring, it can be difficult to motivate ourselves. We know the health benefits, we know we would feel better afterwards, but why can it feel so awful even thinking about exercise. Let alone doing it? 

We need to consider alternative approaches—I sincerely believe that the Primal Play Method is one solution that might just get us there."

Darryl Edwards




WHAT IS PRIMAL PLAY®?

Darryl Edwards developed the PRIMAL PLAY METHOD® to inspire children and adults to make activity fun while getting healthier, fitter and stronger in the process. 

Primal Play® is many things. It’s a feeling about how we live our lives. It’s a way of orienting yourself in the world. It’s a super creative and always­ evolving exercise and movement program. It’s a social and community­ creating experience. It’s a way of rediscovering something deep and essential and exhilarating about ourselves as human beings. And it’s Darryl Edward’s life passion.

That’s a lot. And the coolest thing about all of it? It’s all FUN.

Everything about Primal Play® ­­from the interesting, even outlandish movements (carry your friend, anyone?), to the supporting science of play psychology, exercise physiology and evolutionary biology.

The people involved in it, and the many health benefits you get from doing it­­ all centres around this powerful idea that humans benefit most from activities that are pure, raw, all-out, rewarding fun. We move, we laugh, we explore what our bodies can do in the world around us.

When we have fun we get the same endorphin kick people get from long endurance exercise, except we get that kick instantly, constantly, and much more intensely. When we have fun it feeds our brains and our emotions. When we play we kick our minds into imagination mode, and we tap into that powerful charge we get from positive experiences with other happy people.

Primal Play movement gives us the benefits of functional fitness training, but doesn’t stop there. It takes us beyond exercise. It takes us into fun.

What other health program can say that?

“Play keeps us vital and alive. It gives us an enthusiasm for life that is irreplaceable. Without it, life doesn’t taste good.”
— Lucia Capocchione

WHAT IS "PRIMAL"?

There is a strong push in the health community to learn more about our basic internal programming, to discover exactly what we are designed to be by our DNA. 

One way of finding answers about our design is to look back to how we lived in other times, before civilization came along. To search for our more “primal” ways of living, and perhaps find some answers there.

We do this most easily by studying people who never have created cities or civilizations. We look at the tribes that still exist that never changed from how all humans lived thousands of years ago.

The primal world is much more complex and interesting that the simple ways we think of it. Primal people danced, celebrated, competed, sprinted, hunted, walked, dealt with nature ­­and played. In incredibly creative and fascinating ways.

You can still see of our human past in what we do today. Music, drumming, hiking, climbing, camping, fishing, swimming, gardening, sports, laughter, even dancing in dance clubs, all tap into the primal part of us.

And that’s because we all still carry with us our original primal programming. Tapping into those basic human directives gives us benefits we can’t even begin to understand yet. But if you do it right, if you find your connection to the world and your body in the world, you know it. You feel it in your bones.

Because it’s fun.


IS EXERCISE BORING?

TESTIMONIALS

WHAT ARE PEOPLE
SAYING ABOUT PRIMAL PLAY?

"Darryl is the concentration of functional movement and he shares it well." 
-Rob Mathews, New York

Read More →

BE STRONG, BE USEFUL

STRENGTH:

AN EXPRESSION OF PLAY

Play is not the activity but the attitude. Become your own superhero!

Find Out How →

Primal Play for Children

+ Primal Play® Definition

The Primal Play Method. 'Primal' and 'Play' the combination of these two words forms an intense mechanism designed to enhance the experience of movement. It is a combination of primal movement with solo, partner and group-based activities that are engaging, fun and transformative.

Primal Play is designed for those who wish to reclaim the joy of movement and who relish a new challenge.

+ What are the three key principles of Primal Play?

The key principles of the Primal Play Method - incorporates movement that is:

  • Powerful
  • Primal
  • Playful

    Powerful because power is the driving force behind movement we can count on when we REALLY need it!
    Primal movement that is human, movement that is practical, fun and functional. What is fitness if it doesn't assist us day-to-day?
    Playful because play is the highest form of experience...

+ Who is Primal Play® for?

Primal Play® is accessible to all. It is inclusive and not elitist, Focussing on what a person CAN do rather than emphasising what they are not capable of.

+ I am not too keen on fitness - how can this help me?

The Primal Play Method focusses on getting you F.I.T.T. - with activities that are healthful:

  • FUNctional
  • Instinctive
  • Transformative
  • Therapeutic

    Fun and functional movements that are useful, challenging and edifying.
    Instinctive - familiar games and challenges that are reminiscent of our childhood as well as our ancestral past presented in novel ways.
    Transformative - why endure several days, weeks or months of a punishing regimen for a physical transformation. When you can enjoy instant gratification from play-based movement and still attain similar goals?
    Therapeutic - movement should correct impairment ,improve musculoskeletal function, and maintain a state of well-being.

+ "Play" sounds like this is just for kids, how can this help me as an adult?

Find out more with a series of blog posts on the Importance of Play

+ Is Primal Play really for me?

Regardless of your relationship with activity; whether you have a love affair with fitness and relish a new challenge or hate exercise but want to get passionate about movement again - you will gain practical movement skills that will assist you in performing every day, recreational and extraordinary physical tasks more effectively.

+ What about Animal Moves?

There’s a good reason why animal movements are a significant part of the Primal Play Method: even though these animal movement patterns are as old as movement for humans itself - they can provide an unmatched full-body workout that mobilises, conditions and strengthens.

Primal Play Jump

+ What are some of the influences behind Primal Play®?

Animal Walks Childhood Dance Dynamic Tension Gaming Imagination Magic Martial Arts Music Parkour Programming Travel

Find out more about my inspirations and influences