You’ve probably heard of Born to Run. It was the book that sent half the world’s population into the woods wearing nothing but thin rubber sandals or, occasionally, nothing at all on their feet. But Christopher McDougall didn’t stop at endurance running. He went looking for something else. He wanted to know how a ragtag group of resistance fighters on the island of Crete managed to kidnap a German General during World War II without getting caught.
The book Natural Born Heroes isn’t just a history lesson. It’s a manual for human capability.
Honestly, it’s a weird mix. You get these gritty stories about the Cretan resistance—men who lived on nothing but snails and mountain water—sandwiched between deep dives into modern fitness movements like Parkour and MovNat. McDougall is trying to prove a point. He thinks we’ve forgotten how to be "useful."
The hero isn't a bodybuilder. The hero is someone who can move.
The Kidnapping of General Kreipe: A Lesson in Survival
The backbone of Natural Born Heroes is the true story of W. Stanley Moss and Patrick Leigh Fermor. These guys were British Special Operations Executive (SOE) agents. In 1944, they pulled off the unthinkable. They snatched General Heinrich Kreipe, the commander of German forces on Crete, right out of his car.
Then they had to move him.
They didn't have Jeeps or helicopters. They had their legs. They had to haul a disgruntled German officer over the jagged peaks of Mount Ida while thousands of Nazi troops searched for them. This is where the "hero" part comes in. McDougall argues that their success wasn't down to superior weaponry. It was about metabolic efficiency and functional movement.
They lived like the Cretans. They moved like goats.
The Cretan runners—guys like George Psychoundakis, "The Cretan Runner"—were the real deal. Psychoundakis was a tiny man who could traverse miles of brutal, rocky terrain in a fraction of the time it took anyone else. He wasn't doing bicep curls. He was carrying messages. His "workout" was survival.
McDougall spends a lot of time looking at how these men fueled themselves. It wasn't about carb-loading. It was about burning fat. This leads into one of the more controversial parts of the book: the push for a high-fat, low-carb diet. He looks at Philip Maffetone’s work and the idea that we’ve ruined our bodies by becoming sugar-burners.
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The Cretans were fat-adapted. They had to be. When you’re hiding in a cave for three days, you don't have a bag of pasta. You have your own body fat and maybe a handful of wild greens.
Why Modern Fitness is Basically Broken
If you go to a standard gym, you see people on treadmills. They’re staring at screens. They’re isolated.
Natural Born Heroes tears this apart.
McDougall introduces us to Georges Hébert, a French naval officer who witnessed a volcanic eruption in 1902. He saw people die because they didn't know how to move. They couldn't climb; they couldn't swim; they couldn't jump. Hébert went on to develop Méthode Naturelle. His motto? "Be fit to be useful."
It’s a simple concept that we’ve totally ignored in the era of Peloton and CrossFit.
- Fascia over Muscle: The book dives into the science of fascia. This is the connective tissue that wraps around your muscles. McDougall talks to experts who explain that fascia is where the real "spring" comes from. It’s why a kangaroo can hop forever without getting tired.
- Parkour as Survival: Most people see Parkour as teenagers jumping off roofs for YouTube views. To McDougall, it’s the purest form of the "heroic" movement. It’s about getting from point A to point B as efficiently as possible.
- The Art of the Throw: There’s a fascinating section on how humans are the only creatures on earth that can throw accurately. It’s a survival mechanism. It’s why we have the shoulders we do.
The book argues that we’ve "zoo-ified" ourselves. We live in cages of our own making. We’ve lost the ability to navigate the world because we’ve paved everything over. When you read about the Cretan resistance, you realize they weren't "athletes" in the way we think. They were just humans who hadn't lost their edge.
The Science of the "X-Factor"
What makes someone a hero? Is it courage? Or is it something biological?
McDougall looks at "Heros" (the Greek word) and finds it originally meant a protector. It wasn't about being a demi-god; it was about being a member of the community who had the skills to help.
He talks about the "elastic recoil" of the human body. He mentions Dr. Robert Schleip, a leading fascia researcher. The idea is that if you train your body correctly, you aren't just using muscle. You’re using tension. You become a catapult.
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This is how the Cretan runners moved so fast. They weren't "running" in the way we do on a track. They were falling and catching themselves. They were using the terrain.
And then there’s the psychological aspect. The "Big Three" of the resistance—Leigh Fermor, Moss, and their Cretan allies—had an almost supernatural level of calm. This wasn't just "toughness." It was a result of their environment and their movement. When you are fat-adapted and your body is moving the way it evolved to move, your brain stays clear. No "bonking." No brain fog. Just focused action.
Real World Application: How to Use This
You aren't going to kidnap a General. Probably.
But the principles in Natural Born Heroes are surprisingly easy to pull into a normal, boring life. You don't need a gym membership. You just need to stop being a "zoo human."
First, look at your feet. Again. If you’re wearing shoes that look like marshmallows, you’re killing your fascia. Your feet are meant to feel the ground. They are meant to be your primary sensory organs for movement.
Second, change how you eat. You don't have to go full "Cretan mountain dweller" and eat snails. But cutting out the processed sugar and leaning into healthy fats can change your energy levels. If you want to be "useful," you can't be crashing every two hours because your blood sugar dipped.
Third, move weirdly.
Go outside. Crawl. Balance on a curb. Lift something heavy that isn't a barbell—something awkward, like a bag of mulch or a restless toddler. This is what Erwan Le Corre, the founder of MovNat, teaches. McDougall spends a lot of time with Le Corre in the book. The goal is to regain the skills we all had as five-year-olds.
Kids are natural-born heroes. They can squat perfectly, they climb everything, and they never stop moving. We just train it out of them.
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The Controversy and the Criticism
Look, McDougall is a storyteller. Sometimes he leans into the romanticism of the "wild human" a bit hard.
Some critics argue that the low-carb, high-fat (LCHF) approach isn't for everyone. Top-tier athletes often need glycogen for high-intensity bursts. And while the Cretans were definitely tough, they also suffered. They weren't necessarily "healthier" than us; they were just adapted to a very specific, brutal environment.
Also, the history side of the book gets some pushback. While the kidnapping of Kreipe was a massive morale boost, some historians argue it didn't change the course of the war as much as the SOE liked to think. The German reprisals against the Cretan civilians were also horrific. It’s a reminder that "heroism" often comes with a terrible price for those left behind.
But these nuances don't take away from the book's core message. The message is that you are capable of more than your desk job suggests.
Actionable Steps for the Aspiring "Hero"
If you want to start moving like a Cretan runner, don't go out and try to jump over a canyon today. Start small.
- Shift your fuel source. Try a week of lower carb intake. See if that "3 PM slump" disappears. Focus on whole foods that don't come in a crinkly plastic bag.
- Ditch the isolation machines. If you go to a gym, stay off the machines that lock you into one plane of motion. Use kettlebells, pull-up bars, or just the floor.
- Practice "Natural Movement." Find a local park. Can you walk across a fallen log without falling? Can you vault over a low wall? These sounds like play, but they are actually high-level motor skills.
- Understand your fascia. Look into foam rolling or, better yet, dynamic stretching that emphasizes long, elastic movements rather than static "hold for 30 seconds" stretches.
- Be useful. The next time someone needs help moving a couch or carrying groceries, don't see it as a chore. See it as a "hero" moment. That’s the whole point.
The story of the Cretan resistance isn't just about war. It’s about the fact that when pushed, the human body can do things that seem like magic. We have the same DNA as George Psychoundakis. We have the same potential for "heroic" movement.
We just have to get out of the zoo.
The reality is that Natural Born Heroes is a call to action. It’s about reclaiming a lost heritage of physical competence. Whether you’re interested in the history of WWII or you just want to know why your back hurts from sitting all day, there’s something in these pages that hits home. It’s a bit messy, it’s very passionate, and it might just change how you walk down the street.
Stop training for the mirror. Start training for the world.
Next Steps:
- Read the primary source: The Cretan Runner by George Psychoundakis for a firsthand account of the resistance.
- Explore the MovNat "Benchmark" movements to assess your current level of physical utility.
- Research the Maffetone Method if you are interested in building a fat-burning aerobic base for long-distance endurance.