Exercise Like an Animal - Test 2

B2 First · Multiple Matching · Cambridge English First 3, Cambridge University Press

You are going to read an article about a new exercise craze called Zuu and its inventor Nathan Helberg. For questions 1–10, choose from the sections (A-E). The sections may be chosen more than once.

Our sedentary lifestyles mean that most of us aren't using our muscles properly. As small children we squat, crawl and leap around freely, but the older we get the more restricted our movements become and many of our muscles get little action as we sit at desks or in cars. Occasionally we hit the gym, where we use machines to work on specific muscles rather than the whole body. Now a new form of fitness, an intense workout based on simple animal movements such as crawling, is taking off. Its Australian founder, Nathan Helberg, has been using it with the military, police forces, schoolchildren and even prisoners. He took his inspiration from martial arts, break-dancing, the animal world and the dance movements of indigenous people, and developed Zuu.

There are around 100 animal movements – although beginners start with 25 – that work muscles, joints and ligaments as well as improving heart and lung fitness. Zuu needs no equipment and little space. The idea is to train your body to do the kinds of activities that our ancestors had to do in daily life. It's quick, it tones up your strength and it's not aiming to give you big muscles. In exchange for the publicity from my article, Nathan offers me a master class, alongside two of his trainers, a privilege that would otherwise be beyond my financial means! I am daunted by the prospect of doing things I haven't done since my pre-school years.

We do each movement for 30 seconds (for my benefit – as you get fitter, you keep on for 45 seconds). We start with a frog squat: legs wide, knees bent, elbows locked inside knees. It's a little undignified, but fine at first. Then as the seconds go by, the fronts of my thighs start to burn and it's all I can do not to collapse. After the 30 seconds we dash back across the room to our starting point with barely a moment to catch our breath. Nathan assures me the frog squat is particularly good for the lower backs of office workers, and recommends that they should take a break and perform the movement for four minutes a day. Somehow I can't see this working!

Then it's on to a bear crawl, on hands and feet. While Nathan and others shoot across the room, I lumber along like an ancient grizzly bear. Then we do it again – backwards. I seem to be clumsy, but it does get slightly easier as I go on. This movement evidently uses every joint in the body, strengthening things like ligaments and tendons, while at the same time raising heart rate as effectively as running. Perhaps being a snake will be easier. But there's no lying flat on our stomachs. Instead, we have to raise our bodies 2 cm off the floor, rocking our weight back and forth from hands to toes. It's a bit of an effort to keep going for the full minute.

By the end I'm shaking with exhaustion. Despite my initial reservations, by the end of my session, I have started to enjoy myself. Mind you, it's hard not to laugh when you're imitating a bear on rewind! I thought I was in reasonably good shape – I run 5 km three times a week – but after this I realise how little I push myself normally. Nathan has promised that I could increase my upper body strength by 30% in just six weeks by doing classes. I have compromised and do bear crawls around my garden at home during work breaks, much to the amazement of my dog!

Exercise like an animal

Journalist Annabel Venning tries a new exercise craze

comment on how little rest she seems to be given after one exercise?

become aware of the limitations of her usual fitness routine?

say she hopes that the next exercise is not so demanding?

mention a deal she did with Nathan that benefited them both?

imply that a conventional keep-fit method is less natural than Zuu?

compare the movements of Zuu with those of earlier humans?

explain that she has chosen just one of the exercises to perform regularly?

say how slow and awkward she feels doing a particular exercise?

give examples of situations where lack of activity affects people's bodies?

cast doubt on one of Nathan's ideas?

In which section does the writer

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