126 MAY 2017
THE BEAST WITHIN
IRON ZUU FOUNDER NATHAN HELBERG CHALLENGES YOU TO SWAP CURLING
FOR CRAWLING – AND START PERFORMING LIKE NEVER BEFORE
WORD HAS REACHED NATHAN HELBERG
that though I’ll be speaking with him this
morning about his new training style, Iron
ZUU, I’m not down for working out. On
shaking hands at Flow Athletic in Sydney’s
eastern suburbs, his gaze emotes equal
parts sympathy and scepticism: “And
why,” he asks, “won’t you be training
with me today?”
Because, I say, my back’s rooted. Disc
bulge. Recurring issue.
“Right, I want you to do this for me,” says
Helberg, who tucks his elbows into his
thighs, sinks into the deepest squat
conceivable and starts rocking up and
down from his hips. I try to copy, but my
squat feels laughably shallow. And my
spine’s yelping.
“That’s okay, he reassures. “There’s
good pain and bad pain. Yours is good. It’s
p a i n w it h a pu r p o s e. You’re brea k i ng dow n
scar tissue. And you’re going well. Hey, I
can see your depth improving.”
My problem is every man’s problem,
reckons Helberg. The network of muscles in
our hips and backside is strung tight from
prolonged sitting. But that doesn’t stop us
p ou nd i ng t he p ave me nt on 10 -k ay r u n s or
squatting 100kg, with barely a gesture
towards prepping the body for action. At
the very least, this foolishness will prevent
you from performing at your peak. Worse,
some kind of physical breakdown could be
just around the corner.
“ R ig ht,” s ay s He lb e r g, “dow n on you r
hands and feet and crawl. Now reverse the
movement. That’s all-body mobilisation
right there. Every muscle and every system
is working.”
Move me nt l ie s at t he hea r t of b ot h I ron
ZUU and its forerunner, ZUU, which
Helberg created 10 years ago to fine-tune
the performance of soldiers and elite
athletes. To Helberg, the right kind of
movement is everything. It rehabs,
loosens, mobilises and strengthens. It
helps crocks, superstar sportsmen and
eve r yone i n b et we e n. It i s t he c lo s e st t h i ngwe have to a panacea.“My wife came up
with the name because I was mimicking
animal movements,” he says.
Why? “Because you don’t see unfit
animals in the wild.”
Helberg, who’s on a visit home to
Australia from his base in London, speaks
with an evangelical zeal. “One of the
m i s sion s of Z U U i s to h ave 50 m i l l ion
people understanding a frog squat and bear
walk within two years,” he says. “We
believe we can change the world.”
Suddenly, he’s down on all fours, darting
across the room in a lean-and-jump move
called “The Gorilla”. Helberg is no teenager.
He is a 44-year-old father of four. But his
speed is nothing less than astonishing. And
to see is to believe.MOVINGSTORY
In his early 20s, Darwin-born Helberg held
no notably innovative views on fitness
until one day in 2000 he met up with his
youngest brother in Sydney. “I used to doCrouching tigers:
Helberg schools MH’s
Jay Abady in the finer
points of Iron ZUU.ELITE