The Founder of the Viral Tarzan Movement Instagram Account Wants You to Embrace Play
Social media is filled with people promising that returning to an earlier state of human existence will have physical and mental benefits. Whether it’s eating raw organ meat, getting into sourdough starter, or moving like primates, you don’t have to scroll around much to see what I’m talking about. Some of these influencers have been publicly discredited; while others have started movements and begun lucrative businesses on the social media brands they’ve built. Obviously, there’s no one-size-fits-all profile that could ever capture the diversity of these individual people, but I did wonder what talking to one of them might be like.
(Photo: Courtesy @tarzan_movement)
So I talked to a primal movement influencer, 35-year-old Victor Manuel Fleites Escobar, the ‘Tarzan’ behind the million-follower @tarzan_movement Instagram account. If you’ve seen any of Escobar’s videos, you might assume our conversation focused primarily on the ins and outs of tree climbing or the subtleties of primate locomotion. After all, individual videos on his account showing Fleites Escobar climbing trees and running on all fours have hundreds of thousands of views. One post, for example, promises his ability to teach gorilla, orangutan, and gibbon skills—all of which have three levels—for interested participants. Another shows Fleites Escobar using his big and second toes to grip a rope as he propels himself forcefully upward with the caption “Yes it hurts , but it can also take more than half of your body weight while going up .”
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Primal Needs & Human Potential (@tarzan_movement)
It’s no secret that Fleites Escobar appears to be in incredible physical shape (watch any of the aforementioned Instagram reels if you don’t believe me), but his movement and physical fitness seem to spring from a desire to live in a more a more intuitive, embodied way—one that addresses how his body is feeling—than they do from a specific desire to see fitness gains.
Fleites Escobar joined our conversation virtually from a sunny Barcelona apartment. We ranged across topics—from the philosophy behind Tarzan movement to his own daily habits, and I was struck by our repeated return to the themes of observation, openness, and play, which are at the core of the animal philosophy he’s been developing.
Do you want to live—and look—like Tarzan?
Well, according to Fleites Escobar, that’s a journey that begins within.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Primal Needs & Human Potential (@tarzan_movement)
An Interview with the Creator of the Tarzan Movement
OUTSIDE: How did this journey start for you? What brought you to primal movement?
FLEITES ESCOBAR: Earlier you mentioned that you feel like we are bringing people outside… As a matter of fact, I’m doing the opposite. I’m trying to bring people inside where there’s a whole universe. For me, the fundamentals start with your own understanding with your own body. How do I deal with thing? How do I feel with myself? [When I asked myself those questions], I was able to validate the things that open my heart, the things that felt more natural to my animal background. That was my journey into the trees, into silence, into doing nothing.
Are there specific part of modern life that made you want to turn inward? Or is it just the general contradictions, stresses, and artifices that we all face everyday?
It’s not just modern life. You can trace ‘modern life’ back a long way because even agriculture was modern for people at a different time. So I trace modernity all the way back to where humans moved away from having natural demands put on them by the environment. Animals have natural demands in their day to day that shape their lifestyles and keep their bodies in shape. It’s like kids.
How so? Your website mentions the value of play a lot. Is that where being kid-like comes in?
I feel like for many kids they are just constantly learning. In the park, if you allow them to run free, they take their shoes off, then they run and find some friend, and eventually they play with whatever they have. They have trees, they go up in the tree. They have balls, they play with balls. It doesn’t matter. What is constant is the way they are learning. The learning process there is not targeting a certain goal.
OK, so being present, open, and playful are as important as looking inward. How do you recommend a person cultivates this practice amid the hustle and bustle of everyday life?
I don’t think you can grab so much. You’re going to grab the perfume of the flower. You’re going to see it closely. You’re going to remember this smell, and it’s going to have an impact of your life. But it’s not going to be enough because we have to go to the root of the tree, the root of the problem. People should begin by looking beyond the physical aspect of this primal movement practice by being courageous enough to observe every single day, to recognize the things that they don’t really resonate with inside themselves, and take action. They need to ask themselves: what are these things that are fundamentally important for me because they keep the balance of the animal and the human together?
Introspect, observe, play, I’m getting it. What does a typical day look like for you?
I don’t think there is a routine. I wake up with some coffee. I like to read. I go for a walk to the beach. And then I do some work. I see my friend who manages the social media. We talk a little bit about work. Then we go for breakfast. Then at some point lunch, and then we go to do something outside like going to the park and hanging around with people or going to the forest and spending a few hours climbing trees. I can also go many days without doing any climbing and just feel like being quiet. When I feel inspired, when I feel motivated, I go out and I do things.
I have the feeling like I live for the day more than for the week or the year. But there are certain things that really take more than just following the flow, and I do take care of them. You have to pay your bills.
Is there anything else you’d want readers to know?
Fear is something that limits most humans. I feel we are all exist in houses. The perception of the human with fear is that the ceiling doesn’t move. That’s all. So they move around in the house horizontally all the time. Once in a while, when you have the courage to check the ceiling and observe it, it actually moves and you discover another floor.
I’m not going to lie. I went into my conversation with Fleites Escobar somewhat cynical. As a student of history, I know that our species tends to be drawn to ways of being that seem or feel more natural or simple just because they’re something from the past. I’m skeptical of ideas that fall prey to the naturalistic fallacy, which is the idea that just because something occurs in nature, that means it’s better or right.
Even though I carried my skepticism with me as I chatted with Fleites Escobar, I had a recurrent thought as he walked me through his way of being: naturalistic fallacy or not, this person is taking the time to scrutinize their interiority and the way they interface with the world, and they’re not afraid to be outside-the-box in their approach to feeling good and helping others do the same. I like the idea that openness, play, and directly addressing fear can help us unlimit our potentials. I don’t know if I’ll be scaling any trees soon, but I can certainly question the things I’m holding onto that aren’t serving me and try to experience more daily joy.
The post The Founder of the Viral Tarzan Movement Instagram Account Wants You to Embrace Play appeared first on Outside Online.
Welcome to Billionaire Club Co LLC, your gateway to a brand-new social media experience! Sign up today and dive into over 10,000 fresh daily articles and videos curated just for your enjoyment. Enjoy the ad free experience, unlimited content interactions, and get that coveted blue check verification—all for just $1 a month!
Account Frozen
Your account is frozen. You can still view content but cannot interact with it.
Please go to your settings to update your account status.
Open Profile Settings