Welcome to Fifth Ape

Their bodies were splendid, flexible, nimble, skillful, enduring, resistant and yet they had no other tutor in gymnastics but their lives in nature.
— Georges Hébert
 

Fifth Ape is the premiere resource for natural movement instruction and skill based fitness training in North Carolina. We seek to push beyond the standard fitness gym model and provide comprehensive physical education.

We offer private training, classes, and courses in Parkour, Martial Arts, Kettlebells, Strength & conditioning, and more. From skill training, to athletic development, to overall hotness, whatever your training goals are, we can help get you there.

We distinguish ourselves by the breadth and depth of our curriculum, our progressive approach to health and fitness, and our commitment to delivering the highest quality coaching available.

Please have a look around our website and don't hesitate to reach out to us with any questions you may have. We hope to see you soon - train hard and Keep Moving!


New on the blog

Blog
Schedule update for next week

I am going out of town next week. Coach Kit will be taking over and the class schedule will remain largely unchanged, but there will be a few modifications and I want to make sure you knew all about them:

700

We recently hit 700 facebook fans. As most of you know, whenever we hit another 100 we release a video for all of you. Here I am trying to figure out wide-grip muscle ups on rings. This is significantly harder than a regular muscle-up - generally we want to keep our arms as close to our body as possible for maximum stability.

How to get started

One of the most frequent questions I get asked is "So, how do I get started?" Let's tackle this from an absolute beginner lens. The only assumption I'm making here is that you are ambulatory.

Monkey see, Monkey do

Mimicry is "the art or act of copying or imitating closely." From a learning perspective we have an entire subset of our nervous system devoted to learning through copying. They're called mirror neurons and they are fascinating. To some extent, we all learn how to do things through mimicry - monkey see, monkey do. We can - and should - also use mimicry to teach. Coaches who are good mimics are better teachers.

Upcoming events

Events

Happy students