Defy modern life by embracing your inner gorilla

So much for yoga being the ultimate path to enlightenment.

An increasing number of people are finding the antidote to miserable modern living is going back several rungs on the evolutionary ladder — to live like a chimpanzee.

Dubbed the “Tarzan Movement,” a new fitness trend sees proponents walking on all fours, climbing trees, mimicking chimp hoots, and generally embracing one’s inner gorilla.

“Being in nature is a kind of healing,” movement founder Victor Manuel Fleites told The Independent in an interview on Friday.

He strives to spread his peculiar brand of King Kong Cosplay by teaching classes (which cost around $12) on climbing and movement throughout the forests of Europe and beyond, encouraging his followers to ape the movements of the monkeys. His followers are hooked.

“As a society, we’re in a crisis of meaning,” Charlie Holt, who is a proponent of the primate practice, told the publication. “We’re disconnected from the people around us. I feel in day-to-day, nine-to-five society, we [also] lack mystery because everything can be answered at the click of a button.”

Holt being in the outdoors, mimicking the movements of our ape ancestors, has helped bring about a sense of fulfillment and calm.

Regression of man

The chimp-ersonator got his first taste of this outdoor craze growing up in Cuba, where he would often flee his family home to go frolicking about in the forest, playing with animals and building literal jungle gyms out of trees.

The self-proclaimed “rebel” said he always felt a bit “disconnected to the mainstream” and was not able to “adapt to society.”

Fleitses sees this so-called regression of man somewhat paradoxically as the antidote to modern society, which he believes has devolved into a cesspool of breakneck capitalism and cubicles.

Rise of ‘The Planet of the Apes’ imitators

Lo and behold, Fleites personal pastime soon blossomed into a full-blown movement.

After starting with just a few acolytes, proponents of the Tarzan Movement are now everywhere from Finland to the US. They adherents espouse the gorilla gospel in tutorials — somewhat of a cross between Jim Jones and George Of the Jungle.

The ape man frequently uploads videos documenting his workshops and other primate-parroting pursuits to his 180,000 followers on Instagram.

In of the more popular clips, the human gibbon can be seen nimbly clambering and leaping through the trees while explaining the philosophy and proper technique behind ape-worthy arboreal ascension.

“The moment you put your feet on a round branch, it makes sense you know,” Fleites explained. “If I go on the tree, I start to try and explore it, slowly, gentle, it’s just like making a new friend.”

He explained in the caption that climbing trees is not just a “pastime” but rather a “gateway” to our tree-climbing roots as simians.

No word as to whether feces-flinging is an essential part of the primate lifestyle.

Another clip shows both Fleites and his friend Victor, one of the first adherents to the Tarzan movement adherent engaging in this form of forest park-our.

“There’s nothing more to train, now we have to deliver, let’s die,” they declare before swinging away into the trees.

In other footage, these primatological larpers can be seen swinging their arms like gorillas, emitting chimp chirps and running on all fours like something out of the the recent “Planet Of the Apes” movies.

Great ape expectations

These pursuits might seem primitive and frivolous, however monkeying around is apparently a helluva workout as it essential entails crawling, bending and rolling on all fours and other activities that involve minimal equipment.

In other words, these motions have a practical application beyond being some weird post-apocalyptic furry fetish or cosplaying as a collie.

As it’s not realistic to go ape 24/7, Fleites advises just periodically practicing “four-leg crawling” as it’ll make it easier to navigate the canopy.

People don’t mind that Fleites is making a monkey out of them — in fact it’s made quite the chimp-ression.

Chimpersonators

California preschool teacher Emma LaBarbera, 25, first discovered the Tarzan Movement on Instagram and says the techniques helped her combat her post-traumatic stress disorder.

She told the Independent that the practice has allowed her to “release the constraints I held surrounding acceptance and judgment from others,” adding that she continues to subscribe to this way of life today

“I hike barefoot [and] crawl on narrow surfaces,” LaBarbera stated. “[It’s all about] meeting my fear and being with it, rather than bypassing it or submitting to it.”

Fleites summed up the Tarzan Movement in one of his Instagram videos, explaining: “We come from the ape family. I think it is time to recognize that animal side. Let’s transition from this crazy city lifestyle into something simple. Live like Tarzan.”

The Cuban’s is not the first to espouse the virtues of getting fit by literally going beast mode.

In 2022, an Indiana personal trainer claims that running on all fours like a dog every day for nearly a year improved his physical fitness by leaps and bounds — and he recommends that others follow his lead.