Back to Basics

I’m someone who bores easily—let’s just say I was made for ClassPass. But I’ve never seen results— greater strength, more defined muscles—like the ones I’ve gotten with the latest back-to-basics fitness trend: functional movement. This approach is included in some killer classes, like F45, which combines highintensity interval training, circuit training and functional training into a 45-minute workout (its founder, Luke Istomin, has trained Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman), and Animal Flow, which focuses on moves inspired by the animal world that help improve body movements. (The bear crawl, for example, activates just about every muscle in your body at once.)

Put simply, this training regimen incorporates basic exercises into your workout routine, such as squats, that emulate everyday, real-life movements, like getting up off a chair. It’s not the sexiest-sounding term, I’ll admit, but its purpose—to increase mobility while building lean, sculpted bodies—certainly has its perks.

At New York and Los Angeles’s ModelFIT, for instance—a boutique gym that attracts the likes of Karlie Kloss and Chrissy Teigen—functional movement is built into every class. “Our whole method is based on functional movement,” says Vanessa Packer, the founder of ModelFIT and a former fashion stylist-turned-health and fitness entrepreneur. “We train the body to be strong for everyday life: lifting up kids, bending over, stepping down off a curb. It’s about strengthening the small muscles around the big ones so that you’re less likely to get injured. With every movement, there’s a purpose.” The ModelFIT technique breaks down large movements, such as burpees and jump squats, into small ones so that muscles are working at maximum capacity without any strain on the joints. As Packer explains, clients move through multiple planes of motion to target small muscle groups; strengthening these muscles “sculpts and elongates” the body.

In Toronto, fitness instructor Jill Rubenstein Saltzman teaches strength classes at both Spynga and BOD Studio that include everything from deadlifts to sit-ups. It sounds simple, and that’s because it is. For the first time ever, I’m seeing more benefits from 20 or so minutes of squats and the like done correctly than from 60 minutes of traditional cardio and bootcamp-style classes—which is exactly the point.

In a recent class, I walked across the gym floor carrying 30-pound weights in each hand—a move called “burden walk” that looks easy but is surprisingly sweat- and grunt-inducing. Later that same day, I felt like a rock star as I remembered to keep my chest up and engage my core while lugging crazy-heavy grocery bags into my house.