“Best online training course I tried. Suits a busy parent who still wants to stay mobile and increase strength as you can pace your own progress. Significant increase in mobility and strength and in a holistic way, that’s actually transferrable across to daily activities like lifting items, riding a bike or to activities like indoor rock climbing, wood splitting etc. Even though it has the word “fundamental”, there are some movements I still can’t do, and I trained in various martial arts. This can complement your training, or by itself it is already a very holistic program. I highly recommend it for those who want to improve their mobility and strength, and de-stress. I am over 40 and after this program I feel I move better than when I was 25. My wife notices I am much stronger compared to before the program. 10/10.”
“Elements is the only movement paradigm I have ever fully resonated with. After a lifetime of racking up fun and stupid injuries, in combination with being pathologically hyper mobile, Elements has been the best remedial therapy to keep me agile and pain free. I highly recommend this program to anyone, especially gimpy folk or those with rusted and worn out hinges.”
“I discovered GMB and their Elements in the autumn 2022. Before that, I was mainly running. Some small aches and pain were annoying and I could trace these to a lack of mobility and strength. So I started to search the web for something and I discovered GMB and their Elements program. The concept and idea of getting more flexible and stronger due to these animal movements sounded reasonable to me so I gave it a try. I did not regret it! I went through this training program on a regular and consistent basis and after finishing Elements I was stronger and more flexible. After that, I can hold an L-sit on the floor for some seconds and even a Crow Pose was possible for a few seconds. I wasn’t able to do these movements before. I like the approach and especially the flexibility of choosing different duration for the sessions. I was hooked and went for GMB’s other programs and will do Elements again because, for me, it is a very versatile training program which covers strength, mobility and coordination!”
“Elements has given my shoulders and core a strength they've never had. I always assumed that I had weak shoulders that would never function well because I have quite low muscle tone. However, Elements has changed the way my shoulder complex functions and I have no more shoulder pain. Thank you”
“After having 3 children and not attending to my fitness for several years, I decided to start running and was looking for a strength training program to go alongside my running. I've been using the Elements program for over a year now, on and off... I think I've completed it twice, and am currently running through it a third time. I have enjoyed this program a lot, because it keeps my interest (something traditional strength-training programs decidedly don't), while providing a combination of movements that help with strengthening and flexibility as well as helping me feel more coordinated for a variety of movements.
It's often surprised me that I've made gains without noticing, because I'm enjoying exploring the movements and not thinking about how much it hurts to work out. I've also seen how these movements have become incorporated into my daily life, especially when I'm on the floor with my kids. I've also noticed that my 5-year-old naturally incorporates movements like those in Elements into his everyday play, which makes me feel like these movements are how humans are meant to move.
I have explored a portion of some of the other GMB programs, with less success, as some of the movements that are introduced are above my skill level, at least at this point. But Elements feels like it's very approachable and achievable.”
“Elements is simply excellent. I felt dubious initially because frankly some of the movements look a bit silly - monkeying up and down the hall had my kids in tears laughing at me. Getting over that brought many benefits. The biggest one was improving my lower back. For years I had intermittent lower back problems - sometimes tight spasmy muscles, sometimes sciatica. Elements sorted this right out as long as I did it regularly. Another big plus was how habit forming the program can be as it allows me to choose 15, 30 or 45min sessions. So even if I really wasn't in the mood I'd tell myself I could do 15mins. Never did I regret doing a session as I would feel loose and in a better mood afterwards. Don't let the fact that it's a beginner course put you off if you are already strong. The moves in the program can be varied to suit any level - go and try doing a couple minutes of bent arm bear and see how you feel! Finally, doing 15mins of Elements is excellent as a warm-up / warm-down for other excercise programs you may be doing.”
“So I've been following this amazing team for many years. Their newsletter is pretty much the only one that I actually read instead of automatically tossing it into the trash. I have followed little bits of a couple of their legacy pre-praxis programs with friends that have bought them but found them a little tricky to follow. The amount of information given was huge and felt to me more like it was appropriate for a coach as it covered all the angles but you had to do a fair amount of prep and leg work. Fast forward to praxis, their online platform and it's changed everything. Could not be easier to follow now. However, I'm going to contradict myself here, but I kind of miss the old days when you had all the info in front of you. However, I have followed this new system religiously and could not see myself using the old system and having to plan my stuff out. This is so easy it motivates me and offers one less lame excuse to not do the workout. So all in all, I would personally love to see a few adjustments in the system, but it's quite excellent so I will give it a 5 out of 5 stars since the shortcomings are covered by the simplicity.
Now to the meat of it. How is the workout? And this is where my title comes into play. The warmups are innovative and complete. I even get a decent stretch in some of the movements. Then it throws you into these small sessions from about 7 to 10 minutes each where you have to play with a given movement, the goals of each section are practice, play and then push. During these sessions you're either learning something new or perfecting a movement or working on your strength which will help you with the movements as you get stronger. At first, I was a little put-off, do a single movement for 10 minutes straight. You can do it for a bit then take a break and then start again repeating the cycle until you the timer dings. But then the magic happened. I started to explore the movements deeper and starting finding my limitations, or my mistakes in the movement which allowed me to figure out how to fix it. I see this as the opposite of cross fit training. Instead of doing as many reps of an exercise at the hardest level with someone cheering you on to go faster and harder which lends the user to doing the movements wrong, cheating and getting hurt. You take the time to make sure you're doing it right and listening to your body. So if your goal is to impress the crowd and support your physiotherapist, this is not for you. If you want functional strength and mobility which I believe 98.46% of the population could use then this is the program for you.
Finally, I can talk a little bit about the results. After just about 10 sessions I felt looser despite not having done any stretching. The movements take your body into uncharted territory and make you push the boundaries, so even though you're not doing the whole 30 minutes traditional sit and hold a deep stretch, I find myself so much more flexible. My squat is much deeper and more comfortable to rest in, my martial arts kicks are higher and take less energy to throw. I took a break from handstand work and it has improved.
So to summarize, this may not be for everyone, but it really should. I have recommended this program to everyone that will listen to me. Thanks GMB.”
