“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.”
“Many activities within fitness are relatively uniform and repetitive. While a good training program can get you quicker or stronger than ever, you might not move better than ever overall. I feel that Elements shores up my fitness, making it more well-rounded than otherwise.”
“I was recommended GMB Fitness by my Physio, and for 3 weeks I am following the Elements programme. At the moment I am only spending 15 minutes a day and I feel much stronger already. For many years I have been doing yoga and pilates, although those are good forms of exercise, I feel GMB Fitness adds playfulness, fun and mobility. It surely gets my heart rate up at the same time. The programme is easy to follow; all moves are well explained, and the programme slowly builds up to more complex moves and playfulness. The personal backup from the GMB Fitness team is great and I feel supported. It's almost like having a personal fitness trainer ;-)”
“As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realised that I’m less concerned with the “numbers” (like reps completed, or weight moved), and more concerned with being able to stay fit and active. I want to be able to practice my martial arts for as long as I can. Elements has helped me make a stronger connection with my body and helped me move better. I’m more resilient. And the scaling of exercises means that I can practice the sessions over and over, and they are still challenging. It has definitely changed my approach to fitness for the better.”
“My daughter had been recommending GMB Elements training to me for years. I had serious doubts. I my late 70's, and doing little in the way of workouts but yoga and daily walks, I was worried about hurting myself and simply not being able to do the work. Also I didn't think I would like using a phone app to learn a new form of exercise. But I hoped to recapture some of the strength I had lost over the years. I am really surprised by how well it is going. Once I figured out how to get to the app on my phone, I found it very easy to use. The exercises are strange, but not at all boring. I am learning that the more carefully I follow the instructions, the easier and more fruitful the exercises. Even paying attention to the instruction to go at my own pace. Fortunately, the app makes it easier to do that. If I am tired, there is a way to choose a less arduous series. Or a shorter or longer one. It.is a very well thought out system and ... I am getting stronger.”
“I purchased Elements to head off the joint pain and lack of flexibility that I'd seen in my relatives. It is working. While I'm still working my way through the program, I now can crouch and bend my knees in ways I did not think I ever could. They will take you slowly through the exercises and let you go at your pace. Each time you try it, you'll find it gets just a little bit easier. Recommended.”
“i fell in love with the philosophy of gmb. over the course of time, during which i have gone through elements several times, i have developed an attitude in which i place more and more value on the process instead of thinking about the goal. so i try to arrive more in the moment than to train for a certain result. then it is fun for me and i develop more or less automatically without constantly wanting to get somewhere. thx (Sebastian Spieker, Germany)”
