Get ready to move your body in a way you never have before.
Humans are creatures of habit by nature. There’s nothing wrong with booking the same classes each week or working out at the same time each day. A workout routine helps build consistency and community.
But Equinox’s newest Artist in Residence, Primal Moves creator Nick Brewer, is here to shake things up and help people connect to their bodies in a way they never have before through his full-body weight training program.
The Inspiration Behind the Primal Moves Method
There isn’t just one experience or teacher that led Brewer to create his globally known movement program; it was influenced by both his decade spent in prison in South America and his global travels. “[While in prison], I was in voluntary isolation for four years because I wanted to reform myself,” he says.
At first, he spent this time doing yoga and meditating. But eventually, he grew bored by it so he started exploring different types of equipment-free movement, integrating in Pilates- and basic gymnastic-inspired moves. After he was released from prison in 2010, Brewer says he spent over 10 years traveling around the world, training with different teachers, gurus, and circus performers (including handstand coaches). At the same time, he conceptualized Primal Moves, which Brewer first taught in London before opening a large studio in Ibiza in 2016.
“I studied kinesiology, Pilates, and yoga for 15 years,” Brewer says, adding that he also studied gymnastics and surf training. “I had many different forms of movement that I studied, which broadened my horizons to different coaching concepts.” Part of this, he says, is understanding the psychology within people’s bodies, including how their history, past traumas, and daily habits all show up in the way they move.
What To Expect From Brewer’s Pop-Up Classes and How Your Body Will Benefit
You don’t have to go to Ibiza to get the full Primal Moves experience. This month, Brewer is Equinox’s newest Artist in Residence and his signature one-hour class will pop-up in five different NYC clubs, Equinox Sports Club, Gramercy, Tribeca, High Line, and Williamsburg.
Expect your entire body to be pushed to its limit and to connect with yourself on a deeper level than perhaps ever before. “It’s kind of like taking yoga off of the mat and moving across the floor using animal locomotive patterns,” Brewer says. During the class, you’ll find yourself on all fours, moving in dynamic ways that engages the core while challenging balance, mobility, and flexibility. The second half of the class is mat-based. Inversions are another hallmark of the practice. “[For many people], it’s using the body in a way that it hasn’t been used in many years, probably since as a child,” Brewer says. “It really does bring out the inner child in the body.”
Besides being a challenging full-body workout, Brewer says that another benefit of Primal Moves is its connection to physical longevity. Using all four limbs to walk improves motor coordination and joint stability, which help protect the body from injury. “It’s very kind to the body, which is necessary if you want to be in your 50s and 60s and keep moving like a 30 year old,” Brewer says. Spending long workdays hunched over a computer or while texting jams up the body in unnatural ways. The gentle, lengthening movements in Primal Moves helps undo this damage, creating more symmetry and balance in the body.
While Brewer says that someone taking a Primal Moves class may feel some muscle soreness after the first day, the body starts feeling amazing shortly afterward. “It starts feeling very vibrant, strong, mobile, and invigorated,” he says. And if you stick with it (you can take classes virtually too), he says you can start to notice physical differences in about two weeks.
Living on autopilot, it can be easy to go through the movements of a workout without actually connecting with yourself on a deeper level. If you can relate, turning your practice literally upside down may be just what you need to get in touch with the primal part of you buried inside. Who knows, it just may inspire you to try other new classes or even break out of your box outside of your workouts.