Why I want to train like a cat not a robot

I’ve spent much of this week filming STRONG, one of the movement formats I’ve been developing for The Midlife Movement Method and I can safely say my glutes have had quite the workout!

It’s also got me thinking about something I’ve believed for a very long time. We don’t just want to train muscles. At the Midlife Movement Method we want to train movement.

Now, don’t misunderstand me. I’m a huge advocate of building muscle, particularly as we age and our glutes deserve plenty of attention. They’re among the largest and most powerful muscles in the body. They help us stand, walk, climb stairs, rise from a chair and propel ourselves forward. They contribute to hip stability, balance and the way we manage forces through our bodies.

They’re also part of the skeletal muscle system that plays an important role in metabolic health, including glucose regulation.

So yes, strong glutes matter a great deal but here’s where I think the conversation gets interesting. Your glutes don’t work alone. Your body doesn’t know it’s leg day.

I’ve never been particularly drawn to the traditional gym approach of dividing the body into leg day, arm day, glute day and so on. Not because it doesn’t work. Targeted resistance training can be extremely effective for building muscle and strength but because that’s not how I’ve ever understood movement.

As a dancer, I was taught to think about the body as a whole. An arabesque (leg lifted in a long line behind the body) isn’t simply a glute exercise. A pirouette (a turn or many turns) isn’t an abdominal exercise. A jump isn’t just about powerful legs.

Every movement requires an extraordinary conversation between muscles, joints, balance, coordination and the nervous system. The standing foot matters just as much as the lifted leg. The position of the pelvis influences the spine. The abdominals provide control while the limbs create movement. In short, everything is connected and when that connection works beautifully, movement looks almost effortless.

Of course, anyone who has trained in ballet knows just how much effort goes into creating that illusion!

But the principle has stayed with me throughout my career, through ballet, Pilates, Barre, Yoga and now strength training. The body is not a collection of separate parts. It’s an extraordinarily intelligent, interconnected system and strong glutes need strong foundations.

Let’s return to those glutes.

There’s an enormous amount of attention on glute training these days, much of it focused on creating a particular shape and while there’s nothing wrong with having aesthetic goals, I’m far more interested in what our glutes can actually do for us.

• Can they help us rise confidently from the floor?

• Can they contribute to a stable pelvis when we’re standing on one leg?

• Can they generate power when we climb a steep hill?

• Can they work effectively alongside our abdominals and back muscles when we lift something heavy?

Because a strong glute muscle is only one part of that equation.

Our abdominal muscles help us control our trunk and pelvis. Our feet and ankles provide a foundation. Our hips need sufficient mobility. Our nervous system coordinates the timing and intensity of muscular activity.

Take a simple squat. Yes, we’re strengthening the glutes and quadriceps but we’re also practising how the ankles, knees and hips work together, how we maintain our balance and how we organise our trunk to manage the load.

That’s what interests me. Not simply making one muscle stronger, but helping the entire body become more capable.

I want to move like a cat. Not a robot.

I’ve always loved watching cats move. There’s something wonderful about their combination of strength, suppleness, balance and seemingly effortless coordination.

One moment they’re completely relaxed. The next they’re stretching, twisting, leaping or changing direction.

Their movements are fluid and responsive. Nothing appears disconnected and although we’re obviously built rather differently from cats, I think there’s a lovely lesson in the way they move.

Strength and suppleness aren’t opposites. They’re partners.

I don’t want to become so focused on building muscle that I lose the ability to move freely.

I want strength, absolutely but I also want mobility, coordination, balance, control and the ability to respond naturally to whatever life throws at me. I want to bend, reach, twist, lift and move without feeling that my body has become a collection of stiff, disconnected parts.

I want to move like a cat, not a robot and that’s the kind of movement I want to teach.

The choreography of strength.

This philosophy has been very much on my mind while creating STRONG. Even in a session with a particular emphasis on the glutes, I’m thinking about so much more than the muscles we’re targeting.

I’m thinking about the connection between the abdominals and pelvis. The position of the spine. How we distribute weight through our feet. How we move through the hips and perhaps most importantly, how one movement prepares us for the next.

There’s a choreography to it. Not choreography in the traditional dance sense, but a thoughtful progression of movements that challenge the body while encouraging coordination and control.

Sometimes we’ll isolate a muscle deliberately. There’s real value in that but we don’t stop there. We bring that strength back into movement, we challenge it through different positions, ranges of motion and patterns and we pay attention to the quality of what we’re doing.

Because good technique isn’t about making every movement look identical. It’s about understanding how to move effectively within your own body.

That’s something I’ve spent more than 25 years teaching, and I think it’s becoming more important to me with every passing year.

Strong enough for life.

As we age, maintaining muscular strength is essential.

But I don’t want us to think about strength simply in terms of how much weight we can lift or how a particular muscle looks.

I want us to think about what that strength allows us to do.

• To move confidently.

• To maintain our balance.

• To get up from the floor.

• To carry, climb, reach and explore.

• To remain physically curious.

And to enjoy that wonderful feeling of being at home in a body that responds when we ask something of it.

So yes, let’s train our glutes. Let’s lift weights, build muscle and challenge ourselves but let’s remember that those muscles are part of something much bigger.

Strength is what we build. Movement is how we bring it to life and personally, I’ll always be aiming for a little more cat and a little less robot.

Want move like a cat with me? Here is where you start

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