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SpecialistMobility

Mike Fitch

Founder of Animal Flow · fitness educator and movement coach, Boulder, Colorado · NASM and NSCA certified personal trainer

Go-to expert for: ground-based bodyweight movement (Animal Flow)

Who and why

Mike Fitch is a fitness educator with about 20 years in the industry who created Animal Flow, a system of ground-based bodyweight movements inspired by how animals move. He built it after years of training mainly with weights, when he switched his focus to bodyweight disciplines. Animal Flow says it has certified more than 10,000 fitness professionals in 42 countries.

Why it matters after 50: Getting down to the floor and back up, and moving on hands and feet, uses strength, balance and joint range together. These are skills that tend to fade with age if they are not practised.

What Fitch recommends

  • The method has six building blocks: wrist warm-ups, activation holds, full-body stretches from set positions, travelling animal movements (such as crawls), switches and transitions, and finally linked sequences called flows.Note
  • Warm up the hands, wrists, feet and ankles before, during and after a session. Soreness is common when you first put weight through your hands, so build up gradually.Personal habit
  • In an 8-week trial, two 60-minute classes a week improved movement-screen scores and hip and shoulder range of motion compared with no classes. Balance and upper-body strength did not improve more than in the control group.Some evidence
  • A one-hour beginner class reached moderate-intensity exercise, burning more energy than walking at a self-chosen pace.Some evidence
  • No equipment is needed, so the moves can be practised at home, in a gym or in a park.Note

Signature: Animal Flow

A structured programme of quadrupedal (hands-and-feet) movements that can be practised as single exercises or linked into continuous flows. Fitch did not invent animal movements; his contribution was turning them into a system that is easy to learn and coach at different levels.

In your plan

Choose him for mobility: Animal Flow with easier versions for 50+. It counts as mobility, not strength. If your health screen shows wrist or shoulder problems, we suggest another mobility expert.

Build my mix

Research and honest caveats

8 weeks of quadrupedal movement training

Young adults who added Animal Flow classes twice a week improved movement quality and some joint ranges more than controls, but not balance or strength.

Buxton et al., Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 2022

Energy cost of an Animal Flow class

A beginner-level class met the criteria for moderate-intensity physical activity, with the flow segment the most demanding.

Buxton et al., Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, 2022

  • The research on Animal Flow is small and short, and has been done in young, active adults rather than people over 50. Much of the programme puts weight through the wrists and shoulders, so anyone with joint problems in those areas should start gently or get advice first.

Career highlights

  1. 2013Animal Flow X group class launched in the Washington, DC area at Equinox Bethesda
  2. 2020Randomised trial of Animal Flow-style training published online in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research (print 2022; independent researchers)
  3. 2022Study of the energy cost of an Animal Flow class published in Frontiers in Sports and Active Living

Sources