Movement culture: used by UFC legend Conor McGregor, fitness trend can help no matter how unfit you are

Emerging fitness regime draws from virtually all the physical disciplines, and offers an unusually well-rounded training style to suit all shapes and sizes

Its main aim is to fight people’s lack of physical activity – a trigger for heart disease, depression and other conditions

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Fitness instructor Teddy Lo works with a student at Trybe, the movement-centred gym he co-founded in Wong Chuk Hang, Hong Kong. Movement culture is an emerging fitness regime that can get almost anyone fit, practitioners say.

Published: 2:00pm, 14 Dec 2019Updated: 7:00pm, 15 Dec 2019

A group of people crawl on all fours, juggling tennis balls or curling their bodies as they perform spinal waves on a Hong Kong beach.

The Saturday morning group at Repulse Bay are practising movement culture, an emerging style of physical training and one to consider if you are seeking a fresh experience for the new year or wish to regain fitness in this era of pandemic sedentariness.

“We work all day on computers. Then you see people staring at phones while they’re doing sit-ups in the gym or having lunch together,” says Andres Vesga, a Hong Kong-based movement coach. “People are so detached [from] their own bodies and from each other. Movement can protect us from this environment.”

In November, a World Health Organisation study revealed that 80 per cent of adolescents are not completing at least one hour of physical activity per day. A 2018 study published in British medical journal The Lancet, and involving 1.9 million adults, found nearly a third performed less than 150 minutes of moderate physical activity, or 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity, every week.

Movement culture coach Andres Vesga (right) leads a class at Repulse Bay Beach in Hong Kong. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Physical inactivity increases the risk of chronic conditions including heart disease or high blood pressure, as well as mental health problems such as anxiety or depression.

Vesga invited me to one of his two-hour weekend classes, where the no-nonsense instructor guides his students through a broad variety of exercises. After warming up, we perform hand-eye coordination drills, balance 15-inch (38cm) batons on our arms to fine-tune focus and muscle control, practise locomotion – deliberately moving on all fours – and enhance power through body weight fitness sets.