This rapidly growing fitness program focuses on functional movement and aims to help people feel their best at every stage of life.
Reviewed by Dietitian Victoria Seaver, MS, RD
A couple of weeks ago, I overheard two of my colleagues complaining about the aches and pains of aging. The three of us are in our 40s (how the hell did that happen?!) and things are, well, changing. In the morning we are stiff and sore. It’s harder to recover from injuries, no matter how minor. But we have children and we like to be active. And we want it to stay that way.
I’m not sure if I’ve found a solution that fits all the people in the world, but I’ve found something that has helped meVery. So naturally, I leapt like a mole out of my cubicle and said, “You have to try Pvolve.”
This rapidly growing fitness company has many other fans as well. Jennifer Aniston is perhaps the most notable. Aniston recently teamed up with Pvolve after falling in love with the show. Aniston shared in a recent press release that she was first introduced to the program by a close friend, which is exactly how I learned about the program myself.
Related: Jennifer Aniston Just Teamed Up With Pvolve Here’s What It Is, and Why We Love It
I joined Pvolve about a year and a half ago on the advice of my friend Karin (hi Karin!). She had been dealing with back pain and, although the yoga was helping, she wasn’t healing as well as she had hoped. Karin looked into all kinds of exercises and physical therapy programs and decided to give Pvolve a try. She fell in love the first week. Three months later she said her pain had decreased by 70%.
Related: The 7 best anti-inflammatory snacks for joint pain, according to a dietitian
Karin continued to do Pvolve and continued to talk about how beneficial it was for her overall health and well-being. I was wondering if you could help me too. I have struggled with pain in her lower back and hips for decades, there were even a couple of days where I couldn’t get out of bed. Even on my good days, I still woke up most mornings stiff, sore, and slightly hunched over. Also, my calves tend to be very tight and I have bad ankles (so bad I had ligament reconstruction in my left ankle). I was wondering if Pvolve would help with all of this.
Karin and I are not the only ones who have come to Pvolve for pain relief. Relieving the pain is precisely why it started in the first place.
“I found myself at a crossroads. I was suffering a lot from back pain from all the high intensity workouts I was doing. On the other hand, I wasn’t seeing the physical results I wanted from all the workouts I was doing,” he shares Pvolve founder Rachel Katzman. “Then I found a studio that was training in this world of functional fitness and I started seeing what I physically wanted to see, but mostly my back pain went away.” She felt like she had found the answer and couldn’t wait to share it.
First, what is Pvolve?
According to its website, “Pvolve is a science-driven method that combines low-impact functional fitness with resistance-based equipment to deliver results beyond a traditional workout.” Many of the sequences are meant to mimic everyday movement.” From the moment we wake up to the moment we go to bed, we move in 3D. Our bodies move in all planes of motion. We’re reaching, we’re by twisting, we’re bending,” Katzman says. “If we applied these principles to the way we exercised, imagine how much better the rest of our day would be.”
And the instructors train them as such to really drive the idea of the mind-body connection. For example, you might mention the idea of stepping off your back foot as if you were running a sequence, or say that a movement is like lifting a box or reaching for a jar on a high shelf in the kitchen.
There are more than 1,400 on-demand classes, plus you can sign up for live virtual classes or walk into a studio for IRL training in select cities (Pvolve hopes to franchise 250 studios by 2025). You can join a curated range, with options ranging from improving knee stability and ankle strength to ones designed to support women’s well-being (think endometriosis, menopause, and pelvic floor strengthening).
Do you need special equipment to make Pvolve?
While you don’t need any special equipment (there are over 200 classes that require nothing but yourself), most classes use equipment. If you exercise at home, you may already have similar items, such as ankle weights and gliders.
When I signed up, I started with a series designed to introduce new users to the basics, which didn’t require any equipment. After I finished those videos, I bought all the gear, including the non-slip precision mat, which is super useful when you’re learning the, well, weird moves that Pvolve uses. This square mat has a numbered grid printed on it, to make it easier to follow the instructor’s directions. I use some of the equipment for other things, for example, my Slant Board lives in my living room most of the time, so I can stretch my tight calves while watching TV. My favorite piece of equipment is probably the Heavy Ankle Resistance Band (yes, I’m a bit of a masochist). I like that it hits almost every muscle in my legs. What is Katzman’s favorite piece? The P.Ball (there’s even a 2-week series dedicated to him!)
At the moment, you can try Pvolve free for 7 days. If you like it, they offer a 30 day trial where you can try out the equipment as well. In the Signature Bundle, get two equipment, the Precision Mat, and one month of streaming for $199.99, or opt for the Total Transformation Bundle, which includes all equipment plus a full year of streaming for $624.99. If you’re not a fan, just send the gear back. If you like it, keep it and move on.
What I thought about Pvolve
I’ve done many other types of group fitness, from jazzercise and spinning to inferno hot pilates and barre. From the first lesson, it was clear this program was different. I moved my body in ways I’ve never moved it before in an exercise class. Many of the movements are created to mimic things you do every day, like reaching and walking. And with her focus on the mind-body connection, I quickly noticed I was incorporating some of the classy cues into my daily movements.
But I felt a difference very quickly. I tried doing classes three times a week and about six weeks into the program, I found that the morning stiffness and pain were almost completely gone. A few months later, I noticed I was moving differently. I was hiking with my dogs in the woods behind my house and realized I was actively thinking about hooking the top of my quad to lift my leg. I was engaging my glutes more when walking and running. While I can’t say if it’s helping my ankles, I will say this: Almost every time I do substantial hiking, I twist my ankle at least once. In April, I walked almost 7 miles and didn’t! Sounds like progress to me.
Related: Spending time in nature could be the key to fighting stress
Bottom line
Katzman told me that movement is his medicine and that really resonated with me. Even though I’m not super fit, I’m active. I hike, run, bike, do yoga, and more. If I don’t move, I feel it in my mind and body. And if I slow down my Pvolve workouts, my body isn’t happy. For example, April and May were very busy and I didn’t prioritize Pvolve. My morning stiffness is back. But the instant I did another workout, I felt standing and sitting straighter. I felt my legs moving in the right way. When I woke up in the morning, I felt Well. And that’s all the reason I have to continue.
#Pvolve #daily #pains #disappear #Jennifer #Aniston #swears
Image Source : www.yahoo.com