Muvement Blends Fitness, Nutrition, Function for Results

Michael Houle wants you to forget everything you know about fitness.

Not that the 37-year old certified trainer would say you’ve been doing things wrong all these years – more like if you’re still struggling to achieve those same health, fitness or weigh loss goals you were a few years ago, you probably haven’t been doing things the right way.

The right way, or the right philosophy, toward fitness and a healthy lifestyle is something Houle strives to impart at , the fitness facility he recently opened in a former warehouse space on Main Street in Manchester with business partner Seth Crehan.

But if you’re thinking of Muvement as your typical gym, with rows and rows of cardio machines and free weights haphazardly scattered all over the place, think again. Instead, what you’ll find inside is one large, neat, cavernous room.  There’s mats on the floor, and medicine balls, dumbbells and other exercise equipment lining the walls, but that’s about where any similarities to your “typical” gym end.

At Muvement, Houle leads members through personalized fitness sessions in small groups, or sometimes even in a one-on-one setting, with the emphasize not on how much you can lift or how fast you can run, but on functional exercises such as lunges, squats, or modified pushups.

“Our programs are dynamic, full-body workouts in which we’re doing functional exercises that translate into real life activities,” said Houle. “The idea of the workout is you’re doing strength training and you’re getting your cardio at once. It really combines everything, and to do that safely you really have to stay away from too heavy of a weight and that type of environment…it’s very functional workouts. It’s a lot of moving your body through space with some forms of resistance.”

The objective is to build core strength and muscular endurance. The classes typically last about 45 minutes, all the while Houle keeps participants shuttling from one exercise to the next. Houle compared a group to the best aspects of an aerobics class and personal training session, with members moving at their own pace and strength level while he instructs and corrects form, while the other members in that day’s class help to encourage and set the tempo.

Part of the reasoning behind the group training classes, Houle said, was also price. Members typically take about three sessions a week, and depending on what level of service they’ve signed up for a monthly membership can run anywhere from $129 to $259. A hefty price in today’s economy, Houle conceded, but not when compared to a one-on-one session with a personal trainer, which generally costs around $50 to $70 per session.

“What’s nice about the group program is you get more bang for your buck,” Houle said. “You’re getting three training sessions a week for less than what it would normally cost you for one personal training session. That was one of the reasons we wanted to start the group training program, to make it more feasible for people who couldn’t afford personal training. Or maybe they could do personal training, but could only afford it once a week, and once a week’s just not enough when you’re trying to make some changes in your life.”

But Houle doesn’t just work his clients out and send them on their way, which he says is part of the reason why so many people can be almost religious about their fitness and workout habits and still fail to lose weight or meet their health goals.

As part of the membership service, Houle works with his clients to establish a nutrition plan tailored to fit their bodies, because he believes that there’s no such thing as a “one-size-fits all diet.” Each client takes a Metabolic Typing test, a 150-question survey that helps to identify which foods work best for which people and why, to establish an individualized diet.  

“No matter how hard you’re working out in the gym, if your nutrition is not right, especially if you’re somebody whose trying to lose weight or just gain health in general, nutrition’s an even bigger factor when it comes to overall wellness,” Houle said. “We always tell our clients you can’t work yourself out of bad eating habits.”

And the final aspect Muvement's philosophy to overall fitness is one Houle said you likely won’t find emphasized too many other places: the gym’s commitment to helping its clients achieve overall body function.

“You could have the best exercise, best nutrition program going, but if there’s some sort of physiological imbalance within the body – whether it be hormonal, digestive, with your immune system, detoxification within the body – if those systems are out of balance, the best exercise and nutrition on the planet is not going to help you achieve overall wellness,” Houle said.

When clients first join, Houle does a series of assessments designed to identify everything from food intolerances to dysbiosis to adrenal fatigue. If after the assessments, Houle believes that a client might be suffering from some undiagnosed imbalance, he recommends a series of lab tests to further identify the problem, which allows him to establish a protocol for working with the client to help correct the issue.

“Exercise will only take you so far,” Houle said. “It’s a very important part of health and wellness, but if something’s going on within one of these systems, it will really hinder your progress in achieving health and wellness, especially in terms of weight loss.”

Crehan, a 29-year old Enfield native who has worked on and off in the fitness industry for the past 15 years, currently works “days” as a correctional officer, which requires him to have to keep in pretty good shape. He said that as a former soccer player in college he would sometimes work out for hours on end, but that since he started working out under Houle’s system he spends a lot less time doing it, is in better shape, and with less wear and tear on his body. Houle and Crehan are brother’s in-law.

Others also say they enjoy and have found success with Houle’s method, like D.J. Dube, a South Windsor resident who knew Houle when they both used to work at another fitness facility. Dube said she first came to Muvement because she wanted to get back into shape after time off, and that she has already started to see results in the little less than two months she’s been a member. She said that’s because Houle knows what he’s doing.

“I was in decent shape, definitely not in good shape,” Dube said. “Their workouts are for a good range of people, anyone from a beginner to a very advanced because there’s different levels. So if I feel that something’s too easy for me I can take it to the next level.”

For those interested in Muvement, Houle suggested they check out the business’ website, and noted that they offer both a free consultation and a two-week free trial period. Group training sessions are weekday mornings and evenings, but already Houle and Crehan have plans to expand the training schedule and open a satellite location at 100 Percent Martial Arts in Glastonbury.

“Our goal is to make it as feasible for as many people to come as possible,” Houle said. “Part of the reason we do our all-inclusive program is because for somebody to go see a personal trainer, go see a nutritionist, go see a naturopath for testing and all that, it adds up and it’s a lot of running around. We wanted to create a program that includes all those components in one location.”