Stop Counting Reps. Start Building Capacity.
Here’s what most people get wrong about fitness: they think more is better. More reps, more sets, more hours in the gym. But your body doesn’t care about volume—it cares about variety.
After years of coaching clients across Toronto, from Yorkville to Leslieville, I’ve seen the same pattern play out: people who move in diverse ways stay injury-free, build functional strength faster, and actually enjoy training. Those who grind the same movements endlessly? They plateau, get hurt, or burn out.
Your Body Is An Adaptation Machine
Think about it: your nervous system is incredibly efficient. Give it the same stimulus repeatedly, and it stops adapting. That’s why your progress stalls after 6-8 weeks of the same routine.
But introduce new movement patterns—different angles, tempos, loading schemes—and suddenly your body has to figure things out again. That’s where real growth happens.
Three Movement Principles That Actually Work
1. Multi-Planar Training
Most gym exercises happen in one plane: forward and back. But life doesn’t work that way. You twist, rotate, reach diagonally. Train in all three planes of motion—sagittal, frontal, and transverse—and watch your real-world strength skyrocket.
2. Tempo Manipulation
Speed isn’t everything. Slowing down the eccentric (lowering) phase of a movement builds more control and resilience than adding weight ever will. Try a 4-second descent on your next squat set and tell me it’s not harder than what you’re doing now.
3. Constraint-Based Training
Remove a degree of freedom and force your body to solve problems differently. Single-leg work, unilateral carries, half-kneeling positions—these create instability that builds bulletproof stability.
The Real Goal: Movement Mastery
Fitness culture obsesses over aesthetics and PRs. But the real marker of a well-trained body? Movement competency.
Can you get up from the floor without using your hands? Can you hang from a bar for 60 seconds? Can you walk 10km without your feet hurting? These are the tests that matter for longevity.
Building a resilient body isn’t about crushing yourself daily. It’s about intelligent exposure to varied demands over time. That’s the difference between training and just working out.
What This Looks Like In Practice
A well-designed training week might include:
- Heavy compound lifts for strength
- Unilateral work for stability and addressing asymmetries
- Carries and loaded movement for real-world capacity
- Mobility work that isn’t just stretching (think CARs, end-range strengthening)
- Play—yes, actual unstructured movement that makes you think
Notice what’s missing? Hours of cardio you hate. Endless accessory work. Chasing soreness for its own sake.
The Bottom Line
Your body is designed to move in infinite ways. Modern life has reduced most people’s movement vocabulary to sitting, standing, and walking. The gym should expand your movement capacity, not just make you better at three exercises.
Train for variety. Build capacity across ranges and patterns. Stay curious about movement.
That’s how you build a body that works for decades, not just months.
Want to move better? Let’s talk. Real coaching means addressing your specific limitations and building from where you actually are—not where some cookie-cutter program assumes you should be.
— Antonio Montes
Movement Coach, Toronto