Creative movement coaching developed to broaden your definition of strength.
THE MISSION
To be my best self while challenging you to be yours. To continue finding inspiration in your determination and focus. To cultivate connection in teaching you to connect to yourself. To keep doing what I love to do.
THE PROGRAM
Sadly, your fitness journey may have been unenthusiastic and disconnected. Your natural movement patterns disrupted by competition style training, slick marketing and outdated templates.
My years of experience have taught me that basing resistance training on maximal size and strength creates a rigid framework that makes progress for many inaccessible. A similar ethos holds true of the most popular movement paradigms. Terms such as “core” and “toning” are utilized to make these frameworks more palatable to those fearing the word strength and its associated imagery. Polarity in the spirit of unique marketing has created an adversarial instead of integrative relationship with regard to movement.
Unlearning the ineffective habits and mantras of these limiting systems starts now. Once you embrace a new “program” of virtually limitless choice, a clear path to your personal transformation is illuminated. With this expansive viewpoint your personal fitness can be felt from the inside out rather than seen outwardly in. Feeling instead of seeing allows for a new way of thinking, and that's intuitively expressed in your newfound strength and transformation.
I work to formulate a a non traditional program based on your natural system of levers and relationship to simple movements. Rigidity and obsession with symmetry are discarded to discover a personal journey based on your unique shape and ability. The principles of your program are energy, creativity and strength. For clarity’s sake, energy is defined as grounding and centering.
Grounding is the foundation of your program. The greater your stable grounding energy, the better your connection and contraction to the muscles you’re targeting.
Stand your ground with presence and become adept at being In the moment.
Thoughtful grounding reveals a pathway to the flow of calm and intense energies.
Subtle shifts in position allow mastery of your exchange with resistance.
Centering should be felt, not seen. Having become so dependent on our sight, our feeling senses have become dulled. There are no mirrors in the studio, shifting your focus to what’s happening inside, instead of how the outside looks.
Awareness of positioning becomes intuitive.
Utilization of centering increases tension without adding weight.
Learn to fluently translate your bodies cues.
Creativity is the offshoot of your energy work. Armed with increased physical and mental awareness your need for superfluous movement falls away.
Creatively choose between calm and intense energies.
You’ll notice unlimited variety in the simple and bring simplicity to the complex.
You’ll modify exercises on the fly discerning the right technique for any movement.
Strength and transformation are the organic result of practicing this program.
Your energy has shifted.
You move and think creatively.
Everything has changed.
Tap Into Energy
Tap Into Creativity
Tap Into Strength
EVOLUTION
My father is an artist. In addition to his career in design he’s also a talented illustrator and handyman. Conversely, I struggle with stick figures and am all thumbs regarding repairs. My early myopic belief was that creativity must be expressed outwardly. That my father’s skills and creative expression were exclusively artistic. Having no outlet for expression or exploration I felt defeated and frustrated. My journey in and out of the gym has been unraveling that early message to expand my definition of creativity.
In my teens and early 20’s I struggled to navigate a range of personal obstacles that included drugs, alcohol and food. At 27 I made a life changing decision that hinged on sober actions. In addition to abstinence from the aforementioned substances my personal program included a dedicated “fitness plan”. This allegiance and a commitment to a spiritual journey turned my life around. Fitness became my passion and I became a certified personal trainer in 2001. Hired at an exclusive NYC gym I hungrily pursued certifications, sought out fitness gurus, and attended seminars. After countless attempts at contortion to their systems, I realized that selling a product or package took precedent over authentic coaching.
I’m not one of the herd and refuse to be told by the corporate machine how to manifest health and wellness. I see beyond what’s being fed to us by fitness culture. My experience and rejection of the status quo opened the door for me to vocalize what I viscerally felt. I was to share a journey paved with grounding, centering, self healing, and discernment. I now seek a more authentic way to live, move, and be in the world. This is my art.
-Hal Miller
*The collection of illustrated work on this site was created by a client inspired by the energy of our work.
Hal is based out of Pilates Habitat located at 192 3rd. Ave.
- I can come to you.
- Online sessions available.
EMAIL
halc1@mac.com
PHONE
(917) 912-1432
TESTIMONIALS
“Hal,
Thank you so much for being you. I’m so happy and honored to work with
you and thank you for taking the time.
When I worked in Japan I learned the word “senpai”, and you are 100%
one of them.”
“Most transformation requires a giving-up of comfort, or familiar. Those of us in the “industry of transformation” have different jargon to describe it, but regardless of how we talk about it, ultimately it’s our choice to release and be willing to experience something other than what we already know.
In October, I decided I was willing to stop “being right” about what my body was and wasn’t capable of. I started working with Hal Miller as my personal trainer. I probably sold him all my limits and fears, to which he said, “I got you.” As a person and a trainer, Hal is both a challenger and a gentle soul. Sometimes even from tenderness he helps me push myself.
Now my fitness gets to be about me and my relationship with my body, creation, and fun, instead of my fears & concerns about how it’s supposed to go or supposed to look.
If you’re looking for a partner in your own physical transformation, and you are here in NYC, I highly recommend you let him run the next leg of your journey with you 😊🙏🏻 🏋🏻♂️ THANK YOU, HAL!!!
”
“Hal is a focused and caring training professional. He is responsive to needs - and adjusts routines in a way to maximize benefit with keeping it safe. I owe a huge debt to Hal for maintaining my discipline and keeping me at a high level of fitness and readiness.”
RATES
My goal is to make training accessible. If you don’t see what you need, please ask. Consults are $75 (in person and virtual) and give us the opportunity to assess our possible partnership without a big commitment. In person sessions are between 50-60 minutes.
RATE TEMPLATE
Virtual - Customized based on time and commitment.
10 sessions $2000.00 - In person.
24 sessions $4560.00 - In person.
48 sessions $8400.00 - In person.
THE SOFT WAY TO A HARD BODY
A Gentle Approach To Sustainable Strength
Fitness is not just a physical journey; it’s also a mental and emotional one. Recognizing this interconnectedness is key to optimizing power both in and out of the gym.
My vision is to share my personal journey and inspire you to reconsider your own approach to fitness. You may be approaching your physicality in a way that doesn’t align with your emotional and mental well-being. By adopting a gentler, more thoughtful approach, you can remove obstacles that may seem insurmountable.
This shift in perspective can lead to authentic intensity and sustainability as a natural byproduct. Let’s redefine strength through the lens of a regulated nervous system. Here, grounding, centering, and awareness become the true heavy lifting. Join me on this journey to discover a gentler and more sustainable way to engage with fitness, embracing your unique path and finding empowerment in your own skin.
* In order to perform the movements in the book you’ll need access to DB’s, aerobic step/platform, foam roller, small loop band, and a HR monitor.
Read a sample from The Soft Way To A Hard Body below:
Feelings are sometimes difficult to discover and even more difficult to decipher—but hidden in your deepest feelings lies your highest truth.
The truth is that you’re being instructed, not taught. You are being contorted into movement paradigms that require feeling, but the instructors aren’t in touch with feelings. If they were, they wouldn’t be instructing you based on limitation and rigidity; they would be teaching you how to feel for yourself. Limitless.
The combination of social media relevance and competition-style training has created a coaching style that lacks depth. I’m compelled to explain a little bit about how we’ve gotten here based on my perspective.
I see very few examples that, in addition to visual demonstration, add “this is what this feels like” or “when I do this, it feels like this” or “you might want to experiment with this,” and the list of omitted felt guidance goes on and on.
Teachers are instructing felt reality without sharing what they feel. It will be impossible to integrate movements without felt reality. Felt reality is how your interpretation of the visual demonstration feels in your body. Without a feeling check, visual demonstration depends solely on seen perception.
Seen perception is basing our feelings on what it looks like someone else is doing. In my world, this is lack of integration, and we must integrate to balance what we see with what we feel to create harmony.