Most fitness classes are serious affairs, with lots of grimacing, panting, and suffering as the instructor barks out commands and students struggle to keep up.

An Exuberant Animal class turns this approach on its head. It puts a completely different spin on fitness, one that’s “primal, playful, and practical,” said Exuberant Animal trainer Steven Stanfield.

At a recent class at Studio 122 in Magnolia, all three elements were on display. Although the several newcomers to the class appeared a little nervous at first, not knowing what would be expected of them, within ten minutes everyone was giggling and laughing and smiling like children at a birthday party.

By the end of the hour-long session, after a series of deceptively simple movements and games, students were sweaty and fatigued. They’d been introduced to a revolutionary set of fitness ideas designed to make “exercise” less onerous and more fun, stimulating, sociable, and effective.

So how is it “primal, playful, and practical?" Take one of the warm-up movements Stanfield introduced. He called it “pretend jump rope,” where students skip an imaginary rope.

Anyone who has tried to jump rope knows how difficult it is, but grasping handles made of air “we’re all pros at this,” he said. Suddenly students were free to be creative, throwing in double and triple twirls, going backwards, sideways. They got the physical benefits of jumping rope without having to master the skill.

If jumping “air” ropes is playful, then the many variations of squatting movements are both primal and practical. Primal refers to movement that our stone-age ancestors performed as they roamed across the African veldt. Stanfield squatted down on his haunches and invited the others to follow suit.

He said that in societies that don’t have chairs, this is the preferred resting position. Squatting exercises are a great way to strengthen leg and back muscles that are critical for performing everyday activities, such as gardening, walking, or picking things up from the floor.

A good example is a movement called “bulldozer.” Two people stand back-to-back, lock arms, and lower into a squat. Now one person pushes the other across the room, while the partner gently resists. It’s a real leg burner, but gets people smiling.

Exuberant Animal is the brainchild of local fitness expert and author Frank Forencich, whose background is in human biology, physiology, and the martial arts. He believes that our society’s sedentary behavior goes against our evolutionary history as creatures who had to move to survive.

“To become healthier,” he said, “we have to re-learn how to move as our ancestors did, how to bring that movement into our everyday lives. The best way to do that is to make it fun and playful, not drudgery, more like recess than, say, a traditional P.E. class. It’s got to be social because humans are group animals. And it should be practical so that gains in strength, balance, and agility carry over to other aspects of our lives.”

When movement gets integrated into our lives, it becomes “sustainable,” Forencich said. He believes that only strong, fit, and agile homo sapiens are able to deal creatively and effectively with the challenges and stresses of modern life.

At the end of an Exuberant Animal session, the instructors (a rotating group that includes Stanfield, his wife Monica, Forencich and a nomad from the Olympic Peninsula named Mick Dodge, a proponent of barefoot locomotion who’s been featured on KUOW-FM and KING-TV) always gather the group in a circle and lead them in a ritual of three leaps into the air, yelling with joy.

Afterwards, I asked Stanfield what was on the docket for next week. He looked at me and laughed. No two classes are ever the same, he said, as there are hundreds of movements in the Exuberant Animal “playbook” and each instructor likes to do different things.

“You’ll have to come and find out.”

The classes take place at Studio 122, a small gym in Magnolia on the edge of Discovery Park. Classes are open to all ages, but parents should accompany children. Classes are rigorous. Call Studio 122 at 624-6693 for a schedule.