Paths Crossed: Karimu Samuels
This movement coach is showing the world how softness is the new strength.
Karimu Samuels was a clear mirror at a time when I needed one most. I first met him in Berlin in 2021 when I stepped into a gym called Hagius to look into personal training. Karimu’s territory at the gym was “movement.” And for me, that sounded like something that goes hand in hand with dancing. As in, don’t ask me to do it in front of someone, to be seen in all of my self-conscious, awkward glory. So I hid from him in the beginning in favor of more static, strength-training sessions. My limiting stories went something like all limiting stories: I should have learned how to do x, y, or z by now; it’s embarrassing to have made it into my forties without knowing how to properly throw a ball.
When Karimu and I did start regularly working together, he saw right through me. On the heels of far too much isolation across the pandemic, I was carrying a lot of grief that, in truth, goes back decades. Given his intuitive nature, Karimu quickly recognized that I didn’t trust myself fully, slowly helping me course correct with the right balance of softness, support, laughter, and tough love. He was part of a critical collective I crossed paths with at that time who magnified what little credit I’d given myself for being wholly enough exactly as I am.
The next year—back in the US again—Karimu left me a message: “You should do my mentorship.” Because this sounded terrifying for all the above reasons, I knew it was a “yes.” It was a synchronous opportunity, as I’d been investing in “somatic” work, anything to move me out of my highly thinking mind and into the body where the real wisdom lies. Along with four others, I embarked on this 3-part mentorship in Berlin across 2023, a holistic 100 hours of spinal waves [below this interview, please find a free tutorial about these waves courtesy of Karimu], partner work, fluidity, floor work, musicality, mobility, coordination, strength training, journaling, meditation, and much more. It was transformative on many levels. One year later, I met up with Karimu to discuss why.
Karimu. How would you introduce yourself?
I would never actually introduce myself. I’d rather show people by the way of how I am, who I am. I think the presence I bring onto a stage with me at an event probably gives people a certain amount of information. I can talk about movement, but if people just see me moving, while they might not know what it’s all about, they will catch a glimpse of it.
I’ve watched as your particular brand of movement has taken off, with half a million people now following along on social media. As I see it, this resonance comes from an authentic place of purpose. But before we go into what your coaching is all about, was your entry point into the fitness world a typical, athletic-oriented one?
Totally. I fell in love with soccer first, played for 16 years. Two years of tennis. I went to the German sports university in Cologne. I got a glimpse of high jump, gymnastics, swimming, bouldering. I started to see how diverse movement could be, so soccer got pretty boring. I gained a good fundamental knowledge about anatomy, biomechanics, kinetics, sports science in general. I did all the certifications—personal training, mental training with a focus on hypnosis, sports massage.
But basically I started out as a personal trainer because I thought the lifestyle was cool. A friend of mine, an ex-professional soccer player, became a trainer. And he was living in Berlin first, then London, Paris, Singapore, New York. I liked this fitness industry in a way, even though I never really liked it because it was too much about the aesthetics.
Makes sense—you saw a friend that you admired and could identify with in a certain way.
Exactly. Then I got an offer from Fortuna, the soccer club in Cologne. But after some time I realized, okay, athletic training is nice, but that’s not enough. There needed to be more. Something more holistic, even though I didn't know what it could be. Every single sport-specific area is focusing on a specific goal. But to become perfect in one area always means that you're going to lack in others.
What were your next steps?
First I traveled to LA because I thought, okay, city of stars. Every trend is coming from the US. Two or three years after it’ll come to Berlin, or to Germany, to Europe. And I wanted to be two or three steps ahead of German personal trainers.
How did that go?
I was a bit disappointed as I found it to be more about how to get the biggest biceps, the biggest butt, the biggest chest within two weeks. It was not sustainable at all. For me, sustainability is super important.
Longevity.
100%. So I got back, traveled around Europe, and learned from different kinds of movement masters like Ido Portal, Fighting Monkeys, Cirque du Soleil practitioners, or also DK Yoo, who is kind of like the modern Bruce Lee. And the interesting part is, the more I learned from movement masters in different arenas, the more I understood, okay, the essence of movement is always the same.
And what’s that?
It comes down to fluidity. Organic movements. The moment I understood that there's an essence, but just different methods that will bring you toward embodying this essence, I started to step into my own study of movement.
What does that fluidity mean to you?
As Bruce Lee said, “Be water my friend.” People know this quote, but what does it really mean to move like water? As he said, water can crash, water can flow. So water is adaptable. If you see the body as a body with multiple joints, the more you are able to connect the joints with each other, to move the joints as softly and as fluently with each other as possible, the more organically, economically, and efficiently you can move. And that’s what I want people to understand—to feel—in their bodies.
So where does one start?
It starts in the spine. But I could even break it down to a simpler exercise to start: a one-legged stand. It sounds like nothing, but if you tell someone to balance on one leg without moving the entire rest of the body, it’s actually quite challenging. The beauty of this exercise is that everybody can do it, but you will learn quite a lot about a person. For example, when they're getting a bit shaky or out of balance, are they dropping their foot? So there’s some input on mental strength. And then you have someone who may be quite challenged with balance, but they are giving their all in order to stay on one leg, even though they are jumping around, whatever it may be—they're trying.
It's definitely key when you start realizing it’s not about how you look, but instead about the quality of how you are showing up, your intentionality.
Exactly this. So just standing on one leg can lend a lot of insight about how you go through life. Second, of course, it shows a lot about where you are at because the more centered and balanced you are from the inside, the more you will be on the outside. The calmer the mind, the calmer the body.
But I think what’s interesting about the body and human existence is that no two days are exactly the same. You might be generally in balance, but one day it’s just not there.
Totally, but then it's always a good check in and beautiful feedback from your inner world.
Okay, so let’s talk about the spine.
The spine is the organizer of the body. Everything is connected to the spine: head, shoulders, rib cage, pelvis, hips, legs, arms. The stiffer the spine, the stiffer and more tense the body; the more supple the spine, the more supple and more fluently you can move the body, because the spine is not one joint, but multiple joints that are interconnected. When I was introduced to the spinal wave, I got hooked.
Why?
First of all, just watch a wave in the ocean. It’s pure grace. But even more, it was about the feeling. There's nothing more beautiful than experiencing a soft body.
I definitely hid from you at first because of the spinal wave. I saw you ask someone to face a wall and touch their forehead, then nose, chin, chest, pelvis to the wall. I don’t know why this made me so damn self-conscious, but when I got to my thoracic spine and more so my pelvis I felt so silly—that I didn’t know how to fluently connect different parts of my body.
But the beauty of it is, you started to take up the challenge, to step into the cage of movement and do the work that needed to be done in order to create a consciousness.
Indeed. Though let’s welcome in all people by telling them that I did surprise you into silence more than once with my lack of fundamentals! You had to stop and consider new ways to teach something to me that was so basic for others. Like simply locking the pelvis. You even made notes in your phone—so I, too, gave you something to learn through my basic-ness.
True. It’s beautiful. People often want to learn crazy, more complex movements. Upside-down flips and tricks. But for me, it's more about really learning to understand your body. The more you master your body, the more you will master yourself. Not only the physical aspect, but also the mental and emotional lightness and freedom that will come with that.
This work definitely began to shift a lot for me. And embracing the fact that no one cares what I look like but me. I am only poking fun at myself because you never make someone feel silly. I was in my early forties when we met, and I had the nasty habit of apologizing for myself. I’m psyched because I’m just getting started—in so many ways—and it’s about staying patient and curious. Overall, what is your mission today?
My mission is to heal the world through movement. I realized that movement is a beautiful tool that you can use to unfold certain aspects of yourself. I use movement nowadays to make people understand who they are, where they are, and how they interact with themselves and with others. The more you understand who you are, the more you can change and step into the actual power that we all have. But you have to understand—why are you moving the way you are? Behaving the way you are?
Which is, of course, all about what we've embodied to this point, which then affects our movements, our energy, our heart—open or closed.
Absolutely. And movement means mastery to me. Committing to understanding yourself, your patterns, your obstacles, your fears. Finding a way. Knowing you can become whoever you want to become is one thing, but feeling it deep down from the inside is another. How do you create this inner feeling? Following through for one thing, showing yourself you can trust your own word.
It has never been lost on me where my tension is as I start to crack open my chest in a wave, loosen up, find freedom. All of this is why I embarked on your mentorship. I was very interested in the somatic work in terms of things I wanted to work on in my emotional body, to shed a lot of origin-family stories that I have carried, for instance. Did you realize the responsibility in this somatic work, that you were in some way doing group therapy? It’s inevitable that if you move intensively for hours, you're going to move energy through your body, digest some things. Tears were just coming out of me after those weeks, which I didn’t expect at all.
When I create a program, no matter if it's the mentorship, intensive workshops, whatever, I have a specific idea. During the process, I realize by seeing, feeling, reading the space, reading people, where we can go. The first mentorship, the year before yours, was the complete opposite. We were more focused on the physical aspect—it was more about learning how to move in complex and diverse ways. But in your mentorship, I realized the actual depth of movement. I came in with some intentions, of course—I wanted to go deep—but you never know how deep a person is willing to go and what comes out. And just experiencing your mentorship last year showed me, okay, this is where I want to lead this whole movement culture to, into movement therapy culture. Because I know that it can be a beautiful tool to heal yourself when you know how. I am more conscious about my work year by year; I can use these terms now because I know what I’m capable of.
Our mentorship was 100 hours across 3 different weeks. I felt parts of me light up in ways hard to describe, with new vocabulary introduced into my body. We were a uniquely small group. Credit to Vic, Nils, Sulaiman, Žeňa, Carina, and Flo for their part in the collective energy. We each went through a journey for sure. I’ve found that healing happens in community, when you are witnessed as you confront yourself in ways big and small.
I’ve seen it over and over, in this year’s mentorship very deeply too, with 18 people this time. When you feel held you can just be you. The moment you start to just be you, you see the spark in the eyes. You see the energy change. You see the joy. You see the playfulness. You’re outgrowing something. And in a beautiful way, because it’s filled with love and connection. Rather than when you go through the pain over and over again. Only feeling pain, how do you take a step to the other side?
How do you draw this out of people, create a comfortable space to play?
You need to show people that no matter who and how they are, it's all welcome. Crying, laughing, looking weird. People need to feel seen no matter their gender, age, limitations. No matter the event that I host, I can bring my presence in, but I also ask people to understand that each and every one of us in the room has a responsibility to make the next one feel safe and beautiful. It’s about going through the space with an open heart, knowing that you can love anybody. I don't care if you're Obama or if you're living on the streets, if you treat me with respect, I'm going to treat you with respect. And just by doing this, feeling respected, you can start to open up and become vulnerable and more curious.
First of all, I love how much you have cited Obama to me over years. I expect a phone call when you work with him. But yes, in your workshops, people can expect plenty of partner exercises. Even if it feels awkward at times, it’s another input I learned a lot from. Tell me about being a good partner.
It’s about observing. Where is your partner? How is your partner feeling? What are you sensing? What is happening? In many cases, we are so much in our head, thinking about our own stuff, or what the other person might be thinking. And then you are not in the present moment. Not actually observing, to really see what your partner needs. We all have so much awareness, but are we really tapping into it most of the day?
Can you tell me about a time you’ve stepped out of your comfort zone?
While I was in LA in 2016, I realized that World of Dance, the biggest dance company in the world’s competition, was happening. Dancing is my passion. I was always putting myself in front of the mirror as a kid, playing some music and expressing myself. But never in a class or competitively.
So of course I went to take a look at this event. At some point I overheard the host saying that we had 30 minutes to sign up to these all-star battles. Sign up? I thought it was already set with only the professional dancers. So I signed up. The first dancer comes into the center, performs for one minute, and steps out. Next one goes in, steps out. I’m watching all these dancers I admired on YouTube for years. Then I hear my name. In that moment I thought, okay, no one knows me here, no one will know if I walk away. But I knew I would regret it for the rest of my life. So I stepped onto the stage. All I heard was the music. The beat was sick. I was trying to be so cool. Put my cap on, my hoodie, had my Air Jordans on. I can only remember how I stepped in and how I stepped out. But I had a complete blackout as to what I did inside. Of course I didn't make it through to the next round. But I had never performed in front of anyone else before this, and had put these people on a pedestal.
Love it. German boy in LA with his Air Jordans.
It's crazy. But especially in these dancing communities. They're all family. They're hyping each other up. Now imagine, you are one single person. No one knows you. No one is there to amp you up, cheer you on. You're just by yourself, trying to keep up the energy and create confidence while being completely insecure. I was numb, full of fear. So yeah, that was huge.
What are you most proud of right now?
Believing in myself. And managing everything that I managed over the last three years—it’s been a lot on multiple levels.
You’re a dad as well to an adorable little girl. What’s the best part of that?
I love seeing her seeing the world. The way she observes life. It’s just beautiful. I know everybody says their own kid is special. But she is, and I wouldn’t say so if she wasn’t.
What are you working on for yourself these days?
Giving myself what I give others. I love creating magic for others, creating events and sharing what I have to offer. And for sure, to be successful in the work that I do, I need to be in control in order to hold space for others. So I know that this is my superpower and my weakness at the same time. Because when I’m not in the role of a mentor or coach, I need to let go or surrender as an individual. It's hard to fully unfold all your potential if you’re always in control or holding. I can say I am starting to create more me time. It's more of a mindset that is shifting. I am realizing that I can allow myself to be happy too.
Do you have any guilty pleasures?
I would love to have a guilty pleasure. Actually…lemonade. Drinking lemonade.
Really? Why?
I know every single lemonade on this planet, almost. At some point I will create my own lemonade. For sure. And it’s going to be amazing. I love the taste, the sugary-ness, the flavors. And also when it’s sparkling.
BONUS. Karimu has given my readers a free foundational practice: THE SPINAL WAVE.
Karimu’s offerings include online programs for total beginners up to advanced movers, retreats, weekend workshops across Europe—with plans for his first US tour next year—and plenty of tutorials and playful partner exercises on his Instagram.
Absolutely love learning about Karimu’s work and story! What an extraordinary human!