3 mile easy run with my dog after lunch, one quarter mile walked, last 100 meters were sprinted – all barefoot – about 30 minutes total, didn’t time it.

Running-specific compensations from the RMAX Powered Running DVD

Mid-afternoon FlowFit level 3 session for 17 rounds in <17 minutes.

Flock of Pigeon flow and Forest Flow from Prasara Yoga Instructional DVD to cooldown and compensate.

To your health and success,

Fitness Professional and CST Athlete

After dinner, I did Intu-Flow Intermediate level, with some other exercises added in where I needed it most.

I followed the joint mobility session with a FlowFit session/test. I did FlowFit level 3 for 14 rounds in 13:45.

One of the requirements for the Circular Strength Training Certification is to be able to do 14 rounds of level 3 in 14 minutes, so I passed my self-test.

Let me tell you, if you want a program that will have you working up a sweat in less than 10 minutes, then give FlowFit a try. I was making it a point to keep my exertion as minimal as possible – I just wanted to pass the test, really – but I started really breathing and I’m drenched. I’ll probably have to drink at least a quart of water before bed just to replace what was lost. This one is ideal for burning fat all over your body and building muscles in places you probably didn’t know you had them!

I haven’t done FlowFit in awhile, and surprised myself with my performance.  I didn’t expect to be able to maintain optimal technique for all 14 rounds, but that’s what happened. I finished each working set in about 45-50 seconds, and then rested for the remaining 10-15 seconds while shaking out my legs and torso.

I will be finishing the evening with some Prasara BodyFlow yoga flows. I’m going to work on Forest flow and Flock of Pigeons Flow to hit these legs.

Later!

Fitness Professional and CST Athlete

It was such a nice day, that I did all of my training outside in the sunshine. I began with a very thorough session of joint mobility training using the Intu-Flow longevity system. I spent about 40 minutes in total working each joint through mixed levels of sophistication. I spent a lot of time on my shoulders, arms, and legs especially.

Then, after playing with the dog for a little while, I practiced some FlowFit rounds to prepare for the upcoming focus in my training cycle. Here is one of the rounds I filmed for you:

Flowfit – levels 3 and 4 demonstrated

I’m pleased with my performance, although I think my leg swoop was a little off today. I thought it was funny when the sun came out during my upward facing dog – it had been cloudy up until then. I may take the dog for a walk later, and I plan on practicing Forest Flow from Prasara Yoga before the end of today. I am also happy that there is very little muscle soreness after yesterday’s high intensity clubbell training session.

Have a great weekend, and, if you’re with me, enjoy the first day of your 100 Day Challenge!

To your health and success,

Fitness Professional

P.S. you can find more info about the Flowfit conditioning program here:

“I would like to share your core strength video with my patients….many of whom would be quite challenged simply by 15 seconds in plank. Do you have any standing core exercises to recommend?”

I filmed a quick response for Dr. Goodman this morning.

Beginner Core Strengthening Exercises


Every exercise and movement is made up of individual components. You can always make an exercise easier or more challenging by making very minor changes. Isometric planks are an obvious example of how easy it is to adjust the difficulty level.

The beginner level FlowFit exercises that I demonstrated are all very basic variations of exercises that become more sophisticated in the FlowFit program. With each of the four levels, the exercise sophisticates and becomes more challenging. (Here is an example of some level 3 and 4 exercises from the FlowFit program, click here for video).

Ultimately, we all want to perform sophisticated movements with strength and finesse. And the good news is that you can, one step at a time as you deepen your daily personal practice. Each exercise is built from an easier, simpler version, and if we practice the basics diligently our movement will naturally adapt with each and every practice session. There will come a point when you can pick up new skills rapidly, and apply them with strength, finesse, and ease.

The FlowFit program is an excellent all-in-one exercise DVD. I highly recommend it!

To your health and success,

Fitness Professional and Strength Coach

Quad Hop Burpee Exercise


A good indicator of your performance is how softly you engage the ground. Perfect technique will be nearly silent, and should involve very little impact at the joints. You should be springing off the ground much like jumping on a trampoline, and this should not fatigue you. If you cannot achieve this during your practice session, then you need to step back to a less sophisticated version.

Don’t increase your training effort until you can do this with nearly perfect technique and minimal (if any) discomfort. If you’re feeling any pain during the execution, don’t do this one.

Again, if you’re not already familiar and efficient with regular quad squats and quad hops, then I advise against trying this more sophisticated version. Practice the basic movements until you can perform them effortlessly, then move onto more advanced variations. You can learn the quad squat and quad hop (and their many variations) from several resources.

Learn 4 levels of difficulty from the Intu-Flow DVD Program

Learn 4 levels of difficulty as part of a complete workout from the FlowFit DVD Program

Learn the quad hop and how to link it together with other exercises to create chains (aka hybrid exercises) from the BodyFlow DVD Program.

Your Question of the Day is: are there any other exercises that you would like me to demo for you?

To your health and success,

Fitness Professional and CST Athlete

If you want a structured conditioning program, go with FlowFit – there’s no guesswork involved, you just follow Sonnon’s instructions and watch the results come in.

BodyFlow is great too, there are about 30 exercises, but more importantly, BodyFlow will teach you about how to create your own exercises for your own needs.  The video quality is so-so – it’s just the filming of Scott teaching a seminar with students, so it’s not optimal as an instructional DVD – but the content is still good.  BodyFlow also includes a brief explanation of the intricacies of Biomechanical exercise in lecture format.

So, if you want a more open-ended program that will help you decide what is best for your current needs, then BodyFlow will be the way to go.  You will learn a lot more exercises from BodyFlow, but it will be up to you regarding how to best implement them into your program.

I have both programs, and am glad I got both of them.  But I’m also glad I bought FlowFit first, since it had the structure I needed to understand the BodyFlow system.

Something I have noticed in my own personal practice is that BodyFlow exercises really help improve the conditioning of my legs unlike any other program I have tried.  Moving through the 6 degrees of freedom really helps to not only strengthen the muscles and joints, but also bullet-proof the body from injury.

Let me know if you have any more questions, I’d be happy to help. Also, keep in mind that BodyFlow ultimately evolved into Prasara Yoga, so the Prasara products may also be another avenue to look into.

To your health and success,

Fitness Professional and Biomechanical Exercise Aficionado

-stab

Here’s the video I think Stab is referring to:

FlowFit Circuit Training

ANSWER: Hey Stab,

That’s a good question because Sonnon does leave it a little open-ended as to how to begin with the FlowFit program.

Like you said, there are 7 exercise families, and 4 Flow chains. Each of the 7 exercises has 4 levels of difficulty. So, there are really 28 exercises in total. Those 28 exercises are then chained together in a circuit fashion (one exercise done after the other), to create Flow chains. Since there are 4 levels of difficulty, respectively there are 4 flow chains.

The first thing I recommend you do is follow along with the exercise instructions on the DVD and establish what your current level of conditioning is for each exercise. Essentially, you need to figure out which level of difficulty you are prepared for, level 1 being for beginners, and level 4 being for advanced trainees.

I would write down which level you are at for each exercise (maybe a 2 for squats, and a 1 for forward presses, etc.). Once you have done that, you have two options. First, you could identify if there is a certain difficulty level that you are prepared for across the boards. Maybe you logged mostly 2’s during your conditioning assessment. In that instance, I recommend you just start by following the 2nd Flow Chain (which is comprised of all “Level 2″ difficulty levels).

Alternatively, if you have a wide variety of conditioning for each exercise (a pretty even split of 1’s, 2’s, 3’s, and 4’s), then you could just create you own flow chain with each respective exercise. If some exercises are much easier than others, then it might be a good idea to do this. So, you may do something like this…

Level 3 squat
Level 2 forward press
Level 3 swoop
Level 2 twist
Level 1 springing twist
Level 2 reverse spinal arch
Level 1 spinal rock

I do think there is value in going through each program in its entirety. So, if you discover that you have mostly 1’s or 2’s, then I highly recommend you start with the respective Flow Chain and just stick with it until you’re ready to move on. I will agree with Sonnon and stress the importance of incremental progression. It’s a big mistake to jump into a more difficult program than you can handle. You will be much more likely to succeed long term with your FlowFit training if you take baby steps to progress.

Once you’ve figured out which FlowChain to use, now it’s time to setup an actual program. There are a lot of ways to do this, and I’ll share one method that I like best. It’s a two-step process…

1) Increasing Volume – in the beginning your first goal should be to perform each exercise with near-perfect technique. Once, you have done this, then it’s time to work on adding training volume (AKA doing more total work). You can do this by increasing the number of times you complete a Flow Chain.

So, if you did 6 Flow Chains your first FlowFit session, then I recommend you aim for 7-8 on your next session. I recommend you move up to 14-20 repetitions before increasing your effort.

2) Increasing Effort – Now that you’ve increased your training volume, it’s time to up the effort. I like to do this by decreasing my rest breaks in between Flow Chain repetitions, or by performing the exercises a little faster. Depending on how much time it takes you to complete your Flow Chains (a good goal is one chain per minute), will determine when it’s time to up your effort.

So, for example, if you’ve been taking 30 second breaks in between each Flow Chain repetition, cut that down to 15-20 seconds for a much more difficult session. I usually try to finish each Flow Chain in under a minute, and whatever time I have left in that minute will be my rest break.

I do want to stress Sonnon’s instructions to make sure your technique is near perfect and that you are not experiencing any significant pain or discomfort before moving on into a higher exertion FlowFit training session. It’s just not worth the risk of overtraining and injury.

Once you can do a Flow Chain for 14 repetitions in 14 minutes, with excellent technique and minimal discomfort, AND you are not working too hard to do it (effort less than 60% of MAX) – THEN it’s time to jump to the next Flow Chain.

To your health and success,

Fitness Professional and Clubbell Athlete

P.S. To pick up a copy of FlowFit, click here.

Today’s session was squeezed in at the last minute, and didn’t go exactly as planned. Here is what I did…after a day of frequent joint mobility mini-sessions.

Warmup with Flowfit, levels 3 and 4
6 rounds in 7 minutes – RPTED 7 5 1

BodyFlow practice for 10 minutes, RPTED 8 7 2
Squat creep, shin twist, knee switch, shin rolls, shinbox switches, elevated scorpions, spinal rocks, quad squats, single-leg squats, various shoulder rolls.

Corpse pose for 3 minutes

Notes: was hurried today, but squeezed the training in. Tomorrow’s session is going to be fun, finally get to pick up the clubbells!

To your health and success,

Fitness Professional and Clubbell Athlete

It’s because thousands of men and women of all ages are burning off bodyfat, and getting in the best shape of their lives using this home exercise DVD. The best part is that they’re doing it without special equipment, simply by using the proven, scientifically-accurate and common-sense exercises and programs found inside this incredible home exercise DVD program.

Here is a short clip of me performing a flow chain from FlowFit:


Scott Sonnon, a world-renowned health expert, strength and conditioning coach, and Master of Sport in SOMBO, has not just pumped out another fat loss home workout DVD in an already saturated
market. Sonnon’s FlowFit can be described as the DIY Fat Loss and Conditioning Bible. I have practiced strength training with a lot of programs, and this one is a true gem that has left a lasting impression. It is one of the most complete and detailed exercise instructional DVD’s for fat loss that you will ever watch and learn from. So, what makes it different from the hordes of other fat loss DVD programs out there?

Sonnon starts with a brief, but very enlightening discussion about why the FlowFit program has been designed so specifically to cater to fat loss goals. He doesn’t waste any time here, and spells out exactly how anyone practicing it can maximize their sessions. Then, he goes on to show you exactly how to do it.

There are a total of 28 exercises that are split into 7 exercise families, so you will learn a lot of new exercises, probably most of which you have never even seen before. The way it works is that each exercise family has four levels of difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced, and mastery level exercises. Sonnon gives you detailed instructions and demonstrations of each exercise. This is the bulk of the DVD time – instruction, which is super-important to make sure you are 100% comfortable doing the exercises, and that you know your technique is excellent.

These exercises are then chained together to create Flows, one of the most valuable techniques you will learn from this home workout DVD. Creating flows by chaining together different exercises causes a completely new and advanced training effect, which will result in more muscular recruitment and will stimulate your metabolism into fat burning mode to an even greater extent.

By practicing this program, you will learn more than any strength training or fat loss book could teach you about training for fat loss. The wisdom comes with the experience.

When I first began with FlowFit, I was astounded at the new found strength I acquired from moving through what Sonnon refers to as the Six Degrees of Freedom (all the different ways the body can move in space). I was actually most impressed with the core strength that I built up using this program. Not only were my abs the strongest they had ever been, I could effectively translate force from my legs, through my core, and into my arms – which is exactly what the core muscles are really for.

Squatting, pushing, pulling, bending, twisting – it’s all in there, and all of the guesswork has been taken out of it. You just simply have to follow along with the DVD. Eventually, you will memorize the routine and be able to practice FlowFit anywhere. It is a completely bodyweight-only program, and the only tool you will need is a “prop” such as a chair or bench to lean on for some of the exercises.

You may be wondering if this is a strength training program, a fat loss conditioning program, or a bodyweight training program. The truth is that it is all of these combined into one system. Sonnon explains that the program can be used for fat loss, building muscle, or improving your conditioning simply by manipulating some of the training variables (which he teaches you how to do).

This individualized approach is perfect because each of us has unique personal goals.

One of the most powerful additions in this DVD is when Sonnon explains the Neuro-Immuno-Endocrine Response (NIER). During this explanation, you will learn what is probably the ultimate secret to burning fat and getting in shape during your strength training sessions… and it has nothing to do with diets, supplements or sets and reps.

It’s about timing your sessions to coincide with your physiological response to training and maximizing the time that is optimal for burning fat.

If there is any drawback to FlowFit, it’s that it contains so much scientific research that Sonnon has to be a little bit vague about the reasons for the NIE Response. Some people may say that the FlowFit program is too simple to be effective, but those people are likely to never try the program out for themselves. Rest assured that your results will speak for themselves and that there is nothing mystical or enchanted about FlowFit – it’s just simple techniques blended with modern science and research.

Who will benefit most from FlowFit?

In the broadest sense, anyone and everyone who needs to lose weight and improve their conditioning will benefit from FlowFit. Men and women, young and old, athletes and fitness enthusiasts alike, and especially motivated individuals and avid trainees will love this DVD. Although it was created by a martial artist, this DVD is certainly NOT just for fighters.

In terms of DVD quality and design, FlowFit is a clean and professionally formatted DVD program. There are good menu features that make it convenient to find each exercise demonstration and each flow chain easily.

Initially, some people thought that FlowFit was priced a little on the high side because $39 might seem like a fair chunk of money for one DVD. However, after they saw how effective this program is, they said it was not only worth the $39, but many times that amount.

As with any how-to publication, you’re not really paying for the materials used to compile the document, but for what the information can do for you. Clearly, this DVD has changed many lives and the hundreds of testimonials and success stories found on the FlowFit website are proof of that (I recommend you take a look at that
“testimonials” page on the FlowFit website.

The Bottom line?

Anyone looking for an easy and traditional strength training program should probably not invest in FlowFit. This is not a general strength training program that you can use free weights or
machines with. However, if you’re looking for something a little bit different, something that teaches exercises you have probably never seen before, that you can do right in your living room, and something that will help you burn fat and build muscle at the same time, then click here to learn more about Scott Sonnon’s FlowFit DVD Program.

To your health and success,