Customer Reviews

Body-Flow: Freedom from Fear-Reactivity

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This book is similar to some of Pavel Tsatsouline's work in that the author presents theories and techniques on physical training that were developed and studied (at least in part) in Russia/the former Soviet Union, and the material presented is generally unavaiable or scarce in English language sources.
That is about where the similarity ends. Most of Pavel's work is straightforward and user-friendly (think "Power to the People"). You read it, you apply it, and you are stronger.
Mr. Sonnon's stuff is far more theorectical and nuanced, and it covers a far larger range of topics. This is more of a life improvement book than simply "how to be stronger".
The gist of Mr. Sonnon's work is that all people are made to be healthy; strength, agility, and stamina are your birthright. Most people de-condition themselves contrary to their natural state of health, and the result of that de-conditioning is "fear-reactivity", which profoundly affects our health and general performance by interfering with our body's natural flow or "body-flow".
Sonnon's work "Body-flow" teaches how to get out of the way of your body's natural state, or body-flow, by daily practice of various exercises that integrate breath with alignment and movement.
Although the topics covered are huge and complicated, Sonnon addresses each in an easy to understand style. Still, because whta he asserts is so theoretical and encompassing, much of it must be read and re-read to be understood (if I do understand it now).
I gave this book 4 stars because it was thoughtful and well-written. The instructions and photos for the exercises were fairly clear, but to be totally comfortable with them I felt like I should order one of his videos (Note: Mr. Sonnon hosts a website with discussion page, where he is happy to answer questions himself and give explanations when requested). There were a few typos in the book which closer editing would have caught.
Regardless, the proof of this book will be in the pudding. If a year from now I am still using this book and it works as advertised, I will be changing this to a five star review. Based on Mr. Sonnon's success with his personal training clients, and the logic of his explanations in this book, I suspect that will be the case.

As a Yoga instructor of 10 years, and a Pilates instructor for 3, I was much intrigued by some online reviews stating that this was the advancement of many advanced somatic methods made popular by greats like FM Alexander, and Joseph Huburtus Pilates.

I was hoping that the marketing was correct and Scott Sonnon would be joining this crew.

Sonnon has some good ideas, and a great entertaining style of communicating them. The approach, however, was somewhat lacking in depth. It seemed to have borrowed many bits and pieces from the thorough systems mentioned above, and piece them together attempting to appear new altogether. I found that this was not the case.

Although I would recommend it to anyone wishing to gain a beginners understanding of proper biomechanical exercise, I would strongly hesitate to say that it is anywhere near exhaustive or as complete as the marketing would like to suggest.

Happy Hunting.

I'm new to all of this, so maybe my rating isn't indicative to what the others have granted. My take on this book is based on what I know from my own personal training for the past 15 years. I believe I've covered as many practices, theoretical ideas, and systems out there as I could.

A friend of mine intoduced me to the idea of circular training from an article he read in Black Belt Magazine featuring Scott Sonnon. I took the plunge and bought this book.

It's not overpriced per se, but the information inside takes a lot of background learning from Sonnon to get a clear idea of what he is talking about. He has a plethora of coined terms that need defining, and if you haven't followed his brand of philosophy for some time you won't understand what the heck he is saying.

A good book on sport psychology should be able to clarify simply that too much arousal or stress is not good for your conditioning, and many exercise scientists will tell you that stress causes mechanical changes in your tissues that will affect your performance. Sonnon seems to write as if he believes that only his movement exercises will take that away from you. I've tried some of them, and remain highly skeptical.

As far as writing is concerned, I'd be more interested in what Sonnon says if it weren't highly ladden with high philosophy and coined terms that require his dictonary explanations.

I bought this book because I wanted some pictures of the exercises from sonnon's grapplers toolbox reborn. I like to have something reference besides a video, and I wasn't sure if the prasara yoga book would contain all the exercises, so I went ahead and ordered a used copy of this book despite of its bad reviews.

if you are interested in the theoretical concepts presented in this book (i.e. that trauma and stress causes a progressive loss of flexibility that leads to inefficient body use, and that reversing this process can free up energy and alleviate pain), I would recommend Somatics by Thomas Hanna, Bioenergetics by Alexander Lowen, or Awareness Through Movement by Moshe Feldenkrais as much better starting points.

personally I wanted illustrations of the bodyflow exercises. half of the book is devoted to them, so I wasn't disappointed.

the other half of the book is completely nuts. it consists of a bunch of speculative theories about the body's adaptation to stress and a vaguely paranoid model of peak performance. then the book skips into photographs of tumbling exercises derived from competition wrestling, as if the connection with sonnon's ramblings were somehow self-evident. he presents the exercises en masse, with no description of how they are supposed to be connected or how one would go about developing a training program.

"Body Flow" is an extraordinary book, but it isn't for the treadmill-while-watching-television crowd. Its thesis is that the quality of natural athletic "talent" is the capacity to flow from position to position with grace. Therefore, the entire book is set up to teach you core "biomechanical exercises" to work into sequences on your own. These exercises are like complex calesthenics--in this sense "Body Flow" probably isn't for beginners. But the upside is that it is possible Scott Sonnon has boiled down, and identified, a core aspect of that illusive quality called "mastery". A martial arts champion (Russian Judo/wrestling, known as "Sombo") and internationally respected coach, Sonnon has created something here that just might revolutionize the field--it will all depend on the level of freedom and power the public is ready for. At minimum, you'll increase agility, strength, flexibility. At maximum, you just might finally become the athlete you've always dreamed of. The movements resemble a combination of yoga, gymnastics, breakdancing, and Alexander work. This is very high-level stuff, but for the intelligent explorer, quite possibly just what you've been looking for.

I am very grateful for the developments of physical culture that have come to public consumption over the past decade. Pilates, Yoga, Strength, Flexibility, and Somatic traditions (Feldenkrais, FM Alexander, and Thomas Hanna are a few that come to mind).

The author of this book would have you believe that he has transcended all of those who have come before them. I can say that I don't believe this to be the case. While there is much reference to principles of training that make sense, the author has created a multitude of catchy phrases and coined together common terms in the fitness industry to appear as if something new has been created.

I was sorely disappointed by this book, and in it's place would recommend titles by Pavel Tsatsouline and Stott Pilates, both of which will contain the principles plus substance that you can immediately put to use.

I read Sonnon's other book, _Clubbell Training for Circular Strength_, and it is an excellent work. So I did not think twice about buying _Body Flow_.

I can't help but think this book is some sort of inside joke on the part of Scott Sonnon and his business partners. He writes like he fights--he slips and slides so I could never understand what he was saying. The last 25% of the book is devoted to actual exercises, which were indeed neat. But in the end, the first 75% of the book just left me scratching my head and wondering if I had just been on the receiving end of a joke.

As a purely cosmetic aside, in some cases, the text combines so many fonts that it looks like a ransom note...this took away from the professional look and feel of the work.

Again, Scott Sonnon is a brilliant sportsman and has the potential to be a great communicator...if he steps back to whatever he did differently during his "Clubbell" days.

I had seen videos online showing some of those exercises, and it looked like fun, sort of a return to childhood movements. I was less interested in the esoteric "philosophy" material, and more interested in the exercises, so I skimmed the preliminary parts.

I finally got to the exercises, and as a personal trainer, I was concerned. The very first one I looked at was a movement using the shoulders that made me wonder about impingement problems. I decided to give it a try anyway, but then the next day, when doing some light warm-up movements with my arms, my shoulders crunched in a disconcerting manner where they had not before.

Many of the other movements are done from a deep squat position, that is, crouched down to the extent that the back of your thigh is firmly pressed against the calf. This position can be problematic because having your leg flexed in this manner can be hard on the knee joint capsule. Again, wanting to give him the benefit of the doubt, I tried a couple of the exercises. And again, the next day I had sore knees. I imagine someone will think that I should have toughed it out and continued until soreness went away, but I've done some fairly tough leg exercises like one-leg squats with no knee pain. So these exercises were out too, and that eliminated a large number of the movements. So I'll probably sell the book.

I got some things out of it. His ideas about breathing are interesting, if somewhat hard to follow with his writing style. I probably would have enjoyed hearing anecdotes about his Soviet training.

Who might like this book? Some people seem to need and benefit from a strong, articulate, somewhat mystical figure telling them what to do. I prefer advice that's more down-to-earth. (Pavel is very down-to-earth and funny, but he only gives you a little info in each book so you'll keep buying more) Maybe someone with very tough joints would not have the experience I had, and would find the exercises beneficial.

If Scott Sonnen could just refrain from selling his methods so hard, I could take what's here for a good addition to the fitness catalog. His comments on this being the next level after Feldenkrais indicate to me that he is either completely focused on salesmanship, unaware of the fine points of Feldenkrais, or both. Training to achieve better reaction to falling or being hit, (two major aspects of the 'fear' we 'react' to), is only successful when practiced through a graded progression of stress levels,(not likely without expert face-to face instruction), and only one small part of of the human condition.

For days, my sole passion in life was to deconstruct Scott Sonnon's "Body Flow" into something not only my mind could absorb, but my body also. You see I have what Scott Sonnon refers to as "Fear Reactivity" in my spine, shoulders and areas of my hip flexors. That means I have a learned, conditioned reaction to stress, trauma or shock stored in those areas in my body.

Moreover, I am no stranger to Mr. Sonnon and I have used his research and theories successfully in past. I know his research is as legitimate as his heart. I felt a responsibility to all of my yoga students to ingest his work to free them from their own "fear reactivity".

Mr. Sonnon courageously abandons his own "fear reactivity" as he exposes his soul in this book. This is not just a fitness guide, but also a journey into Mr. Sonnon's own inspiration, dedication and creation.

He presents his readers with a definition of "fear reactivity" and "Body Flow" that is based in science and cloaked in psychology. His research leads his readers to the basic understanding that "Body Flow" is a removal of "fear reactivity".

It's like waking up nude, feeling alive and free. Suddenly, external sources cause you to gradually imprisoned yourself in multiple layers of clothing. You've gain some semblance of security, but not only has your movement been inhibited, you've forgotten who you were.

"Body Flow" is simply removing those layers of clothing(stress, trauma, negative self-images, shock) and returning to that original free naked "you".

"Body Flow' teaches you to use biomechanical exercises, focusing on your breathing, structural alignment and movement to "unbound your flow".

These biomechanical exercises are sophisticated movement skills that emphasize agility, coordination and balance. They compliment and expound upon the sophistication of our natural movement. He also teaches you how to weave these exercises together into "kinetic chains". The challenge and sophistication of these series of movements go beyond the vinyasas of even the most extreme power yoga classes.

This is the only system that I know of that shows the connection between our neuromuscular system, psychology and physical movement capabilities. This is also the only concept that feeds your creative freedom.

Mr. Sonnon has included many references for science geeks. But this books is more than science...it's freedom.

I plan on being a student and friend of Mr. Sonnon for life.