Activate!
I wanted to use todays blog entry to review a DVD I recently ordered. I know a lot of you guys like Nick Cream were hoping for something along the lines of "Remember the Tight Ones" or something of that nature. I am sorry to disappoint you but of course this is a wholesome fitness-related blog. The only time I have ever come close to running afoul of that was when I provided a link to the softcore porn-esque cover of that new Clarence Bass book. Anyway lets get down to business.
The DVD is ACTIVATE and the author is Tom Furman. The topic pertains to increasing range of motion and the tool utilized is reciprocal inhibition facilitated stretching. Tom and his friend Mario take you through a series of stretches. This is tastefully done, in contrast to a video put out by a different high profile outfit called "Loaded Stretching". In Loaded Stretching partner drills are carried out by two shirtless men. I do not know why this is. The only reason I own the Loaded Stretching video is that I thought it was a stretching video for alcoholics and I believe in fitness for everyone (actually it came as part of a package deal with some kettlebells I bought on the bay a while back but why let that interfere with a good story?). In this video Tom and Mario are sporting Physical Strategies t-shirts with the logo from Tom's website. Tom's shirt even changes color a couple times in the video. Either that or he actually changed shirts. The video would have been much better had they been wearing RFP shirts from the new spring collection. I will overlook this minor sartorial indiscretion.
The stretches utilized in ACTIVATE cover pretty much every muscle group including a superb back stretch that will effectively loosen most of the posterior chain. Each drill is explained in detail and demonstrated from different angles so you can see what is going on. Also animated arrows are used to show the force vectors for the stretches. This is most helpful. Tom and Mario also take you through an agonist/antagonist pair workout which can be performed with very basic equipment like you might find in a playground or in a prison yard. Overall the video quality is good, even HD quality. Tom's makeup artists are to be commended. The video runs about 35 min in duration which is fine because it fits my short attention span and the subject is covered adequately. Like a well written article or a woman's skirt, ideally it should be long enough to cover the subject and short enough to be interesting. I did not come up with that one by myself it was told to me by a college English instructor.
This DVD is available from Tom's website www.physicalstrategies.com It sells for around $21 and it is also available in combination with Tom's other DVD "Concrete Conflict" for a combo price of $50. Concrete Conflict is a good video as well. It is a combination of fighting scenarios and conditioning drills. There is some good stuff there and Tom is very creative. One thing I picked up from that DVD that I use almost daily is the stick walking and fighting stick mobility drills. My hand and shoulder mobility is very good as a result. These are quite useful and very therapeutic. Good Stuff!
In summary I recommend both of Tom's DVDs. They are very well done and if you are looking to add some flexibility I would consider ACTIVATE to be a treasure trove of useful information.
The DVD is ACTIVATE and the author is Tom Furman. The topic pertains to increasing range of motion and the tool utilized is reciprocal inhibition facilitated stretching. Tom and his friend Mario take you through a series of stretches. This is tastefully done, in contrast to a video put out by a different high profile outfit called "Loaded Stretching". In Loaded Stretching partner drills are carried out by two shirtless men. I do not know why this is. The only reason I own the Loaded Stretching video is that I thought it was a stretching video for alcoholics and I believe in fitness for everyone (actually it came as part of a package deal with some kettlebells I bought on the bay a while back but why let that interfere with a good story?). In this video Tom and Mario are sporting Physical Strategies t-shirts with the logo from Tom's website. Tom's shirt even changes color a couple times in the video. Either that or he actually changed shirts. The video would have been much better had they been wearing RFP shirts from the new spring collection. I will overlook this minor sartorial indiscretion.
The stretches utilized in ACTIVATE cover pretty much every muscle group including a superb back stretch that will effectively loosen most of the posterior chain. Each drill is explained in detail and demonstrated from different angles so you can see what is going on. Also animated arrows are used to show the force vectors for the stretches. This is most helpful. Tom and Mario also take you through an agonist/antagonist pair workout which can be performed with very basic equipment like you might find in a playground or in a prison yard. Overall the video quality is good, even HD quality. Tom's makeup artists are to be commended. The video runs about 35 min in duration which is fine because it fits my short attention span and the subject is covered adequately. Like a well written article or a woman's skirt, ideally it should be long enough to cover the subject and short enough to be interesting. I did not come up with that one by myself it was told to me by a college English instructor.
This DVD is available from Tom's website www.physicalstrategies.com It sells for around $21 and it is also available in combination with Tom's other DVD "Concrete Conflict" for a combo price of $50. Concrete Conflict is a good video as well. It is a combination of fighting scenarios and conditioning drills. There is some good stuff there and Tom is very creative. One thing I picked up from that DVD that I use almost daily is the stick walking and fighting stick mobility drills. My hand and shoulder mobility is very good as a result. These are quite useful and very therapeutic. Good Stuff!
In summary I recommend both of Tom's DVDs. They are very well done and if you are looking to add some flexibility I would consider ACTIVATE to be a treasure trove of useful information.
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