Where did the Animal Flow method come from?
Animal Flow was created by Mike Fitch, it’s his vision of a combination of his experience with gymnastics, Parkour (the practice of running, jumping and climbing surrounding features– yes, that’s a thing!), hand balancing, circus arts, breakdancing and the traditional use of your own body weight for resistance.
While each of the bodyweight disciplines is unique in its own way, they all share common elements. One of these is the concept of “flow” where you seamlessly link the movements together. These movements are powerful for improving the function of the human body being able to build strength, improving core stability and great for toning and conditioning your body.
All animal movements place the body in a “four pillar” position, meaning your hands and feet are touching the floor. By using animal forms for exercise you will be experiencing Animal Flow’s unique multi-planar (exercises that hit multiple planes of movement and every part of your body) technique.
So what are the benefits?
So who can do Animal Flow?
Animal Flow is for everyone. No matter your age, fitness level, you will notice a change in your strength and your body. A true Animal Flow practitioner would say look out for a change in the way you move!
Of course if you have an injury or recovering from a medical condition, you should consult your doctor to get the green light, but we are encouraging beginners to try this style too, it is for everyone – truly.
In the summer of 2015, George came across Animal Flow. He had been practising Yoga for 5 year already (his wife is a Yoga teacher) who had persuaded him to give it a go. He persevered from not even being able touch his toes to creating much more flexibility and space in his long body (he’s over 6ft). You see George was an international sportsman, a Professional Sailor competing at the Olympics and 2 America’s Cups. His needed to be strong and fit every day, year after year. He admits he took to obsessively looking for gyms on his many travels for his sport. With a sole goal of pushing weights and working out to a high level. Around his 45th birthday, he decided to discover a new type of training, that’s where Yoga came in, followed up by his training course in Animal Flow. During this course he could see the similarity of Yoga, but some breakdancing, switching to marital arts and gymnastic control. George says “Holding these postures for more than 5 seconds set my quads on fire”. It was hard. Supporting your own body weight is challenging to say the least and George remembers thinking “How can this simple move be so hard?”
George insists that although this practice is challenging and he loves this part but the true amazing thing is how much it has done for his mental health. His connection between his mind and his body has benefits like – clear thinking, his busy mind has quietened, he feels very much centred.
Friday Night Series – A taster of Animal Flow, 29thMarch at 7.30pm at Ebb&Flow
Animal Flow for Beginners Workshop – 7thApril at 12.30pm at Ebb&Flow