Animal Flow Workouts Review: 5 Natural Poses For Your Body
Written by Taisiia Dobrozorova
Taisiia Dobrozorova is a nutrition and fitness writer at Unimeal and a healthy lifestyle devotee. She has accomplished several courses on health, nutrition, dietology.
Fact checked by Pavel Balezin
Pavel Bazelin is a fitness expert at Unimeal. He owns a fitness studio and works as a personal trainer. His education includes a bachelor’s degree in Health, Fitness, and Recreation.
One of the new youth trends in fitness. It harmoniously mixes pilates, breakdance, yoga, gymnastics, and stretching. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Animal flow fitness combines a lot of perks. In this article, you will receive a detailed review of the animal flow routine and the program of 5 workouts with instructions. Let's do it!
What is animal flow?
Animal flow is one of the safest and most beneficial fitness programs which in recent years became the world trend. The name of the practice speaks for itself. To master this technique, you need to imitate the natural movements of animals, for instance, crab walk or scorpion capture.
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Animal flow workouts were created by US-based fitness and rehabilitation specialist Mike Fitch. For more than 20 years, he has studied how different types of physical activity affect the body, and made sure that the most effective and safest workouts are bodyweight exercises.
Benefits of animal flow
Imitation of the natural movements of animals improves overall health and corrects the imbalance accumulated in the body over the years. Animal flow routine can help you to:
- increase the flexibility and elasticity of your ligaments. You become less likely to get a dislocation or sprain, both at home and during fitness activities.
- stretch the hip flexors with the “Crab” workout. In most people they are chronically "clogged". "Crab" perfectly copes with this problem, which most favorably affects the health of the knee, hip joints, pelvis, and lumbar spine.
- increase strength endurance and get used to high loads. Moreover, this is all without violence against the body and without an off-scale pulse.
- burn up to 400 kcal per workout. This is comparable to running at moderate intensity for one hour.
Animal flow exercises
To perform animal flow, you do not need a gym, simulators, and any additional weights. After all, we have never seen a tiger with a barbell, but his strength and power are not in doubt.
Perhaps the first exercises imitating the movements of animals in your performance will resemble the clumsy steps of a small kitten. But as you master the movements, the grace of a panther and the strength of a noble wild cat will come. To achieve this aim, we suggest you start with the next movements:
Beast Wave Unload
- Get into a push-up position.
- Slowly begin to lift your torso. Feet stand on toes, palms remain on the floor.
- Arch your spine as much as possible so that you get a "wave" or triangle with the floor surface (ideally 90°).
- Lower yourself gently to the floor and exhale. Repeat 5-7 times.
Side Kick Through
- Get into a push-up position, but with your knees bent (they should not touch the floor). Rest your toes on the floor.
- Rotate your body 45 degrees so that if you were looking at the wall in front of you, you are now seeing the wall from the side.
- Stretch one leg forward. Rest your opposite foot on the floor. Buttocks and a stretching leg are torn off the surface.
- Also lean on the floor with the hand opposite the supporting leg.
- Take the other hand in the shoulder behind the head, as if swinging something.
- Return to the first position and repeat the same with the opposite arms and legs (this time the torso is turned towards the other wall).
- Do 6-8 repetitions.
Alternating Scorpion Reach
- Start in a low push-up position.
- Lift one leg up like a scorpion's tail as you move forward.
- Move one arm forward in a push-up position, adjusting your leg as you move.
- Change legs halfway.
Crab Reach
- Sit down on the mat.
- Put your hands behind you, leaning on them. Stretch your legs in front of you.
- Slowly lift your body so that your butt is off the floor and your feet are the mainstay of the body.
- Also, lean on your right hand. Stretch your left arm in front of you and bend at the elbow to a 90° angle.
- Keeping your back straight, arch your body so that you look up at the ceiling.
- Lower yourself back to the starting position and switch hands. Repeat the exercise 8-10 times.
Traveling Beast
- Get on your knees, and take a push-up position with your hands.
- Lift your knees off the floor, keeping your feet on your toes.
- Keeping your back straight, alternately move forward with movements (right leg-left arm, left leg-right arm).
- Continue the exercise for 2-4 minutes.
Animal flow vs yoga
Both directions have a positive effect on the body, help to develop it physically and to increase endurance. Like fitness, yoga strengthens the immune system, cardiovascular and respiratory systems, but also includes meditation practice that mostly influences your emotional health. In a little more detail:
Yoga | Animal flow |
|---|---|
straightens your posture and fights diseases of the spine | normalizes metabolism |
develops coordination and flexibility | burns fat and the gives the ability to lose weight |
normalizes the emotional background and gets rid of stress | strengthens various muscle groups |
improves mood | sculpts a figure and creates a relief body |
increases concentration and activity | develops coordination, posture, and flexibility |
Briefly: If your goal is to relax and get rid of stress, yoga is perfect for you. But if you want to lose weight or tone your body, choose animal flow fitness classes.
So, should you try it?
Let's summarize. Animal flow is an excellent pumping of the whole body. During the workout, all groups of muscles work at the same time.
With the help of animal flow, you can learn how to feel and control your body and balance. A return to wild human origins by imitating animal movements can be a kind of daily meditation.
Don't hesitate to become a beast, a mantis, or a scorpion for half an hour. Unleash your inner nature and surprise yourself with your flexibility!
Unimeal does not diagnose or suggest treatments. Any description of the diet, training plan or supplement should be discussed with your current physician or nutritionist. This article does not address specific conditions and is simply meant to provide general information on healthcare topics. Following any advice is at your own initiative and does not impose any responsibility on the blog authors for your health and safety.
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