Resistance Flexibility 1.0: Becoming flexible in all ways

Stumbled across Bob Cooley's integrative theory and practice and now understand why I was always getting injured with yoga etc, and finding it harder and harder to keep fit and health in my early 60s. Excellent book introducing different levels of the individual exercises. A whole new world of health improvement and exercise has now opened up for me. Great value for money and you will find examples of this exercises on you tube if you cannot afford his website videos. I cannot speak more highly of his approach.

Firstly price of this book is amazing as when it arrived and I saw the amount of content I would have paid double! Then I began reading and am astonished with the huge amount of information, research, exercise advice, lengthy description, nutritional advice and the list goes on. I am extremely pleased with this and the work of Bob Cooley MUST be spread to everyone. Thank you!

So useful

This is a difficult one because I have very conflicting opinions on different parts of the book. As other reviews have said, the text is riddled with major typos and in some parts it is as if someone wanted to modify what they were typing and forgot to reread it after to make sure it wasn't gibberish. There are also wierd pointless pictures, some of the exercise descriptions do not match the pictures at all (e.g. the advanced small intestine stretch on Pg 178/179), the some of the jumps between the medium to advanced positions don't make sense (e.g the skin medium and advanced exercises appear completely unrelated and working totally different muscles), and I can't see how the advanced exercises would lead to half of the classical yoga poses shown on Pg 310. Every other page is taken up with testimonials (no exaggeration), so the book volume could have quite literally been cut in half.Despite all of these flaws, the fundamental premise of the practice the book describes is intriguing and I have found benefit in my mobility and pain using the methods described. It is probably the safest way of improving mobility whilst also providing adequate supporting strength in the affected tissues at the same time. It's also an interesting alternative approach to achieving some of the harder classical yoga poses.It's of those books where you have to sift the crud to find the gems.EDIT: When I initially wrote my review I was only about halfway through, and judged it on the merits of the method that I know and use to good effect, but now having finished the book I have to say it is hands down the WORST edited book I have ever read. There are regularly confusing complete gibberish sentences throughout and it's as if the person who wrote it was on something at times. Terrible waste of an opportunity to produce a potentially brilliant book on an amazing subject. Due to my newfound heightened annoyance I have deducted another star from my rating.This book needs to be totally rewritten by a competent writer to do justice to the method.

Really disappointed with this book. I was hoping to find a concise and a detailed guide for how to use streatching exercises for improve flexibility. Instead I got a very confusing book, with poor paging. Even the exercises are badly explained. A complete waste of money!

Les concepts de ce livre sont innovants et très efficaces. Il n'y a pas mieux pour supprimer des douleurs et accroître sa souplesse. Malheureusement les exercices sont très mal expliqués. Chaque exercice est illustré par une image de départ et une image de fin. Les images de début et de fin sont parfois interverties et en plus il y a souvent inversion entre droite et gauche. La confusion est donc totale.Finalement dans ce livre la seule chose d'utile est le renvoi vers le site web qui montre en vidéo des exercices similaires (et oui en plus ils sont différents).Mon conseil: attendez l'édition 2

I do the exercises every day. Took some pushing at the beginning, but makes me feel better now

Genial, für die Formung des Körpers! Diese Übungen sind auch für die Stärkung der Meridine Designt um den Fluss der Energie zu gewährleisten!

This is a review for the stretching, not the book.This book, like the one that preceded it a number of years ago, is just a brief introduction to the stretching and some of Bob's current trainers. The stretching is best experienced first-hand, or at minimum through videos and information on Bob's website.This book is useful, however, to get started, to learn basic positions and principles, and is a handy reference. If you learn what is in this book, you can start to change your body, mind, emotions, and life and move forward, but if you have an opportunity, my advice is to seek out a workshop or training with Bob or one of his trainers:When I first met Bob in the early 1990s, I was a mess as a human being.It felt as though I had one foot in the world, and one out of it. I was spaced out to the point of not being present for conversations, my digestion was horrible and my belly hurt all the time. I threw up every morning because my suffering and grief was overwhelming. All I wanted to do was sleep. I was 21 years old and someone asked me if I'd served in Vietnam. I was so counter-phobic, I walked straight through fast moving traffic. My body was a tight mess. I had no leverage on life, and my prime desire was to find my self and end my suffering.Fortunately, synchronicity intervened. If it hadn't, I might not be alive. I really don't know.A new acquaintance introduced me to Bob just at the right time. He may as well have carried me into Bob's studio in a shoe-box, all crumpled up, because Bob took me out of the box I was in, put my feet on the ground, and then started to tell me about myself. He put me into a liver stretch and I suddenly felt free... I was hooked.Finally true psychological relief, and no drugs or pain killers necessary.Through my own experience, I knew the stretching worked the moment I experienced it, that's how experience works, so I then devoted the next few years to stretching almost all day, every day, even in my sleep. Applying principles Bob taught me, and I learned from stretches, in each moment, I learned to handle my reactions to life, etc., and my daily experience of suffering, that heavy weight on my shoulders I felt every day, began to lessen. My body healed and pains disappeared, I hurt less, and life began to get better, even if it didn't appear outwardly very different.Three and a half years later of stretching, and paying attention to my mind, and using the knowledge learned from Bob's system, my body and my life was very different, and so was my mind. Stretching had made me more sensitive, and my body had taught me how not to eat and consequently, how to eat, raw foods at that time, and with the increased consciousness from a healthier body and a clearer mind, one day standing in Bob's studio, I observed how I mentally was holding onto and creating my suffering and I let go of what I was doing, mentally, and subsequently experienced a new state of peace. I connected with my self. I experienced oneness.My mind and my life was changed forever. It was like crawling through a tunnel and finding seeing some light...And, this new perspective or clarity of mind revealed the middle way to me, and I began to meditate, naturally...That day was a new beginning for me...I had leverage to enjoy living, finally, like I had as a child, and to learn from my self.I had previously thought, if I was lucky, I might find peace "someday", perhaps as a 90 year old hermit, meditating in a cave, long after I had lived and worked and suffered, but there I was in the heart of Boston, in Bob's studio, looking out upon buildings and traffic. No need for caves, no need to withdraw, just stretch and pay attention and breathe.Anyway, I don't tell you about how stretching helped me, saved me, really, because I want you to believe me. I want you to stretch and try this out for yourself and see what you can get out of it, because if you do, you will benefit yourself and others.Connecting to a state of peace finally gave me leverage on my life, but you might need something else. That's ok. Maybe you already have peace, but you have lots of anxiety, or self-critical thoughts, or fears. That's ok. Stretching works for all states of mind.Peace was just the beginning for me, I have been using what I learned from Bob to heal all the other parts of my body and mind, anxieties and fears, hurts, heartaches, body aches and pains, especially as I get older and sometimes take my body for granted while I enjoy life. I am still a work in progress...And I always come back to stretching.Sometimes I find that the stretches heal you directly, and sometimes they lead you to other things. For example, doing hours of thymus stretches made me feel as though pieces of my soul were missing, and the next day a friend gave me a book on Soul Retrieval, which led me to shamanic healings which helped me further heal from life traumas in my past. Then, sharing that with others has helped them heal as well...Stretching yourself helps others.You don't have to believe in anything here... When something works, it works. It is not a belief system. It may be energetic, organic, some law of attraction that causes your life to change when your mind and body changes, or it may not, maybe it can't be explained, just let it be a mystery and enjoy that it works.In other words, it's ok to have doubts. Just buy the book if you are interested, and try it, and if it works for you great. If you hate it, give the book to a friend, or a local library, or sell it on Amazon to someone else. If you give it to the library, consider telling them to keep it in circulation (don't sell it at sales), so that others can benefit in the future.If you like the stretching, set your intention for things you want to accomplish in your life and stay connected, and while you are connected, the knowledge, and your own intuition, attention, etc., will help you to learn which stretches to do, and keep you stretching until you begin to get what you want, and then that satisfaction will make your mind say, "YES", and you will keep going...In summary, just buy the book and start stretching. Learn from Bob, in book, or in person while he is here teaching.No one on this planet knows as much as Bob knows about stretching, personalities, etc.. except Bob today, so stay tuned for his future books...That Bob took his time to write this book, putting a little of his knowledge into words, as a system, is a gift to mankind. It like a Buddhist teaching, or the Tao, or Chinese Medicine, only it is in plain English, very simple, and easy to follow.It allows your own body, mind, emotions, and life to become your teacher. It is for the present generation and the future. It is an organic system of medicine, transformation, psychology, etc., and it comes from Life itself.It was here all the time, for thousands of years, millions of years, simply waiting for some One to discover it and put it into words.Bob is that One.And everything I have said might just be an understatement.

While I appreciate the concept of resistance stretching, and am impressed by how many people have been helped, I am not interested in having to involve another person in my stretching routine. The book is also poorly edited and reads like one long advertisement, which really doesn't appeal to me.