Yoga
Journal Video Review / February 2002
FLEXTASY:
THE FLEXIBILITY SYSTEM® with Blue Dunn
Flextasy
is the invention of Blue Dunn, a southern California
resident whose Web site describes him as a Structural
Release Realignment Therapist (another of his inventions)
and a certified Kitaido yoga instructor. His system
is a sequence of just over 50 exercises adapted
from yoga asanas, martial arts, and calisthenics,
and designed, as the name suggests, to increase
overall body flexibility and self-awareness. Included
are an assortment of accessible and relatively gentle
standing, kneeling, and reclining exercises, all
performed with dynamic, dance-like movements. Yoga
students will recognize several old friends, including
Cobra, Cat, Downward-Facing Dog, Shoulderstand,
and Plow There are two tapes in this package: an
hour-long instructional class and a half-hour advanced
class, the latter simply a speeded-up version of
the former.
The
system is certainly complete. You'd be hard pressed
to find a joint that Dunn neglects to stretch. He's
an enthusiastic instructor who understands the importance
of proper alignment and conscious breathing. I would
have liked a bit more emphatic cautioning on a few
of the exercises-say, for that Shoulder-stand and
Plow, here performed with shoulders flat on the
floor, and then at one point with the head turned
from side to side, one of the first things they
told us not to do in yoga school. It also would've
been nice if his models, instead of two youngish
"Flextasy Girls" - direct your cards and
letters to Dunn, please, not me -were a bit older,
i.e., living examples of Flextasy's effectiveness.
But the program will serve most people well, as
either a primary practice or a preliminary to all
kinds of athletics or asana practice.
If nothing
else, Dunn has chutzpah. Billing his brainchild
as the "yoga for the new millennium,"
he criticizes the way mainstream asanas are taught
in this country as too "linear," static,
and fragmented, tending to create a "hyper-erect
body capable of contorting itself into many postures
but in movement non-fluid and stiff-looking."
He believes that inflexible beginners are at "special
risk" in yoga classes because "yoga is
an advanced method of physical therapy and should
be participated in only by individuals having achieved
a certain level of flexibility and possessing at
least a fundamental understanding of body mechanics."
Ow!
Anyway, he guarantees his program will keep you
rag-doll flexible for the rest of your life-and
yes, if you practice five days a week for a month
and are not completely satisfied, you will get your
money back.
Click
here to read Blue's response
Click here to read
Flextasy Girl's response
Back to Flextasy page
