Animal Flow Review: Gain Strength & Mobility With Bodyweight Movements

YouTube video
Animal Flow YouTube

Are you looking for a fun and challenging at-home workout that you can do anywhere with no equipment? Do you want to build strength and flexibility using fundamental movement sequences that can be transferred to other fitness practices and life in general? If so you should take a look at our Animal Flow review where you can find out just what this innovative fitness method is all about!

Think primal movements meet bodyweight training where mobility and coordination are the focus, while strength-building is a natural byproduct of the exercise and that's Animal Flow in a nutshell. Intrigued? Read on!

The Yogatique Critique – Animal Flow Review

Monthly Cost:$19.99
Annual or
Biannual Cost:
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Free Trial:Yes, 14 days
Mobile App:Yes
Downloadable Classes:Yes
Live Streaming Classes:No
Number of Online Classes:325+

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Animal Flow Pros and Cons

  • Innovative.
  • No equipment required.
  • Suitable for all ages and all levels of fitness.
  • Quick full-body workouts.
  • Too unconventional for some.
  • Flows are short for those looking for a longer workout.

What is Animal Flow yoga 

Animal Flow is actually not yoga, although it has some similarities. Animal Flow is a fitness regime comprised of ground-based movements that can be used in sequences or flows.

The movements fall into 6 different types which are called the ‘Six Components'. The creators of Animal Flow have designed each movement with a specific result in mind, and they can all be mixed together to form different sorts of workouts.

With inspiration from yoga, martial arts, parkour, and calisthenics, Animal Flow aims to utilize your whole body in a way that builds strength, coordination, flexibility, and balance.

The Six Components of Animal Flow are:

  1. Wrist Mobilizations – Supple, strong wrists are vital to yoga and ground-based movements, so Animal Flow makes sure to prioritize wrist mobilizations to ensure that the hands and wrists are ready for the workouts.
  2. Activations – Animal Flow has two activation positions – Beast and Crab – and these are to help you become conscious and aware of your body.
  3. Form Specific Stretches – Designed to build ‘strength through motion', these movements combine flexibility and stability.
  4. Traveling Forms – Animal Flow calls these their ‘animal locomotive movements' and they can be described as movements that mimic animalistic movements called Ape, Beast, and Crab.
  5. Switches and Transitions – The movements are used to link other movements and create flows.
  6. Flows – These are sequences of movements that can be used as a workout in themselves.
Man demonstrating Animal Flow online body movement classes.
Some of the quick 5 minute beginners flows you'll find on Animal Flow.

Animal Flow Review – Site Overview

Mobility and movement, quadrupedal and ground-based movements

5-60 mins

Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced

Is Animal Flow a good workout

Animal Flow is designed to increase mobility, flexibility, stability, power, endurance, skill, and neuromuscular communication. The classes are fun, challenging, and different to most online yoga classes.

You can expect a good workout! While it is low impact, like yoga, it also enhances strength and surprises your body with the range of movements in the classes.

Animal Flow has been used in recent studies to examine quadrupedal movements and their effectiveness. A recent study found that ‘Quadrupedal movement training is a viable alternative form of training to improve whole-body stabilization and flexibility.' You can view efficacy studies they have conducted on their website.

What is Animal Flow good for

As you may be coming to understand, Animal Flow is a very unique system that requires you to learn a new set of fluid and linking movements.

This is good for enhancing fluidity, mobility, and stability. Keeping your muscles and fascia pliable by making new shapes will help your body from becoming rigid and stiff.

If you're already into fitness, martial arts, dance or other movement practices, your current skills will, of course, help you to master these new forms of movement. The Animal Flow system can also bring another dimension to your existing routine to complement it.

Can you build muscle with Animal Flow

When compared to traditional muscle-building activities such as weight lifting, Animal Flow builds strength while only using your own body weight, thus putting less strain on your body. However, for building muscle, it would probably be best used to complement your Animal Flow routine with powerlifting.

Man doing Animal Flow movements on animalflow.com.
Classes, tutorials, and flows are all at your fingertips on Animal Flow.

What is an Animal Flow certification

Animal Flow currently offers two types of certifications: Certified Animal Flow Instructor Level 1 and Level 2.

The Level 1 certification is for fitness professionals who intend to use AF in their training programs and/or offer classes.

The Level 2 Instructor is for fitness professionals who want to take their AF practice to a higher level, with an increased focus on personalizing flows and advanced moves. 

The workshops to become an Animal Flow certified instructor are between 10-12 hours.

These workshops are recommended to be taken by personal trainers, fitness instructors, PE teachers, yoga instructors, and also physical therapists.

Animal Flow sequences and online classes

There are currently 50 Beginners Flow videos on the Animal Flow website, plenty to keep you busy and ease you into the system. The flows range from a couple of minutes to 7 or 8 minutes as they become more advanced. 

Once you have become familiar with the moves then there are a good amount of Flow Classes to take, again categorized into Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced. There are also classes that focus on mobility and strength specifically, which complement the other online classes.

Men’s Journal has a great example of a beginner sequence with images and tutorials.

Animal Flow flow of the week on animal flow.com
Every Monday a new Flow of the Week is added to the website.

Takeaway: Animal Flow is a unique system that will improve strength, flexibility, balance and also foster a mind-body connection that will translate to any other fitness activity that you enjoy. You can be a total beginner or a fitness professional and still find something for you with Animal Flow.

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7.9 Total Score

Animal Flow is a unique system that will improve strength, flexibility, balance and also foster a mind body connection that will translate to any other fitness activity that you enjoy. You can be a total beginner or a fitness professional and still find something for you with Animal Flow.

Easy Navigation
8
Class Variety
8
Regular Updates
8
Overall Value
7.5
PROS
  • Innovative.
  • No equipment required.
  • Suitable for all ages and all levels of fitness.
  • Quick full-body workouts.
CONS
  • Too unconventional for some.
  • Flows are short for those looking for a longer workout.
Heather
Heather

Heather is a Certified Yoga Teacher the visionary behind The Yogatique, her passion project. She created The Yogatique to help yogis & other growth-oriented individuals discover premium high quality trainings and classes in the yoga & wellness space. Heather is a RYT-200 and a practicing yogi of more than 15 years. She is also a global citizen who has been living abroad for 10 years. Her passions include health & fitness, studying healthspan & longevity, exploring the road less traveled, & SEO. Heather can be reached at heatherj@theyogatique.com, or you can connect with Heather on LinkedIn.

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