Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

My energy and my mood have sky-rocketed! After years of extreme, undiagnosed fatigue and steady weight gain, I suddenly feel great. I am playful instead of dutiful with my children, I am dancing and singing along with the music station instead of slogging through my day listening to monotonous talk radio, and my husband and I are experiencing something akin to a renaissance. And I am loving my snug clothes getting loose and my loose clothes hitting the Goodwill box. T-Tapp is the real deal. It really works, and works quickly. But be forewarned: it isn't without effort. It is completely unlike getting on a treadmill and zoning out for thirty minutes. Learning T-Tapp is more like learning to play an instrument. It requires thought, concentration, application, and practice. For example, after doing Organs in Place all week, I suddenly felt a real, physical shift occur while I was doing "tighten, release, tighten, release" the other day. I had been thinking of that part as just strengthening muscles after organs were in place, but no--it is a huge part of the actual "putting organs in place" part! A week of going through the motions, and then sudden insight and a new level of effectiveness. This new understanding has changed the way I do that move a bit. Now, I was already seeing great progress before I *got* this fine point, but getting it really made a difference. In other words, faking it till you make it is okay, in fact, vital, as long as you keep trying to perfect your technique. I am generally pleased with the book itself. Unfortunately, it can't download the information directly into my brain, but it does give detailed, well-illustrated instructions for each posture and movement, including the whys and the most common mistakes. It is written clearly, although the complexity of the subject is bound to make even the clearest writing overwhelm at first. I loved the index, and find it and excellent crib-sheet for navigating the website. While I enjoyed all the success stories, I did find the way they are inserted into the text distracting. I also found myself a little unsure a couple of times if a photo was illustrating good form or a common mistake, due to lack of clear captions. Though I've never met her, I adore Teresa Tapp, and feel indebted to her for the years of work that she poured into developing the T-Tapp system, testing and documenting it's effectiveness, and bringing it to the public. She is not afraid of scientific studies! I perceive her as educated, knowledgeable and honest, and bought some things from her website I would never have believed were anything but a rip-off from any other source. (Think "cellulite.") But I'd like to see T-Tapp made more "user friendly." I think this book is a great step in that direction, but I hope there is a restructuring of the website in the works. The T-Tapp website is a wonderful resource, and I spend a lot of time there these days, surfing for free, looking for inspiration as well as information. But is so difficult to navigate. For example, I ordered several items from the site--which arrived promptly and were a real treat to get. But the ordering process was a real pain. I had to locate products by wading through categories clicking through several different pages, then check the boxes of products I wanted. So far, not too bad, but when I tried to check out, only the last couple of item appeared in my cart. I finally figured out that after selecting items you have to click on a *check out* link at the bottom of the page to put the checked items in your cart, or you lose the items when you move on to continue shopping. And the system times you out really quickly if you step away to get your purse or change a diaper. With all my bumbling, I had to start from scratch a couple of times. (I really wanted the stuff...I'd never have persevered for a more casual interest.) I'd love to see website that's more intuitive to navigate, with a checkout system as easy as Amazon's. It's sort of a metaphor for the beauty and frustration of T-Tapp itself, now that I think about it. It is more complex and requires more of us mentally than we expect from exercise, but we stick with it because the payoff is so huge. T-Tapp may get refined and more accessible, as the years pass, but until then, it's worth the effort. If it were the same old same old that fit our comfort level, it wouldn't be revolutionary, or worth your money.