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Off-Topic Book Review: Pressing Reset Original Strength Reloaded

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Rayhzel

Rayhzel

Level 3 Valued Member
Please bear with me as English is not my native language ;)

Pressing Reset: Original Strength RELOADED by Tim Anderson & Geoff Neupert


I stumbled upon this book because I was looking for something to work on my mobility. I was already familiar with Geoff Neupert’s excellent kettlebell work, so reading the premise on Original Strength it was easy to jump into this book.


ABOUT THE CONTENT

It should be noted that even though I was looking for something about mobility, Original Strength isn’t selling itself as a mobility program of any kind though. Its principle is more about regaining the reflexive strength and reflexive control that your body once had. As this is the basis of all human movement. Mobility and stability are a logical by-product of that though. In the process of regaining your reflexive strength you should even end up stronger than you did before. Tim Anderson and Geoff Neupert present five principles that are the foundation of human movement. They explain well how to perform these principles and why they work. The theory behind might raise an eyebrow or two though. Moving around like a baby might just seem weird when you are an adult. However the more I thought about it, the more I thought it might just not be all that crazy. As this whole thing about reflexive strength and control is about the fundamentals of movement and we all started from nothing. If you are rationalist looking for hard science to back this all up, you might have a hard time with this book though. There really isn’t a whole lot of science going on. Instead Original Strength is very pragmatic in its approach. If it works, it works and science be damned. If you are someone who likes things to be very structured you just might a hard time with Original Strength as well. The book gives a lot of options and invites the reader to just play around with the principles as there is no way to do this wrong. Tim Anderson and Geoff Neupert were kind of enough to give some options as how to incorporate Original Strength into your routine though.


PUT INTO PRACTICE

I’ve been doing the Original Strength Resets for about three weeks now and I have to say I love doing them. When others see you busy they might give you funny looks at first, but I don’t care. Whatever the rationale behind it is, Original Strength seems to just work. I’ve always been strong and well conditioned but this seems to have taken things up a notch and I have to admit I feel better than I have ever done. Doing the Resets is just a lot of fun and crawling is something special in its own right.


Even though this book doesn’t really feel like it would be a good fit for the rationalist, I do consider myself to be a rationalist and I ate this up. Perhaps because the idea of Original Strength is just too logical not to work. I am glad I picked this one up and I will definitely be picking up Original Strength Performance and Restoration in the future.
 
I have the T-Shirt they put out a way back and it says " Crazy Enough to Work " OS.

Yes for me that is true. I was also a bit of a skeptic but after using it and then learning it from Tim and Dani in person and becoming a Coach I love it. It works well and it works for my students too. I have helped many people regain balance,range of motion and just made them able to MOVE better again.
 
I have the seemingly insane ability to maintain two diametrically opposed beliefs in my head at the same time.

Read that again, if you would, because I don't think this is a common occurrence. Two opposing truths can exist as part of my paradigm in the moment. Possibly because there are no truths, but I am already way off course...

I am deeply rooted in philosophical and scientific thought, which I do not think are separate qualities. But, OS works, and I don't care how, or why. It is a very simple and straight forward concept. The reasons do not matter at all. It is the one thing in physical movement that I pursue without scientific inquiry. Why? It works, and works pretty quickly, not just for me, but many of my students since I was turned on to it.

My question is, why are there multiple books? I have the first book, and this itself was a constant repeat of the same language. It could have been much shorter and not lost any of its gold. Is there anything substantially new in any of the later OS books, or is just a case of capitalism reigning here?

I ask this as a believer of this system.
 
I will go over the books so everyone will know.

1.) Original Strength- The baseline of the system now superseded by the 2nd version titled Pressing Reset : Original Strength Reloaded, probably why there is so much that is familiar as it is in essence the 2nd edition of the first OS book.

2.) Original Strength Performance - This book covers the how and why to load the resets and the parameters for doing so. A little rehash in the beginning but most of the book is on the loading and why it works.

3.) Original Strength Restoration - This book is for the regressions or for people who have been very broken down and need a ground zero start.

I do think all of it could be in one giant awesome book but this is how they chose to do it. If you take the Pressing Reset workshop you get a great manual with all of the resets covered and regressions/progressions for each.


Each book has given me insight or new tips to help myself or others but I don't expect everyone to get them all. IF you can only have/want two grab OS/PR:OSR and OSP.
 
So I have the outdated book only? ;]

If you find it warranted to share, do all these works revolve around the main 5? Except for the added regressions in OSR, I assume...
 
@aciampa

Yes all the books are on the main 5 with OS/PR:OSR being the baselines- OSP has the parameters for how to and why to load the big 5 (although trying to load rolling can be tricky)

OS Restoration is really for someone who is very movement challenged or lived too long sedentary and needs a easier start point.

IF you go to the PRESSING RESET workshop and the OS PRO workshop there is a lot more material covered.
 
@MikeMoran Thanks a bunch for that overview. Very helpful to know.

I own and have read (numerous times) the Reloaded version. I agree with the point made that its kind of fun, it gets you heart rate up, and I really do feel better when I do it. I have seen results with clients as well and its good enough for me. Good review!
 
aciampa said:
...But, OS works, and I don't care how, or why. It is a very simple and straight forward concept. The reasons do not matter at all. It is the one thing in physical movement that I pursue without scientific inquiry. Why? It works, and works pretty quickly, not just for me, but many of my students since I was turned on to it...
Click to expand...

This is pretty much exactly how I think about Original Strength. I generally like to have a scientific understanding of what I do, or at least a theory/hypothesis that I have confidence can withstand a little critical thinking. With OS, I just don't care. When Tim starts talking about babies and how we were "meant" to move, my eyes glaze over. But when he comes up with another way to rock, crawl or roll around, I pay attention.

My advice to anyone considering OS is to do your own experiment. Try the movements and put in some reps and play at it (not in sense of uncommitted dabbling, but in the sense of exploring and having fun) for awhile. Then draw you own conclusions.
 
I think this just trying things out is also an important part of the OS idea. However I can see how that is hard for those who want things really structured.
 
I am almost through the book. I just started doing some resets a few weeks ago. At work I do some head nods here and there, and some cross crawling. The last ten days I practiced some crawling, as a warmup to my sets of swings, or just grease the groove style. Head up, tongue on the roof, belly breathing, butt down. Easy to follow hints and cues. Easy to implement resets. I am just in the process, accumulating these magic resets. By the way, just came from my back yard where I crawled over some wet asphalt. My first impressions and experiences can be summarized in one word: magic. For the body and mind.
 
Does anybody have any experience with the kindle edition of the book? Some reviews on Amazon claim that the formating can be bad and the book hard to read due to it. I wonder if it's been fixed, or whether it depends on the device one reads the book on.
 
I have the hard copy and the Kindle version.

The kindle version seems okay on the web reader or a newer kindle reader (using my iphone 6) but I have heard on older Kindle devices the formatting can be weird.
 
I'd rather pass on the web reader version. I have a Galaxy S5 and an Ipad Air. I suppose they're not classified as older as it comes to Kindle devices. I'd love to buy the book, but I'm a bit wary, so if anyone else has any experience I'd love to hear it.
 
MikeMoran said:
@aciampa

IF you go to the PRESSING RESET workshop and the OS PRO workshop there is a lot more material covered.
Click to expand...

Could you tell us more about the difference between the workshop and the books? I have the opportunity to take the workshop next month.

I am thinking of all the books and gym fees I could pay for the price of the one workshop.
 
@MikeMoran thanks for the summary. Do you know where Becoming Bulletproof (Tim Anderson and McNiff) comes into this? I bought this before the OS series came out so would be interested to know the differences. Many thanks.
 
The books are great but honestly the WORKSHOP or working with an OS Coach is far better just like going to the SFG cert or working with an SFG coach.

You will get much more insight and detail at the workshop!
 
David S said:
@MikeMoran thanks for the summary. Do you know where Becoming Bulletproof (Tim Anderson and McNiff) comes into this? I bought this before the OS series came out so would be interested to know the differences. Many thanks.
Click to expand...

That was the ALPHA version of ORIGINAL STRENGTH. After that Mike went off in a different direction and Geoff came on to rework the material with Tim.
 
I've ordered the Reloaded version and the 'Next Level' books from Original Strength, they should be coming somewhere next week. Is there somone still using the Strength Resets or has any new insights?
 
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