Rachel the Blogger wanted me to try T-Tapp. She wanted it so much that she arranged for me to borrow some of the tapes. I'm glad she did!

The name T-Tapp gave me a completely erroneous mental image of what the exercises were like. I was picturing dance moves - like tap dancing, I guess. Wrong! It's nothing like that. Teresa Tapp's background includes a mother who died young, a severe back injury as a teenager, and a stint in the fashion industry. The combination made her very interested in anatomy, rehabilitation, and fitness. She adds an isometric dimension to basic exercises that strengthens core muscles around your joints and gives you a lot harder workout than you think you're getting in 15 - 45 minutes. It means that people who normally have trouble with exercise (like people with knee or back problems and people who are significantly overweight) can do these exercises and succeed.

(As an aside - in one of her tapes she endorses the Blood Type Diet, and encourages her seminar participants to investigate and follow the diet. She also deals with the specific needs of different body types. Rachel says T-Tapp is to exercise what BTD is to dieting.)

The things I identified the most with in her program were the posture and foot issues. She continuously chides people to keep their toes forward and not "walk like a duck." Her demonstration of what walking with your toes pointed out does to your hip and knee joints really made me take notice.

It's made me pay attention to my feet, and as I paid attention to my own feet, I found myself watching the way other people walk. She's right; most people walk with their toes out just like a duck. Young people walk quickly and effortlessly like ducks. But the older people get, the more they limp and hobble like ducks. I had never noticed how many people walk as if every step is painful.

When my son was two years old, I had some foot problems related to carrying him on one hip. I began wearing expensive arches in my shoes. Tapp claims that if I stick with these exercises, I can realign my back joints and feet. I can see enough improvement in the few weeks I've been trying them that I'm going to keep at it.

I doubt I ever do T-Tapp 100%. I love to run, swim and bicycle. Those types of exercise get my heart going faster, and make my muscles more tired than T-Tapp does. Plus being outside or in the water meets some other need that exercising in my den in front of the TV does not meet. However, I am going to buy my own tapes, and will continue T-Tapping 3-4 days a week.

An interesting verse from Proverbs 14:6 "A scoffer seeks wisdom and does not find it. But knowledge is easy to him who understands." Doesn't that make you think of people who write scathing reviews about the BTD without ever reading the books or trying it for themselves?