Official T-Tapp Review

Clothing store clerk: Well, boys, you tell me.  Do you want to be a stud, or a superstud?

Bill:  Oooh!  Superstud, Sam, go for superstud!

--Freaks and Geeks

No, not that they're paying me to review it or anything.  Here, by the way, is the Amazon link to the DVD I ordered:

15 Minute T-Tapp "Basic Plus" Workout.  One of the "cons" about T-Tapp is the fact that there are so many different permutations of the workout on different DVDs and collections that it can get kind of confusing.  Anyhoo, this is the one I've been using.  If you scroll down you'll also see the book, "Fit and Fabulous in 15 Minutes", which I actually got first--I downloaded it on my Kindle and the science made sense.  However, I don't think anybody could learn the exercises just from the book unless they're very, very patient and don't have kids.  I'm still glad I bought the book because it does help you check your form, but I don't think you *need* the book per se.

Firstly, it's been just a hair over two weeks now that I've been using the 15-minute workout.  It really is only about 15 minutes, after you learn the exercises.  (The "Instructional" section of the DVD, which they say you're supposed to do for a week but which I only did for about three days, is about 30 minutes long, and is the exercises kind of in slow-mo, with instructions.)  Here's how it worked out for me.

I did the "Instructional" section on the DVD for about four days, which is the minimum you're supposed to do the exercises in a row.  According to the book (and the pamphlet that came with the DVD) this is because your nerves have to get sort of switched-on.  This is real, by the way, and one of the reasons people have to have physical therapy after being in bed for a long time.

The first three days I did the workout it didn't feel overly good.  The first day I did it, my feet were killing me--T-Tapp has you stand in a certain way with your knees pushing out toward your little toes, and when you try to do that for 15 minutes it makes the bottoms of your feet ache.  Just to encourage you: the feet aching thing goes away by about day three or four.  Day four is when the book says the workout is supposed to get easier, and to tell you the truth I thought "sure, and monkeys will fly out of my ears".  It really did, sort of miraculously, get a lot easier on day four.

You are supposed to do a "boot camp" of anywhere from four to fourteen days of doing the exercises every day.  Here's how my results have been:

1. I have a ton of energy.  I mean a ton--like after the workout I'm more awake than I am after drinking a cup of strong coffee, but not trembly and jittery.  I think I would work out for this effect alone.

2. I'm moving all the lymph around my system.  If you don't know what lymph is, here is a link.  Suffice to say you don't want extra lymph hanging around outside your blood vessels in your legs, feet, armpits and such.  I didn't realize how much I had just sitting in my extremities until I noticed I had to pee, every time, without fail, after Tapping.  Then the lightbulb clicked on that lymphatic drainage goes into the bloodstream to be run through the kidneys and cleaned out--which would make you have to pee.  There you go.

3. My foot--the one I broke when Buddy was two weeks old--has been sort of getting rehabbed.  Like, it doesn't hurt every morning when I first step on it anymore.  And both of my feet have been rebuilding their musculature, to the point that I think I've dropped about half a shoe-size because bones and tendons that stretched out while I was pregnant have been sucked back into place by stronger muscles.  It's a very weird side effect, but there you go.  My arches are higher, too.

4. I'm seeing dramatic inch loss and muscle building.  You would think this would be higher on the list, but honestly it almost seems incidental.  In the first week I lost a jeans size--from 16 to 14.  Now I can zip a pair of size 12 shorts, but they're still a little too tight to be comfy.  It's only been 15 days.  I've also seen my arms really tone up, like you'd expect with weight lifting (but it's faster than when I was weight lifting) and my legs firm.  I also did the exercises on the T-tapp website called "Diva Derriere" for 10 days (although I don't think they're necessary, I just wanted to spot-tone) and in about 7 days I saw a noticeable difference in both the way pants fit me and *jiggle*.  :D  My loose skin on my stomach, from being pregnant, and abdominal muscle tone have also improved.  I have a lot more flexibility.  Did I mention it's only been 15 days?

I don't know whether I've lost any weight, because my scale doesn't work.  I rather suspect I haven't, but I don't care--one of the T-Tapp mottoes is that inches count and pounds don't.  Or, put another way, if you could lose 100 pounds but that would only make you lose five inches, or you could lose 5 pounds and sixty inches, which would you chose?

(*Important note about testimonials where Tappers talk about inch loss:  They don't always mean off the abdomen unless they say so.  For instance one woman lost like 18 inches or something off her stomach, but 79 inches overall--counting upper arms and bust and so on.)

I really like the program for a few reasons, results aside.  It takes only 15 minutes, you don't have to jump or get on the floor, and it "levels with you" - as you get better at it, you do the exercises with better form.  It's about perfect form and not weights or repetitions.  So your workout doesn't get longer or more strenuous, it just stays at the level you need it to be in order to keep yourself toned.  I *hate* exercising on the floor, so this is a great Godsend for me.

Glowing testimonial done.  I hear that some people in the fam are thinking of trying this--so I'll just encourage you all to stick it for the first four days.  It really does get easier.  And if you're brave, I might encourage you to "Go for superstud" - try the 14-day bootcamp.  You really do feel so good after the workouts that it won't seem like a chore.

Let me know how you all do!

For a visual, here's my progress:

This is me on 6/4.  The tank tops I wear in these are all the same size, by the way.  In this picture the tank wasn't very loose, just skimmed me.  And this was, I think, on like day 5 of my T-tapping or something like that.

This is me last week, I forget the exact day--I think it was after like 9 or 10 days of Tapping.

This is me today and kind of hard to see because of the light from the window, but the tank top is now pretty baggy.  I'm trying to hold it back so you can see my waist here and not doing a very good job.

You can see the difference more in my face and shoulders, I think, than my abs.  My deltoid muscles at the tops of my arms are getting nicely defined--like Buddy's, as I said to the Husband the other night.  (Buddy has little arms that look like he sneaks off to do some benchpresses in the night.)

Cheers,

Breanna

P.S.  I will keep posting pictures.