Written by: Greg Ellifritz
How many of you have ever “tweaked” your back picking up something heavy? How many of you bench pressers have shoulder pain? Do you have non-specific knee pain when you run? How about shin splints or plantar fascitis? I’m betting most of my readers have experienced at least one of those conditions at some time in their lives. If you are anything like me, you are familiar with all of the above!
If you go to a doctor or PT about these problems, you are told the same things: “rest, stretch, ice, and take anti-inflammatories.” Sometimes this approach works, but it usually takes forever to truly relieve the pain. Even if you get symptom relief, you aren’t really fixing the underlying problem that caused your pain and you are likely to find yourself aching again soon.
With my long history of very heavy lifting, I’ve been pretty banged up. The most important techniques I’ve learned to keep myself healthy and out of the surgeon’s office have come from genius physical therapist Dr. Kelly Starrett. His website has an amazing quantity of videos about how to improve mobility and tissue quality.
I’ve been using his techniques for years. They have been crucial in my quest for getting consistently stronger despite having well passed the dreaded 40th birthday.
Kelly has come out with a book, Becoming a Supple Leopard, detailing all of his best techniques in a single resource. It’s a massive book with over 400 pages of text and pictures. And it may be the single best injury prevention guide on the planet.
Here’s Kelly’s description:
LEARN HOW TO HACK HUMAN MOVEMENT
Join the movement that has reached millions of athletes and coaches; learn how to perform basic maintenance on your body, unlock your human potential, live pain free…and become a Supple Leopard.
Improve your athletic performance, extend your athletic career, treat body stiffness and achy joints, and rehabilitate injuries—all without having to seek out a coach, doctor, chiropractor, physical therapist, or masseur. In Becoming a Supple Leopard, Kelly Starrett—founder of MobilityWod.com—shares his revolutionary approach to mobility and maintenance of the human body and teaches you how to hack your own human movement, allowing you to live a healthy, happier, more fulfilling life.
Performance is what drives the human animal, but the human animal can be brought to an abrupt halt by dysfunctional movement patterns. Oftentimes, the factors that impede performance are invisible to not only the untrained eye, but also the majority of athletes and coaches. Becoming a Supple Leopard makes the invisible visible. In this one of a kind training manual, Starrett maps out a detailed system comprised of more than two hundred techniques and illuminates common movement errors that cause injury and rob you of speed, power, endurance, and strength. Whether you are a professional athlete, a weekend warrior, or simply someone wanting to live healthy and free from restrictions, Becoming a Supple Leopard, will teach you how to maintain your body and harness your genetic potential.
Learn How to:
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- prevent and rehabilitate common athletic injuries
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- overhaul your movement habits
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- quickly identify, diagnose, and fix inefficient movement patterns
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- problem solve for pain and dysfunction in austere environments with little equipment
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- fix poor mechanics that rob power, bleed force, and dump torque
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- unlock reservoirs of athletic capacity you didn’t know you had
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- identify and fix poor movement patterns in children
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- reverse the aging process
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- develop strategies that restore function to your joints and tissues
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- accelerate recovery after training sessions and competition
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- create personalized mobility prescriptions to improve movement efficiency
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- improve your quality of life through regained work capacity
- run faster, jump higher, and throw farther
I can testify that the book does all of that. It’s rare that I give any book a “5-star” rating, but this one gets it. If you engage in any type of athletic pursuit or if you have any nagging joint pain, you need this book. I don’t know where I would be if I didn’t have this information….probably in a wheelchair by now!
You can buy the book on Amazon.
