Becoming a Supple Leopard, 2nd Edition: The Ultimate Guide to Resolving Pain, Preventing Injury, and Optimizing Athletic Performance

Excellent information! This is a great book with detailed descriptions and photos so you can apply the knowledge you learn immediately. Highly recommend if you are looking to have your body feel better and stronger.

‘All human beings should be able to perform basic maintenance on themselves.” It’s almost a call to arms, a revolution in who we are and how we treat our bodies. It shouldn’t be of course, but the idea that you can do work on your own body is one I have come to embrace. Not just lifting and building muscle but fixing your own injuries. Digging deeper into your own body, learning what is wrong with it and working through a path to fix it yourself. The idea behind this book is that everyone should be able to move well, like jungle cats. That the body was designed for optimum movement for a long time. If you can’t now that doesn’t mean you can’t in the future. Supple Leopard is the guide to better movement and performance. It can help you resolve any problem issues and how to do it yourself. Kelly Starrett is an athlete, a former high level kayaker, the owner of San Francisco Crossfit and a Doctor of Physical Therapy. The guy knows a bit about movement. He’s used his experience as an athlete and physio to turn his gym into a testing ground, a lab for physical movement and how to get better. Supple Leopard is a textbook, like a dictionary for your body. When I have a physical issue from jiu-jitsu training or lifting weights this is the first place I turn. It’s a thick, dense read that is best chipped away at or pulled out and used when needed. His message that you have control over your own health is empowering. You can sort out and resolve many of your physical problems. But it won’t be easy and it might not be quick. Kelly wants you to commit to ten minutes a day of basic maintenance. Find your weak points and work on them. Can’t squat? He’ll show you a progression how to get there and then you best be doing some squat practice everyday. Bad shoulders and can’t lift overhead? There’s plenty for that too. He talks about fundamental movement patterns and positions that we should all be able to get into. and how we should all be able to get into them. If we can’t something is wrong. So we then we should fix it. Much of what we do all day everyday goes against how our bodies evolved. Sitting down, reaching forward all day tapping at keys or swiping at phones. Wearing huge soles between us and the ground as we drink and eat poor quality food. And then we try and exercise. Is it any surprise when that doesn't go well? Starrett thinks the human body is an amazing machine that can take an obscene amount of abuse. When it breaks it can break hard but it doesn’t have to. Check out his website MobilityWOD for great free content including hundreds of videos. He’s gone on to write a book on how to run without pain, Ready to Run. And has just come out with Deskbound on how to stand up from the desk and change your life. He and wife Juliet run Stand Up Kids where they try and get standing desks in schools. To stop our kids from getting messed up like we did. They are super heroes. This is a big expensive book but if you are going to be harder to destroy it’s a must. It gives you the tools to make yourself better and more awesome. This one is a lock for the shelf.

Gifted to a friend. Zero complaints. They shared that the information, descriptions and even the photos are super helpful for comprehension and true understanding of pains and body mechanics.

I was borrowing my friend's copy of the first edition of this book and that was a great book. This version is even better. I could not be happier that I bought it. As a coach and trainer, everything in this book helps me help my athletes and clients. As a gym rat and CrossFitter, this book has saved my life. This is the best fitness/movement book I have ever read. The biggest differences between the first and second editions is that in the new edition there are sections where you can look for mobilizations based on the location of your pain (which includes mobilizations for muscle groups around the area that is hurting to address the causes of your pain which are not always simply an issue with that muscle group only), and there is an improved section based on muscle group you want to mobilize. Another thing I love is that there are little icons on the side of the mobilization pages that indicate what "architypes" (basically what exercises, movements, or positions) will be helped or improved by the mobilizations. Example: some shoulder mobilizations indicate that it will help your front rack position, overhead position, external rotation, etc. This book is perfect for people who want to know more about human movement but don't have an educational background in related subjects. It is very easy to understand and has a great balance between scientific writing and casual english so you can learn without getting frustrated about not knowing crazy terms and concepts related to exercise science and kinesiology. Overall an extremely good investment for anyone even if you're not an athlete or coach and just want to help yourself get rid of pesky pain from your job or lifestyle.

There is a lot more information in here than I thought. The actual quality of the book is top notch. Based on that, I get why its on the pricey side. Feels a lot like a college textbook. As far as content, I wish I had bought this when I first started lifting. After reading it, the first day I applied it to my workout, everything changed. My hips were tight from sitting too long the previous day and normally I would have chalked it up to being sore after squatting. Since it was Bench day, I would have normally just benched, which would have put my hips in a bad position, which would put my spine in a bad position, zap my leg drive, and cause my shoulders to roll forward, most likely giving me shoulder pain which I would have blamed on weak shoulders when all the while it was my hips that were the problem. So I did some hip mobility work, smashed the glutes and lower back. 15 minutes of that and I was a new man. Bench felt better than it had in a while and I deadlifted after, feeling great. I read some bad reviews on here but when put to the test it worked wonders for me. Im on board for doing daily mobility sessions now. 15 minutes is totally worth the way it makes you feel. Still have a ways to go. Turns out my knees and ankles have terrible mobility but this book will turn that around. $50 on this book is worth saving your joints after years of bad lifting. I'm extremely lucky I haven't completely blown anything out.

C'est parfait. Parler des moments de torsion en expliquant le pourquoi et le comment, proposer des figures claires, décortiquer des tests à effectuer soi-même, donner des conseils affûtés : ce livre est un DÉLICE que l'on savoure petit à petit. On apprend comment se tenir, bouger, tout cela de façon physiologique en respectant ses muscles, articulations, tendons et ligaments. Un GRAND MERCI à Kelly Starrett qui m'a permis de comprendre beaucoup d'erreurs ! Je conseille absolument ce livre pour ceux qui ont mal au dos, ou aux genoux, ou aux chevilles, etc. Traiter ses douleurs, c'est comprendre pourquoi elles surgissent, et Kelly Starrett l'explique de façon parfaite. Il faut faire cet effort pour s'en débarrasser et reprendre son corps en main. Cette nouvelle édition ne ressemble pas à la première : tout à été reclassé, augmenté et précisé avec intelligence. Ah si j'étais à Los Angeles, j'aimerai assister à des stages de l'auteur. Mais son livre permet déjà d'aller très loin et de faire des progrès admirables. A acheter les yeux fermés, à lire en entier et surtout : à appliquer 24h sur 24 !

Durch das Buch habe ich so viel gelernt, was ich schon immer über Biomechanik wissen wollte. Ich habe es bestellt, um die Ursachen von Knieschmerzen besser verstehen zu können. Diese führten bei meiner Freundin durch vermehrtes Abstützen mit den Armen langsam auch noch zu Ellenbogenschmerzen. Durch das Buch weiß sie nun nicht nur, wie man richtig läuft, Treppen hochsteigt und weshalb man Mobilitätseinschränkungen im Training nicht umgehen sollte (was ihr mit den Knieschmerzen sehr viel weiterhilft), sondern auch noch, warum sie Ellenbogenschmerzen bekam und was das alles mit ihrer Haltung zu tun hat. Seitdem sind ihre Ellenbogenschmerzen auch verschwunden. Mir hilft es bei der Prävention von Verletzungen, da ich meine Beweglichkeit durch die zahlreichen Tests im Buch überprüfen und behandeln kann. Ein absolut grandioses Buch mit elementaren Grundlagen, Allgemeinwissen darstellen sollten.

Great book. Needed this specially for shoulders but now see that whole body needs mobilisation. This will be your Bible.

Incredible book that provides and illustrates so many exercises that you will never get bored if you do all of them.

What a great resource. This book will guide you through practical steps, with clear pictures and descriptions, to keep you moving freely and your body happ, in between your visits to the expensive massages! And all delivered with Kelly Starrett's usual energetic and positive vibe. Couldn't recommend it more to active people.