Becoming a Supple Leopard 2nd Edition: The Ultimate Guide to Resolving Pain, Preventing Injury, and Optimizing Athletic Performance Hardcover – May 19, 2015

This book is a must have. Terrific resource to extend and develop flexibility. I've had this book for a while and it continues to impress me.

Great book for ideas on all these aches and pains. I lied the first addition better but this has some great ideas as well. As a power lifter I tend to pull, strain and destroy muscles. This has given me new ideas to work the aches and pains away.

I just bought this book. I haven't even read it yet but I had to write a review. At first glance this book is HUGE and beautiful. I did not expect it to be this thick. The illustrations are colorful and they make my brain eager and excited to read. It is chokefull of knowledge and literally looks like an encyclopedia or science book. I love it already and my nerdy self cannot wait to immerse myself in it, and then put the knowledge into practice. I found out about this book while reading 'Built from Broken' by Scott Hogan. Even he was raving about it and I found Scott's book extremely helpful, so I decided to make 'Supple Leopard' my next read. I will be back with more reviews after reading, but I am super excited about it.Update: This book is so big and chokeful of knowledge, that every time people see me reading it, they think I'm in college. One lady asked me if I was studying for finals. I should have said yes, since the book is preparing me for better form when I get old. But, I am a nerd, so, I love it. Definitely worth every penny spent on it.

Incredible book.I recommend this book a 100% to all the people intrigued in Physical Fitness and the Human Body.Price is less expensive than a-lot of options out there!Glad I came across this vendor!

‘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.

***I will update the review after I've completed the book and all stages of the 14-day mobility program. I'd like to determine if the recommendations of the book will provide lasting effects.***Background, I'm a 29 year old male who spent 7 years in the Navy. 13 months of that in Afghanistan as an Expeditionary Combat Trainer/Mentor for the Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police. I've got some lingering injuries that I'm getting tired of taking 800mg ibuprofen twice daily to manage. I purchased this book to potentially help isolate these issues and let me get back to powerlifting without fear of pain/injury. I powerlift. I put up great numbers and I do it within the confines of strict form and applied effort. No cheating. That said, I think Crossfit is a strange cult of strange behavior and dangerous movement. I put off buying this book because of all the purported crossfit demagoguery within. Good news is, this book is written in a clear and informative manner with the only crossfit nonsense being some of the rogue branded gear the author wears in the photographs. My biases lean toward EliteFTS, so take that as you will.As the headline says, prepare for rewarding pain. You're going to hurt yourself in ways a physical therapist or massage therapist cannot do to you. My joint pain/mobility problems are: left shoulder (Navy injury), right knee (Navy injury), right ankle (broken tibia/hairline fractured fibula, stage 3 sprained later), and occasional lower back tweaks/pain just above my pelvis attachment.Shoulder: My shoulder hurts very sharply when benching if I don't set my bench up PERFECTLY and even then, I can't do nearly as much weight as I should be able to because it always hurts and I'm afraid of reinjuring it. While doing some of the mobility exercises recommended in the book and burying a lacrosse ball in the posterior area of my shoulder, I a very painful and very hard lump. I assumed this was bone...until it crackled and moved loose. I proceeded to roll it out while whimpering and grunting. Once I stood up, I could rotate my shoulder around with a greater range of motion and with less pain. Not completely pain free yet, but its a marked improvement for 10 minutes of work on it. Great.Knee: Lacrosse ball to the hamstrings. Lots of sticky points, hotspots, and pain. Lots of pain. Also, lots of whimpering. The itchy/painful feeling and general crunchiness in my knee seems to have subsided, but I feel like it needs much more work from the glutes on down to alleviate what I'm feeling.Ankle: Working my bound up ankle was what I would assume to be my own personal hell on Earth. I've got lots of scar tissue buildup on the front of my ankle at the top of my foot. This acts (as the author says) as a doorstop preventing full flexion of my ankle and an inability to point my toes to my knee. It has also impeded full depth during squats. While doing the smash and floss method on the front of the ankle with the lacrosse ball, I assumed that ankles were supposed to have lots of little lumps and pain spots...you're smashing ligaments and tendons, right? Nope, turns out this was lots and lots of scar tissue. Sweet baby Jesus was this inconceivably painful. However, I've probably gain about 20% greater mobility in my ankle after just this one session. Ankle still hurts this next day, but some more ibuprofen is fixing that. At least it doesn't hurt as a result of binding upanymore.Lower Back: Haven't gotten to working it yet because after all the other work I felt like someone had beaten me with an aluminum bat and my back hurts the least of all my problems.Be prepared to spend some money on gear. Sure its cheaper than a chiropractor or therapist, but its still an outlay. I've got a bumpy roller, a smooth roller, a lacrosse ball. What I don't have that are recommended are: double lacrosse ball, little battlestar (can be subbed with a standard roller though), VooDoo bands, stretchy bands (no, rogue brand bands are not any better than others) and an assortment of other balls of varying density, pressure application ability, and size.So far, I'm pleased with the results I've had after a single session of rolling, smashing, and flossing my problem areas. After the 14-day mobility program in its various forms, I'm hoping for a greater improvement in my mobility and pain management.