Becoming a Supple Leopard (The Ultimate Guide to Resolving Pain, Preventing Injury, and Optimizing Athletic Performance)
Improve your athletic performance, extend your athletic career, treat stiffness and achy joints, and prevent and rehabilitate injuries—all without having to seek out a coach, doctor, chiropractor, physical therapist, or masseur. In Becoming a Supple Leopard, Dr. 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 movement, allowing you to live a healthier, more fulfilling life. This new edition of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller has been thoroughly revised to make it even easier to put to use.
Want to truly understand the principles that guide human movement? Becoming a Supple Leopard lays out a blueprint for moving safely and effectively through life and sport. Want to learn how to apply those principles to specific movements, whether you are doing squats in the gym or picking up a bag of groceries? Hundreds of step-by-step photos show you not only how to perform a host of exercise movements, such the squat, deadlift, pushup, kettlebell swing, clean, snatch, and muscle-up, but also how to correct the common faults associated with those movements. Frustrated because you can’t perform a certain movement correctly due to range of motion restrictions? Breaking the body down into 14 distinct areas, Starrett demonstrates hundreds of mobilization techniques that will help you resolve restrictions and reclaim your mobility. Unsure how to put it all together into a program that addresses your individual needs? This updated edition lays out dozens of prescriptions that allow you to hone in on a specific limitation, a nagging injury, or an exercise fault that you just can’t seem to get right. It even offers a 14-day full-body mobility overhaul.
Performance is what drives us as human beings, but dysfunctional movement patterns can bring the human body to an abrupt halt. Often, the factors that impede performance are invisible even to seasoned athletes and coaches. Becoming a Supple Leopard makes the invisible visible. Whether you are a professional athlete, a weekend warrior, or simply someone wanting to live healthy and free from physical restrictions, this one-of-a-kind training manual will teach you how to harness your athletic potential and maintain your body.
Learn how to perform basic maintenance on your body, unlock your athletic potential, live pain-free…and become a Supple Leopard.
This step-by-step guide to movement and mobility will show you how to:
Move safely and efficiently in all situations
Organize your spine and joints in optimal, stable positions
Restore normal function to your joints and tissues
Accelerate recovery after training sessions and competition
Properly perform strength and conditioning movements like the squat, bench press, pushup, deadlift, clean, and snatch
Build efficient, transferable movement patterns and skill progressions from simple to more advanced exercises
Identify, diagnose, and correct inefficient movement patterns
Treat and resolve common symptoms like low back pain, carpal tunnel, shoulder pain, and tennis elbow
Prevent and rehabilitate common athletic injuries
Use mobilization techniques to address short and stiff muscles, soft tissue and joint capsule restriction, motor control problems, and joint range of motion limitations
Create personalized mobility prescriptions to improve movement efficiency
Reviews (412)
When you were partying, I studied THE ROLLER
When you were having premartial sex, I mastered THE 7 BODY ARCHETYPES When you wasted your days at the gym in pursuit of vanity, I cultivated INNER TORQUE And now that your quads are on fire and your shoulders are all douchy, you have the audicity to come to me for help? But seriously, this book is awesome. I feel like a new person who has been let out of jail. 10/10 would buy again!
Prepare for Rewarding Pain
***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 up anymore. 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.
Big book (geared toward the pro), but useful if you really want to improve your mobility
I bought this book to just improve my hip mobility, but found so much information here, I have gone far beyond my hips. I have improved my hip mobility, my knees feel great (50-year old knees that have run several marathons in the past 5 years), and now I am working on my shoulders. I feel better and move better than I have in years (I also sleep better). My squat and deadlift have improved immensely, and now I am working on the pistol squat. I am going to nail that move! One warning: This is a big technical book, that is more of a textbook than just your average fitness book. Geared toward coaches and trainers and physical therapists. But if I can find value here, so can others looking to improve mobility.
Must read but recommend several points of view
I really enjoyed this book and it has definitely helped me improve my overall mobility (and training). The lens is very much from a PT and I recommend also getting some other perspectives. Author could also simplify his writing style to communicate more effectively. He does a good job backing up his claims, but again, it is a PT lens. If you are reading for strength training, I'd recommend supplementing this book with Starting Strength. There is a ton of value to combining these two authors' perspectives.
Buzzwords, bad advice, contradicts it's own philosophy
The author correctly states that to cure joint dysfunction you must strengthen first then possibly stretch. Where he messes up is giving you random exercises with form tips (which aren't all correct). The exercises aren't linked to any sort of joint so I'm not really sure what he's thinking. I worry people are going to open this book, see the mishmash of exercises and skip those, move on to stretching and stretch whatever muscle is tight, make whatever problem they had worse and have to find a professional. Sample of buzzwords: He doesn't believe in stretching, instead mobility Voodoo stretches Many more but I returned this book the instant I got it. I assume this is getting 5 stars because he is a crossfitter? I have nothing against Crossfit in fact I used to do it but I think the groupthink is real in this case.
Improved Mobility in Less than a Month
My Crossfit coach suggested I buy this book and I am so glad he did. Kelly prescribes certain mobility exercises for different ailments and hang-ups that I follow on my rest days. I have shin splints and I have a terrible problem with getting myself into an overhead squat. I've been working through the prescribed movements to help me with both for almost a month now and both are beginning to get better. Now, when I have a problem (big or small) I go straight to this book to find the solution. I recommend it for anyone with mobility issues - Crossfit or not - athlete or not. Exceptional work!
This trainer not only goes deeperand farther than the best trainers available to us
A virtual gem if you are patient and read carefully, practicing along the way. This text defies description bc it reaches farther than anyything available, hits the major components of bodymechanics in regard to stability, safety, performance! This trainer not only goes deeperand farther than the best trainers available to us, but makes you concious of the faulty ( as in leading to injury) positions of what we commonly think of as the best trainers. I had a serious hip problem of 21/2 yrs. which was compounded by serious degenerative disc disease seen on frightening xrays. Since following Kelly's protocols I am nearly pain free after less than a month. I am 77 and 5'1" 90 lbs. The more squats Zi do correctly the better I feel! Remember you have to read and practice in a mirror copying the "correct " poses! You will be surprized at what hard work and discipline can accomplish. ( I do the exercises w/o drugs or supplements of any kinds!
Worth a read
After accumulating some weight-lifting and sport-related injuries in my early 30s, an older mentor who had been through similar injuries recommended that I read this book. I did find some benefit to the book, but I'd say for the average person doing sports, less than half of it is useful. Anyone who is in a teaching, training, or sports therapy position such as a coach or a personal trainer may find that there are a lot of useful sections, too. I'll keep it on my shelf to "troubleshoot" any aches and injuries I develop in the future, and hopefully the tips I picked up in this book will help me to prevent injuries in the first place
Life changing book, helped me become a Cat 3 cyclist with a year of cycling at 42.
This book has solved all of my joint issues, giving me the highest quality of life I've had since college track gave me knee pain that doctors could never address. It taught me how to maintain a neutral spine position, even in dynamic situations. It helped me conquer achilles tendinitis, carpal tunnel, neck aches, and limiting knee pain. I used the book while taking up cycling, which gave me substantial muscle growth, and thus many fatigue-recovery cycles leading to tight muscles and then joint pain. Its exercises taught me how to loosen the muscles, making them supple, relieving the pressure on the joints, and thus relieving the joint pain.
There is a way to fix injury’s!!!!
In 2006 I was a lean mean workout machine!!! P90X style and running 6 minute miles 4 days a week shaving time each time I was out running. UNTIL riding home on my motorcycle a person pulled out and smeared me 30+ feet down the roadway breaking something on about every limb, wheel chair and hospital bed ridden, had to learn to walk again. Forced me to retire early from the police and in severe pain where all I did was drink to wash it away the pain. Non of this self medicating help a bit until I got on board with Dr. Kelly Stattetts programs for mobility. I’m at a point now where I feel I am ready to start running again. Thanks Dr. Kelly Starrett for what you do!!!
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