Functional Training for Sports

This is the guy to read when you are ready to give up the bodybuilder- based mythology most of us have built our conditioning programs on since the 60's. Boyle's site is the #1 source to research topics like functional movement, core training, plyometrics and the like. I bought his book after reading every page on the site and in my opinion it represents the cutting edge of athletic performance programs. Check out sites for Boyle, Verstegen and Gray Cook if you're interested in changing your program to one that will last your lifetime and give you a more stable, functional body. If I'd been reading these guys when I was an active athlete instead of the memoirs of various "physical culturists," I'd have saved myself a lifetime of back pain and been a much better athlete into the bargain. Still, there's no short cuts, and I guess you have to make the mistakes you're going to make along the way so you'll appreciate the truth when you finally stumble onto it. If you'd like to save yourself a few of those mistakes, though, and you're flailing around the gym listening to bad advice, take it upon yourself to do a little research with Boyle and his peers. You'll save yourself years of wasted effort, and develop a much more useful body in the bargain.

Training has changed over the decades as the science of the body progresses. Each successive emphasis in training has been an improvement over earlier ones, with athletes today in all team and Olympic sports simply better than their predecessors. If you want a sound and up-to-date way to improve your training, Michael Boyle's "Functional Training for Sports" is an indispensible book, whether you are a coach, athlete, parent or "do-it-yourself" amateur. As a professor in a program that deals with dancers and a coach who deals with winter athletes, I recommend Boyle's work if you want to be fit, quick, strong, agile and healthy. This is the latest wisdom on training now available to anyone who can read and follow excellent photographs.

If you're a sports athlete, don't train like a bodybuilder. Michael Boyle does an excellent job of explaining the difference and why it's so important. He gives easy to follow instructions to assess your current functional strength and identify your weaknesses. He then describes how to evaluate your sport and consider your strengths and weaknesses so you can develop an individualized training program to improve your sports performance. He gives instructions on how to begin and how to advance, with lots of pictures and detailed instructions on how to do each exercise. Really an excellent book.

I have never written a review before but this book was so good I wanted to make others aware. Finally someone has written a book about functional training that makes sense and shows practical progressions.I could never understand why I was always pulling my hamstrings on the court in spite of doing tons of machine leg curls. This book does a great job of explaining why using machines make you good at lifting a lot of weight on that machine, but doesn't help your athletic performance. Excellent explanations without bogging you down with technical jargon. The exercise progressions are clearly explained. The only small deficiency in my mind is that I would like to see a healthy shoulders section (although he does touch on this in various places).I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand the most current techniques in athletic training. Far, far better than Rosemarie Gionta Alfieri's mess of a book and much more accesible and practical than Gambetta's Guide to Functional Training. So far I haven't seen anything else like it on the market. I hope there will be more books like this.

I am currentley a high school strength coach who has been in the field for 17 years. I have integrated many of the exercises in this book into our program. This has been one of the most useful books I have come across in many years. It does not matter what your training style is, there is something in this book for everybody. My athletes love the new exercises that I have added to our program from this book.