Rating: 
Summary: Great stuff, totally useful!
Review: I am a middle aged man struggling to advance in martial arts. My instructors are all young men who still take flexibility for granted. Despairing of advancing any farther, I turned to ... to provide some books on flexibility and I found this gem. Useful, practical, instructional, excellent. I have developed my own stretching regimen using the clearly illustrated stretches from this book and it has paid off big time. What I had thought were symptoms of tendinitis were really just symptoms of stiff and aging muscles. Where I had been convinced that I could never advance again due to damaged tendons, I am now convinced that my limits are much farther out so long as I continue the stretching outlined in this book.I bought 4 books about stretching, some of which were aimed directly at the martial arts. This one has them all beat. Great stuff!
Rating:
Summary: Good for people with ADD - I can see WHERE to feel it...
Review: I am an athlete and am constantly stiff and sore due to being smaller (less muscle and smaller bones) and also from being stressed out. I also have ADD, which makes the transfer of information from the eye to the brain harder than most people. For this reason, I require visual representations of things to help me understand it better (written words confuse me sometimes).
I have confered with massage therapists and sports med docs about what to do about my sore back, messed up sholder (from swimming) and my stiff neck and shoulders (from heavy knapsack relative to my size, as well as due to stress and sitting at my computer). The information didn't stick, and the routines abandonded after a week. This book has made it more fun to stretch!
I have looked at other books which have actual pictures of people stretching, but didn't have the area shaded where I should feel the stretch. When you stretch, that is what is important - where you feel it. This book get the job done fast and simple. After reading the introductory pages, now I feel a stiff or sore muscle somewhere, I pull out this book, look up a body part and get myself into the position. If I don't feel the stretch in the shaded area, I try adjusting a little, and read the paragraph. The sequence of stretches at the end of each section is great as well, since I have a hard time deciding what order to do things in. With this book it is all laid out for those people who like (and need) routine.
The quick reference summaries at the end are great. This ensures that people will be more likely to stick to the routine if they have a 'program' made for them already. The benefits of having a regualr strethcing program has been widely documented in many sports articles, medical articles and such. The olympic swim coaches where I work are all for stretching for and hour and a half four times a week for the athletes.
My one major qualm is the section called "Blue Collar Stretches". I think it should be corrected to something else more politically correct. My one minor qualm is that the summary pictographs do not have the shaded area on them. It would've been great if they had the shaded area to make an even better reference.
As mentioned in other reviews, the book is good for the average person who isn't into a super stretching regimen, but rather for the person who would like guidance in knowing what kind of sports require what kind of stretching. People who just want to start feeling more relaxed and good about doing so without pressure of all the technicalities and long muscle names will love this book. It is not intimidating or condescending, it encourages everyone to slow down and carefully stretch, at any level, at any age.
I didn't know how to stretch a particular muscle in my thigh, and friends weren't able to find a stretch either. The runner guy who comes water running while I lifeguard didn't even know either! I was greatful when I foudn that this book had this uncommon stretch. I was impressed!!
I am so pleased that I already recommended it on a triathlete message board!
The guy in the ski hat with the 70's party hairstyle is all good. Is it just me, or is he wearing those old skool athletic short shorts?
Go and buy this book! You will be glad the next time you wake up in the morning after a hard workout the day before and find your ________ is sore. Happy stretching everyone!
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty good
Review: I am very impressed by this book. The only drawback was that it gave insufficient warning for people with back injuries. I broke my back a few years ago and need to keep limber. I tried a stretch that gave a warning to people with neck injuries only so I thought it was safe for me. I couldn't move for 20 minutes! And boy was I sore! Other than that I have found this book to be very informative and doesn't leave you asking any questions.
Rating:
Summary: Good Stretching Book!
Review: I bought this book because I knew nothing at all about stretching, not having ever had any kind of physical fitness training before. It fit the bill very nicely!
Rating: 
Summary: Didn't help me
Review: I got this book soon after it first came out and I got nowhere with it. The book uses static stretches. Static stretching has since been shown to actually tighten muscles - in fact, worse than ballistic stretching. And you should never stretch before an activity beyond a few dynamic stretches. The stretches in this book hurt my muscles and definitely lowered my performance in sports. I kept on doing the stretches anyway because it seemed like it should work. I regret that. I would recommend a different technique over simple static stretching - either active isolated stretching or relax-contract stretching for real results.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Resource
Review: I had knee problems ever since I was very young, which had really started to bother me in long bike rides (60+ miles, and centuries were murder). After many months of physical therapy I figured out that stretching properly 2 to 3 times a day helped my knees the most. That is why I purchased this book, and it helped me quite a bit to get into a regular stretch routine, and to figure out which stretches helped me the most (although that is not exactly the purpose of this book).
The only thing I do not like about the book is that it is difficult to lay it flat on the floor with the pages open. You will need something to hold the pages open; I ended up photo-copying the pages that I used the most (even though you will most likely end up memorizing everything you need).
Also I should say that the book/stretching did not completely fix my knee problems, in fact I had to have surgery on both of my knees. But, then the book helped me again in recovery when at home.
Rating:
Summary: Best stretching book on the market
Review: I haven't seen a more comprehensive text on stretching. Figures are well done.
Rating:
Summary: Only One Small Quibble
Review: I loved the original edition of this book,it was helpful at the time, and is something I return to periodically, when I begin to feel the need to. I will definitely get the new edition, as my 1980 copy is falling apart. And there's my quibble: WHY doesn't the author/publisher come out with a spiral-bound edition? Then the pages would not come loose, it could be laid flat more easily, and make life much better!
Rating:
Summary: verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry good
Review: I really like this book because it teaches me stretches and stuff. And I take ballet and acrobatics and tap and karate and the stetches are fun. My mommy did some of the childrens stretches with me before bedtime. So it is a very good book and I would like to say thank you for inventing that.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent guide
Review: I was given this book 20 years ago, used it and then lost track of it. I was happy to find it in a new edition. I use many of the daily stretches in place of or as a supplement to my yoga. I go to the back stretches whenever I have back pain and find them extremely helpful in both alleviating pain and strengthening my muscles. I also find the way the book is organized, particularly the diagram of muscle/ pain points with page numbers, easy to use. I have given this to friends who don't exercise alot and they also find the book clear and easy to use.
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