The Stark Reality of Stretching: An Informed Approach for All Activities and Every Sport

Rating:
Summary: Stark Reality of Stretching
Review: As a registered physical therapist, I would highly recommend this book. Its primary strength lies in: How to stretch, and Mistakes in stretching. Dr Stark emphasizes gentle static stretching that is easy and very safe. You will not overstretch or damage your tissues with his approach. I discovered the book, in the bibliography of: The Pelvic Girdle, by Diane Lee.

Although I love Dr. Stark's book, it does have one area that needs improvement. The stretching exercises only address a few muscles that are prone to tightness (shortness) in the lower extremity. There is nothing for neck, upper extremity, or back muscles. The back muscles that need to be stretched are the quadratus lumborum and the erector spinae. Please make sure to include them in your stretching program utilizing Stark's principles.

Stretching is vital to good health. The Stark Reality of Stretching is an excellent source for achieving good health. Good health to you all! Ed [e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: An Outstanding Book!
Review: Finally somebody who got it Right!

I won't waste any space in telling you how important, and undervalued, stretching is for any sport. This is a fantastic anatomical approach to stretch. The book should be read, and understood by anyone who wants to be physically fit.

The coverege of the book is spotty in some places, especially when dealing with the torse and upper body. But, to me, that does not detract from the overall exceptional quality of this book.

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Summary: An Amazing book that could make reduce your body pain
Review: For years I had practiced a series of stretches, picked up from various sources, in preparation for various physical activities that I enjoy: a little running, weight training, wing chun kung fu, and jeet kune do. Some of the stretches I had used were supposedly 'gentle' stretches, some even borrowed from yoga.

Well, I picked this book up after suffering, for the first time in my life at 37 years of age, SEVERE shin-splints. It's impossible to say in this short space how much this book helped me in all my activities. It's a fantastic book.

I would have to agree with other reviewers, though, that this book should include some upper body stretches, especially for the back. If you suffer back pain, it won't matter how well your lower body is stretched. A sore back will take you out of whatever sport you like to do.

I was surprised to see that some common stretches are just plain harmful and dangerous (for example, 'hurdlers' stretches inflict long-term damage to the knee ligaments of the trailing leg), including some that are part of Bob Anderson's book "Stretching." However, since Anderson's book is at least twenty years old, perhaps it is just in need of an update.

The bottom line is that this is a great book in spite of a few things it lacks. A first-rate purchase, in my opinion.

Rating:
Summary: safe for beginners; insightful for the experienced
Review: I have studied the martial arts for several years and ran cross country and indoor/outdoor track in high school. While I am not yet 30, I believe my lingering lower leg pain is due to poor "stretches" and exercises from earlier years in these activities. After reading Dr Stark's book, I will make changes in my exercise routine to hopefully prevent further damage.

I was shocked to see how many harmful "stretches" Dr Stark describes were taught by my coaches. Many trainers have no idea their desire to improve the conditioning of their athletes can cause long-term physical damage. (Guess what, coach? It's physically impossible to stretch the Achilles Tendon! Also, I can't stretch my hamstrings by standing, then bending over!)

Dr Stark clues the reader in to fundamental, powerful ideas, such as "loaded muscles can't stretch." Only relaxed muscles can stretch. Bouncing only causes muscles to cease relaxing.

I agree with an earlier reviewer that Dr Stark should address upper body stretching. While many of Dr Stark's patients' complaints are caused by lower extremity problems, athletes need sound upper body guidance too.

Be forewarned on the content of this book. While it rates 224 pages, some of the material is repetitive, the font is huge, and sometimes only a few paragraphs appear on a single page. Still, the amount of whitespace doesn't detract from the depth of material. The diagrams are clear and the recommended stretches are easy to follow.

Anyone who seeks to learn how to properly prepare for athletics, and wishes to remain fit for life, will enjoy Dr Stark's book.

Rating:
Summary: Are you making the stretching mistakes explained by Stark?
Review: I have studied the martial arts for several years and ran cross country and indoor/outdoor track in high school. While I am not yet 30, I believe my lingering lower leg pain is due to poor "stretches" and exercises from earlier years in these activities. After reading Dr Stark's book, I will make changes in my exercise routine to hopefully prevent further damage.

I was shocked to see how many harmful "stretches" Dr Stark describes were taught by my coaches. Many trainers have no idea their desire to improve the conditioning of their athletes can cause long-term physical damage. (Guess what, coach? It's physically impossible to stretch the Achilles Tendon! Also, I can't stretch my hamstrings by standing, then bending over!)

Dr Stark clues the reader in to fundamental, powerful ideas, such as "loaded muscles can't stretch." Only relaxed muscles can stretch. Bouncing only causes muscles to cease relaxing.

I agree with an earlier reviewer that Dr Stark should address upper body stretching. While many of Dr Stark's patients' complaints are caused by lower extremity problems, athletes need sound upper body guidance too.

Be forewarned on the content of this book. While it rates 224 pages, some of the material is repetitive, the font is huge, and sometimes only a few paragraphs appear on a single page. Still, the amount of whitespace doesn't detract from the depth of material. The diagrams are clear and the recommended stretches are easy to follow.

Anyone who seeks to learn how to properly prepare for athletics, and wishes to remain fit for life, will enjoy Dr Stark's book.

Rating:
Summary: limited information
Review: If you're looking for a lot of background on muscle physiology or a very specific method of stretching this book might interest you, but if you're looking for a good selection of stretches, you should be aware that you only get 6 stretches here. I found the title a little misleading, since "every sport" would seem to include tennis, baseball and swimming, but this book only addresses lower body flexibility. If you want to stretch your arms, back, shoulders, etc, you're out of luck here.

I also found it annoying that the author promotes his personal stretching theory while using outdated studies to discredit other methods. For example, he uses studies from the early 70s to prove that PNF stretching is bad for you when the PNF stretching theories in use right now were not even developed at the time of the studies. Seemed like he was selectively choosing among the available research to prove his point while disregarding accepted theories that don't bolster his own method.

Rating:
Summary: Stark Reality of Stretching
Review: Stark Reality of Stretching might be seen as a real eye opener. The new material presented here on muscle stretching and physiology has been immediately recognized as a long needed reference and manual. Rather than relying on decades of dogma regarding athletic stretching techniques, Dr. Stark has done an excellent job of researching this subject, having waded through over fifty sources of medical literature. To this he has added his years of experience with sports medicine patients including athletes of world class.

This is not to say that the book is highly technical. The proper methods of stretching are uncomplicated and easy to understand. Illustrations of stretches are clear and easily followed. The accompanying instructions are broken down into important muscle groups including the majority of common injury and problem sites.

Dr. Stark notes the unfortunate drop out rate of young athletes, many of whom are forced into retirement due to repeated injury related to improper training. One is surprised to learn that some of the stretching and warm-up exercises that have been taught to virtually all school children may be the beginning of a long fall into serious and chronic soft tissue injury.

The strength of this book is that it is a new presentation of the latest view of proper physiological muscle stretching for the athlete aimed at optimum strength and safety. Stark Reality should be a must read for athletes, Phys-Ed teachers and those in the physical medical fields.

Rating:
Summary: safe for beginners; insightful for the experienced
Review: While I do have some complaints about this book, I think it is a worthy addition to the library of any serious athlete, martial artist (my case), or anyone who wants to stay fit. This book will demonstrate a safe way to stretch even for beginners and the terminally tight. There are clear diagrams of the targeted muscle groups. The "right" way to stretch is shown along with common mistakes that should be avoided--there are explanations of *why* these mistakes should be avoided (e.g. a mistake will end up stretching a ligament, not the targeted muscle). Explanations are given along with all the instructions--this is much more helpful than unexplained instructions and pictures, because the reader will understand what is happening, what he/she should or should not feel, etc. There are also explanations of the problems that can be caused if proper stretching is not practiced (e.g. bunions or plantar fascitis pain could be caused by tight calf muscles). I am naturally flexible (can do both the side and straddle splits cold) and already stretch very regularly but I still found the explanations insightful.

Now the complaints... it would have been great if Dr. Stark also included excercises for the upper body. Given his podiatric background, the lower body focus is understandable but makes his book incomplete. If you want only one stretching book, this is not generalized enough (Bob Anderson's book is much broader but less insightful, in my opinion). Stark is also over-conservative, claiming that certain stretches ("skill-level stretches", like the splits) should only be practiced from a young age. I think that many people will find such opinions disheartening--I myself only attempted (and achieved) the splits after I was in my twenties, as have many others. All in all, though, it's better to err on the side of safety and I can't imagine anyone getting injured by his stretches. Get this book for safe lower-body stretching, but buy something else, like "Scientific Stretching", if you want to really push yourself.