Stretching Your Boundaries Flexibility Training for Extreme Calisthenic Strength

Here's the deal. There are a lot of books on this topic. If your into the calisthenic movement than this book is a gem. If you're already flexible or do things like Pilates or Yoga than consider this a teaching tool. Or in my case, this raises my level of thinking on what kind of intention or goals to set when I do put my own routine together. This book is about strengthening my awareness and focus muscle that I also need when working out. That's called growing.I love learning from other people who are successful because obviously I'm not at their level, yet. At times, I look for metaphors or another way of explaining a topic like for example, the splits. It's all about fine tuning not only my method but my thinking along the way. Al takes a very straight forward approach and simply puts a few of his favorites stretches that have helped him develop his own practice and success. He's grounded, good-hearted and sound in what he communicates.He paints a good picture on how to approach stretching a particular muscle. He talks about timing like when to do dynamic or static stretches. This is really big picture. He has a super simple approach and I am pressupposing it's that simple due to the fact that he has been teaching for that long. He breaks down quickly what stretches to do and which muscles it will work, the does and don't and then demonstrates in a lovely photo what calisthenic movement you can do with those muscles. Awesomeness.He doesn't go long about it. What I do know about a great teacher is that they can clearly and concisely teach a complex topic in plain English. If you want science or lots of citations, move on to another book. Or maybe you'll be that person to put it together with a more science approach. Hopefully for the calisthenic movement. I am all for that. Yet, you've heard the saying, a picture is worth more... Great photo's. These are teaching tools as well. If you value any of these things then you'll like his writing style.As for the comments about no real index to find stuff. Not a problem for me because it's in electronic format. Now you can do a keyword search. The price is right considering Dragon Door books tend to be above average price books.If you want the book than of course it will be problem. My tip: good old fashion sticky notes.The rest the other reviewers have already said enough. You'll probably notice that a lot of these reviews are people who already follow Al on his blog etc. That's a clue of how cool of a guy is he. Go check his blog and Youtube videos. They are all free. Thanks, Al. Let's work out!Hope this review helped.

I got into Al Kavadlo's resources as a minimalist looking to apply minimalism to all areas of my life including health and exercise; and as a frequent traveller sick of hotel gyms and missing workouts. Al would have to be one of world's experts in body weight exercising. What is fantastic about this book is the first part - a complete manifesto about stretching and stretch safety. If you had any doubts about stretching, this part of the book is worth the money alone. As usual, the second part outlines in careful instruction and exceptional photographs the "how to" for an incredible number of stretches and variations. How easy is the book to use? I read this book the morning I bought it, and began using it in my weekly routine that afternoon!!

First off, this is a yoga book--not a solo PNF stretching or long lost "old school" strongman flexibility regimen.That being said, don't mistake this for upper east side yuppie yoga. Al K is the undisputed bad-ass of body-weight training and he puts the Kavadlo spin on yoga in such a way as to make it relevant to the real Men and woMen out there who want to push the boundaries of mobility without compromising their hard-earned Spiderman strength.You can read this with two mindsets. Either: "there's nothing new here" or "holy f---ing sh--, I never looked at it that way before!" Up to you.I came close to giving this 5 stars but deducted a star simply because I want looking for a yoga book and the cover doesn't make it clear that that's what this is. But then I had to add half a star because of the new insights. And because Amazon won't let you enter a half star, I rounded up.Al is the Dragon. When the Dragon roars the mountains tremble. But when the Dragon whispers, the wise man listens.This book is the Dragon's whisper.

I used this book to broaden my experience in flexibility training for myself and my clients. It confirmed my views that flexibility is important and put many things into terms that make it easier to communicate that importance to clients. It also provided a very handy systematization of flexibility exercises, their functions and transferability into calisthenics moves. The fact that the author walks his talk (I have read his other books) in terms of application of these techniques with himself and his clients, was also a very helpful factor. It is a practical guide, and it is based on practice.

I would love to have the opportunity to train with Al. As usual, he provides clear pictures and descriptions of all exercises and offers tips to modify and advance. I enjoyed seeing how these simple stretches translated into future movements as I gain strength.

This is a great book that explains why you need to STRETCH. Trying to do L-Sits but can't? It might be your TIGHT hamstrings. Al has a few fixes in here for you. Each various body weight strength exercise is shown here with the possible STRETCHES that may help you unlock your potential. Solid information in here and great photos.

A pretty comprehensive list on stretching exercises. The stretches are split into 3 categories: dynamic, standing static and ground static. For every exercise the author provides an explanation on how to perform it, tips on what to focus on as well as common mistakes people make. He also provides the Calisthenics exercise that resembles that exercise the most, its "counterpart". There are of course picture accompanying each one.I believe the book will help any training enthusiast create a solid stretching routine. I don't really think the book is missing something but I would like an index with all the exercises which would make it easier to find them.

If you are looking for a guide to take you to extreme levels of flexibility, although you could get there with this book, it isn't aimed at your people. Instead it is aimed at the people you'd expect, those training in extreme calisthenics who also need to add in some flexibility training ... sort of like the title implies!It was only the day after reading one of Al’s other books that I purchased this book. Although I have a fairly good idea about stretching from my martial arts background I had learnt so much from his previous book so I wondered if perhaps he had some other gems in this book. It was Al’s progressive approach to bodyweight exercise which I hoped he also did in this other book was what attracted me mainly to the book.What’s the big deal about these progressions anyway?Well if you have ever attempted to do an exercise or stretch that is way beyond you and had that horrible moment where you realise you don’t stand a chance … progressions is how you get from where you are now to where you want to be, be that full splits or human flag!Well out with it man, did Al disappoint?Did he hell as like! As suspected this book takes some rather difficult stretches and breaks them down into easier stretches that you can slowly work your way up through … a dream come true!Although this review is a little premature, having not implemented Al’s stretching routines into my life yet (A detox and alchemy course are currently in the way, but soon!) I am certain they are going to be a great help in helping me work through different areas of my body.That was another thing, there were stretches of the body in here that I had never really done before, and some I had been doing slightly wrong. Knowing where to feel the pull and having a better idea what stretch is easier or one harder really helps when you are stretching.Yes, before you ask at the end of the book there are some sample workouts which you can start out with but as in normal Al style he wants you to experiment and change it up and most of all keep it fun.Another factor is keeping your mind on the stretch, and although I 100% agree with this and find it really helpful I am also a believer in passive stretching, which isn’t a topic covered in this book which is perfectly fine. I don’t think that there is anything wrong with getting into a position and relaxing into it over a period of time, perhaps sit in a stretch whilst watching your favourite TV show or Film. Find it too hard to sit in one position for an hour or more, well then mix it up, either in time with adverts (which if you are in some countries it basically every 5th minute it seems).All in all this book is a good read, and definitely one for reference for many years to come! 5 Stars Al and well deserved.Check out Al’s YouTube channel too, if I recall there is a video on it of him performing some stretches!

Excellent books (this and Pushing Your Limits) for beginners and experts alike. Takes the user through CORRECT technique for stretches and calisthenics and has plenty of levels of progression. I will definitely get my money's worth out of this book and it's gone straight to the top of my list of all the exercise and training manuals I've got (and I've got many!).The only thing stopping me from giving it 5 stars is that its not particularly kindle friendly as there's quite a lot of toggling back and forth when you're using it for a workout which I find interrupts the flow; not exactly what I want when I'm stretching before or after a workout.BUT I can tell the difference already from following these exercises in my posture and I've only had it a week. I will be trying to make a little bit of time each day to work through at least a handful of these exercises.

For the price, it's a pretty good deal and there's some interesting info inside. Currently, I cannot decide whether to give the book 3 or 4 stars, so I shall err on the lower end.Good: Al writes in a very accessible style; there are some lovely images; an explanation of the functional usage of varying stretches is provided.Not so Good: Discussion of the varying factors can be a bit brief; sometimes the comparative exercises are stretching the boundaries of tenuous linkage.All in all, a pretty good text, although not up on a level with "raising the bar" and "pushing the limits".

I'm a great fan of Al's work referring frequently to his YouTube videos for instruction and inspiration. His knowledge and expertise is obvious, as is his ability to break the advanced techniques down to sensible and achievable progressions.The bulk of the book provides descriptions of numerous stretches that have clear explanations. My disappointment is in the section of the book that pulls these together into sample programs. Quite frankly it offers little more than 'do the stuff explained earlier'. Al offers little of his expertise here. Most of the groupings could have been worked our by the reader from the information already provided in the previous section. The internet has losses of information on individual stretches, I was hoping a book on flexibility training would focus more on how to put these into a progressive program.

I stumbled upon this title after taking an interest in body went exercise and calisthenics.I used to be a gym goer, but time and finances conspired against me and I ended up spending some considerable time away from doing any meaningful exercise with the obvious net results to my body.After reading Al's previous works, alongside the convict conditioning books, I have embarked upon rediscovering what my body can do (much to its displeasure at times, I think the sofa has de-friended me)This book makes an invaluable companion to the strength training, and is well writtenGive it a try, you may be surprised, I was :)