Ultimate Guide to Stretching and Flexibility

Book excerpt: The Ultimate Guide to Stretching & Flexibility is the book you keep with you wherever you go. It's an easy-to-use, quick reference guide for anybody involved in health, fitness and sporting activities. Written to minimize the likelihood of sports injury and increase athletic performance, it gives coaches, trainers, athletes and fitness enthusiasts a complete reference handbook to assist with the planning and implementation of their training and rehabilitation sessions. The Ultimate Guide to Stretching & Flexibility includes 144 pages in a convenient A5 size (5.8 x 8.3 inches or 148mm x 210mm), featuring 150 photos of 135 unique stretching exercises. Chapter 1 provides a basic overview of physiology, fitness and flexibility. The many benefits of stretching are outlined in chapters 2 and 3. Chapter 4 details the different types of stretching. While stretching guidelines (i.e., rules and "how to") are presented in chapters 5 and 6. Chapter 7 deals specifically with flexibility testing. While the final chapter and ultimate strength of the book, contains 135 photographs of each stretch with step-by-step instructions. A unique spiral binding allows the book to lay flat without closing on itself, which means you don't have to hold the book open with one hand while you're trying to do the stretches. The author, Brad Walker, is a Health Science graduate of the University of New England and has postgraduate accreditation's in athletics, swimming and triathlon coaching. He has coached elite level and world champion athletes from sports as diverse as triathlon, motor cycle racing, roller skating, squash and baseball, and has lectured extensively on sports injury prevention and rehabilitation.