Ultimate Flexibility: A Complete Guide to Stretching for Martial Arts

I used to train with this great guy. He was a couple ranks ahead of me and he was always so focused on improving himself and his technique inside and outside of the dojo. Knowing that he needed to work on flexibility, he spent an entire summer working on it by stretching with a ladder. I remember him telling me that by the end of the summer, he had achieved only one rung in flexibility and he was disappointed with that. I thought it was a fabulous accomplishment. There’s a fairly big gap between rungs! I need to shoot him an email or something and recommend Ultimate Flexibility: A Complete Guide to Stretching for Martial Arts by Sang H. Kim Ph.D.

If you’ve ever wanted to learn more about flexibility and proper stretching for training in the martial arts, this is your book. Divided into seven easy to maneuver sections, this book has it all. It starts with the "big picture" and explains stretching so that my two-year old could understand it. Next, it’s on to flexibility where issues such as age, gender, activity level and overall conditioning are addressed. Chapter three is all about stretching. There’s also lots of information in this section on stretching properly so as not to injure or weaken joints (I should have had this book months ago). Other chapter titles include: Understanding Your Body, Your Workout Plan, The Exercises, and The Workouts.

Whether you participate at a traditional dojo that teaches striking techniques and kobudo or a training school focused entirely on grappling, this book provides pictures and detailed instructions that map out a perfect warm-up, workout plan, and cool down program that will help improve your flexibility and maintain a healthy (hopefully) injury free body.

Exercises are broken down into body parts that include: the neck, arms, wrist and hand, hip, back, and even foot and ankle exercises. It’s easy to follow too, so that you can see a photograph of how it’s done and just get to it. There’s no Twister-style wondering if you’re doing something right or not.

The Workouts section includes customized workouts for light and full contact, grappling, MMA, boxing, weapons, and high kick flexibility. There are also tips in this section on how to obtain a full split (could have used that during cheerleading try-outs in junior high school) and 20 tips on high kicks.

The great things about this book are that the main points are reiterated plenty. Rereading a section is entirely unnecessary as each section ends with a review of sorts that provides Q & A of the main points for each section. With easy to understand descriptions and such great insight into flexibility and how to safely go about getting it, this book is an absolute must for any serious martial artist.

The only very small drawback to this book is that there are some typo/grammatical issues here and there throughout the book. It’s nothing that prevents one from understanding the content, but it’s just distracting enough for a former English teacher that I had to mention it.

For the overall great content and helpful nature of the book, BBM gives Ultimate Flexibility:

If you’d like to obtain your own copy of "Ultimate Flexibility" simply leave a comment below. Three copies of the book and three Ultimate Flexibility DVD’s are being given away through The BBM Review thanks to the very generous Turtle Press. You don’t even have to be brilliant. Just type in your contact info below and say "Enter Me." Drawings will be held at the end of Admired Martial Artists Month. Don’t miss your chance to win! Enter now!