Functional Training for Sports

This book is an essential resource for everyone, not just training professionals and competitive athletes. The functional training approach advocated by Boyle in this book and by others has now enjoyed widespread acceptance. Indeed, anyone who has undergone physical therapy will recognize many of the exercises, and I believe that anyone, regardless of age and level of physical activity, would greatly benefit by following a functional training regime. On the other hand, some may find the book a bit daunting, and some may find books by Mark Verstegen to be more accessible.The book is well-organized, with plenty of pictures accompanying the descriptions of the various exercises. While many training guides have sample training program, Boyle does a good job explaining the essential elements that should comprise any program. For the most part, the exercises are easy to understand, but I do have some quibbles. As noted by others, the superimposed photographs are sometimes confusing. In addition, some of the short hand names used for exercises listed in the sample training programs are difficult to match up with particular exercises, and technical terms not familiar to most lay people occasionally creep in. For example, the "hip circuit" listed on page 178 is a bit of a mystery - are these bridges, hip extensions, planks (or "four-point stabilization series"), or something else? What is a "scapula dip" and how does it differ from a regular dip, and indeed, where are dips discussed at all except in a passing reference to dip belts? The same goes for the "scapula push up." Indeed, the book makes the editorial choice of not describing traditional barbell/dumbbell exercises, even those listed in the training programs. Finally, despite the emphasis placed on Olympic lifts and their variants, the book does not even identify and describe either the snatch or the clean and jerk. This may be an editorial decision, given the importance of being taught proper technique before attempting either of these demanding lifts and the fact that the purpose of the book is not train Olympic lifters. However, the book could certainly do a better job explaining the various Olympic variations. The hang clean and close-grip snatch are described, but other variations are not, even those that are mentioned in passing such as the push jerk and the push press. Nevertheless, these are relatively minor criticisms, and I highly recommend this book.

I think this book is well written and contains some nice training progressions from body weight exercises to loaded exercises. I started to adhere to some of the progressions advocated in this book and saw improvements in balance and flexibility in my heavier athletes. I also followed some of the workout templates in the back of the book concerning exercise pairings and bi-lateral and unilateral exercises progressions and found them to be effective as well. Our workouts were more efficient and the athletes, especially beginning athletes, appreciated the fact that they were not asked to just lift the heaviest weight possible, so they did not fear being injured and saw improvements in their lifting techniques. I can't think of anyone who could not benefit from this book and it helps understanding the theories contained in Mike Boyle's later book more more easier to understand and follow.

This book is excellent and worth the read. It shows how Mike Boyle trains his athletes and gives you different ideas/exercises on how to train athletes. The only problem I have, is that it is too text heavy without enough pictures to explain the text. Even with this being said, you can figure out how to do the majority of the exercises based on the text alone. If you want to learn how to train athletes properly, I would definitely get this book.

I thought that this book was exceptional! Some basic background in the field will help but I don't see any reason why beginners couldn't work through this book. Just read it slow and research the terms that you are unfamiliar with and it'll make sense. I read this while in preparation of the CSCS study materials to get to me. I don't know how much of it will carry over yet, but, nevertheless it was a good read.

If you're a sports athlete, don't train like a bodybuilder. Michael Boyle does an excellent job of explaining the difference and why it's so important. He gives easy to follow instructions to assess your current functional strength and identify your weaknesses. He then describes how to evaluate your sport and consider your strengths and weaknesses so you can develop an individualized training program to improve your sports performance. He gives instructions on how to begin and how to advance, with lots of pictures and detailed instructions on how to do each exercise. Really an excellent book.

This book offers a lot of information that can be used by strength coaches, personal trainers, & athletes. It takes the reader outside the normal realm of training and conditioning by describing how to train to be a better athlete using functional methods.I would recommend anyone involved with athletes read this book.

Another excellent book by Mike Boyle. Fast reference. Easy to apply to the clinic or fitness room.

This book is an easy read for a novice trainer to a person with years of experience in the field. The format is set up in a way that prepares the reader for the following chapters.

This is a great reference book for trainers or people trying to improve on their fitness.The issues I had were that the way some of the exercises were explained weren't very clear, also some pictures used to demonstrate a particular movement were done using double exposure which added to the confusion. There are some very useful routines though so anything I had trouble understanding I looked up on You Tube.

no good for bodybuilders, perfect for athletes. Easy to read, plenty of exercises and very informative for everyone from casual trainer to competitive athlete.If you are a sportsperson following a bodybuilding style program do yourself a favour and buy this book.

working on some sports projects and this was well needed

Michael Boyle is definitely one of the leaders in functional training world. In this book it is well explained what the aim of functional training is. It covers many practical examples from warm-up to prevention and thus it is very useful in everyday coaching. Must- read for all functional training enthusiasts. Very easy to read and understand. Note that this comment is made before reading Boyle's newer book Advances in functional training.

Okay book not so much for your everyday person though more sports specific so good for me as a trainer.