[Review] Becoming a Supple Leopard: The Ultimate Guide to Resolving Pain, Preventing Injury, and Optimizing Athletic Performance

[*Disclosure: Lean It UP and Josh have no financial relationship with Victory Belt Publishing, or the authors Kelley Starrett and Glen Cordoza.]

If you want to skip reading the review and get to the bottom line: do yourself a favor, navigate to Amazon and buy Becoming A Supple Leopard. Regardless of whether you’re an elite athlete, trainer, yogi, or a casual gym-goer, it can provide major benefits across the board. It’s that powerful.

When I first started Supple Leopard — written by MobilityWOD owner Dr. Kelly Starrett — I expected to receive a “mobility prescription;” essentially a list of stretches and exercises I could perform everyday to improve my flexibility, range of motion (RoM), and overall mobility. I was pleasantly surprised that this book is MUCH more powerful than that. Supple Leopard provides a framework to create your own unique mobility plan based upon individual athletic and performance needs.

Additionally, it provides several tools to help rehab injuries. In any athletic pursuit there is always the risk of injury. As my power lifting coach says: “if you didn’t want to get hurt you should have played chess.” Supple Leopard not only empowers athletes with the knowledge to rehab injuries on their own, but more importantly, helps prevent them in the first place. That translates into savings on physical therapy, massage, and other forms of sports medicine.

Supple Leopard works twofold in the area of injury prevention: firstly it helps you become much more cognizant of the way your everyday activities effect your body’s biomechanics. And secondly by applying the movement principles laid out and improving your mobility, it is possible to perform your sport’s movements efficiently with reduced risk of injury.

If you asked most people to do an air squat, push up, or pull up they would perform the movement without thinking twice. Supple Leopard teaches you the right way to move through exercises, which sets the foundation for all other advanced, compound movements. Have you ever thought about what is the most stable position for your humerus (upper arm bone) to sit in the shoulder joint when performing a push up?  If you’re like me and most other people, the answer is probably not. Who cares anyway? I mean really, who injures their shoulder doing push ups?

Every movement includes two main components: 1) proper form — the step-by-step principles describing how to optimally perform a movement, and 2) associated limitations — the specific aspects of mobility and flexibility to emphasize should you have trouble with a given exercise. Improving upon one or both aspects can greatly increase the efficiency of your lifts, which translates into more fluid motion, greater power, and ultimately better gains.

Verdict

Buy it ($33.25, Amazon). The world would be a much better place if we had more Supple Leopards around.

So how has this all worked out for me? I’ve recently gotten into the sport of power lifting and as such my workouts tend to be on the more brutal side, often leaving me feeling tight. After applying the principles in the book, I honestly noticed a difference in my mobility within several days and it continues to improve as more as time passes.

*Editor’s chime-in: Bryan has also purchased Supple Leopard and highly recommends it as an effective means of physical maintenance and recovery. As someone that’s naturally the opposite of limber, it continues to be prove immensely helpful as a path to improving overall flexibility and movement. That translates into better form, reduced risk of injury, and enhanced performance. 

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Joshua Nackenson

Contributing Author at Lean It UP

Joshua Nackenson, CSCS, is a medical student at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine with a passion for all things related to fitness and nutrition.

His primary athletic focus is powerlifting, where he competes in the 165lb and 181lb weight classes. In between powerlifting training and competitions, he stays fit by competing in local 5ks and Tough Mudder events.

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