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Autor: markyoung
~ 02/11/09
If you’re like me you want to know every single thing there is to know about training. Unfortunately, as an up and coming trainer I was constantly referring to the resource lists on the sites of other coaches and trying to choose which of the many books and products to purchase. With a list of over 50 books it was sometimes hard to decide where to spend my hard earned money.
So, I decided to create a list of my top three books to get you started. If someone asked me to give up every book I’ve ever read and keep only three, the books below would be the ones I would choose. While none of the ones I’m about to list aren’t specifically about training, they are the three that I can say without a doubt had the biggest influence on how I think about the body and human movement.
Here they are in no particular order:
Muscles: Testing and Function, with Posture and Pain
This book provided my first real taste of postural assessment. The detail provided and the numerous pictures were an incredible resource. More than that, the information on testing for muscle length and strength was awesome! With charts provided for assessment this is easily one of the best resources I own.
Low Back Disorders: Evidence-Based Prevention and Rehabilitation
Without this book my programming would not be the same. While a large part of this book was geared towards mechanisms of lower back injury, the power of understanding these mechanisms for exercise selection has been incredibly valuable to me. I concretely believe that this is the single most important starting place for understanding core training and why to chose and why to avoid certain exercises. Well worth every penny.
Diagnosis and Treatment of Movement Impairment Syndromes
Frankly, this book was probably the biggest eye opener for me in understanding normal human movement and the causes of dysfunction. Dr Shirley Sahrmann is a legend and her ideas changed the way I think about training. While I genuinely appreciate the ability to assess static posture, assessing and correcting movement itself is possibly the most valuable skill a trainer can have. Personally, I found this a tough read because I was pouring over each page again and again to make sure I soaked up every ounce of information, but in the end I woud put this book at the top of my list.
If you have some money burning a hole in your pocket and you need a great book to read I’d highly suggest starting with one of the above.
Got a book that you think is better? Drop me a comment below.
Those certainly are good choises! Some of my favorites for sure.
Patrick
Comment by Patrick Ward — November 2, 2009 @ 7:37 AM
Mark,
You are always an inspiration. I definitely intend to get these
books at some point. You and your suggestions have definitely
influenced not only how I think about the human body but training
as well. Thanks for the post man.
Comment by Steven Ferrell — November 2, 2009 @ 8:03 AM
Thanks for the list man! Ironically I am looking forward to graduation so I can free up even more time to read and I appreciate you listing your top 3. I’ve seen earlier version of Kendall’s book and it was good and ditto for McGill’s first version. Are the new versions of both much better or similar?
If I have to put down just 3 top books I would currently pick
“The Body Has a Mind of Its Own”
“Blink”
“Z-Health, Master Trainer Manual”
What would others list?
Rock on
Mike T Nelson PhD(c)
http://www.ExtremeHumanPerformance.com
Comment by Mike T Nelson — November 4, 2009 @ 10:08 AM
Mcgill’s book is great and haven’t read the other two yet, but will check them out. Reading Dan John’s book, never let go, which I would highly reccomend! By the way, still laughing at those utube clips you posted last week about the back squats and crossfit, classic! Great work.
Comment by Jeff K. — November 4, 2009 @ 9:33 PM
Mike,
Thanks for the comment. I think there are some minor differences in the texts, but overall I find them to be quite similar. I was laughing at what you wrote too because some days I wish I was back in grad school so I’d have more time to read journals and go to the “academic” conferences that I don’t get to do as much these days.
Btw, where were you a couple weeks ago when I was deciding which Gladwell book to buy?
Comment by markyoung — November 5, 2009 @ 6:19 AM
Hey Jeff,
I’ve heard Dan’s book is really good, but I’d totally forgotten about it until now. I’m going to put that on my “to be purchased” list right now. As for the clips, I thought they were hilarious and watched them several times before posting them. Interestingly, I saw versions of my much younger self in that squat argument.
Comment by markyoung — November 5, 2009 @ 6:22 AM
Hi Mark,
i am surprised you being so skeptical endorses books like Kendall’s which has a complete lack of reference. It has been clear now that posture has very little to do with pain.
And Shirley Sahrmann’s movement impairment syndromes is just another hypothesis which only looks at the biomechanical component of pain.Pain is better explained by the biopsychosocial model and all the current research is pointing towards it.
Good blog!
Comment by Anoop — April 13, 2010 @ 6:33 AM
Hey Anoop!
Thanks very much for the comment.
I do agree that pain is multifactorial. However, I think it is negligent to ignore the biomechanical causes of pain or the psychosocial elements. Sadly, it seems people these days are either in one camp or the other. As with most things, I suppose the truth is not at the extremes, but somewhere in the middle. My specialty just happens to be in biomechanics and exercise physiology so this is where I tend to focus.
I also think pain is a very subjective process since we all experience it differently and it is often situation/state dependent. When we get hit playing football we might “feel” the pain less than if we’d been hit when we were in a different situation or psychological state.
With regards to Kendall’s book, I’ve found that muscle testing to be of great use when it comes to performance, but I rarely use it to treat pain.
Sahrmann’s work has definitely influenced my thought processes on movement/compensation patterns/etc, but I don’t use it to diagnose or treat injury. To this day, I don’t think I’ve read a more comprehensive hypothesis on human movement. Granted, there are many studies, but they are all done in isolation and usually by researchers in a lab. Sahrmann has been in the trenches for many years using her theories and there has to be something to be said about that.
Thanks again for stimulating me to further investigate where my influences are coming from.
Comment by markyoung — April 14, 2010 @ 3:16 PM
Hi Mark,
Try reading David Butler and Lorimer Moseley or any pain studies. Pain has very little to do with structural pathology, especially chronic pain. WE always thought structure pathology = pain.
Chronic pain was a mystery till now because we always focused on the biomechanical model. Now we know that chronic pain is a nervous system phenomenon and all out treatments work via the nervous system. Haven’t you come across studies which shows gross abnormalities in people with no history of pain?
“Sahrmann has been in the trenches for many years using her theories and there has to be something to be said about that.”
The worst crime a researcher can commit is to believe in his hypothesis. And it doesn’t matter how many years “in trenches” or how many gray hair she has, it has to stand the rigors of scientific evidence.
http://www.mindandmuscle.net/articles/a_balachandran/posture
This was an article i wrote 4-5 years back. Thanks for the reply.
Comment by Anoop — April 15, 2010 @ 8:17 AM