New Functional Training for Sports

This is an outstanding book. Coach Boyle delivers a comprehensive plan for injury prevention through sound training. His resume speaks for itself but the aspect of his career that I appreciate the most is his willingness to remain open to change. He's not so proud to change his ways where science and practice reveal a new direction. This is a great strength and conditioning resource.

Utilizing a more integrated approach than traditional strength training (which generally works one or two muscles in isolation), functional training prepares athletes for their sports by using exercises that train the muscles the same way they're used in the sport- collectively as a whole.

"New Functional Training For Sports" walks athletes through the ins-and-outs of assessing their functional strength and designing a custom program to fit their individual needs. Includes an exhaustive collection of exercises with color photos and troubleshooting, all conveniently organized into chapters such as:

-foam rolling, stretching, and dynamic warm-up
-lower body training
-core training
-upper body training
-plyometric training
-olympic lifting
-performance enhancer programs

The book also provides readers with access to online videos including 71 clips demonstrating many of the exercises found in the book. This is a large book (8.4 x 10.9 inches, 256p.) with thicker/quality pages that make it easier to flip through, and lots of photos to really help you understand what the exercises are supposed to look like. Overall, extremely thorough yet well broken-down to make it easy to read and understand. A great book that's loaded with information and tips, and I would say an invaluable resource to anyone who is seriously interested in competitive sports or a sports career.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

First off Mike Boyle will always know much more about S/C than I ever will. Unfortunately, this book lacked any new concepts for the athletes I train. If you are a veteran of the profession who continually seeks knowledge through podcasts, videos, articles, online courses, certifications and seminars you already understand the concepts of this book...evaluate your athletes, find their strengths/weaknesses, mobility or stability problems and design the appropriate program. Use soft tissue release, stretching, movement prep, exercise progressions/regressions, plyometrics, single leg movements, core training and conditioning! Do this all with functional exercise not planet fitness machines. Save your $20 and invest in his blog where you'll be blown away with the wealth of knowledge daily. Don't get me wrong, if you're new to the profession this book will point you in the right direction and teach you how to start being a good strength coach. For those with experience it just lacked anything new.

Fantastic all around strength and conditioning program. If you are a young aspiring athlete or just wanting to improve your strength and endurance this book is for you. The exercises are simple and direct. The book describes which muscle groups are involved in each exercise and gives practical advise about how to approach each specific exercise so as to maximize the benefit over time. The description of the progression a participant should take with each exercise and the charts that describe the approach over time is very helpful. The book encourages and provides an area to report your goals and progress as well as the experience you have with the exercise is useful as well. Overall well illustrated and easy to follow.

This is a decent beginners book to programming but I feel it lacked in many areas, and it stated things that were flat out untrue. On the positive side I loved some of the progressions this book presented. Overall it's a quick read and cheaply priced, you'll get something out of this.

Boyle delivers! With full color images and streaming video you cannot beat this book. Offers trainers and athletes the best exercises for improving speed, strength, and power through functional training.

I bought this book and have been very impressed with the advise and the tips within it. It's a gold mine for any strength coach be it experience of new to the industry, Mike talks you through great ways of understanding what an athlete requires to be at their best and he supplies you with the tools to be successful in getting them there... There is everything from basic body weight exercise to advance movements to prepare your clients to be the best they can be. The book has structured phase by phase programs that you can use with your clients. It also has video clips for all the exercises so you know exactly how each exercise should be performed, I would definatly say this is the best Strength and conditioning book I have purchased and would 100% recomend anyone in the industry purchase it straight away.

I found this book very informative and easy to understand the different exercises you can do that may help in different sports, and in general. I liked the illustrations and found them helpful as well.