Adam Vickers
Sports Editor

ecoming a Supple Leopard is a

book written by Kelly Starrett,
who has single-handedly changed
the way we look at mobility and
physiotherapy. Kelly Starrett, aka
"K Star,” is the writer of the book
Becoming a Supple Leopard which he
nicknamed “the Betty Crocker book
on how to move.” At first glance one
might say “well | know how fo move, |
can walk, run, and jump no problem!”
but can you really? | have played
sports my whole life, from popular
sports such as football, hockey, and
soccer, to lighter sports like golf, tennis,
or baseball. | played junior football in
Chilliwack, and it never occurred to me
that | was moving in the wrong way. It
wasnt until | injured my knee in football
that | really gave up with the idea of
playing sports at the next level. | tore
the meniscus knee, which sort of keeps
the knee together, and when torn
it causes the knee to swell, creating
constant pain and making it very hard
to walk. | went to physiotherapy for
my knee, which heloed, but every so
often it would act up and | was told
that it would never be 100%; | was told
that if | could maintain the strength in
my legs it would not become a huge
issue. | did that, but in the busy life of a
student you don't always have the time
to make it fo the gym. When | read this
book, it instantly changed my life.

Becoming a Supple Leopard is built

wr

like a textbook, and has different
sections that can be referred back

to when help is needed with specific
movements. The introduction explains

a little bit about K Star, his experience
as a trainer, and the kind of philosophy
in the book. K Star believes that 90%
of the issues physiotherapy fixes, such
as back pain, knee and hip problems,
can be fixed without the use of a
physiotherapist at all. All we need to
do is "make a better decision.” Make a
better decision on how to walk, how to
sit, and how to do things we do every
day that are constantly wearing on
our joints and ligaments. K Star argues
that the kneecap is meant to last 110
years but we are tearing holes in them
in 20... If that is not an incentive to at
least look at the book, | do not know
what is.

Becoming a Supple Leopard is a
masterpiece in its descriptions on how
to move, and how to fix movement
issues. The book gives valuable

insight into basic movements such

as the squat, and how doing the
squat properly can fix tons of back
problems. The book also does a great
job of explaining how we are moving
wrong and why we need to change
movements to correct functional
movements, which are movements that
we do in the gym and convert easily
to the movements of daily life. When
performing functional movements, we
take a large amount of pressure off our
joints and displace it to our muscles

Review: |
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where we produce the most strength.
The movement fixes are fairly easy to
adapt to, and the effects of changing
your movement can be felt instantly.

By changing the way you move, you
will reduce back pain, increase hip
motion, and make knee problems
disappear. The book works in
conjunction with an online blog called
“mobility WOD." Mobility is the
function of increasing flexibility so that
you can have full range of motion,

and WOD is a CrossFit term: “workout
of the day.” The purpose of the blog

is to show people how to fix specific
issues with mobility. The website, www.
mobilitywod.com, is very user friendly,
with a search function at the top of the
page where you type the problem you
have, and it returns a number of videos
on how to fix them. The videos are
completely free unless you want to get
videos for the more extreme athletes
with problems that are not as easy to
fix. The book works with the blog and
is an inspired effort by K Star to provide
the general population with a manual
about how to move properly in a
world not designed for ease of human
movement.

The book is highly recommended by
athletes, and gets a nod from UFC
fighter Forrest Griffin, who highly
endorses the book in a post on
YouTube. K Star himself has trained
Olympic gold-medalists, Tour de
France cyclists, world and national

on themselves”

Mm. it |
Jr. KG.

ARR,

record holding Olympic Lifting and
Power athletes, CrossFit Games
medalists, ballet dancers, military
personnel, and competitive age-
division athletes. K Star actively
teaches his children the disciplines

of this book, and lives by what he
preaches. K Star called his book
Become a Supple Leopard for the
very reason that he wants his readers
to take on the persona of a supple
leopard! A leopard can fire alll its
muscles in an instant and move its body
extraordinarily well. Following the rules
of this book, the reader can become a
human version of a leopard, ready to
sprint, jump, and run in an instant.

| know that for me, the book has
allowed me to forget about the issues
| had with my knee, and has also
helped me become a much stronger
version of myself. Other advocates
of K Star are the US military and the
US government, which is looking into
changing the prototypical physical
education of sports in the school
system to educate kids from the
beginning about how to keep natural
movement in a world lacking in it. A
four or five year old kid can do a full
squat no problem, so then why is it
that we, as adults, can barely bend
down to pick up a pen dropped on the
floor? | encourage everyone to read
this book because it could not only
change your life, but it could change
the way we look at human movement
forever.