Several years ago a really interesting book came out called Becoming a Supple Leopard by Kelly Starrett. The book has an incredibly catchy title and also sets a high bar for how we as humans can or should move. The focus of the book is mobility, and in some ways it became an instant classic in the fitness field.
Kelly was one of several other prominent fitness experts including Pavel Tsastouline (the bringer of the Kettlebell to American Fitness) and Scott Sonnon (creator of TacFit) who revolutionized fitness training over the last decade or so to emphasize MOBILITY AS MOST LIKELY THE MOST IMPORTANT INDICATOR OF TRUE FITNESS.
Kelly's book is not the most accessible of works. It's dense, and even in a revised-edition it's still not very easy to understand what's going on unless you have a pretty serious background in sports physiology and anatomy, however the message of the book is vital.
As we spend time in an increasingly sedentary world, we lose our suppleness and our mobility? How can we gain this back? And, can we truly be supple leopards?
These are the kinds of questions, I'll be tackling this week here on my blog and in some short videos I share. It's also the core of the new class I'm teaching called Way of the Animals which combines Shaolin Animal Kungfu, Five Animal Play Qigong, and Internal Martial Arts training. It's specifically designed to help us rediscover our suppleness, strength and vitality.
Stay tuned!