Anatomy for Runners - Unlocking Your Athletic Potential for Health, Speed, and Injury Prevention

I am 50 years old and have been a lifetime runner who has suffered a variety of running injuries (plantar faciitis, shin splints, posterior tibial tendonitis, piriformis syndrome, IT band syndrome, and most recently a stress fracture of the distal head of my left fibula, just to name a few). This book does a great job of explaining the mechanics of the human body in layman's terms and how to apply that knowledge to improving running gait and efficiency. And, the book as self assessment tests that help you determine deficiencies in your own body mechanics (core stability, flexibility, strength, etc.), and provides a slew of exercises to improve your identified deficiencies.

This is one of two places where the book could be improved. At the end of the self assessment tests there is a chart that lists exercises (by name) to perform to correct the deficiencies, and the next chapter contains those exercises listed first by number, then by name. Why the author did not include the exercise "numbers" in the chart at the end of the self assessment tests is beyond me. I felt like I was having to solve a puzzle in flipping through the exercise chapter looking for each of the exercises recommended for me. I ended up creating a cheat sheet for me that listed the exercises recommended for me by name, then matching them up with the numbers (and page numbers) of the exercises in the following chapter. Had the author included the exercise numbers in the table it would have made the book much easier to use.

The other criticism I have of the book is that the book does not contain an index in the back. How can you write a book like this and not include an index?

Update: I've dropped my rating from 4 to 3 stars. The reason? Frustration! Every time I turn to this book to use the exercises "prescribed" for me in the self-assessment section, I get frustrated for the reasons I've already discussed above (no index and no matrix connecting the exercises by name to their location in the book). But, I've also found that several of the exercise names used in the table at the end of the self-assessment section do not match the names used in the exercise section, leaving finding the proper exercise up to the reader's interpretation. For example, I think, where the self-assessment section identifies exercises "T-Ball Rock and Roll", "Lateral Hip Bridge", and "Rotational Lunge", the actual exercise names in the exercise section are "T-Ball Triad", "Side Lying Hip Bridge", and "Twisting Lunge." Add to that the fact that the self-assessment section names the following exercises that do not appear at all in the exercise section: Squat Training and Swiss Ball Triad (which I do not think is the same thing as "T-Ball Triad"). And, there are several exercises in the exercise section that are not mentioned at all in the self-assessment table. Something definitely went amiss during editing.

Good book to read, but very frustrating book to actually use which is the whole reason for purchasing it. Ugh!

Packed with information on why injuries happen and how to prevent them. Not just the basics, but in depth explanations on why your muscles, ligaments, and tendons act the way they do. I had been struggling with chronic hamstring strain for a long time. This book was my ticket to recovery.