Book picks similar to
Mastering Jujitsu by Renzo Gracie
martial-arts
bjj
non-fiction
sports
Breathe: A Life in Flow
Rickson Gracie - 2021
He has joined the pantheon that includes Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, and Jackie Chan as one of the most famous martial artists of the twentieth century. Jiu-Jitsu, the fighting style developed and pioneered by his family, has become one of the world’s most prominent martial arts, and Vale Tudo, the “anything goes” style of Brazilian street fighting over which the Gracies had a monopoly, was an early precursor to the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Simply put, without the Gracie family, there would be no sport of “MMA,” no 4-billion-dollar UFC empire, and no “Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu” at strip malls all across America.In Breathe, for the first time, Rickson will share the full story of how his father and uncles came to develop Jiu-Jitsu, what it was like to grow up among several generations of world-renowned fighters from the Gracie clan, and the principles and skills that guided him to his undefeated record. From learning to assert himself on the streets of Rio to gaining fame and honor in Japan and emerging through heartbreaking tragedy, the martial arts master shares tales of overcoming challenges, extolling universal virtues and showing readers how pride and ego are the enemies of success. With never-before-seen photos and profound insights into the sport and way of life that only a studied legend can provide, Breathe is an entertaining and magnified view of an enduring legacy as well as an inspiring tale of weathering life’s complexities and overcoming them with style and grace.
ChiRunning: A Revolutionary Approach to Effortless, Injury-Free Running
Danny Dreyer - 2004
This new edition is fully updated with fresh insights and innovative training techniques from one of the sport's leading voices. Danny Dreyer teaches us how to heal and prevent injuries and also to run faster, farther, and with much less effort at any age or ability.With more than 150,000 copies in print, this groundbreaking program makes running safe and fun for beginning and seasoned runners, while also giving competitive runners the edge they seek. ChiRunning employs the deep power reserves in the core muscles, an approach found in disciplines such as yoga, Pilates, and in this case T'ai Chi.
Make knee pain and shin splints a thing of the past
Experience the natural efficiency of the midfoot strike
Dramatically reduce your potential for injury
Transform your running with our new 10-step training program
ChiRunning provides powerful insight and transforms running from a high-injury sport to a body-friendly fitness phenomenon. Join the revolution!
The First 20 Minutes: Surprising Science Reveals How We Can: Exercise Better, Train Smarter, Live Longer
Gretchen Reynolds - 2012
With the latest findings about the mental and physical benefits of exercise, personal stories from scientists and laypeople alike, as well as researched-based prescriptions for readers, Gretchen Reynolds shows what kind of exercise—and how much—is necessary to stay healthy, get fit, and attain a smaller jeans size. Inspired by Reynolds's wildly popular “Phys Ed” column for The New York Times, this book explains how exercise affects the body in distinct ways and provides the tools readers need to achieve their fitness goals, whether that's a faster 5K or staying trim.
Falling Hard: A Journey Into the World of Judo
Mark Law - 2009
Falling Hard is Law’s love letter to judo—the culture, drama, history, and practice. With journalistic zeal, he delves deeply into the sport’s history and lore, and interweaves his own judo experiences with the development of judo in Japan, the life and vision of its founder Jigoro Kano, the export of judo to the West, the emergence of women in the sport, and detailed descriptions of competition on the world championship and Olympic levels. Law’s account is as much for the sports writing fan and armchair enthusiast as for the judo practitioner. With humor and skill, he describes grueling training sessions and matches (including his own), famous Olympic bouts, and legendary rivalries between judo players and national teams, and he speculates on the future of the sport.
Gift of Injury: The Strength Athlete’s Guide to Recovering from Back Injury to Winning Again
Stuart McGill - 2018
Anyone who trains will enhance their injury resilience and performance employing these principles proven over and over with athletes. In the highly competitive world of strength athletics, a back injury is seen by many as the ultimate career-ender. In truth, if handled properly, it is far from a death sentence. Follow the journey of international powerlifting champion Brian Carroll, who can attest to this first hand. This remarkable athlete went from 1100 lb squats and 800 lb deadlifts to unending pain and disability after a massive spinal compression injury. After a fortuitous meeting with leading back expert Professor Stuart McGill, he reset his training and his life to fight his way back to the top of the winner’s podium. Glean expertise from McGill and Carroll, both masters in their field, and learn how to orchestrate your own triumphant comeback. Whether you are a former champion yourself who has fallen on hard times, or someone starting a new foray into the world of strength training who wants to avoid injury and maximize training, the wisdom found within these pages is sure to take your resilience and lifts to the next level. Over 200 full color, rich illustrations demonstrate technique.
Ultimate Flexibility: A Complete Guide to Stretching for Martial Arts
Sang H. Kim - 2004
It teaches you nearly 200 flexibility exercises that he has personally used to achieve the highest levels of flexibility.
The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman
Timothy Ferriss - 2000
which 150 pages will you read? Is it possible to: Reach your genetic potential in 6 months? Sleep 2 hours per day and perform better than on 8 hours? Lose more fat than a marathoner by bingeing? Indeed, and much more. This is not just another diet and fitness book.The 4-Hour Body is the result of an obsessive quest, spanning more than a decade, to hack the human body. It contains the collective wisdom of hundreds of elite athletes, dozens of MDs, and thousands of hours of jaw-dropping personal experimentation. From Olympic training centers to black-market laboratories, from Silicon Valley to South Africa, Tim Ferriss, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The 4-Hour Workweek, fixated on one life-changing question: For all things physical, what are the tiniest changes that produce the biggest results? Thousands of tests later, this book contains the answers for both men and women. From the gym to the bedroom, it’s all here, and it all works. YOU WILL LEARN (in less than 30 minutes each):How to lose those last 5-10 pounds (or 100+ pounds) with odd combinations of food and safe chemical cocktails.* How to prevent fat gain while bingeing (X-mas, holidays, weekends) * How to increase fat-loss 300% with a few bags of ice * How Tim gained 34 pounds of muscle in 28 days, without steroids, and in four hours of total gym time * How to sleep 2 hours per day and feel fully rested * How to produce 15-minute female orgasms * How to triple testosterone and double sperm count* How to go from running 5 kilometers to 50 kilometers in 12 weeks * How to reverse “permanent” injuries * How to add 150+ pounds to your lifts in 6 months * How to pay for a beach vacation with one hospital visit And that's just the tip of the iceberg. There are more than 50 topics covered, all with real-world experiments, many including more than 200 test subjects. You don't need better genetics or more discipline. You need immediate results that compel you to continue. That’s exactly what The 4-Hour Body delivers.
On Jiu Jitsu
Chris Matakas - 2017
When our environment fails to challenge our depths, we are tasked to create one which does. Practitioners across the globe continue to use Jiu Jitsu as a tool for personal development. For many, the Jiu Jitsu academy is the one place in which we purposefully practice virtuous action. "On Jiu Jitsu" seeks to codify the mechanisms by which Jiu Jitsu shapes the individual, as the character traits required to achieve mastery in sport are the same which our highest humanity requires. It is the hope of the author that the articulation of these benefits will ensure the reader's continued practice of self-mastery through this sacred medium.
Breathing for Warriors: Master Your Breath to Unlock More Strength, Greater Endurance, Sharper Precision, Faster Recovery, and an Unshakable Inner Game
Belisa Vranich - 2020
Belisa Vranich's ground-breaking second book teaches the science, techniques, and benefits of breathing correctly and efficiently for warriors in all walks of life.People are less in touch with their bodies—and especially their breathing—than ever before. Ironically, athletes and others who pride themselves on taking care of their bodies actually put themselves at greater risk. Why? Because they’re asking their body to take on next-level demands, but failing at life’s most essential skill: efficient breathing.Proper breathing is the world’s most powerful biohack. Learning it will help you feel better, avoid injury, and perform at your very best (including in bed!). Champion gladiators, master martial artists, even spearfishers all had one thing in common: efficient breathing to achieve flawless execution.An elite few still understand: Navy SEALs who need to make the perfect shot, super-elite weightlifters who truly understand how to harness and channel their energy, free-divers who can spend seemingly impossible amounts of time underwater, and high-profile execs who keep calm before multi-billion-dollar presentations.You can learn their secrets.From the corporate athlete to the tactical ninja, Breathing for Warriors is a practical, science-forward book that focuses on everything related to breathing and performance—from muscles and workouts to an impenetrable inner game.
Let Every Breath... Secrets of the Russian Breath Masters
Vladimir Vasiliev - 2006
This groundbreaking manual on Systema Breathing presents step-by-step training drills given to you in a thorough and comprehensive way. You will learn the unique methodology of Systema Breathing and get the foundation for every physical activity of your daily life. Whether you are looking to raise your athletic skills to the next level, or wish to increase your potential and to enjoy life, this is your tool to uncover the endless reserve of energy, health and happiness. At the same time, it is very easy reading, full of entertaining stories and thought provoking ideas.
Pro Cycling on $10 a Day: From Fat Kid to Euro Pro
Phil Gaimon - 2014
He soon fell into racing and discovered he was a natural, riding his way into a pro contract after just one season despite utter ignorance of a century of cycling etiquette. Now, in his book Pro Cycling on $10 a Day, Phil brings the full powers of his wit to tell his story.Presented here as a guide—and a warning—to aspiring racers who dream of joining the professional racing circus, Phil’s adventures in road rash serve as a hilarious and cautionary tale of frustrating team directors and broken promises. Phil’s education in the ways of the peloton, his discouraging negotiations for a better contract, his endless miles crisscrossing America in pursuit of race wins, and his conviction that somewhere just around the corner lies the ticket to the big time fuel this tale of hope and ambition from one of cycling’s best story-tellers. Pro Cycling on $10 a Day chronicles the racer’s daily lot of blood-soaked bandages, sleazy motels, cheap food, and overflowing toilets. But it also celebrates the true beauty of the sport and the worth of the journey, proving in the end that even among the narrow ranks of world-class professional cycling, there will always be room for a hard-working outsider.
Your Body Is Your Barbell: Lose Weight and Get into the Best Shape of Your Life in just 6 Weeks Using Nothing but Your own Bodyweight
B.J. Gaddour - 2014
No machines. No space. No hassles! With Your Body is Your Barbell, a reader will have no excuse not to get into the best shape of his or her life…simply, easily, and in just 4 weeks in the convenience of his or her own home. How? Using nothing more than what God blessed—a body with unlimited potential.Metabolic training expert BJ Gaddour, CSCS, who Men's Health magazine calls one of the "100 Fittest Men of All Time," has created a remarkably efficient and effective body-transforming diet and workout program based on just a handful of simple moves, the Bodyweight Eight. These no-equipment-required exercises are all one needs to build a strikingly symmetrical, perfectly proportioned, and classically beautiful physique, just like BJ's. (Not long ago, he was a fat guy with bad knees and an addiction to ice cream sundaes.)But it doesn't stop there. Once readers master each legendary fitness feat with perfect form, he will use BJ's "Sweat Spectrum," scalable, step-by-step progressions to go from ground zero to super hero. From these exercise variations, readers can construct hundreds of personalized workouts. Dozens of sample workouts are already demonstrated through big, bold how-to photographs within the book, and organized by goal, duration, intensity, and targeted body zone. This is the only book a man or woman needs to achieve the body he or she has always wanted anywhere…and without gear.
Deskbound: Standing Up to a Sitting World
Kelly Starrett - 2015
Recent studies show that too much sitting contributes to a host of diseases—from obesity and diabetes to cancer and depression—and literally shortens your life. The facts are in: your chair is your enemy, and it is murdering your body. In Deskbound, Dr. Kelly Starrett—physical therapist and author of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling book Becoming a Supple Leopard—unveils how your sedentary lifestyle is killing you and, more important, what you can do to change it. Deskbound offers a detailed battle plan for surviving the chair and reclaiming your birthright of mobility and freedom from pain. It provides creative solutions to reduce the amount of time you spend perched on your backside, as well as strategies for the workplace and school that will improve your productivity and your overall health. You will learn how to identify and fix poor posture while sitting and standing; how to prevent, treat, and resolve low back, neck, shoulder, and wrist pain; and avoid and reverse repetitive stress injuries like carpal tunnel and tendonitis. Whether your goal is to maximize your performance in and out of the workplace or simply to live pain free, Deskbound is the blueprint. Dr. Starrett provides a revolutionary cure for desk-death.
5/3/1: The Simplest and Most Effective Training System for Raw Strength
Jim Wendler - 2011
Daniels' Running Formula
Jack Daniels - 1998
In the book that Runner's World magazine called "the best training book," premier running coach Jack Daniels provides you with his proven VDOT formula to guide you through training at exactly the right intensity to become a faster, stronger runner.Choose from the red, white, blue, and gold programs to get into shape, target a race program, or regain conditioning after a layoff or injury. Race competitively with programs for 800 meters, 1500 meters to 3000 meters, cross country races, 5K to 15K, and half-marathon up to the marathon. Each program incorporates the right mix of the five training intensities to help you build endurance, strength, and speed, and Daniels' intensity point system makes it easy to track the time you spend at each level.The formula can be customized to your current fitness level and the number of weeks you have available for training, and it provides the perfect solution for short training seasons. Get the results you're seeking every time you lace up your shoes for a training run or race with the workouts and programs detailed in Daniels' Running Formula.