Product Details

• Format: NTSC
• Language: English
• Studio: Human Kinetics
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0736060324
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #240,455 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

About the Actor

Gray Cook is a physical therapist, board certified in orthopedics. He also is a certified strength coach with experience in several sports at the youth, college, and professional levels. Cook is a nationally recognized lecturer and consultant to the NFL, NBA, NHL, and WNBA as well as numerous college sports medicine and conditioning facilities. His innovative research and applied work are found in many rehabilitation and conditioning publications.

Cook is the director of orthopedic and sports physical therapy at Dunn, Cook & Associates. He also serves as the creative director of sport-specific training for Reebok® and is the first Reebok® master coach.

Cook received his graduate degree in physical therapy education at the University of Miami School of Medicine with a focus on orthopedics and sports rehabilitation and research in motor learning. He is a faculty member of the North American Sports Medicine Institute and is the codeveloper of the course titled Functional Exercise Training and Rehabilitation. He lives in his hometown of Danville, Virginia.

Product Description

You work out and train hard. You know you can reach that next level of performance. But are you doing all that you can to get there? Adding absolute strength and power often creates muscle imbalances and mobility limitations that cause injuries and limit skill training. The Athletic Body in Balance DVD is the first of its kind to show how to identify and correct muscle imbalances, mobility restrictions, and stability problems.

Host Gray Cook is a physical therapist and sports conditioning expert who has proven the effectiveness of his approach through the performances of athletes in the NFL, NBA, NHL, WNBA, and Reebok® University's sports training system. Cook's methods detect where conditioning is breaking down and reveals how to get your body back on track. Included in the DVD are five assessment tests to help you find the imbalances in movement patterns, sample corrective exercises to improve mobility and stability, and ways to integrate these exercises into a regular training program. The tests include

-deep squat—assessing the mobility and stability of the hips, knees, and ankles

-hurdle steps—evaluating bilateral mobility and stability of the hips, knees, and ankles

-in-line lunge—determining hip mobility and stability, quadriceps flexibility, and ankle and knee stability on both sides of the body

-straight leg raise—gauging hamstring flexibility

-seated rotation—measuring uppertrunk stability during a combined upper- and lower-body movement

Move more efficiently and achieve real gains in performance with the Athletic Body in Balance DVD.

Human Kinetics DVDs are coded for universal playback and can be played in all regions of the world.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

61 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cook serves up some great advice., December 24, 2003

By 

James D. Chlovechok "Doctor Jim" (Cambridge, OH United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Athletic Body in Balance (Paperback)

This should be required reading for athletes as well as coaches. The author does an excellent job in defining the "weakest link" as a cause of injury or tissue failure, and distinguishing between the too-often blamed "over-training" and the real culprit, improper training. Stability is emphasized, as it should be, as the basis for effective movement. (As my Burmese boxing coach once told me, it does no good to launch a rocket from a bamboo pad.) Other good points of emphasis, among many, are the need to relax to maintain fluidity with speed, and to "be quick but don't forget to stick." Again, in boxing we were always told to stick and move, but too often the person advising this had no idea of how to go about it, let alone teach someone else to do it. Gray Cook does. Throughout the book, his prose is effective, his explanations are clear and concise, and his recommended goals are accompanied by explicit step-by-step instructions to achieve them. For poviding the reader an understanding of athletic movement and training and actual how-to for practice and execution, this book tops my list.

44 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent conditioning guide, August 2, 2003

By 

Wernie (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Athletic Body in Balance (Paperback)

Very thorough, almost tactical approach. The author in his preface states that "efficiency and effectiveness" are his central themes. As the title suggests, the book focuses on balance, stability, agility, and strength of "the core" to build up a non-sport specific conditioning guide. The thrust of the book is really towards improving overall athletism.

There is definitely a clear emphasis throughout the book on the concepts of movement and space. The prose in the book and the depictions of different routines are very clear, and framed in a way that provides extra insights. A random example follows: "... Also a coiling movement is followed by an uncoiling movement that starts at the hips and then moves to the shoulders and arms. The weight shift is the trip hammer that sets the level of power. The goal is not to generate rotational power but rather to transfer linear or weight-shifting power into rotational power ... imagine an off-center playground seesaw ...You turned a short-distance force into speed because the long end traveled through a longer arc of movement in the same amount of time ..."

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Body in Balance, March 23, 2008

By 

Bonnie Jean (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Athletic Body in Balance DVD (DVD)

Athletic Body in Balance DVD
I not only purchased the DVD, I also purchased the book. This is an excellent guide for making sure you don't develop muscle imbalances performing different workouts. I absolutely loved the self-tests which enabled me to decide what needs stretching and what needs strengthening.
The DVD and book shows you specific exercises based on your tests results.
Invaluable information!