Relax into Stretch : Instant Flexibility Through Mastering Muscle Tension (Paperback)

by Pavel Tsatsouline (Author) "Stretching in America is a cult..." (more)
Key Phrases: contrast breathing, mobility drills, squeeze your butt, Forced Relaxation, Super Joints (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Regain the Buoyant Flexibility of a Young Child While Maximizing Your Power and Strength

"Conventional stretching attempts to literally elongate your tissues, which is dangerous and ineffective. Relax into Stretch simply teaches your muscles to relax into a stretch. If you compare traditional training to a messy hardware reorganization, then Relax into Stretch is an efficient software upgrade.

While stretching tissues may take years, changes in the nervous system are immediate! Your muscles will start noticeably elongating from your first Relax into Stretch practice—and within months you will have achieved a level of flexibility uncommon in our species."—Pavel Tsatsouline

—Own an illustrated guide to the thirty-six most effective techniques for super-flexibility

—How the secret of mastering your emotions can add immediate inches to your stretch

—How to wait out your tension—the surprising key to greater mobility and a better stretch

—How to fool your reflexes into giving you all the stretch you want

—Why contract-relax stretching is 267% more effective than conventional relaxed stretching

—How to breathe your way to greater flexibility

—Using the Russian technique of Forced Relaxation as your ultimate stretching weapon

—How to stretch when injured—faster, safer ways to heal

—Young, old, male, female—learn what stretches are best for you and what stretches to avoid

—Why excessive flexibility can be detrimental to athletic performance—and how to determine your real flexibility needs

—Plateau-busting strategies for the chronically inflexible

About the Author
Pavel Tsatsouline, Master of Sports, is a former physical taining instructor for the Soviet Special Forces who is now much demand as a strength and endurance trainer for SWAT teams and a nationally recognized presenter of fitness seminars. He is the author of Power to the People! and Bullet-proof Abs.

Product Details

• Paperback: 152 pages
• Publisher: Dragon Door Publications (February 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0938045288
• ISBN-13: 978-0938045281
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #35,868 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #18 in

  Books > Health, Mind & Body > Exercise & Fitness > Stretching

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

63 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars When everything else fails...., January 13, 2006

By	Mark "Bottom line only please..." (Raleigh, NC) - See all my reviews

I almost didn't buy this book because some of the reviews are so negative...but I'm glad I did anyway. A few points:

1. This method absolutely works...I say this after studying karate for 4 years (hundreds of kicks, stretching that included pouring water on the floor and having someone push down on your back, staying in stretched positions for up to an hour, etc..) yoga, stretch machines, standard stretch routines. Through all this, my stretch increased very little. I couldn't even sit on the floor with crossed legs without discomfort. My karate instructor used to say I had the flexibility of a rock. Pavel's method works. Get the book! The concepts are simple, but revolutionary. A few more points:

2. There is enough information and stretching routines in the book to last for years. I don't understand the reviews that say there is not enough info in the book, too many pictures, etc...I appreciated the fact that I could quickly go throught the book and get right into the stretching.

3. There is another reviewer who outlines all of the potentially harmful stretches, based on his assessment as a doctor. However, all of the stretches he talks about are in the advanced stretching section of the book; they are extreme exercises, that Pavel clearly states are not for beginners.

4. Appearances can be deceiving...for example I was experiencing slight lower back pain from one routine and then I went back and read how to do the exercise, and realized I was overstretching, not controlling my breathing and tension as described in the book. In spite of the clear, "simple" format of the book, it is rich in information, that must be read carefully.

5. One last point: this book is for those who need to get to the next level. (I can't believe someone recommended Anderson's "granny" stretch book over this one; give me a break) Whether to reach top levels of fitness, martial arts study, rock climbing, etc...I'm thinking of someone who is into total fitness.)
On the other hand, it's also worth reading for the weekend athlete, only because the knowledge can help one prevent injuries and avoid harmful stretching methods.

Disclaimer: this is not a cheerleader review for Pavel. I have no connection with him whatsoever, just a very appreciative reader. Get the book!

212 of 234 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Poor structuring of drills, sequence, and progression, October 11, 2004

By	Mohamed F. El-Hewie (Hackensack, NJ USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Like all the author's books, "Relax into Stretch" is loaded with conflicting interpretation, false promises, and greedy solicitation for selling misleading publications. Here, the author criticizes "conventional stretching", that is commonly practiced in America, as dangerous and ineffective modality that intends to elongate tissues over years. The author claims that his soviet approach relaxes the nervous system like upgrading the muscle's software to stretch and that those changes occur immediately through educating the stretch reflex. He exaggerates by promising to achieve a level of flexibility that is "uncommon in our species", within months, page 138. Yet, the entire book does nothing but describes conventional stretching.

"Stay the hell away from them!" and "do not stretch the damn thing!" is his macho advice, forbidding the practice of stretching the ligaments, page 39. He claims that stretching the ligaments has no athletic benefits, and that it scars and weakens the ligaments through creating micro-tears that predispose to plastic deformities and severe injuries. He will soon contradict himself by describing many stretch drills that do nothing but stretch the ligaments, the tendons, and the muscles, as follows:

(1) The Road Kill Split, page 128, and the Cossacks severely stretch the medial collateral ligaments of the knees.
(2) The Side Split, page 131, severely stretches the Iliofemoral ligaments of the hip joints.
(3) The Modified Reverse Triangle and the Side Stretch severely stretch the spinal ligaments.
(4) The Reverse Cossack notoriously stretches the lateral collateral ligaments of the knees and the spinal ligaments.

You can go on and on through all the stretch drills to find out that ligamentous stretching is a common and welcome practice, about which the author is confused.

The major drawback with these superficial publications, which the author excessively reproduces and brags about, is the hasty display of information. For example, this author's books have no chapters, but rather an arbitrary aggregation of anecdotes referred to soviet academicians, scientists, and experts. Each topic spans a page or two, followed by a table of summary that occupies a full page. Thus, the author assumes that the reader has to have a summary for every two pages.

Although the book presents thirty-seven stretching drills, starting with "Toe Touch" and ending with the "Side Split", it does not describe how to structure a safe and reasonable way of incorporating the drills in a workout. It only tells you to exercise two to three times a week and it is up to you to figure out how to structure your training. That is a serious flaw in a do-it-yourself book. In a safe gym environment, you would learn what to start with and what not, such that you avoid life-long injuries. For example, the book drills start with "toe touch" drill, followed by "spine compression" drill, then "the Improved Cobra" drill. These drills involve standing in the first, hanging up in the second, and laying prone in the third. That is completely bizarre way of structuring any training sequence. In addition, the author repeatedly requires that you use his other four books: Power To the People, Super Joints, Bullet-Proof Abs, and Fast & Loose! The four books could be easily squeezed in a single brochure and will still constitute a mediocre source of information for any serious training.

In complete incongruence with standard books on yoga and stretch, this book lacks progressive description of the execution of drills. The figures of the books are labeled hastily and in sloppy manner. Some errors in execution show the lack of experience of the author about what he claims to know best. For example, in the "Toe Touch" drill, page 49, the author condemns getting up from hyper-flexed, or rounded, back with straight knees. He contends that one has to semi-squat in order to avoid serious back injury. While that is true in the case of lifting, it entirely defeats the purpose of the back stretching that requires rounding each vertebra, as long as there is no external weight on the torso and that performer is alert, warmed up, and knows what "toe touching" is supposed to achieve.

Mohamed F. El-Hewie,
Author of
"Essentials of Weightlifting and Strength Training".

64 of 71 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good Info In The Book But Overpriced, June 26, 2002

By	Richard C. Culver (Farmington, AR United States) - See all my reviews

All of Pavel's books including Relax Into Stretch have excellent
information which it hard to find else where. However Pavel never invented the exercises nor he came up the research himself. However it is one of better stretching books in the market and I have got better results in my stretches with information found in Pavel's book. The main downside of this
book and other Pavel's books is that his books including Relax Into Stretch are overpriced. That's why I put a three stars on this one. For those whom want to be able to do full front split or side split, I recommend Stretching Scientifically by Thomas Kurz over Relax
Into Stretch by Pavel Tsatsouline for a better run for your money.