Super Joints: Russian Longevity Secrets for Pain-Free Movement, Maximum Mobility & Flexible Strength [Paperback]

Pavel Tsatsouline (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2001

"The Do-It-Now, Fast-Start, Get-Up-and-Go, Jump-into-Action Bible for High Performance and Longer Life"You have a choice in life. You can sputter and stumble and creak your way along in a process of painful, slow decline-or you can take charge of your health and become a human dynamo.And there is no better way to insure a long, pain-free life than performing the right daily combination of joint mobility and strength-flexibility exercises. In Super Joints, Russian fitness expert Pavel Tsatsouline shows you exactly how to quickly achieve and maintain peak joint health-and then use it to improve every aspect of your physical performance.Only the foolish would deliberately ignore the life-saving and life-enhancing advice Pavel offers in Super Joints. Why would anyone willingly subject themselves to a life of increasing pain, degeneration and decrepitude? But for an athlete, a dancer, a martial artist or any serious performer, Super Joints could spell the difference between greatness and mediocrity.Discover: The twenty-eight most valuable drills for youthful joints and a stronger stretch.How to save your joints and prevent or reduce arthritis. The one-stop care-shop for your inner Tin Man-how to give your nervous system a tune up, your joints a lube-job and your energy a recharge. What it takes to go from cruise control to full throttle: The One Thousand Moves Morning Recharge-Amosov's "bigger bang" calisthenics complex for achieving heaven-on-earth in 25 minutes. How to make your body feel better than you can remember-active flexibility for sporting prowess and fewer injuries. The amazing Pink Panther technique that may add a couple of feet to your stretch the first time you do it.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Pavel Tsatsouline, Master of Sports is a former Soviet Special Forces physical training instructor who currently trains the US Marines and S.W.A.T. teams. Pavel was nationally ranked in the Russian ethnic strength sport of kettlebell lifting and holds a Soviet Physical Culture Institute degree in physiology and coaching. He is a contributing editor to Muscle Media magazine and the author of five books including Relax into Stretch.

Product Details

• Paperback: 120 pages
• Publisher: Dragon Door Publications; 1 edition (October 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0938045369
• ISBN-13: 978-0938045366
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 8.7 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #118,819 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #37 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Exercise & Fitness > Stretching

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

65 of 67 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Tried and compared...., February 10, 2004

By 

Jason Erickson (Minnetonka, MN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Super Joints: Russian Longevity Secrets for Pain-Free Movement, Maximum Mobility & Flexible Strength (Paperback)

Pavel is an accomplished guy with some impressive physical ability. I respect that, so I got a few of his books and borrowed some of his tapes to see what he recommends.

"Super Joints" is a quick, easy-to-follow handbook that anyone can use for basic guidelines on how to regain or improve overall joint mobility and flexibility.

Many of the movements presented will be familiar, but some of his ideas of how to combine them may not be. I would have liked to see more detailed descriptions, including variations and more photos of some movements.

After a 6-month break from nearly all physical activity, I started to get back into working out by incorporating a number of the movements and principles in this book. Overall, I am pleased with the results, and I feel this justifies a portion of the advertised price.

Aside from the joint mobility movements and principles, Pavel does talk about the use of calisthenics that will progressively increase joint mobility as well. While it doesn't get as much attention as it deserves, I have combined what he did present with my existing knowledge of basic and advanced calisthenics and gotten good results that way too. If I didn't have some experience with this, I don't know if I could have had the same success based solely on what the book contains.

Pavel also touches on the stretching principles outlined in some of his other books, which are predominantly based on PNF (proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation) stretching doctrines. He definitely intends for you to combine this with his other works in order to realize the full benefits, but most people can certainly have some good success with the material he presents here.

This book's biggest failures are the oversimplified presentation and lack of variations, and the mediocre editing job which leaves some odd printing and writing errors to contend with. I am glad I have a copy, and I am really glad I got it for half price, which is about right.

I highly recommend looking at Kit Laughlin's "Stretching & Flexibility" and "Overcoming Neck & Back Pain" for a better presentation on regaining mobility through PNF stretching, and Scott Sonnon's "Bodyflow" is a fascinating and extremely detailed approach to improving overall mobility through coordinated movement.

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Too much cheesy advertising for the price!, November 27, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Super Joints: Russian Longevity Secrets for Pain-Free Movement, Maximum Mobility & Flexible Strength (Paperback)

No doubt Pavel Tsatsouline is in incredible shape....but for $34.95....the book had what seemed like 20 pages of cheesy advertising...!!! Check out Kit Laughlins' Stretching and FLexibility before buying any of Pavels books.....its half the price and twice the book in all ways!!!

52 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Ripped Off!, October 17, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Super Joints: Russian Longevity Secrets for Pain-Free Movement, Maximum Mobility & Flexible Strength (Paperback)

Overpriced and short on substance. Insulting, unclear and sloppy. I can hardly express the disapointment and anger I felt at paying a very premium price-$...- for a book that was obviously thrown together over a weekend. Pavel Tsatsouline is one of many thousands of trainers who have had access to and teach these methods. What sets Pavel apart is his ability to market himself and gimmicks like the "evil Russian" and calling everyone "Comrade",. He has built a small cult following of people who praise his every move. All that would be fun and amusing if it weren't for the poor quality of his books and tapes.

For $... you get a thin book with some large, well spaced out type that takes up 130 or so pages. Actually, it shouldn't take more than 50. Annoyingly, the author doesn't believe in spell-check or proof reading and the reader will be hit by numerous misspellings, grammatical errors and out and inexcusable mistakes. Paragraphs are repeated for no reason and pictures are mistakenly(?) doubled as well.

The exercises, while valuable, are not radically different from what most people have done in gym class. They are also not clearly explained at all! Many exercises aren't even illustrated, leaving the reader to fend with ambiguous written descriptions! For $...!!! I am familiar with the material shown and can tell you that Pavel only shows you half the exercise in many cases. For the price of this book I expect the beginning and advanced versions.

The author must think his readers to be low IQ types and refuses in many cases to lay out the anatomical or physiological basis for his claims. Are deep squats bad? No, says Pavel. Why? 'Cause I said so, comrade! Again, for $...., I'll decide if its too complex for me to understand!

Slick marketing, tasteless advertising hype and a cult following aren't enough to justify this waste of paper. One of the author's favorite slogans is "Get Pavelized!" I now know what that means: to be financially sodomized and brainwashed into liking it. Go with Kurz's Stretching Scientifically or any decent Yoga or Chi Kung book or tape for three times the info, done better for half the price!