Customer Reviews

Superfit: Royce Gracie's Ultimate Martial Arts Fitness and Nutrition Guide (Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu series)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Don't take 3 stars the wrong way. 3 stars is good but not great. People reviewing here tend to give 5 stars to anything they personally like.

This book is Royce's personal training programs.
Its split into sections:
Stretching, abs, cardio, weights, plyometric, power, programs, diet

The stretching routine is Gracie's personal routine and is a 1 person full body routine, paying special attention to the hips, quads, and hamstrings (this is good, most guys tend to be tight in the hips, and what martial artist doesn't want to work toward the full splits!). It also has a section showing some good 2 person stretches.

The abs routine is the ONLY jiu-jitsu/grappling specific area of the book. Many of the ab exercises are done from various guard position (feet wrapped around someones waist, or feet under the inside of the thighs). These include twisting motions and full situps while hanging off someone standing up.
Good stuff.

The cardio section is short and doesn't feature many alternate ways to do your cardio workouts.

The weights routines are nothing special or unique, just a large list of the standard body building/strength training exercises you see 99% of people doing at every gym (not that this is bad, just don't expect secret sports specific exercises)

The plyometric and power (ie explosiveness) is an interesting read, but much of it is done with a trainer holding the attached bungee cords, providing resistance. A solo option is given - wear a weight vest - but I like most people don't have a trainer with cords, or a weight vest....
Other exercises like box jumps are good, if you have really high platforms to jump onto...
Still, this is Royce's PERSONAL exercise program so you are seeing what the champ himself does.

Included are exercise plans for beginner, intermediate and advanced as well as information about the Gracie family diet and information on what Royce himself does.

Its a good exercise book and is interesting to see how Royce trains. I was suprised it had so little sports specific (grappling) exercises because it is possible to combine the two.
You can see some of this in Choke (the documentary on older brother Rickson) and in Scott Sonnon's Grapplers Toolbox, Body Flow, and Prasara DVDs.

Personally the main thing I'll take from this is the 1 man stretching routine which is quite good and I'll have to disagree with another reviewer who said the routine is good but not worth the price of the book alone. I think it is!

Hope this helps you.

This is the Ultimate book for conditioning. Royce Gracie shows a program that is directed to the Martial artist. With the help of James Strom who trains Keyshawn Johnson and Serena Wlliams, Royce goes on showing simple exercises that anyone can do, including some modern stuff. Most of the exercises you do not need any machines so it is perfect for people who do not have access to a gym or anything. There are no magical Wow exercises that no one can do. They are simple stuff with some twists and some clever variations. They point out specific tips that greatly hepld me do them properly.

They start out by showing stretching with beginners and advanced and then show specific stretching for elite advanced fighters as well. The stretches are demonstrated in sequence so you can develop a routine.

They then go on to providing you with workout routines for beginners, intermediate and advanced. Complete routines that anyone can follow. The layout and schematics of the book with its icons etc makes it very easy to follow. The programs is where other books have failed before but Royce and James give well structured complete programs.

They then go on to cover the Gracie Diet and even include several weeks of Royce's own daily eating meals so you can see how to follow the diet.

What I liked most about this book is that i can do just about everything that Royce showed, but I did not have a guide or a program to put the exercises together and that was were I failed and now I have it!

This is a great book and I have to give it a big two thumbs up. Well done!

I am a huge fan of royce gracie and i was awaiting to get this book for a long time. however as soon as i opened it up i realized that it was nothing but a rehash of popular gym wisdom. approximately 90% of this book is pictures of royce doing various exercises e.g. bicep curls,incline presses, static stretches etc,etc,. the rest of book just shows you how to oranize a program with these exercises depending on your current level of fitness.Lastly the explanation of the famous gracie diet is pathetic its only 2 pages long. all in all skip this book and go for something else

Unless you have no knowledge of weight lifting, this book is of no use to you. Yes, it does have an awesome stretching routine, but that doesn't justify the price of this book. The weightlifting is nothing special, mainly dumbbell work and plyometrics. All the weightlifting info can be found free if you have access to the internet and an hour to kill. The stretching routine is mainly a gymnastics routine. Its main goal is enabling you to do the splits. If you go to your local library and pick up a book on gymnastics then you'll get a routine that is almost the same.

All in all this is a well organized book with tons of detailed picture. It's a great book for the NOVICE WEIGHTLIFTER. My only suggestion is not to the 3 set of 12 reps for any given exercise. Do 2 set of 25 reps each and you'll have better results. You won't get as strong but you'll be stronger longer.

I don't practice martial arts, but I found this book to be the most sensible, attractive, and easy-to-follow workout book I have used. Both the photos and instructions are so clear. I've seen Royce Gracie fight, and now I know where his incredible stamina comes from. I'd recommend this to anyone who wants to stay in awesome shape for life.

Unfortunately, I think I lot of other reviewers are smitten with the Gracie legacy and not judging the book on its own merits. If it were written by John Q. Nobody, they'd probably be more inclined to give a dispassionate and fair review. As a martial artist with 10+ years experience, I was looking for a training program that would help me prepare for competing.

Pros:
The Gracie Stretch routine is a nice set of stretches to do on a daily basis. It has a lot of stretches specific to hip flexibility which is important for fighters. Though a lot of the same information and positions can be found with much greater details in the book, "The Martial Artist's Book of Yoga". Whether the GSR alone is the price of the book depends on you.

There is some nice information on plyometrics, isometrics, tapering which are some modern concepts that would be of interest to someone looking to take their workouts to the advanced level. Though by no means is the detail on these topics extensive.

Cons:
The 'meat' of this book could be condensed to a pamphlet. (In fact, I photocopied the GSR and shrunk it down to fit on a single page so I could use it in the gym without looking like a newbie.) Most of the book is dominated by oversized glossy photos of Royce performing the various stretches and exercises, which for most intermediate and advanced athletes could be sufficiently listed by title alone. The ratio of pages devoted to photos to text is easily 12:1. The few pages devoted to the "Gracie diet" are laughable (12 oranges for breakfast?) and not nearly sufficient to tailor to your body type and specific nutritional needs.

Most lacking is any talk of actual fight training. Bag work, pad work, and sparring are never mentioned. Not even once. Where do these all fit in to the Superfit program?

Summary:
My opinion is that this book suffers the same watering down effect of many books that attempt to appeal to too broad an audience. By broad I don't mean beginners and advanced fighters, but non-fighters as well. Replace all the photos of Royce with those of any other recognizable athlete and it would be the same book. Even then it is only a cursory overview of a professional athlete's training regimen. I suspect that Royce, still competing, isn't going to give away all his secrets just yet. Maybe he'll release a better edition after he retires.

I've learned so many new stretches and workouts from this book. I also love the fact that it lays out a daily workout and meals. These guys really know what they are talking about!

I purchased this book with the idea of learning more about the Gracie diet and nutrition. The diet and nutrition section was extremely short, and I didn't really get much from it. From all the years of Carlos' studies of health, fitness and dieting, this book brought none of it to light.

The fitness part of the book is very substantial. However, the exercises and routines are primarily for a person who has a trainer or knows someone with alot of time to kill. The majority of the exercises involve a second person assisting you.

Maybe I just expected something much different, but the book is more for someone who is really training for MMA or BJJ competitions. People who compete at a higher level are probably much more likely to have "people" to help train them. I'm just a regular guy trying to get an edge.

I did learn one thing from this book... I need to be more discriminating on my BJJ book selections. Just because it's written by a Gracie doesn't mean it's worth buying.

excellent book. Gracie is one of the best legendary fighters alive and as the best he knows that is mastering the basics and fundamentals of things that get results not fancy tricks and complicated stuff for weight lifting and staying fit. The simple stuff is the most powerful as you approach mastery of it. All the fancy stuff is just hype and for show.

as for you guys that complain about the book because it's about it being about fitness then maybe you should read the title of a book before you buy it might be a bright idea LOL

This book will give you the essentials to handle anything from everyday life to an all out fight or training session at the dojo.