Explosive Running - Using the Science of Kinesiology to Improv

Decent book for cross training and injury prevention
This book contains detailed explanations and images of great exercises that can be used to supplement running and prevent a lot of common running injuries. A great handbook to have at home if you are looking for help isolating and strengthening problematic, recurring injuries. That being said, it is a rather large book making it difficult to take with you to the gym, track, etc. Honestly, it is definitely worth it for any serious runners or runners who are coaching themselves. A great reference book. -from a serious, veteran runner and running store employee.

Explosive Running
I think this is a great book if you want to learn the mechanics of the perfect stride. Numerous pictures make it easy to understand what the author is describing. He also teaches you lots of exercises to strengthen your stride.

like product but disappointed
got the garmin heart rate monitor and foot pod. both came quickly and in one piece but the foot pod had a dead battery and had to go buy a new one. that is very disappointing and not good service

Technique from a Book? Bad idea.
I bought this book wondering if it would show me any tips to improve my running technique. The book does serve as a good introduction to running technique and I would suggest the book to a person who knows nothing on the topic. However, the book left me more convinced than ever before that one cannot improve technique from lessons in a book. Coaches exist for a reason and this is one of them. Runners who have great body and muscle awareness are not going to have major problems and thus are not going to need this book. On the other hand, runners who have poor body awareness are going to need a knowledgable person (a coach) to watch them run and identify the problem. So they don't need the book either and are better of spending their money on a coaching session. This book might be useful for a student taking a college course in coaching running but that is about it. Beside this general complaint the book itself leaves a lot to be desired. The photographs in the book are rather poor. They are simply clips from a video and suffer from all the problems that causes. It was really mind boggling to me that the publisher was so cheap as to not pay for a still camera to take photos. The poor quality images make it difficult at times to really understand what the author is refering to in the picture. It is most unfortunate that the authors obvious knoweledge is hindered by this problem. Further, there isn't a modern fad (running barefoot, neuromuscler training) that the author doesn't fall for. It used to be "muscle memory" was all the rage. The book would have been stronger if these issues were left out as the author comes across as pandering. All in all I think this is a book that might serve some useful purpose for a person who knows little about proper running technique. But for a person with difficulties it is not a substitute for a some sessions with a good coach.

Almost a good running publication
Almost. Yessis and Yessis (two authors) focus on the biomechanics of running, which is unusual and perhaps distinctive among publications - we've got the way to train, mostly from Jack D., and now this is an almost good book for telling us how to run. The descriptions of proper running style, and the exercises to achieve proper running style, are in the book. But you really have to dig. What makes this book 'almost good' is that there is no structure or system to its presentation. Y & Y say what they have to say. Once. Twice, a different way. Third, a different way. And so on. The redundancy is really not the bad point - the bad point is that there's so much laid out, it's hard to tell what you should do first. Doing it all, well, that would take eight hours a set. Another bad point. There are far, far more 'non-examples' of runners displaying INcorrect running style than examples of runners displaying correct running style. For the typical reader (I presume I am among them), I want to see someone running right . . . not endless pictures of people who are running and are doing two, three, or four things wrong. It seems like Y & Y have one favorite sprinter in the book who does it all right. Everyone else, be they your average marathon runner or the state high school 1,500 meeter champ or a nationally ranked 5,000 meter competitor, displays a running style per Y & Y that is "almost, but not quite, right." The pictures are a great, great idea - but next version show us how to run, biomechanically, the right way. Give us pictures of people who either naturally or with training, are doing it ALL right. (A value-added add-on of course would be a DVD with video clips of runners running the right way.) The explanations are helpful - but somehow, some way, please structure the presentation. Provide exercises per running element, or simple to easy, or beginner to advanced, SOME sort of organization that makes sense so that as readers we can figure out fairly easily what it is we each should incorporate into our workout schedule.