The Whartons' Stretch Book Review

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(More customer reviews)While I agree with the authors' approach to stretching and flexibility, this book is really aimed at advanced athletes who already have a good degree of flexibility.
My three distinct criticism are as follows: first, the authors state that most of the workouts can be performed in 20 minutes after a short learning curve of about three weeks. In reality, the program I use - body building, consists of 49 to 50 exercises, takes about 34 minutes [50 exercises x 2 sides x 2 seconds contraction/stretch x 10 reps = 2000 seconds or 33.3 minutes] and that would be non-stop with no allowance for set-up into the next set. The ACTUAL time from start to finish is almost 1 hour - hardly convenient.
Second, the book never mentions the resting period between exercises.
Third, the drawings are generally poor representation of the progression of each exercise AND the clock face is often not in agreement with the persepective of the body position.
A final criticism has to do with the initial self-test. My home, and I imagine most others, are not set up with the type of floor level mirrors to evaluate the clock position. Also, even a floor mirror such as on a closet door require the athlete to pull out of position or lock into a difficult position in order to view the relative clock position (degree of flex). This defeats the exercise completely. Case in point, trying to view the seated torso rotations. The position calls for the chin to be tucked into the chest during the flexion sets. You cannot do this and look up into a mirror at the same time - severly limiting the accuracy of the test.
To summarize, a valuable concept, poorly presented. I would suggest at a minimum black & white model photos - not line drawings. A rewrite of most of the text - especially as related to the time requirement for each exercise/sports routine. Added material covering steps to improve flexibility prior to using the advanced routines in this book. I found the stretching to be a full blown and moderately difficult workout.

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