Book Review: Ultimate Warrior Workouts by Martin Rooney

Hey everybody!  It's been a while, and I figured the best way to get the writing juices flowing was to grab for the lowest hanging fruit in a reviewer's arsenal: something he/she doesn't like!  

Today I'm reviewing Martin Rooney's "Ultimate Warrior Workouts: Fitness secrets of the martial arts, proven training secrets from around the globe." 

Let me first say that I'm a bit of a martial arts geek and I'm always looking for ways to improve my game or to find new ways to train.  That's what I was hoping for when I picked up this book but unfortunately, the book feel short in a few areas.  

The book's premise is that Rooney has traveled around the world to research the training methods used for different martial arts.  In this respect, the book is quite well done because it does go over many different exercises that are used in different styles.  

However, my disappointment lies in the lack of depth in each section.  The book is broken up into martial styles (e.g. muay thai, wrestling, karate, brazilian jiu-jitsu etc) and each section has pictures documenting exercises used by these practitioners.  There are some basic directions about the exercise and pictures of Rooney going through them.  When I mentioned lack of depth, what I was looking for was the 'why' behind the exercises.  


Rooney's book lists his educational background in physical therapy, health science and exercise science.  I would have thought with such an extensive background there would be more explanation to the exercises.  For instance, why do muay thai practitioners do the many different types of crunches?  How do these exercises help the practitioner compete in their style more efficiently?  


I didn't find any of this information, and for a geek like me who has a background in science, this was something I was looking forward to.  I was hoping for some insight into the why's of certain exercises.  As it stands, the book has some interesting material, but honestly, I've had the book for a few months now and haven't looked at it for more than 15 minutes total.  I may relegate this book to the coffee table...at somebody else's  house.


Nerd ranking: 3 out of 5


Until next time:


- J