Review: Superfit by Royce Gracie and James Strom

by Mike

Overview:

Superfit by Royce Gracie and James Strom

Unfortunately, I think this review needs to start with the obvious attacks: What does Royce know about lifting and conditioning? He had to drop out of UFC 3 due to exhaustion! He got clowned by Sakuraba for 90 minutes! He was too weak to compete against Hughes!

Hey man, I don't know. That may be a valid concern, but let's check the book out on it's own merits.

A very brief introduction sends you straight into the Gracie Stretching Routine. Some explanation of their rationale for organizing the rest of the book (not quite fully formed enough to call it a theory) and it's off to the good stuff - well detailed and photographed exercises. Lots of them.

They start with abdominal work, go to cardio, then free weights, isolaterals (basically exercises done with one limb at a time), plyometrics and the power series (movements that combine the above categories in a more "real world" mode of movement.

Sample workouts and a brief section on program creation with bits of preparation for a fight mixed in and then we get to the infamous Gracie Diet, which is based on breaking foods into categories based on...someone's upset stomach/food allergies from a long time ago. But any sample diet that includes french fries is OK by me.

The Good:

• There are a wide variety of exercises and they're generally described very well, so even if you've never heard of one, you should be able to figure it out without hurting yourself. Thus, you've got a lot of possible workouts that can be constructed from this book.
  
  
• I like the emphasis on isolaterals and plyometrics. Definitely very underutilized in most of the routines I've seen people working on in the gym or in other books/articles. They're mixed in with the sample workouts very well.

The Bad:

• The Gracie diet blows my mind. The only people I know who have followed it at all are the Gracies, but it seems to work for them. I prefer a little more science in the diets I end up not following. If you try it and it works for you...then, hey. If you're more apt to follow the Grappler's Guide to Nutrition, cool.
  
  
• The sample workouts are pretty solid, although I would have liked to see a more detailed description of how to put your own together (whether push/pull or bodypart splits) and some more details on progression. Their "if it feels like to much, go easier" philosophy might work well with an advanced lifter, but could result in either injury or not slower progression for a more novice lifter who isn't used to listening to their body as required for those sorts of judgment.

Recommendation:

Superfit would be a good choice for someone who is looking to start a program or a novice/intermediate looking to add some more tricks to their routine. The weight and stretching stuff is pretty standard, but the isolaterals, plyometrics and power series are pretty cool.

The lack of detailed theory and program creation sections is a turn off for me, but if you just want to pick up a book that tells you what to do and how without the anarchy of a CrossFit workout, this book is a good choice. If you've been doing well with your current routine, this book probably isn't going to teach you anything revolutionary although the isolateral and plyo sections might be worth a read through.