The late Mr. Jarmey was a well-respected figure in the fields of Qigong, yoga, meditation, shiatsu and related therapies. He had a heart condition and died suddenly aged only 54. He was a healer who had healed himself of serious injuries sustained from a climbing accident.

More than 30 pages are devoted to the theory of Qi and Qigong with great detail on acupoints and channels. There follows a useful chapter on general principles of Qigong practice. The book is well illustrated with clear line drawings.

The book specifies that it is targeted to coaches, personal trainers and athletes, in my opinion it is appropriate for S&C coaches, personal trainers, coaches, athletes (with a comprehensive knowledge of anatomy and physiology and an extensive interest in their development), and physios wanting to professionally develop their competence in prescribing higher level functional exercises.

Coaches and athletes are always looking for training programmes that not only improve performance, but also reduce the incidence of injury. Many exercises that are done, however, have little relevance in making the highlighted body area either stronger or more efficient, writes David Lowes.

Advances in Functional Training by US writer and coach Michael Boyle illustrates which exercises are least and most functional with the categories broken down into specific body parts. Exercises are separated into lower-body, upper-body and torso or core strength exercises.

Lotus Publishing have done very well to add this book to their list of excellent tomes in the field of anatomy and bodywork. There have been other published works on the topic of Muscle Energy Techniques (MET), but this one is head and shoulders above the rest.
 
John Gibbons has managed to achieve that rare thing of making this book 'reader friendly', yet, not remotely in a 'dumbing down' fashion. Some other works that I have read on the topic have blinded me with science, making a very practical subject into pure academia.