Last week, I had one of our intern ask me a very tough question: “If you had to pick the best book ever that should be a must read, which one would it be?” ….or something like that.  The truth is, with my French-Canadian origins I have a hard time remembering exact quotes when it is in English.  Nevertheless, even if I think this a great question because we’re all looking for the best resources out there to better ourself at what we, this is still a very hard question to answer.  The reason is simple: there is just so many books and other resources out there, and a lot of them are filled with great information…

Then, I thought a little more and two books stood out in my head.  Not necessarily because they’re the two best books of all time nor because everybody in the strength and conditioning business swears by it.  These two books came up first because I consider they were the two most influencial so far in my career and they have strongly shaped the way I think about training and exercise in general.

The first one, Diagnosis and Treatment of Movement Impairment Syndromes by Shirley Sahrmann, despite being a physical therapy book can teach you a lot when it comes to functional anatomy and how muscles works synergistically.  Sahrmann discusses a variety of concepts that directly apply to training; for example, when you pull a muscle, you should look for a weak synergist that forces the injured muscle to compensate.  You will also learn to identify faulty movement patterns that could prevent a lot of injuries in your athletes.  The goal is not for the strength coaches and trainers out there to improvise themselves as physical therapists and try to treat injuries themselves.  This book should rather help you identify faulty movement patterns in your athletes and help correct them before injuries happen.  I feel this book is one of the most valuable tool for any trainer and strength coach working with athletes.

My second one, The Ultimate Off-Season Training Manual by Eric Cressey, was truly an eye-opener to me the first time I read it a few years ago.  This book made me realize how off-the-track so many of the coaches and trainers out there (me included at the time) are with their off-season training programs.  You’ll learn why training for maximum strength is so important during the off-season, the difference between spring and static proficient athletes and how you should train them differently, why athletes should minimize their specific sport practice during the off-season and you’ll get a 16 weeks of sample programming.  The off-season is the most important part of any athlete’s training and it could be the decisive factor that will make them reach the next level or not; that is why I feel this book should be a must-read for every strength coaches and trainers out there.

As I said earlier, there are just so many good resources out there and you shouldn’t limit yourself to one or two; that is why I have put a complete resource page together, make sure to check it out.

I hope this can be helpful to all of you!