Ten Golden Exercises: (As chosen by a 20 year Physical Therapist)

As a veteran of hip replacement and back surgery, I’ve done more than my share of searching for the ideal exercise book. Ten Golden Exercises is the best I’ve found. It’s very well written with photos that show exactly how to do the exercises. And even though the book is short it covers the whole body. The author, an experienced physical therapist, provides alternate approaches if anything should be too difficult. For anyone dealing with pain, this book really is like discovering gold!

Excellent book! I found it informative, easy to read, and full of actionable information to help people maintain movement, flexibility, and strength, particularly as we get older. I am very interested in how to achieve this but did not want to spend the time reading a scientific textbook to get the information. Daniel does a great job getting to the heart of the matter while still explaining the "why" behind the exercises and techniques. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in fitness or simply aging well. Very nice job!

The only reason I gave this four stars instead of five, was because a few of the exercise descriptions were missing the recommended number of reps. I'm pretty sure that anyone using the exercises can figure out how many to do, by paying attention to the "pain rules", so it's not a deal-breaker. Other than that, the exercises were explained well, and the photographs were clear. The book isn't glitzy or full of jargon, just solid information, to be used effectively, by anyone, for a lifetime. The background information was essential, and covered: 1. the various parts of the body, 2. how they function, 3. how they support our movement, 4. how we tend to neglect them, 5. the problems that develop through that neglect, and 6. how to correct range-of-motion deficits, and strengthen critical areas, through SIMPLE exercises that can be done anywhere, by just about anyone. I would recommend it, especially to older people, who have compromised mobility/flexibility/strength. The Bible tells us we are, "fearfully and wonderfully made", and whenever I consider the profound effect a simple movement can have on a painful and/or restricted body part, I understand a little more fully what that means. After years of being a " frequent flyer " at various physical therapy clinics, I'm impressed by the therapists, above all, and fascinated by how much has been developed in the field of Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, and Sports Medicine. I'm grateful to the author, Daniel Philpott, for his work in his chosen career, and for making this e-book available to a wide audience. I'm hopeful that it will be published in "hard copy", at some point, as I like having this kind of information in written format, too.

Movement is a funny thing. It can take you out of balance even with the best intentions such as wanting to work out on the weekend to make up for a week long of desk work or going to physical therapy and getting great improvement in the area of concentration with the rest of the compensating you now out of balance :) This is a great little book as it teaches you a little something for every part of your body to get back into both: balance and shape! It is a fresh start to be in thorough movement and flexibility if you want to go further afterwards into longer, more complicated routines but with the right start and everything in place. It is also a start and a stay as all of you will feel pretty capable after the book by itself and no further steps. The author is knowledgeable, patient and it was my instinct also that the author is giving, someone who knows a little something and wants to share it in a big way. Thank you for doing so! It was a big gift for me!

These are simple, can be done with very few instruments (a couple of stretch bands will be enough) and will increase your strength and flexibility. The exercises start very simply with good illustrations, and some elaborations are introduced for each exercise as the reader becomes stronger. A very helpful book.

As I've recovered from various injuries, and watched friends and family recover from their injuries, visits to the physical therapist are normal, and the same essential exercises seem to come up over and over again. I've had, or know someone who's had, half of the exercises in this book prescribed at some time or another. I believe that by working these 10 exercises into my warm up, cool down, and get up from the desk and stretch routines, I can either prevent the other half, or I will at least be better prepared if I do come to need them. For example, a friend of mine crashed her bike and broke a bone in her wrist. During the physical therapy for that she learned that she could no longer reach directly overhead. These are exercises like reaching overhead. Start early and you will never need to strain at them. Put them off until you need them and there may be a lot more to fix when you get there.

Good: solid ideas and logic behind choice of exercises... makes sense. Bad: written explanations of exercises are brief and seem to lack any depth or attention to detail. Ugly: photo demonstrations are sooo poor. Simply lazy execution in my opinion.

I found this to be a quick read and was happy see that I'm already doing quite a few of these! I liked the author's explanations about why each exercise was important and was happy to have additional exercises included in each chapter too. If you're looking for simple at home exercises to help strengthen muscles and increase mobility this is a helpful read!

As a long time strength trainer, it is clear that many of these movements could have prevented aches and pains over the years. I will certainly incorporate a number of these, especially in those areas that have been problematic, as I move forward.

Great little book on exercises to rebuild strength and stability and also some great pre-hab for athletes. So simple I added some exercises to my routine today.

Scientific yet simple explanation of the most important but most ignored exercises because simple things get ignored. Anybody and everybody can do the exercises mentioned in this book.