Solo Training: The Martial Artist's Guide to Building the Core for Stronger, Faster and More Effective Grappling, Kicking and Punching: No. 2 [Paperback]

This tome is an outstanding follow-up to Mr. Christensen's best selling book Solo Training (2001), sort of an advanced solo training manual. I think it is even better than its predecessor, chocked full of useful tips you can implement right away to improve your performance in any martial art. There are exercises to develop functional fighting strength in every part of your body. Most of these can be done alone though some require a partner. Some require training aids (e.g., weights, Body Opponent Bag) while others can be do not. There are some neat icons throughout which call your attention to cautions (e.g., extra care items), workout tips (e.g., critical information), important information (e.g., reasons behind the drills), partner drills, and training tips (e.g., stuff you can focus on for maximum impact). These icons make it easy to reference important information after you read it the first time.

Section one is all about building a powerful foundation to facilitate employing your art in tournament or combat. Subjects include developing powerful abs, innovative pushups, bench press exercises, leg development, core strength development for grappling arts, and grip strengthening. There are also some mental conditioning exercises as well-walking meditation, creation/use of mental triggers, and developing a powerful mindset-something rarely covered in this type of book. There is nothing really earth shattering here, just solid, practical advice.

The best part of this first section is called "41 Ways to Prevent and Relieve Pain." I consider it an absolute must read for all us aging martial artists, especially practitioners of the hard arts such as karate, tae kwon do, judo, or jujitsu. It includes icing tricks, stretching, and conditioning exercises to prevent and relieve injuries to knees, shoulders, back, and other commonly injured areas.

Section two covers some excellent methods to practice fighting without a training partner, including ways to attack and defend from the "I don't want to fight" posture, stances, innovative solo grappling practice methods, combinations, accuracy, BOB bag techniques, and ways to cheat speed. The differences between practice and real fighting are covered along with more mental techniques and things you can do before a tournament to become more successful. This is the really advanced stuff you won't find anywhere else; well worth the price of admission.

Section three contains some great ideas for 15-, 20-, and 35-minute workouts. The very last section (after the conclusion) is titled "Random Thoughts to Ponder" is quite short, but a really cool way to wrap up the work. It is also really insightful.

Christensen really knows his stuff. He began his martial arts training in 1965 and over the years has earned 10 black belts, 7 in karate, 2 in jujitsu, 1 in arnis. As the author of 29 books, he is one of my all time favorite martial arts authors. But I am not alone, he has also received high praise for his easy-to-read, informative writing style from readers and book reviewers in the United States, France and Russia. He is a retired police officer with some 30 years experience in military and civilian law enforcement.

Lawrence Kane
Author of Surviving Armed Assaults, The Way of Kata, and Martial Arts Instruction

Loren Christensen's book, Solo Training 2, contains a ton of information you can use to make all of your fundamental techniques stronger and better, and gain a solid base on which to continue building your martial arts skills.

The book is broken into three parts. Part one focuses on physical and mental strength. For example, there are exercises for developing the abs, upper body, lower body, and grip, as well as exercises for developing mental toughness, breath control, and mental triggers. Part two focuses on concepts, such as cheating speed and hitting with accuracy. If you're looking for a quick solo workout, but your lack of imagination is holding you back, you need only refer to part three at the end of the book, where eight 15-, 20-, and 35-minute workouts have been preplanned for you.

I feel the real strength of this book (as expressed in the title) is the ideas it gives you for solo work. Everybody knows (although everybody does not do what he or she knows should be done) that extra practice between regular classes is a necessity if one wants to gain an edge. Since the book contains so many ideas, almost 300 of them, there is little risk that you'll run out of imagination in the near future. Instructors or those leading a class through warm-up can use the book as an "idea book" for exercises. Your class will be impressed and start looking forward to the workouts when you don't repeat yourself every week.

Martina Sprague, author of Strength and Power Training for Martial Arts

I have read lots of martial arts books by different authors, and there is no doubt that Loren Christensen's books are the best for giving no-nonsense approaches that are both original and useful. This book is no exception to that. As a matter of fact, I'd venture to say that it's probably Christensen's best. It has a lot of excellent ideas about training alone, as well as hundreds of practical exercises. Some of the techniques he discusses are easy enough that you can practice then here and there throughout the day, while others will leave you drenched in sweat.

I'm particularly impressed with the practical approaches to street defense, such as the section entitled "9 Ways to Attack & Defend from the I-Don't-Want-To-Fight Stance" and "5 Everyday Fighting 'Stances'". The book also includes numerous workout routines that will probably keep me busy for a long time since they're definitely unique - a good break from the normal routine.

This book is well worth the money. Easily five stars!