“All of the motion-based elements of human health are packed into this opus for the modern mover. Rocky takes us through a historical tour of the fitness ‘craze’ and brings us to the present moment—from movement minefield to mind body practicality. He respectfully offers a subtle, streamlined, and manageable program that speaks to professionals, practitioners, and fitness consumers alike. Within it you’ll find stories of his clients who have unravelled decades of injuries, compensations, and surgical challenges into a painless life. It’s a book that validates the potential in all of us to shift our structure into a newfound sense of center.”

“The fitness industry is currently undergoing a revolution. Going to the gym is no longer simply about getting pumped or just for looking good in the mirror. It has become a place for developing true physical fitness and restoring healthy, pain-free lifestyles. Rocky Snyder is at the forefront of this revolution, and this book provides a clear guide to discovering your individual needs for mobility and strength. It is ideal for both trainers and people who want to take charge of their physical fitness. It is packed with great storytelling, case studies, the importance of self-assessment/reassessment, and goes into great detail on how the nervous system rules the roost. Rocky has taken over 25 years of experience and has integrated the brilliance of Gary Ward’s Flow Motion Model® to provide the best exercise selection for every individual, based on his/her current movement profile. I’ve started applying the concepts of this book to my own mobility and strength programs, and I’m noticing dramatic improvements already! Rocky’s approach, clearly outlined in this book, needs to become the standard of modern-day fitness and training.”

“Return to Center is an essential book for understanding how to live and perform well in your body for a lifetime, whether in daily activities or high-level athletics. The soundness of the principles Rocky writes about in this book, and his skill and expertise in applying them, has made it possible for me to achieve every one of my goals as an older athlete in water polo, without injury; including two world championships and multiple national championships.”

“Rocky Snyder’s always fresh, cutting-edge approach to moving intelligently jumped off the pages and into my life and practice in this important book. This is a must-read for clinicians, coaches, elite athletes, or weekend warriors–anyone who is interested in informed, thoughtful, and actionable information about applied biomechanics for your sport or lifestyle practice of choice. It’s one thing to get well, but Rocky teaches us how to stay well, prevent injury, and live an active, vibrant life. A no-brainer.”

“In Return to Center, Rocky Snyder has done an extraordinary job of investigating and delineating the many complex variables of exercise and physical training and presenting them in an accessible and very readable way to help people move better and train intelligently. I highly recommend this book to fitness professionals as well as anyone interested in improving their health and fitness.”

“In Return to Center, Rocky Snyder has done it again! Providing world class functional health instruction & information in a user friendly, informative way, all the while conveying his deep knowledge and caring for his reading audience. A must-read for athletes and general population alike!"

“Utilizing this method of training & conditioning has helped me continue to compete in several marathons and shaved fifteen minutes off of my Big Sur half marathon time to achieve a personal best! This approach allows me to pursue my passion without career-ending injuries.”

“Rocky’s journey, deep investigation, and discoveries for what’s actually useful in the pursuit of health, fitness, and function is distilled down in these pages. Learn to upgrade your movement patterns and discover a new model for life-long fitness.”

“I can attest to Rocky’s unbelievable understanding, of the human body. His training methods can and will help you in any arena of life. As an NHL hockey player, I used many of these principles throughout my career, which I believe helped me play 16 years and over 1,000 games. Rocky is definitely one of the Elite trainers in the field today!”

“Return to Center is a game-changer in the world of exercise, movement mechanics, and injury rehabilitation. As a health and fitness professional for almost 30 years, I am still blown away by Rocky Snyder’s wealth of knowledge, expertise, and vision. In this book, Rocky presents with intelligence and clarity a body of work that represents a powerful shift in how we think about conventional strength training, pain relief, and purpose of movement.

In this age of information overload, Return to Center offers an insightful, practical method for how to assess and address limiting factors in the body. Rocky presents clear and effective strategies for re-educating the body to move more purposefully, intelligently, and freely, returning it to its full potential.

His effective approach is backed up with scientific data and clinical case studies, making this book an inspiring resource that leads directly to practical application. Rocky’s system helps identify root causes of many pain symptoms, weaknesses, and movement limitations, and provides efficient, goal-oriented programs, whether for performance, fitness, or pain relief.

I read this book with profound gratitude for Rocky’s wisdom and commitment to our field. As someone whose work is rooted in the mind-body-spirit connection, it was a joy for me to read Rocky affirm, through science and data, that what we need to feel and move better is so often already within us. When we learn the proper tools and skills, we can be in control of our bodies instead of at their mercy.

If you’re a health professional who works with the human body—such as a physical therapist, trainer, or strength coach—or if you just want to improve your body’s ability to move, Return to Center is a must-read. Rocky is a true pioneer changing the way we think about the body as it relates to movement.”

“Have you ever experienced the law of diminishing returns when it comes to working out? That’s when you put more and more in to get less and less back. Maybe it’s time to find a new path. So where do you look? Do not despair....here’s a book written by someone who’s been there, done that, and come out the other side. Rocky Snyder is not just a really good coach and personal trainer, he can write! In this book he lays it out in a clear, no-nonsense way that will help you figure out the way forward. So if you’re ready for change, and doing the ‘same old same old’ just isn’t happening, then check out this book.”

“Return to Center is an awakening. Unlike many strength training manuals, one does not simply learn a set of universal exercises applicable to everybody. Rather, Rocky teaches his readers how to assess their own bodies, so that they can find the exercises particular to them. As a professional handball player struggling with structural shoulder issues, Rocky’s functional approach enabled me to move from a top twenty player to the number two handball player in the world. An excellent teacher, Rocky shows each of us how we can reach our postural center, thereby enabling greater strength, balance, endurance, and injury prevention. Return to Center increases the ease with which individuals engage in everyday activities, and immensely benefits the performance and longevity of recreational and elite athletes. This is truly a book for everybody.”

“Rocky and I live, eat, and breathe ‘movement’; in his words, ‘...there is no such thing as a bad exercise! It all depends on the body that is performing the exercise.’ Whilst our movement backgrounds and specialties differ, we share the same magnificent teachings and ‘sleuthing’ thought processes of Gary Ward, Chris Sritharan, and the body of work that is Anatomy in Motion™, so I was excited to read Rocky’s application of gait mechanics in his mastered field, that of strength and conditioning.

We have years of experience that unraveling restrictions in joint mechanics works ‘to improve structural integrity, to reduce compensatory patterns, to unlock restricted motions, to allow the force produced by the body to flow with minimal loss of energy, to enhance a balance of tension in the muscular system, and in so doing, ultimately improve full body neuromuscular strength and endurance.’

Turn the pages and get excited; apply the abundant knowledge and feel change happen. Regain autonomy over your body’s strength and conditioning training by following this new route, packed with signposts guiding you to your best choices and laced with fascinating, relevant stories, both current and historical; Rocky is a true exponent of his craft. Let his passion and knowledge imbue you with the confidence to help yourself.”

“Finally a strength training book that is not focused on building a body just for looks but building a body for better function, less pain, and injury prevention. Rocky’s passion and dedication to educating himself and others comes full circle in this new book. You can clearly see his years of experience and education come together in this guide on how we can create individualized strength training programs for our own needs or the needs of others. We all want to save time and money. Here is the book that will do both. Instead of guessing what our bodies need to stay functioning, or paying a professional to tell us, Rocky gives us the tools to be able to assess and then work on those specific areas. Designed for both the professional and the individual, we now have the ability to restore our own body to the balance it is seeking. We can strength train safely and with purpose. Return to Center provides invaluable information how to assess your own posture and function and what you can do about it.”