Ultimate Guide to Weight Training for Running, Second Edition Review

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Ultimate Guide to Weight Training for Running, Second Edition ReviewFirst, you must be aware of the fact that this book is part of a series of about 30 books called "Weight training for...", including diverse activities such as rugby, bowling and cheerleading, and which are very similar one another. The author had the wonderful idea of writing basically one book and selling 30. Genius.
The book is structured as follows:
- A running-specific introduction
- Generic advice about gym workouts: basic stuff like the necessity of warming up and cooling down and making sure you don't lift more weight than you can
- Tons of (generic) exercises
- Two pseudo-scientific articles (one about technique and another about nutrition). These were the only remotely useful bits of the book, and they were written by other specialists.
From the above, it doesn't sound so bad. You could even thing this book was worthwhile. This is why it is not:
- The only running-specific advice is contained in the introduction (and the two articles), which is just 9 pages long (with huge font and big tables!)). All the rest of the book is totally generic, addressed to runners, racquetball players and golfers alike. Seriously, there is no other running-specific advice anywhere else, meaning around 85% of the book.
- The explanations to the exercises are pretty basic, similar to what you'll find printed in most decent gym machines. No value added there.
- Even worse, not even the selection of the exercises seemed to be really thought for runners. Only 20% (12 out of 60) of the exercises are for legs. I'm totally for a balanced work-out and training the core muscles, but you'd think runners would want to focus just a little bit more that 20% on the legs, right?
- There is no distinction between sprinters, hurdlers, marathoners, ultramarathoners, etc., which you'd assume would require "slightly" different training routines. You are left wondering whether the author even knows that there are several kinds of runners.
- Most annoyingly, the text is full of ads inviting the reader to join the author's (paid) website. Which I will not.
I truly do not know what the other reviewers based their reviews on, but IMHO this book (and the whole series) is pretty much a waste of your hard-earned money.Ultimate Guide to Weight Training for Running, Second Edition Overview

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The Outdoor Athlete Review

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The Outdoor Athlete ReviewThis is excellent reading (and reference) for anyone who is active in outdoor sports from hiking to paddling to biking. There's no fluff or hype here at all. It is a dense (in a good way) book full of detailed information and exercise science that should help anyone who is serious about improving his/her performance and, importantly, who is interested in remaining injury free. If I were to choose one book on outdoor fitness this would be it. (It's far better than Conditioning for Outdoor Fitness, which I have also read.)
The book is organized into three parts:
1) Foundation for Outdoor Fitness.
If you wanted, you could skip this chapter and just move on to the specific conditioning programs for the activity you're interested in, BUT you'd be missing a critical point of the book: creating an understanding of why a foundation is important and how to build it for your activities. And besides this, it's surprisingly interesting. This section covers everything from basic training to assessing your fitness, increasing your endurance, maximizing your strength, nutrition and overcoming environmental obstacles. There are tons of nuggets here. A few that I like:
* The Components of Sport-Specific Fitness chart, which breaks down the needs for each sport into aerobic conditioning, anaerobic conditioning, upper-body strength, lower-body strength, flexibility, skill, cross-training (e.g. off-road biking rates a 4, 4, 3, 5, 2, 4, 1 in each of these areas respectively, which makes total sense). This is very helpful for setting priorities, especially when you have limited time to workout.
* FITT (frequency, intensity, time, and type of exercise) parameters.
* Advice on establishing training blocks.
* Cross-training chart which shows the activities that have low to high overlap with the sport you're interested in.
* Very specific guidelines for assessing your cardiovascular and strength fitness (e.g. vertical push is measured with an overhead dumbbell press. Completing 5 reps with 25% of body weight rates a 1. 70% of body weight rates highest and is a 5. Of course not all outdoor sports demand a level 5 for vertical push--for climbers this is ideal, for trail runners it's overkill.)
* Developing your own, personalized aerobic/anaerobic and strength programs--The Tabata Intervals are not for everyone, (they're killer), but have been great for me.
There's just tons of info in this first section, some of which I haven't gotten to yet.
2.) Conditioning for Specific Activities.
This is the section that most people will probably turn to quickly as it provides detailed info and guidelines on the needs and training for seven areas of outdoor sports: hiking, trekking and backpacking; scrambling and mountaineering; climbing; trail running; off-road biking; canoeing, kayaking and rafting; snowshoeing, cross-country and backcountry skiing. The chapters are about 12-20 pages in length and offer practical and insightful advice for building endurance, strength and stamina for everyone from beginner to advanced. For example the hiking, trekking and backpacking chapter offers detailed training (aerobic and strength) programs for a moderate hike (8 miles, 17 lb. pack, 3,400 ft. of elevation gain), an intermediate backpack (3 nights, grand canyon rim-to-rim, 35 lb. pack, 5,000 ft. elevation gain), and an advanced high-altitude trek (6-day Kilimanjaro at 19,340 elevation, with 20 lb. pack, long days with great vertical). Each training program is highlighted in carefully constructed charts and there are numerous helpful tidbits that you sense are derived from personal experience (e.g. sore quads are often a problem after a high vertical descent with a pack--authors recommend reverse step-ups, Bulgarian squats and backward lunges to help avoid).
3.) Exercises for Peak Performance.
The final section offers up the specific exercises they recommend. The Exercise Finder chart is useful for adapting or creating your own training programs as it not only notes the goals for each exercise (e.g. body stabilization, flexibility, etc.), but also the most applicable sports. Each exercise is clearly explained, demonstrated in photographs and precautions and variations are noted.There are a few negatives that bug me so far:
* It is very dense. Future editions would benefit from a better, more reader-friendly layout--more white space, more sub-heads, and more photography.
* There's no index. A real pain in the butt especially for a book that has so much information.
* At times the charts are a bit difficult to understand or refer to exercises many pages away.
In the end, however, these irritants are easy to forgive because the book is just loaded with tons of useful information. I'd like to see a sequel entitled The Outdoor Athlete II: More Performance Training for...
The Outdoor Athlete Overview

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Hot (Sweaty) Mamas: Five Secrets to Life as a Fit Mom Review

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Hot (Sweaty) Mamas: Five Secrets to Life as a Fit Mom ReviewI like the authors' practical approach to being a Fit Mom. The book includes suggestions for fitting workouts into family life as well as tips for handling spouses who may or may not support your athletic endeavors. I like the Mom2Mom sections where real moms 'fess up to some of the crazy things they've done in the name of post-natal exercise. (anyone else used your baby as a dumbell?)
The authors acknowledge the fact that some advice is just tired. "Work out while the baby sleeps" assumes that your baby will always sleep! Instead, the book offers suggestions for exercising with the baby and guilt-free motivation for leaving baby at home while you run, bike, swim etc.Hot (Sweaty) Mamas: Five Secrets to Life as a Fit Mom Overview

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The Lean Body Promise, Gym Edition (Collins Gem) Review

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The Lean Body Promise, Gym Edition (Collins Gem) ReviewI've been in the fitness industry for over a decade and have seen many many "starter programs." Most become short-lived fads and overemphasize one thing or another (no carbs, or no fats, or all strength training, etc.)
The first one in my view to be time-efficient, well-balanced and effective was Body for Life by Bill Phillips. That's a great program, based on well-accepted science, for a 12 week jumpstart to fitness, nutrition, weight loss, looking and feeling good.
The minor problems with Phillip's approach, in my view, were that it was a bit rigid and becoming slightly dated on a couple points.
Lean Body Promise, I feel, is as good as Body for Life, and improves on it in several ways:
- First, it is ALMOST identical to Body for Life. In fact, the author cites Phillips in his acknowledgements.
- While both are highly motivational and nicely written, I felt Phillips is a little over the top in some of the emotional fluff -- Labrada strikes a bit better balance
- The strength programs are both split routines. Phillips uses an upper body / lower body split. Labrada uses a push, pull, legs split. Phillips does an ascending half pyramid with a super set at the end. Labrada uses 3 sets of 10 reps on 2 exercises per muscle group. These are both perfectly valid and widely used approaches to strength training. I prefer Labrada's mainly because I don't have to change the weights every set! But overall, you're doing about 6 sets per muscle group with a minute of rest in each program.
- The CV programs are both interval training. Phillips is 20 minutes with 5 different settings, changing every minute. Labrada does a 26 minute routine with 3 levels changing less frequently. Again, both are extremely effective and time efficient, but I slightly prefer Labrada's because you're not constantly changing the machine level every minute.
- Diet is extremely similar too. 5-6 meals, spread every few hours. A palm of lean protien, a fist of whole grain carbs, some veggies... A shake or a bar when you're rushed. Phillips prescribes 1 cheat day per week. Labrada prescribes 2 cheat meals per week. Very similar. This REALLY works though -- takes a couple weeks to get used to, but you don't feel hungry and you get fast results. And it's not a half-baked fad -- this is good science of a balanced healthy diet you can live with long term.
- Rotation of workouts: Phillips alternates cv and strength each day, with 1 off-day per week. Labrada does 2 strength then 1 cv, with a suggestion that you fill in an extra cv or 2 per week on light strength days. He doesn't build in a day off, but assumes you might miss a day here and there, in which case you pick up where you left off. I like that approach a lot -- there's some built in flexibility to add the cv when you can fit it in. There isn't a fixed expectation that you can schedule your off day perfectly.
Again, I like the notion that Labrada builds in that you're going to miss a day here and there. That you might be faced with only unhealthy meal choices at a party some time. Etc. And he gives specific suggestions on dealing with those. He also gives suggestions on dealing with the desire to overdo it at times. Phillips, while also excellent, prescribes more rigidly and as a result doesn't build in a lot of information on how to recover from speedbumps.
Overall, this is a great program that you're absolutely going to see results on if you follow, and hopefully can make an ongoing lifestyle change using.
You can't go wrong with Phillips either, but I think this one's a little easier to stick with and will give the same results.The Lean Body Promise, Gym Edition (Collins Gem) Overview

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Tina Vindum's Outdoor Fitness: Step Out of the Gym and Into the BEST Shape of Your Life Review

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Tina Vindum's Outdoor Fitness: Step Out of the Gym and Into the BEST Shape of Your Life ReviewLOVE this book, just ordered three more copies -- for my college step-daughter, my Pilates instructor and my physical therapist! Down-to-earth and practical (she gets it that we all have already busy lives) with great tips and techniques (well-researched, and the instructions are detailed and professional, much like you're in a personal training situation -- experience sure shows here). There's also some real leadership here, an understanding about where motivation comes from -- I was lacing up my sneakers after the first 4 chapters!Tina Vindum's Outdoor Fitness: Step Out of the Gym and Into the BEST Shape of Your Life Overview

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Beat the Gym: Personal Trainer Secrets--Without the Personal Trainer Price Tag Review

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Beat the Gym: Personal Trainer Secrets--Without the Personal Trainer Price Tag ReviewAs a former trainer, I know more than a little bit about exercise and have read a ton of fitness books. This is, hands down, the best one out available right now. I've noticed that in the past few years, exercise has become unduly complicated... there are countless DVDs, gyms, programs, books, and late-night infomercials and each company claims their system is the ONLY one that will get you into shape. It's enough to make your head spin.
Despite the ads for machines, or drinks or pills that say how easy it is to get in shape, there's no magic wand. The obesity rate in this country is through the roof, because we're the nation of the quick fix. I should know - I was once almost 100 lbs over my ideal weight, despite a long relationship with numerous diet pills and mail-order fitness equipment doohickeys that gathered dust in the back room. Quick fixes do NOT work, or we'd all be on the cover of Glamour by now. If you want the gorgeous body, *you have to be willing to do the work*. End of story. Repeat that until it's seared on your brain, and then tune out the noise and excuses and focus on doing something for you. Being strong and fit feels amazing - do not deprive yourself of that, and all the wonderful things that go with it.
I'm a big fan of facing facts, because if you don't, you assume it's over before it starts, accept mediocrity and miss out on the joy of achievement. Are some people genuinely "big boned"? Sure. Does that mean they're doomed to be heavy? NO. Whenever I start to feel "fluffy", or "bloated", and scowl at the mirror (which is obviously warped), I can't help but think of Al Bundy, the character on "Married with Children" who said to his wife when she asked if her dress made her look big, "Peg, it's not the dress that makes you look fat; it's the *fat* that makes you look fat." I gained 95 lbs in a few short years. Grad school, a family, an exhausting, stressful job I didn't like, elderly parents to take care of - you name it. In short, my life was like everyone else's - crazy and unpredictable (welcome to being human). To cope with the stress, I ate. And I'm fine with that. That was okay for then - hey, I was doing what I had to do to get through it all - but I don't want that to become my whole life. Being overweight is very, very painful in the long term, on so many levels. Eventually, I just got tired of it. My comfort foods (powdered donuts! pie! pizza!) had made me extremely uncomfortable. The question then became "what the heck do I do now?"
You may have to do your own mental housecleaning and life rearranging before you can even think about getting serious about your body and your health, and that's okay. Just remember that when you're in shape, literally everything about your life suddenly gets a lot easier. You have more energy, more confidence, and the truth is, fairly or not, people respond to you very differently. It spills over into literally every area of your life, in a very good way.
So when you're ready, really ready, to be the person you hope in the back of your mind that you were supposed to be, this book is the roadmap that will tell you exactly how to get from where you are to where you want to go. It cuts right through all the fitness craze insanity, and explains you what works and why. This is literally everything you need to know about working out in a gym, presented in a clear, easy-to-read format. If it's not in here, it doesn't matter. There are detailed photos, medical explanations phrased in layman's terms, and, very helpfully, 20+ specific workouts. Copy them into your notebook, put in your headphones and get going. You can do this. (p.s. No, I'm not Tom Holland's mom, his wife, or in any way connected to him. I had no clue who he was before I read this book, but it's made a huge difference for me already and it will for you too.)Beat the Gym: Personal Trainer Secrets--Without the Personal Trainer Price Tag Overview

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