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Ultimate Fitness : The Quest for Truth About Exercise and Health

Ultimate Fitness : The Quest for Truth About Exercise and Health

List Price: $17.95
Your Price: $12.21
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Too much personal information
Review: As a physical fitness addict, I bought this book hoping to read about like-minded sorts who love to work out because it makes us feel and look better. Well, after reading it through, it's a decidedly mixed bag, and asks more questions than it answers. Basically, most really fit people know that in order to look good past the age of 35, you have to exercise vigorously and constantly. There are no shortcuts once you reach the dreaded middle age. The people you see on exercise infomercials with the ripped abs and huge biceps are taking steroids. The sleeker, toned look comes from diet and having a personal trainer. People with a good, fit figure, work very hard at it, and make it their top priority in life. Tyhe infomercials that tell you, "just four minutes a day to a better body" are lying.

My main criticism with Kolata is that she wastes a great deal of time on her own experience with "spinning" on a stationary bike. I like the stationary bike as much as anyone, but intricate details of her life on one is not my cup of tea. Another weakness is that Kolata doesn't explore aerobic experience completely, she sort of dismisses long distance running as a "fad from the 70's," which is a very curious statement in a book supposed to be about fitness. Her sections on strength training also contain some dubious information.

Ultimately, the formula for fitness is one that few can achieve because hardly anyone has the time to exercise strenuously 20 hours a week. If you do this, you can pretty much pig out on what you like and laugh at the people stuck on the hideous Atkins diet, stuffing themselves with unhealthy garbage like bacon, steaks and red meat. I really wanted to like this book, but came away disappointed.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A real eye-opener
Review: I found this book to be fascinating - Kolata debunks a number of fitness myths that I thought were true, and better yet, explains why so many people accept them as fact.

The reviewer who expected a book about getting in shape should have learned about the book before buying it (or at least read the info on the book jacket) - as the subtitle explicity states, this is a "Quest for Truth," not an exercise manual.

I thought her personal anecdotes about spinning were helpful and added credibility to her reporting. She's a serious exerciser and, like her readers, is genuinely interested in learning about the real facts about fitness and health.

There are some things in this book that people simply won't accept because they don't want to (example - that weight lifting will significantly increase your resting metabolism). She quotes and names actual exercise scientists and references studies from scientific journals - so the evidence is all there if you want to read the full study.

I always thought that weight lifting would increase my metabolism, but after reading this book, I'm considering focusing more on intense cardio for weight loss.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great material but needs to be more accessible
Review: I workout regulary and have done a fair amount of reading on fitness. Books
on weight lifting are a dime a dozen, but there is little on the book shelves about
cardio. That's were this book comes in. Ms. Kolata addresses many important
questions, such as:

Where did the '220 minus your age' formula come from and does it make any sense?
Why is 'fat burning zone' and 'cardio zone' pasted on every piece of gym equipment?
Does weight lifting raise your metabolism?
How intense do you need to exercise?
etc...

The total list of such questions is probably more then 20. My only serious complaint about the book is that it lacks a good summary. The ideal last chapter of this book would be to list each issue addressed and a paragraph summary. As it is you'll need to keep a highlighter close by.

This book will also be informative for anyone not versed in double blind studies
or the scientific method. Repeatedly she discusses the pros and cons of academic
studies, highlighting the rigor required to create an effective study and contrasting it with the lack of evidence behind many fitness myths.

There's been a lot of discussion here about Ms. Kolata's enthusiasm for Spinning. Ok, so she's addicted to intense workouts. It does not detract from her serious research, including sitings of many academic journal articles which are all referenced in the bibliography. Skim past the fluff and you'll find a lot of good information here.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: lives up to title
Review: New York Times science reporter Gina Kolata provides an insightful look at the mythos of exercise. Ms. Kolata is a participant who enjoys working out, but a claim led her to wonder what is the supporting scientific evidence vs. the health industry distortions. Ms. Kolata includes a comparative historical perspective re exercise beliefs over the ages so that readers can see how the ancients compare with other generations to include the information age. The author shreds several of the leading accepted theories from the gospels that low-intensity exercise burns the most fat and that stretching must come before the workout to prevent pulls, etc. Adding to the account is a terse look at the promotion of food and food supplements to lose weight and increase muscle definition.

ULTIMATE FITNESS: THE QUEST FOR TRUTH ABOUT EXERCISE AND HEALTH is more than a simple expose because Gina Kolata cares deeply about her subject that comes across as genuine especially when she tells her personal anecdotals and those of her daughter. The book is easy to read, can be put down and leisurely returned to, and does not j'accuse us couch potatoes for failing to save ourselves. Instead even us out of shape, overweight, non-exercisers will find this nonfiction work pleasurable to follow as Ms. Kolata makes it clear that the benefit of exercise at least to her is not losing weight, feeling healthier and fitter, but is in the active participation of playing the game.

Harriet Klausner

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Ultimate Fitness
Review: Review:

Gina Kolata, a Science reporter and author for the New York Times takes a detailed look at all aspects of physical fitness in her book, "Ultimate Fitness, The Quest for Truth about Health and Exercise." It is an interesting book because she discusses not only the trendy fitness crazes that many people in our culture embark on but also the timeless traditional forms of health and exercise. She takes a detailed look at everything from yoga, Pilates, and spinning to running, weight lifting and conventional cardio workouts. Kolata examines various theories as to what drives people to exercise vigorously, and the pros and cons of the various exercise programs.

Kolata is extremely knowledgeable in her the subject matter of health and exercise and her journalistic curiosity is quite evident. However, at different points in the book I felt like the author was trying to include too much information... that it was a little difficult to absorb all of it and may have been easier to follow had she stayed a little more on one track with her thoughts. I also found that she seemed to be a little biased when it came to her discussions about "spinning." It was obvious she was a big fan of "spinning," but she did not seem to take an objective look at it, at times it felt more like she was only promoting it. Whereas when she went into depth on other forms of exercise I felt like she was more about pros and cons and benefits and risks than promotion. I also found the books organization to be a bit disorganized. Possibly highlighting different topics and main points within the chapters would have made it easier to follow.

On the whole, "Ultimate Fitness, the Quest for Truth about Health and Exercise" is informative and educational. I also feel both male and female readers can learn from it. It does lean more to the feminine side of exercise but as a male athlete I also appreciated this book. There were sections I could have lived without reading but was overall pleased. For all of the information she included I would have liked to see her be more in depth about sports and the fitness benefits of different sports.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Basic info & history - but no revelations - why "ultimate"?
Review: This is a good history of exercise in the United States and discussion of basic information on fitness. The author has investigated the more commonly held myths about fitness and written out her findings clearly. However, I was disappointed that there is much more history (at least 2/3 of the book) than real news about exercise. Most of the myths explored in this book have been "debunked" by others before; the knowledge is not new if you've done any ready about fitness at all since 1990. (The only thing new I learned, in fact, is that studies have proven that different people's bodies respond differently to exercise - and that approximately 1% do not respond AT ALL. Yikes!) Overall, this is a good book, just not as "ultimate" as I was led to expect.


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