Fitness for Dummies

Rating:
Summary: Let's Get Moving!
Review: If you've been rather inactive in the recent past, this book will help you to get moving. It not only helped me to plan a well-rounded fitness program, but it really helped me to get motivated. The writing is clear and simple, and the authors do a good job at cutting through the jargon fog and giving you the essentials. and, of course, there's that "For Dummies" humor throughout. Best of all, it's cheaper than a personal trainer. In fact, if you need a personal trainer, this book has great advice on chooding a trainer that's right for you!

Rating:
Summary: The Most Comprehensive and Entertaining Fitness Book!
Review: In my humble opinion this is the most essential get fit reference book on the market. It is a funny and irreverent guide. I also enjoyed the cartoon icons that appear throughout the book. The icons helped to really drive home the points that the book made. In short this book makes fitness fun. It truly is a guide for the rest of us...

Rating:
Summary: Fitness for Dummies
Review: The "Pro's" at my gym are worthless unless I pay them to advise me. This book honestly aided me in creating a workout for me and my husband. It was easy to read and really explained exercises and the reasons why to do or NOT to do certain things. Truly a book for those of us without a degree in kinesology.

Rating:
Summary: AKA "Fitness-Related Consumerism for Dummies"
Review: These authors love to shop as much as they love to exercise.

As a fitness neophyte, I turned once again to the Dummies series for its comprehensive, unbiased coverage of broad topics. What disappointed me about this selection is its enthusiasm for expensive gadgetry, club memberships, and professional consultation.

Admittedly, a healthy lifestyle isn't without a price tag, but this is ridiculous. In almost every chapter of this book (including a couple devoted entirely to the subject), you can expect to find one or more words of advice encouraging the reader to go shell out some more dough for one thing or another - a heart monitor, a personal trainer, a water pack, a dietician, a special mat for stretching exercises, etc. If you bought every item they recommended throughout the course of this book, you'd spend a full year's salary and fill a bedroom with all your new junk!

While they do advise against some of the more foolish purchases, such as those fat-zapping electrodes sold on infomercials, they spend little time extolling the virtues of those invaluable exercises you can do for free - stair walking, push ups, pull ups, etc. The chapter on exercising at home is a veritable catalog of the fanciest equipment money can buy, rather than suggestions of exercises you can do on a bare floor with your own body weight.

The authors also go a little skimpy on such topics as nutrition and weight training, but make darn sure to point you in the direction of other related titles in the "for Dummies" series.

If you generally like the Dummies books, do a little more shopping before you put your faith in this one.

Rating:
Summary: Great intro
Review: This book has been really great in helping me to get my butt off the couch and start to get fit. Some topics aren't covered in pretty good detail, but this is a good-enough starting place.

Rating:
Summary: Fitness for Dummies is a very good and complete book.
Review: This book is full of content. It's great for anyone who wants to get in shape or get stronger. It's perfect for everyone, even beginners. It is the most complete book on all fitness and nutrition. If you want to get in shape read this book. The authors are experts, and make it fun to read. It is also easy to understand and learn.

Rating:
Summary: Stay fit with "Fitness For Dummies" (r) !
Review: This book is the new "must read" for fitness fanatics!

Slightly irreverent, delightfully humorous and loaded with useful information you won't find anywhere else, "Fitness For Dummies" is the ultimate book about fitness. Created by two of America's top fitness writers, Suzanne Schlosberg and Liz Neporent, this smart book is an insider's guide through the maze of misinformation about fitness. "Fitness For Dummies" provides a crash course for beginners, and is helpful as well for workout veterans who are looking for news on the latest fitness concepts, gadgets, and training techniques.

Suzanne and Liz debunk fitness myths and explain in plain English the stuff people really want to know, such as body fat, infomercial gadgets, celebrity exercise videos, metabolism, and more.

"Fitness For Dummies" uses clever icons to highlight money-saving tips, and humorous anecdotes to warn readers about slimy sales tactics and bogus products. Readers will learn how to test their fitness, set realistic goals, and design aerobic and weight-training routines that fit their personal needs.

Get in shape with "Fitness For Dummies"!

Rating:
Summary: Yes, it is for dummies
Review: This book purports to be little more than a refresher course or an updating of information for those of us that have not been to gyms in a very long time. It lives up to this premise very well, with language that is neither pedantic nor peppy (we've all heard "come on, you can do it!" a few too many times).
The strongsuit of Ms. Schlosberg's and Ms. Neporent's treatise is that it answers most of the questions beginners would either not know to ask or are embarrassed to ask... it takes a while in a gym space to be able to just turn to someone to ask how the treadmill starts up. These women endeavored to clear up these novice-level mysteries while succeeding in not coming off as condescending.
If, however, you would like a more definitive explanation of things (this book glosses over a large amount-- acting more as a relatively thorough overview than a true guide) you might ought to check elsewhere before committing here.
I found Fitness for Dummies to be very helpful as I am nearing thirty and getting back into gyms that have contraptions I could not have begun to understand before reading this book.
Good luck out there!

Rating:
Summary: Warning! This book is not for everyone!
Review: Usually the 'For Dummies' series books are geared for just about anyone interested in the topic. From complete beginners to experts who need a good reference book, most of these books are an invaluable resource. But not this book!

I honestly liked most of the exercise tips and techniques (although the stretching section has A LOT to be desired), but this manuscript should have never been accepting for publication. There is too much politics where none is needed. I think this was just another vehicle for their own exercise/political agenda! An example:

PAGE 38 "As with your goals, you can get pretty creative with your rewards. We know a guy who asked a friend to hold $500 for him. If he reached his goal of lising 25 pounds, he'd get the money back and buy new clothes. If he didn't reach his goal, the money would become a charitable contribution to the Young Republicans. Considering that this guy made Jesse Jackson look like Jesse Helms, this was a very good incentive, indeed. The guy lost his 25 pounds."

Nice anecdote. Funny. But only in moderation. This book is full of items like this. No variation of the anecdotes either. They all are of political in nature and slanted the same way. It gets old and not necessary. By itself, the "indeed" makes you think that it was a good incentive, and they are agreeing with the incentive part, but after seeing the same thing over again, the "indeed" took on a new meaning, to saying that avoiding giving money to the Young Republicans was laudible.

A lot of examples are directed for teenage female althetes too. I can understand wanting to push athletics to a young female audience, but seeing the same thing over again is repetitive.

The book should not have been published by 'For Dummies' and marketed to everyone.

Rating:
Summary: A dummy book
Review: When I bought this book I thought it would cover all the basics (= for dummies) and allow me to start working on my own at home.

To my disappointment this book contains very little needed info to do that.

Example - there are three pages about stretching, giving rules such as "Stretch all your muscles, not just those you've used in your workout", with the chapter describing the muscles coming up 45 pages later. I'd expect :

1. The chapter about muscles to be close to or preceding the section about stretching. The design keeps the relevant info too far apart.

2. A list of stretching excercises to be given with pictures. No excercises are given at all (though there are plenty of space given to useless pictures, e.g. of a computerized bike panel), denying me the info I need.

The section recommends buying a video that shows how to stretch. For the price of a video and a video cassete (about $300 in Israel) I could get personal training.

The "Nutrition Basics" chapter is another disappointment - five and a half pages are spent on vitamins providing less information than given in leaflets given for free in pharmacies, the section about titled "Watch Your Calories" gives trivial advice, and no table of caloric values of different kinds of foods is included, etc.

I find this book very disappointing, will not buy any other "for dummies" books, and will sell this book at a second hand books store - at least I'll get some of my money back and not waste any shelve space on this useless book.