Description:
In 1982, Julie Moss was leading the women's field at the Hawaiian Ironman Triathlon. With the finish line banner in sight, her body collapsed. She staggered and fell, got up, fell again. The second-place woman passed her to win. Moss crawled across the finish line, reached one hand across it, and fell onto her back, smiling. For 15 years, Mark Allen's "job" was training and racing as a professional triathlete. He won the Hawaiian Ironman Triathlon six times and the Nice Triathlon 10 times. And he married Julie Moss. Now Allen and Moss have a child, and their commitment to family supercedes their commitment to athletics. They've learned to carve fitness time into their busy day. In Workouts for Working People, they give advice for staying in top shape even though you have a job and a family. They each give their individual perspectives, with occasional help from their child, Mats, who speaks authoritatively about how fitness can be fun. They write in a warm and accessible style for the beginning exerciser with sensible, simple advice. Though the goals they suggest may seem grandiose to a novice exerciser--get ready for ski season, work up to running for 45 minutes--the strategies for reaching those goals are accessible no matter what your level. Their tips are practical: How do you fit workouts into limited time? How do you know if you're working out aerobically? Fifteen strength-training exercises and 10 stretches are explained and illustrated. If you want to go beyond the general, Allen and Moss present two progressive programs: Lifestyles Basic for beginners, which eases you gradually to the point of burning 1,000 calories a week; and Lifestyles Advanced, which gets you the rest of the way to burning 2,000 calories per week, which is optimal for health and longevity benefits. --Joan Price
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