Be Your Own Personal Trainer

The book scores 5-star in many areas, except focused resistance training. In merely 120 pages, the author poured her talent in attracting people to good living. Although the author left no trace on who she is, the quality of the book production and contents attest to her common sense. From the front cover to the back cover, the book space is intelligently and beautifully utilized to comfort the eyes and relieve the mind of the reader. In the beginning, the book looks like it was written for members of a royal family. It lacks the sloppiness and machismo of American fitness books. The very first page reflects on the high talent of the author by depicting the "health continuum", between fit living to premature death. It factors education and exercise on the healthy (right) side and disease and illness on the opposite (left) side. The author daftly conveys her knowledge in bulleted briefs, diagrams, and tables. Her range for normal BMI of 23-27 for men is more realistic than other restrictive sources. I do not agree with her assertion that BMI > 31 constitutes severe obesity neither do I agree that BMI between 28 and 31 constitutes obesity. Overweight differs from obesity in the range of BMI < 35. <br /> <br />The book delivers what promises on general training for fitness. It encourages many sports and activities such as high impact aerobics, roller blading, running, swimming, yoga, and Pilates. Its greatest drawback is limiting strength training to 15 to 20 minutes per session while aerobics consumes 30 minutes. Yet, that is just my personal opinion which deviates from training for staying fit to longer term strengthening that endures to late years of age. <br /> <br />Another major drawback is the total lack of barbell exercises or emphasis on the spinal integrity. Many exercises are done by dumbbells, machines, and body weight. The exercises are designed to facilitate progressive development by increasing the complexity according to the exerciser's potential. A bench presser using a barbell weighing 65 pounds is advised to use a spotter because of the danger of falling weight. Although that sounds humorous by virtue of the ridiculously light load, yet the author has compensated for her fear of heavy lifting by her diverse approach to fitness. <br /> <br />A minor oversight is the misplacing of the Serratus anterior muscle in the back anatomy and the absence of both the Subscapularis and Supraspinatus from the shoulder anatomy. That was also compensated by the greater clarity of conveying the author's knowledge in an affordable and decent fitness reference. In few minutes of reading I learned many new facts from the book such as guessing the body type by encircling the wrist by the thumb and middle finger of opposite hand, food products with lowest glycemic index, and the principals of "frequency-intensity-time (FITT)-specificity-reversibility-consistency". <br /> <br />If after finishing reading a book I felt that the author was my best fr

This book was effective in highlighting areas of development needed for me to improve my fitness. The book then gave guidance as to how I might, on my own, start an effective fitness program. It has helped me immeasurably in formulating a plan of action and moving to execute. I love the point of view of the book.