Outside Fitness: A Comprehensive Training & Nutrition Guide for an Active Lifestyle

Paul Scott is very thorough in this book describing the science behind functional training. The exercises are very useful for beginning a workout routine. For advanced people I recommend that you incorporate a few of the exercises into your routine as well. You'd be surprised at what a difference it makes. A couple of the reviewers were bitching about some typos. Come on people this isn't English Comp class. Quit being so [...]. It's an interesting read and I highly recommend it.

As a mountain guide, I geuss I am more interested in the practical advice given in this book than whether it has enough slick style, perfect spelling, excellent grammar or impeccable editing. And really don't consider this book an excuse to ravage the Outside Magazine's style. I have been using the original "Shape Of Your Life" workout that appeared in Outside Magazine for about 2 years, and was happy to see this book update that workout and take it to the next level. While this version takes more time out of my day to workout than the old version, it also seems to be getting me in better physical condition. As Mr. Scott says the program is only an outline and after I finish the 24 weeks I will start combining the best of the original workout with this one to keep it interesting.

I'm a middle-aged guy who maintained a decent level of fitness throughout my 20s and 30s, by doing repetitive weightlifting exercises and running. My motivation was primarily aesthetic, and, alas, the results were little more than that, as well. That is, despite how I looked I did not feel very "functionally fit," and my motivation began to wane, big-time, in my late 30s. I had used the Body Sculpting Bible for Men for a while, to good effect, but after a while, I just could not keep up the grind -- the excruciatingly repetitive routine of numerous exercises, most of which (and the authors of that book are very explicit and intentional about this) work your muscles in super-isolation. For someone after a purely aesthetic outcome, I would still recommend that book. However, for someone who wants to *feel* great, and actually *be* fit, in a 'healthy,' deep way, and not just in a 'cosmetic,' shallow sense, this (Outside Fitness) is a great book. It has given me a new direction, and new motivation, in the physical aspect of my life, and for that I am grateful and just downright happy. It's great when for years you have a vague, unarticulated intuition about how something should be done, and then finally you read its articulation, and you have this "Aha!" moment -- that was my experience reading this book. I find some previous reviewers' complaints about the design and writing quality puzzling. (Are we talking about the same book?) I very much like Scott's conversational writing style. I have read a lot of fitness books, and this is absolutely one of the most readable -- and I appreciate that. And since this is as much a book about fitness *philosophy* as it is about technique, then naturally there will be some text (I would have been happy to read more), and not just pic after pic of some caveman lifting dumbbells over his head. (And having a photo of a triathlete on the cover makes perfect sense to me.) And the 'program' is flexible and easily adaptable to the reader's unique goals and starting point. This may not be 'black-and-white' enough for some, but again this is a different philosophy. Maybe the book's not for everyone -- and maybe it's not even the best book on functional fitness -- but it's a really good first foray into it, in my view.

The cover and title of the book will probably turn a lot of people away. Outdoor enthusiasts that pick the book the book up based on the cover and look inside may be confused by the clip-art look graphics... what gives? The subtitle isn't catchy but it's right on the mark. Functional training is all the rage in gyms and health clubs these days but this one of the best books I've ever seen that breaks through jargon and trendiness and presents solid functional movements to make you stronger, more agile, faster, and healthier.