The Truth About Exercise

Designed for individuals concerned about their workout habits, personal trainers, family and friends of folks with a problem, as well as working mental health professionals treating exercise addicts, The Truth About Exercise Addiction provides an easy-to-read, illuminating glimpse into the rising trend of over-exercise. Delving into the history of exercise addiction and the growing influence of “thinspiration,” Katherine Schreiber and Heather A. Hausenblas illustrate the symptoms and dangers of obsessive exercise with true stories from sufferers, all while exploring why and how such a seemingly healthy behavior morphs into a dangerous means of self-destruction. Analyzing the causes and consequences of excessive physical activity alongside the influence of genetics, culture, and personality, this book allows readers to gain a greater understanding of what exercise addiction looks and feels like. The Truth About Exercise Addiction also provides an unprecedented list of resources to address exercise addiction, a snapshot of treatments currently available for sufferers, and to top it off: guidelines on how to confront and care for someone who may have a problem.

When it comes to physical fitness and nutrition, it’s all so confusing. Which "experts" should you believe? What programs should you follow? What and when should you eat? Is weight training really necessary for getting in shape? The exhausting information overload in this area has never been more contradictory, confusing, and even dangerous. Well, this is the book that can clear up all that confusion and conflicting information! The training tips and philosophy presented her by world-renowned bodybuilder Frank Sepewill reveal everything you’ve ever needed to maximize your body’s full potential. Stating the truth is harder to deliver than it may seem at first. Imagine the answers the truth will unlock: The truth about training techniques. The truth about nutritional information. The truth about women and training. The truth about cardio’s effects. The truth’s real power—indeed, its very effectiveness—lies in its sheer simplicity.

The book tells the story of how we never evolved to exercise - to do voluntary physical activity for the sake of health. Using his own research and experiences throughout the world, the author recounts how and why humans evolved to walk, run, dig, and do other necessary and rewarding physical activities while avoiding needless exertion. Drawing on insights from biology and anthropology, the author suggests how we can make exercise more enjoyable, rather that shaming and blaming people for avoiding it

The bestselling science reporter for The New York Times tells us what works and what doesn't when we work out Ultimate Fitness: The Quest for Truth About Exercise and Health is Gina Kolata's compelling journey into the world of American physical fitness over the past thirty years. It is a funny, eye-opening, brow-sweating investigation into the fads, fictions, and science of fitness training. From the early days of jogging, championed by Jim Fixx— who later died of a heart attack—to weight lifting, cycling, aerobics, and Spinning, Kolata questions such popular notions as the "fat-burning zone" and "spot reducing," the effects of food on performance, how much exercise helps build fitness, and the difference between exercise to help the heart and exercise to change the body. She explains the science of physical fitness and the objective evidence behind commonly accepted prescriptions. Along the way she profiles researchers and mavericks who have challenged conventional wisdom, marketed their inventions, and sometimes bucked criticism only to back down from their original claims. Ultimate Fitness spotlights the machines and machinations of the fitness industry, and cuts through the marketing and hype not only to assess what is healthy, but also to understand what our obsession with staying healthy says about American culture today.

The fitness industry has become an unregulated misinformation machine. It is commonplace for well-built "gurus," who lack any formal education, to be given a platform to promote a supplement, product, idea or TV show. Often the results they promise are physiologically impossible - costing you time and money, and ultimately robbing you of precious motivation. However, there is great information out there. Getting and staying fit is a science that has been developing for decades. Research is progressing faster than ever, and there are credentialed professionals working hard to make this information available to you. Not just pretty bodies interested in your wallet, but professionals interested in your well-being. This book contains no gimmicks, fads, myths or misinformation. Instead, more than 600 references are used to bust dozens of myths, and provide dozens more practical suggestions for better results. The book is written in fun, easy-to-understand, plain English so everyone from the novice exerciser to the fitness professional can enjoy. Some of the topics covered: * Dieting Made Simple: You don't have to cut carbohydrates (carbs), or fat, or eat weird combinations of food to lose weight. * The Truth About Supplements: It's time to stop wasting your money on the ones that don't work. * The Myth About Toning-up: You cannot tone, but you can choose exercise that will burn more calories and lead to a leaner, more defined physique. * The Truth About 6-pack Abs: How do you get them, and are they worth the effort. * Muscle Myths: How to get more out of your weight training routine by avoiding the pseudo-science. * Tackling Cardio Confusion: What is the best cardio? * Motivation is not ordained, it's developed: Build a plan toward your goals with help from the latest research. If you keep doing the same things, you will keep looking the same way. It's time to make a change. With the information in this book, you can leave the gimmicks behind and create a personalized fitness program that works. No more misleading diet plans and products that promise unattainable results. You can be your own personal trainer and critically evaluate your options. Stop fighting your body and start working with your body. As an educator for the largest health club chains on the East Coast, I have trained thousands of individuals just like you to not only get fit, but to become personal trainers themselves. I understand how to make the science and research of fitness easy to understand, easy to apply and relevant to you. I know what fitness trends work and which ones don't. Special Thanks: This book is my attempt to a fill a void in fitness. It is a means of bridging the gap between the brightest minds in health and wellness and those pursuing a healthy lifestyle - an attempt to explain health science in simple English without the bias of sponsorship, product placement and profits. Ultimately, I want to help you avoid the nonsense and bring you closer to your goals. I appreciate your support in filling this gap, setting an example and hopefully raising the bar in this unregulated industry.

WINNER OF THE 2019 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION NATIONAL BESTSELLER “Electrifying” (People) • “Masterly” (The Guardian) • “Dramatic and memorable” (The New Yorker) • “Magic” (TIME) • “Ingenious” (The Financial Times) • "A gonzo literary performance” (Entertainment Weekly) • “Rare and splendid” (The Boston Globe) • “Remarkable” (USA Today) • “Delicious” (The New York Times) • “Book groups, meet your next selection" (NPR) In an American suburb in the early 1980s, students at a highly competitive performing arts high school struggle and thrive in a rarified bubble, ambitiously pursuing music, movement, Shakespeare, and, particularly, their acting classes. When within this striving “Brotherhood of the Arts,” two freshmen, David and Sarah, fall headlong into love, their passion does not go unnoticed—or untoyed with—by anyone, especially not by their charismatic acting teacher, Mr. Kingsley. The outside world of family life and economic status, of academic pressure and of their future adult lives, fails to penetrate this school’s walls—until it does, in a shocking spiral of events that catapults the action forward in time and flips the premise upside-down. What the reader believes to have happened to David and Sarah and their friends is not entirely true—though it’s not false, either. It takes until the book’s stunning coda for the final piece of the puzzle to fall into place—revealing truths that will resonate long after the final sentence. As captivating and tender as it is surprising, Susan Choi's Trust Exercise will incite heated conversations about fiction and truth, and about friendships and loyalties, and will leave readers with wiser understandings of the true capacities of adolescents and of the powers and responsibilities of adults.

Finally, the solution to the #1 reason we don’t exercise: time. Everyone has one minute. A decade ago, Martin Gibala was a young researcher in the field of exercise physiology—with little time to exercise. That critical point in his career launched a passion for high-intensity interval training (HIIT), allowing him to stay in shape with just a few minutes of hard effort. It also prompted Gibala to conduct experiments that helped launch the exploding science of ultralow-volume exercise. Now that he’s the worldwide guru of the science of time-efficient workouts, Gibala’s first book answers the ultimate question: How low can you go? Gibala’s fascinating quest for the answer makes exercise experts of us all. His work demonstrates that very short, intense bursts of exercise may be the most potent form of workout available. Gibala busts myths (“it’s only for really fit people”), explains astonishing science (“intensity trumps duration”), lays out time-saving life hacks (“exercise snacking”), and describes the fascinating health-promoting value of HIIT (for preventing and reversing disease). Gibala’s latest study found that sedentary people derived the fitness benefits of 150 minutes of traditional endurance training with an interval protocol that involved 80 percent less time and just three minutes of hard exercise per week. Including the eight best basic interval workouts as well as four microworkouts customized for individual needs and preferences (you may not quite want to go all out every time), The One-Minute Workout solves the number-one reason we don’t exercise: lack of time. Because everyone has one minute.

You are what you eat. Food and diet have an enormous influence on your health and well-being, but eating the right amount of the right things - and not too much of the wrong things - isn't easy. But, as in most walks of life, knowledge is power. This book will empower you to eat healthily, lose weight, and sort the fads from the science facts. This is the New Scientist take on a "New Year, New You" book: an eye-opening and myth-busting guide to everything from sugar to superfoods, from fasting to eating like a caveman and from veganism to your gut microbiome. Forget faddy diet books or gimmicky exercise programs, this is what is scientifically proven to make you live longer and to be healthier and happier.