A slick, comprehensive, sometimes persuasive examination of an injury rehab program.
A debut manual describes a neurology-focused rehabilitation regimen.
Conventional rehab for an injury tends to center on the bones and muscle tissue, either through physical therapy, surgery, or medication. But these methods are unlikely to be sufficient when the damage is neurological, as many injuries are. In this book, Salpeter introduces NeuFit, his original, neurology-based rehab program meant to help those who have not found success with more traditional methods. It can also be useful to those who simply want to use their bodies to their fullest physical potentials. The author has benefited from neurology-focused therapy himself: His own journey through rehab began with a wrist injury during his college hockey career. “A few days before my scheduled surgery,” he recalls in his introduction, “I went to see a chiropractic neurologist. He took an approach to rehab I’d never seen before: using manual techniques that focused on changing the neurological responses to the damage, he stimulated the muscles around my wrist injury.” Thrilled by the results of this treatment, Salpeter went on to perfect the method. The author outlines the science underlying NeuFit, which is built around electrical stimulation therapy. He discusses the accompanying rehab strategies as well as general ways to improve health and access untapped potential via neurology-centered approaches. Salpeter makes some big promises right off the bat: His intro opens with the story of a woman who, following one session of NeuFit, was able to walk again after being wheelchair-bound for 25 years. He uses patient stories to illustrate the NeuFit process while taking pains to explain the anatomical processes at work. His prose is lean and easy to follow: “Given the hierarchy of the nervous system, what does optimal nervous system function look like? When it comes to nervous system health, the goal is to shift between states of (sympathetic) high activity and (parasympathetic) rest and recovery as often as necessary to reach our health and fitness targets.” For those suffering from long-term injuries, the picture he paints is a tempting one. The book is essentially a 300-page pamphlet for his program—at times, a fairly convincing one—but readers will need to decide for themselves whether or not it seems worth pursuing.
A slick, comprehensive, sometimes persuasive examination of an injury rehab program.Pub Date: July 28, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5445-2092-6
Page Count: 310
Publisher: Lioncrest Publishing
Review Posted Online: Oct. 18, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.
A noted actor turns to verse: “Poems are a Saturday in the middle of the week.”
McConaughey, author of the gracefully written memoir Greenlights, has been writing poems since his teens, closing with one “written in an Australian bathtub” that reads just as a poem by an 18-year-old (Rimbaud excepted) should read: “Ignorant minds of the fortunate man / Blind of the fate shaping every land.” McConaughey is fearless in his commitment to the rhyme, no matter how slight the result (“Oops, took a quick peek at the sky before I got my glasses, / now I can’t see shit, sure hope this passes”). And, sad to say, the slight is what is most on display throughout, punctuated by some odd koanlike aperçus: “Eating all we can / at the all-we-can-eat buffet, / gives us a 3.8 education / and a 4.2 GPA.” “Never give up your right to do the next right thing. This is how we find our way home.” “Memory never forgets. Even though we do.” The prayer portion of the program is deeply felt, but it’s just as sentimental; only when he writes of life-changing events—a court appearance to file a restraining order against a stalker, his decision to quit smoking weed—do we catch a glimpse of the effortlessly fluent, effortlessly charming McConaughey as exemplified by the David Wooderson (“alright, alright, alright”) of Dazed and Confused. The rest is mostly a soufflé in verse. McConaughey’s heart is very clearly in the right place, but on the whole the book suggests an old saw: Don’t give up your day job.
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781984862105
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.
The chef, rapper, and TV host serves up a blustery memoir with lashings of self-help.
“I’ve always had a sick confidence,” writes Bronson, ne Ariyan Arslani. The confidence, he adds, comes from numerous sources: being a New Yorker, and more specifically a New Yorker from Queens; being “short and fucking husky” and still game for a standoff on the basketball court; having strength, stamina, and seemingly no fear. All these things serve him well in the rough-and-tumble youth he describes, all stickball and steroids. Yet another confidence-builder: In the big city, you’ve got to sink or swim. “No one is just accepted—you have to fucking show that you’re able to roll,” he writes. In a narrative steeped in language that would make Lenny Bruce blush, Bronson recounts his sentimental education, schooled by immigrant Italian and Albanian family members and the mean streets, building habits good and bad. The virtue of those habits will depend on your take on modern mores. Bronson writes, for example, of “getting my dick pierced” down in the West Village, then grabbing a pizza and smoking weed. “I always smoke weed freely, always have and always will,” he writes. “I’ll just light a blunt anywhere.” Though he’s gone through the classic experiences of the latter-day stoner, flunking out and getting arrested numerous times, Bronson is a hard charger who’s not afraid to face nearly any challenge—especially, given his physique and genes, the necessity of losing weight: “If you’re husky, you’re always dieting in your mind,” he writes. Though vulgar and boastful, Bronson serves up a model that has plenty of good points, including his growing interest in nature, creativity, and the desire to “leave a legacy for everybody.”
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4478-5
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
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