A good refresher course on the why’s and how’s of staying fit for an improved quality of life.
A combined fitness approach offers both philosophy and practice for the over-40 crowd.
With a lifelong belief in and commitment to exercise as a way to improve one’s quality of life, Sherowski presents the interior motivation as well as the exercises necessary to become a healthier, fitter adult. His certification as a personal trainer through the American Council of Exercise and work with clients at the YMCA gives credibility to discussions of cardio routines, weight-lifting exercises, dynamic stretching and dietary design. Based on the four pillars of weights, cardio, stretching and diet, this guide offers an introduction to each, hitting the points that a beginner needs to know in terms of how to exercise more effectively. Discussions of home versus gym exercise, cardiovascular exercise options, how muscle groups respond to weight-lifting and caloric formulas to tabulate potential weight loss are provided in friendly, conversational manner. A no-nonsense approach is apparent in advice like, “Do more, eat less,” and “You can’t bank fitness.” Short chapters with bullet points keep the plan moving, though individual paragraphs are often lengthy and unwieldy. Illustrations accompany all exercises, with descriptions ranging from succinct and easy to more challenging. Appendices feature weight and weightless exercises, a routine designed for at-home core development, passive stretches, a lifting schedule, a template for an exercise diary and a glossary. While positive and motivating, beginners may have trouble deciphering some exercises, and other fitness options such as swimming, kickboxing, karate and team sports are not discussed at all. More than a weight-loss plan, the emphasis on an improved quality of life underscores the fact that becoming physically fit is a lifestyle choice that lasts, hopefully, for life. Tied to this belief is information targeted to people older than 40, with a longer discussion of active aging.
A good refresher course on the why’s and how’s of staying fit for an improved quality of life.Pub Date: Aug. 6, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-4196-9954-2
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Skloot's meticulous, riveting account strikes a humanistic balance between sociological history, venerable portraiture and...
A dense, absorbing investigation into the medical community's exploitation of a dying woman and her family's struggle to salvage truth and dignity decades later.
In a well-paced, vibrant narrative, Popular Science contributor and Culture Dish blogger Skloot (Creative Writing/Univ. of Memphis) demonstrates that for every human cell put under a microscope, a complex life story is inexorably attached, to which doctors, researchers and laboratories have often been woefully insensitive and unaccountable. In 1951, Henrietta Lacks, an African-American mother of five, was diagnosed with what proved to be a fatal form of cervical cancer. At Johns Hopkins, the doctors harvested cells from her cervix without her permission and distributed them to labs around the globe, where they were multiplied and used for a diverse array of treatments. Known as HeLa cells, they became one of the world's most ubiquitous sources for medical research of everything from hormones, steroids and vitamins to gene mapping, in vitro fertilization, even the polio vaccine—all without the knowledge, must less consent, of the Lacks family. Skloot spent a decade interviewing every relative of Lacks she could find, excavating difficult memories and long-simmering outrage that had lay dormant since their loved one's sorrowful demise. Equal parts intimate biography and brutal clinical reportage, Skloot's graceful narrative adeptly navigates the wrenching Lack family recollections and the sobering, overarching realities of poverty and pre–civil-rights racism. The author's style is matched by a methodical scientific rigor and manifest expertise in the field.
Skloot's meticulous, riveting account strikes a humanistic balance between sociological history, venerable portraiture and Petri dish politics.Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4000-5217-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
An absorbing, wide-ranging story of humans’ relationship with the water.
A study of swimming as sport, survival method, basis for community, and route to physical and mental well-being.
For Bay Area writer Tsui (American Chinatown: A People's History of Five Neighborhoods, 2009), swimming is in her blood. As she recounts, her parents met in a Hong Kong swimming pool, and she often visited the beach as a child and competed on a swim team in high school. Midway through the engaging narrative, the author explains how she rejoined the team at age 40, just as her 6-year-old was signing up for the first time. Chronicling her interviews with scientists and swimmers alike, Tsui notes the many health benefits of swimming, some of which are mental. Swimmers often achieve the “flow” state and get their best ideas while in the water. Her travels took her from the California coast, where she dove for abalone and swam from Alcatraz back to San Francisco, to Tokyo, where she heard about the “samurai swimming” martial arts tradition. In Iceland, she met Guðlaugur Friðþórsson, a local celebrity who, in 1984, survived six hours in a winter sea after his fishing vessel capsized, earning him the nickname “the human seal.” Although humans are generally adapted to life on land, the author discovered that some have extra advantages in the water. The Bajau people of Indonesia, for instance, can do 10-minute free dives while hunting because their spleens are 50% larger than average. For most, though, it’s simply a matter of practice. Tsui discussed swimming with Dara Torres, who became the oldest Olympic swimmer at age 41, and swam with Kim Chambers, one of the few people to complete the daunting Oceans Seven marathon swim challenge. Drawing on personal experience, history, biology, and social science, the author conveys the appeal of “an unflinching giving-over to an element” and makes a convincing case for broader access to swimming education (372,000 people still drown annually).
An absorbing, wide-ranging story of humans’ relationship with the water.Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-61620-786-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Algonquin
Review Posted Online: Jan. 4, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
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