A comprehensive, well-formatted primer for eating and exercising with bodybuilding in mind.
Lee (Lean Gains, 2018) trains the reader in the fundamentals of health and strength in this fitness manual.
Have you ever been on a diet that was working…but then stopped? Or tried to start a workout regimen only to find it ineffective? Lee aims to provide a fresh start when it comes to nutrition and exercise, replacing the many myths that bombard us daily with sound information and sustainable workout habits. He divides his advice into three parts: an explanation of nutrition, an exploration of exercising for muscle growth, and a practical regimen for switching to a healthier, muscle-building program. He explains why diets fail, getting into the biological factors at play when people abstain from or overindulge in various types of food. He dives into the weeds regarding the various nutrients the body needs and what they do; for example, what does it really mean to have a zinc deficiency, anyway? He sets realistic dietary goals for losing or maintaining weight, based on body type and level of activity. In the exercise section, he breaks down the many considerations that go into a fitness routine, including body type—are you an ectomorph, mesomorph, or endomorph? He also discusses the best strategies (and their side effects) for attaining various physiques. (Is it possible to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time? Only in some cases, but being out of shape is one of those cases!) In the final section, Lee outlines several complete workout programs and even includes a music playlist. Numerous charts and full-color photographs augment the text. Lee’s prose is accessible and clear, appropriate to that of a practiced fitness instructor: “Overtraining is a bit like trying to blow up a balloon in one breath. In the beginning, you can blow into the balloon and the balloon will get bigger. However, the longer you continue exhaling into the balloon without taking a break, the smaller the balloon will increase in size and the more exhausted you would become.” The book, a mammoth 800 pages, explores—in granular detail—areas that the beginning bodybuilder may not have previously considered, like the importance of limiting cardio exercises if one is trying to build muscle. Building muscle is the author’s concern, after all, and his nutritional advice—which makes up the first half of the book—unfolds with that goal in mind. There are many books on this subject, but Lee sets himself apart by his willingness to discuss at length numerous supplements, including “the Naughty Stuff”: performance-enhancing drugs. A point in Lee’s favor is that he generally defers to health science and presents things in a balanced manner, providing pros and cons for various diets, supplements, and other possibly controversial elements. Even readers who choose not to follow his advice will gain a bit of muscle mass simply from lifting this weighty tome onto their bookshelf.
A comprehensive, well-formatted primer for eating and exercising with bodybuilding in mind.Pub Date: Feb. 17, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-916410-50-3
Page Count: 786
Publisher: Time Tunnel Media
Review Posted Online: Sept. 4, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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