From Publishers Weekly
Exercise therapist and consultant Clark's intended audience is ``mature adults,'' as well as anyone younger who has avoided a fitness regimen. And the author, host of the PBS series The Wellness Workout , certainly means well. She presents detailed rationales and instructions for a broad range of low- and no-stress exercises--aerobics, muscle conditioning, stretches and water-based workouts. She emphasizes the need for warm-ups and cool-downs (to avoid sudden shocks to an out-of-shape heart). She conscientiously notes how asthma, arthritis, minor incontinence and medications may have an impact on exercise, but does not accept any of these as excuses for remaining a couch potato. However, Full Life Fitness is so earnest in its intent and execution that it becomes overwhelming; will a sedentary or older reader, heretofore unmotivated to exercise, really want to plough through all this? Clark's prose doesn't surmount the problem--her writing is peppered with exclamation points and glistening cliches (``zest for life''). She may have proved her ability to energize TV watchers, but in print she frequently reminds one of an overly perky activities leader in a nursing home.
Copyright 1992 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Book Description
"Full Life Fitness" aims to help older adults enjoy the benefits of physical exercise while avoiding the fatigue and overexertion associated with many exercise plans. It focuses on the special needs of older adults by featuring only low-stress and no-stress exercises. All of the exercises are designed to help avoid pulled muscles, undue soreness, overtaxed joints, and excess fatigue. "Full Life Fitness" covers four major categories of exercise: aerobics, muscle conditioning, stretching, and water workouts. Readers will learn the benefits of these four exercise types as well as how to match physical fitness goals with the right exercises for achieving them. The book also features complete instructions and informative illustrations for a wide variety of exercises in each of the four categories. And it includes specific recommendations on which exercises readers should be doing, how long, and how often. Readers will also learn how to use the exercises to put together their own complete exercise programme. Or they can choose from the ready-to-use 3-day, 4-day 5-day, and 30-day plans.
