Ready, Set, Go! Synergy Fitness [Paperback]

Another aspect about this book that I found favorable is that it is realistic about the time needed to get physically fit. You cannot make great gains in fitness and health in 30 minutes three times a week. However, the plans in this book are very reasonable, ranging from a little over three hours a week for those with less time to plans for athletes that take six hours or more a week.

There are some drawbacks to this book however. The first is that while it discusses lifting weights, it does not give enough detail on weightlifting technique. I would recommend that a person investigate sources for correctly learning how to lift weights. The author also recommends some exercises that most people would be better off never trying (hack squats for example.) The author also recommends some olympic style lifts, but these are highly advanced lifts and should only be done by people who have been trained by a qualified coach.

I also would have liked nutrition to be covered a bit more. The author talks about supplementation and protien, but a few sample meal plans would have been nice.

Overall this is a well thought out and well designed program. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a book that will help them incorporate all aspects of fitness into their lives.

I won't go into exhausting detail because reviewer Dennis Littrell did a superb job of explaining the layout of the book and the thinking behind the fitness plans.

I would just add that unlike many authors of similar books, Mr. Campbell is not trying to sell you anything else except a longer, healthier life. He's a perfect example of someone who obviously practices what he preaches. He's also personally answered every e-mail question I've ever mailed him. He cares.

The program is not really for the sedentary person who wants to get off the couch and perhaps eventually walk around the block. No, this is for people who want to make their bodies as fit and efficient as possible--regardless of age--and in a reasonable amount of time. I'm 39 and the workouts immediately take me back twenty years to a time where I felt like an athlete. Mr. Campbell argues, effectively, you never have to lose that feeling.

A terrific concept, easy read, and a welcome addition to a health and fitness library filled with more style than substance. This is the real deal.

Anaerobic exercise (as contrasted with aerobic exercise) is sprint training, not endurance training. When we sprint we use muscle fibers that Campbell identifies as "fast type IIx" as opposed to "slow type I" used in long distance running. The use of these "fast twitch" muscles leads to the increased production and release of the growth hormone. Since it is all the rage in some circles (e.g., Hollywood) to take injections of the growth hormone at a cost of about $12,000 a year (it is not effective taken orally), a program that allows us to produce the growth hormone naturally would be a godsend. Our bodies as we grow older produce less and less of the growth hormone and this has been linked to what Campbell calls "somatopause," the well-known phenomenon leading to weight gain, middle-age spread and a slower metabolism.

I have little doubt that if my body would produce more growth hormone I would be able to control my weight and perhaps look and feel better. I feel pretty good as I am, but since I gave up playing basketball five years ago, I have gained about 12 pounds. It's worse than that, however, because I have lost probably about ten or 15 pounds of muscle mass, so in fact I am now carrying around 25 to 30 more pounds of pure fat! I was able to control my weight with the sort of ease that Campbell describes in this book when I was playing basketball (which is sprinting and more) three times a week. I could (as Campbell claims he can) eat whatever I wanted whenever I wanted, and never had to worry about my weight. I realized in a flash while reading this book that indeed what I had been doing playing basketball was anaerobic exercise.

The essence of Campbell's program--or at least the part that interests me--calls for no high fat foods one hour before anaerobic training and no sugar foods for two hours afterward. This will stimulate fat-burning. I know from personal experience that this is true. When you're doing some serious anaerobics three or four times a week, you just naturally eat less, and less often. I always thought this was because my system made me less hungry because it didn't want to divert its energies to the digestion of any more food than was necessary. But perhaps it is the release of the growth hormone that leads to the desire to eat less.

Regardless of how this works, it does work. But the problem for someone older than Campbell (he's fifty) is that it is very, very difficult to engage in a training program that involves sprinting because it too easy to pull, tear or strain muscles which take a relatively long time to heal. This is the "catch-22" of growing older. It's hard to exercise enough to get into and stay in shape because you're always coming up lame. However, Campbell presents a carefully balanced and well-thought out program that just may allow those over fifty to get into shape and exercise anaerobically on a regular basis. (This program will definitely work for those younger who are in good health.)

He uses the trendy word "synergy" in the title because he believes it is the synergistic effect of the total program, including weight training, proper diet and the combination of anaerobic and aerobic exercise that leads to fitness and an increase in the production of the growth hormone.

Bottom-line question: Will this work? Quick answer: I don't know. Campbell himself is the very picture of health with the well-muscled, but lean body of a decathlon champion. When I was fifty I too was in great shape (although I was not as strong as Campbell), and looking back I can say that it was playing basketball on a regular basis that did it. I can no longer play basketball but perhaps I can sprint and weight train. I'm going to give it a try.