Ultimate Fitness: The Quest for Truth about Exercise and Health (Hardcover)

What I found frustrating about this book is the author's incessant insinuations of her own lifestyle into the text. Aside from the book reading like an infomercial for "Spinning" (is she on retainer?) must I read about the skin tight bicycle shorts her and her dear husband wear to the "Mount Everest" challenge, a story I may add, that stretches across at least 2 full chapters (possibly three, I starting skimming about halfway through). The concept behind this book had some strength, track the origins of fitness in our culture, attack some of the myths that pervade the dialogue on the subject, and perhaps come up with a few basic tenets that all could follow. What Ms. Kolata does instead is discourse ad nauseum about the appearance of the various Spinning teachers she interacts with, pats herself endlessly (hey all that exercise made her flexible I suppose?) on the back for being in such good shape/working out so hard and generally turning what was probably (at best) a 150 or so page book into a droning piece of self congratulation that stretches to nearly 300 pages.

The only reason I give this book one star is that buried deep within all those self congratulatory pages is a good message for all of us. Eat right and exercise!

In Gina Kolata's most recent book, Ultimate Fitness: The Quest For Truth About Exercise and Health, she goes into a great depth and descriptions of early beginnings of weight lifting all the way through the current craze of Spinning and the theories that have followed along in the years. Many of these I too I have known about from my experiences from weightlifting and also a few are common sense that most people should already know. This book is great for giving general knowledge of health, your body, and general awareness of what is going on when you exercise. Before she goes too deep into the theories of exercising she first explains the history of where it all began. Such as the first people to start looking into health and nutrition were the ancient Greeks. It wasn't to much longer that Hippocrates then wrote a book about health called Regimen in Health. Another great influence of fitness and health was a man by the name of Galen who was one of the great physicians of the gladiators. He completed a book called On Hygien which discussed who exactly needs to exercise and what should be counted as exercise. Great people like these two were very influential in the creation of exercising and health. Along with these men were those who were the great firsts of exercising.

Kolata explained that exercise during this time and years to come was merely for enjoyment and a form of entertainment. Races were not won by the first to cross the finish line but yet to see how far or fast you could do something. She showed that during this time there was no personal records. All of the events that were accomplished were because of wagers at were placed.

Some of the theories that have been developed over the years also includes a formula of what maximum heart rate is. Through research she discovered it can be calculated by taking 220 minus your age, the result will give your typical maximum heart rate. She also explains how you get older your maximum heart rate will also change to be come less. Furthermore she goes into depth of what the difference is between a fat burning zone and a cardiovascular zone is. How each of these work you the muscles and fatty tissues in your body differently. Such as how the best heart rate to lose weight and gain muscle is to have it at about 60 to 70% of your maximum heart rate.

For most people that work out it is obvious to see that some people are naturally more muscular or defined than other people. She discusses that this is not always because these people always work out and are in top notch health but because of their genetics. Only about 10% of the human population can gain significantly the rest slowly gain and an astonishing another 10% cannot receive any results what so ever. With people that do exercise, it was interesting to read of her conclusions of what a Runners High is and if it even exists. She believed that it does exist and it is from the great exhilaration of exercising. She discussed how exercise is now even used for very depressed people. The results that were found that everyone was become very well and were even coming off their anti-depressants. This has been common knowledge for quite sometime because of the belief of endorphins and how the interact on the brain and person.
Finally, Kolata discusses the great business that has came about with exercise such as gyms, supplements, magazines, trainers, equipment, etc. She talks about how it is all about making the money now, such as with the supplements that are now being produced and how most of them the FDA writes warnings about them but those never seem to make it on the actual supplement bottle. The companies that make these are not caring about the people who use them and the harmful effects that will happen to their bodies.

I feel like that Kolata went a little too far with her personal life and how Spinning was so great. It almost felt as if she was promoting it for a health club.

Overall I really enjoyed this book, it gave me some great ideas for my personal life and how I exercise. But this book is particularly for beginner people who don't know much about their bodies and or exercising in general. I would recommend this book to almost anyone because it to would help out other people in their day