101 Ways to Work Out with Weights: Effective Exercises to Sculpt Your Body and Burn Fat Review

101 Ways to Work Out with Weights: Effective Exercises to Sculpt Your Body and Burn Fat
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I can't tell you how many books I have looked at for weight training with weights, just to open them up and they are all gym related exercises on gym equipment at the gym. I guess its good if you have a gym membership, but the point of me looking for a book using handweights was because that was all I had at home, just hand weights. This book delivers. In a few moves, she uses a weight bench for positioning, but you can also use a chair or your coffee table or a step. She also has a section for using a stability ball. I don't have one but I plan on buying one.
This is a great book for people who only have hand weights and nothing else. The pictures show the moves well. Over all, good book for those of us with limited equipment but still want a good workout.

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Running Anatomy Review

Running Anatomy
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This is a book that strives to give the runner an understanding of human anatomy and the mechanics of running. The authors have linked the two in such a way that the reader gains a true knowledge and appreciation of the timing and intricacies involved in something that seems so outwardly simplistic, yet is anything but.
Examples of just how thorough a book this is are found in Chapters 4 and 11. These two chapters discuss how outside influences in the running cycle (shoe mechanics, uneven ground reactive forces, differences in terrain, etc...) have a direct effect on the biomechanics of running. Providing an in-depth explanation of the internal and external mechanics of the running cycle. At the same time, like the rest of the book, these chapters are written in a way that is both very easy to understand and absorb.
Together with wonderful illustrations and thorough easy to understand descriptions, both Joe Puleo and Dr. Milroy have provided a great tool in helping the running enthusiast to improve his or her overall performance, fitness, and prevention of injury. Whilst at the same time gaining a better appreciation of the human body's form and function.
I highly recommend this book to any person who loves running. Whether it be novice or pro, short track to ultra distance, you will truly never look at this great sport/lifestyle again in the same way.
Dr. Gregory Ng


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Yoga Mind and Body Review

Yoga Mind and Body
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I am a Yoga Teacher from India and have been practising / teaching Yoga for the past 4 years and I use the Yoga Mind & Body from the Sivananda Yoga Centre as a guide book for my practice / teaching and I find it to be a very extrmely useful guide .Currently I am giving a Morning Yoga Class in a Private T.V Channel as part of its Morning Breakfast show and I use lots of inputs from this book for my T.V Show .It has made an excellent sepraration of the basic / advanced postures and also dealt every posture with very clear step by step instructions on how to come to a posture , how to hold it and how to come out of it and it also deals with the physical , mental and spiritual benefits of each major posture .The most imortant of all is the section of common errors for each major posture that I found it to be very useful .No other book discusses the common errors of the postures as in this book . Apart from postures it also deals with Pranayama , Relaxation,Diet and Meditation . On the whole a very very excellent book .A must for every Yoga Student and Teacher

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The Shaolin Workout: 28 Days to Transforming Your Body and Soul the Warrior's Way Review

The Shaolin Workout: 28 Days to Transforming Your Body and Soul the Warrior's Way
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This is, in short, the best book on the basics of martial arts I have ever come across. It is inspirational, well set up and the routines will work wonders for anyone, if they follow through with the books premise, which is to work with it every single day for 28 days. Continue with the program after the 28 days and the book may change your whole life.
Surprisingly, it seems quite a few people are giving this book very negative reviews - claiming that the excercises within are too basic and too simple ... that you can learn them in any martial arts class. I very much disagree with this.
I have over fifteen years of experience in the martial arts, and have taught several styles at various dojos throughout Scandinavia, Scotland, Japan and the US. During my career, I have trained with some of Japan's elite MMA fighters, British and European karate champions, fought and defeated grappling champions and have had the priviledge of studying under some of the most learned figures in martial arts today.
This of course does not mean I am automatically right about whatever I say on this topic - all it means is I have some experience to draw on and have been down a lot of roads that were dead ends. And it is from experience that I believe this is a very, very useful book.
This book teaches the reader basics and basics only. Some may find this annoying, but I cannot stress enough just how important those basics are and how well they must be perfected for a student to advance. One of the books winning points is how well this book stresses the beauty and grace of basics, instead of just treating them as some sort of initiation ritual that must be completed before the student can move on to the `real stuff'. I have seen so-called beginners, who trained their basics and basics only solidly and with utter dedication, absolutely floor much higher ranking students in contests, higher ranking students who just learnt the basics and then immediately moved on to all that stuff most of us find so cool: flashy forms, complex moves and the like.
Flashy forms are icing on the cake, nothing more, nothing less. If you want to move like a character out of a martial arts flick - do the basics slowly, properly and with utter dedication, and you will be moving in ways you never believed possible. If you can perfect the moves in this book, learning a form - any form - will be a snap for you, because you have already learnt every aspect of the body's mechanics ... and that is in essence what forms really are: a reshuffling of body mechanics you ought already know. Train with real dedication and this book will make you a more lethal martial artist than 90% of the enthusiasts I have ever met.
It is not easy and it takes a lot of work, but nothing worth having comes without a price.
So, after all the praise, why only four stars and not five? Because the stretches and moves, while wonderful, are in my opinion taught without regard to safety and may likely lead to injury if not performed with care. The author thrusts an attitude of reckless abandon on the reader, which is the only right attitude to have when learning something new, but regardless of this, safety ought always be a factor - especially for beginners, who through no fault of their own do not yet have proper knowledge of safety and the body's limits. If you are injured, you can't train and may even make the very natural mistake of thinking something worthwhile is actually not for you.

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In his loft in New york City's Greenwich Village, Sifu Shi Yan Ming trains men and women of all ages, body types and backgrounds in the fundamentals of kung fu. A 34th generation Shaolin Warrior monk from China's Shaolin Temple--the birthplace of Chan Buddhism and the mecca of all martial arts--Yan Ming teaches the students at his USA Shaolin Temple that there is no better workout program than his brand of kung fu for getting the body and mind into warrior condition.Lavishly illustrated with hundreds of four-color photographs, the warrior workout, distills a lifetime of Shaolin training and wisdom into a 28-day workout.Thiscomplete-unto-itself program of both fitness and spiritual lessons can be applied to every aspect of one's life: work, relationships, family.Kung fu gives a superb aerobic workout at the same time that it dramatically increases flexibility, power, and speed.. The ultimate promise of the book is this: readers who stick to the plan for 28 days--for as little as 15 minutes a day--will be transformed inside and out. And the enormous sense of accomplishment that results will radiate through their life, allowing them to tackle the world with a warrior's confidence, calm, and poise.

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Ultimate Flexibility: A Complete Guide to Stretching for Martial Arts Review

Ultimate Flexibility: A Complete Guide to Stretching for Martial Arts
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It's not a *bad* book about stretching, and does contain some 200 exercises--even if half of them are about as complex as 'lace your fingers together, palms out, and push your hands away from your body' (my paraphrase).
What really bothers me, though, is a pair of problems:
First, the book mentions almost casually that static stretching (touch your toes and hold the position) has almost no correlation with functional stretching (how high can you side kick?). In the next paragraph it states quite clearly that martial artists should be focused on improving functional stretching--that static stretching is largely useless except for rehabilitation.
Now, even if that *isn't* poppycock--which I'm not qualified to judge, but it does sound flaky--one would think that this book, intended for martial artists, would therefore proceed to focus on other kinds of stretching. No: the vast majority of the exercises are static stretches. So either the advice is flawed or the book's target audience is wrong.
A second issue is PNF stretching. The book goes to some effort to push PNF as the most effective, best stretching technique: over and over, the refrain is that one should work towards incorporating PNF stretching into your workout as soon as is feasible (it's not for beginners).
But just as soon as you've become convinced of the benefits of PNF stretching, the book goes on to state--and here I'll quote--"Because PNF stretching requires detailed hands-on instruction and guidance, PNF stretching variations are not included in the exercise descriptions". In other words, the book says pretty clearly, "This is what you want, and this book doesn't describe it."
I'm disappointed that I bought this book, and can't say I'd recommend it to others.

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Ultimate Flexibility is the book you've been waiting for. More than a collection of exercises or an explanation of technique, Ultimate Flexibility is a complete guide to stretching for martial arts, from the very basics of why you should stretch to detailed workout guidelines for every style and level of martial arts practice. Written by acclaimed author and martial artist Sang H Kim, Ultimate Flexibility is your guide to achieving maximum flexibility in your training. Begin with an in depth look at the hows and whys of flexibility and stretching. Learn about the many types of stretching, which methods are best for beginners, when to graduate to advanced techniques and why you should completely avoid certain types of exercises. You'll also find information that you wont find in any other martial art book, including a detailed exploration of how your body works for or against you in your training and how flexibility can make you stronger and faster. Building on this foundation, Sang H Kim teaches you nearly 200 flexibility exercises that he has personally used to achieve the highest levels of flexibility. You'll get detailed instructions, workout planning guides, goal setting tips, difficulty levels, injury prevention and recovery, and over 400 photos to guide you. Special bonus sections: 10 Tips for Full Splits, 20 Tips for High Kicks and 10 workouts for specific martial art types.

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Dance Anatomy (Sports Anatomy) Review

Dance Anatomy (Sports Anatomy)
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When I found out that Jacqui Haas was writing this book, I was so excited that I convinced my Human Kinetics rep to give me a PDF copy because the book hadn't been published yet. Upon reviewing it, I immediately adopted it as the text for my undergraduate course in Dance Kinesiology. Our university got some of the first ones off the press.
I wanted to change textbooks for my course because students needed something more accessible and practical. This book is definitely it. I actually altered how I teach my course in order to incorporate the various exercises that Jacqui offers. In addition, I teach under the quarter system (rather than the semester system), so I have a very limited amount of time to communicate a lot of information. "Dance Anatomy" has been extremely helpful in helping me set a more achievable framework for this.
For an undergraduate, science-based class like Dance Kinesiology, I prefer some extra anatomy content. I can easily add this into my teaching sessions from the outstanding foundation Jacqui lays in "Dance Anatomy." My students have gladly received the book, and are encouraged by its straightforward, readable approach.
As a scientist working with artists, I find that this text is ideal for my artistic students, many of whom are new to grappling with science. As is typical of Human Kinetics' books, the illustrations in "Dance Anatomy" are outstanding, and this helps students visualize the anatomy that makes them move. The book celebrates both the amazing design of the human body and the equally amazing ability of the body's anatomy to bring forth the beauty and athletic artistry of dance. While appropriate for a wide audience, the book will be especially useful for dancers from high school age upward, dance teachers, and instructors of undergraduate Dance Kinesiology classes.
Jeff Russell
Assistant Professor of Dance Science
University of California, Irvine

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Krav Maga for Beginners: A Step-by-Step Guide to the World's Easiest-to-Learn, Most-Effective Fitness and Fighting Program Review

Krav Maga for Beginners: A Step-by-Step Guide to the World's Easiest-to-Learn, Most-Effective Fitness and Fighting Program
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As I stated in the title of this review, both the title and contents of this book (for the most part) are pretty much accurate as far as this book being a, "step-by-step guide to Krav Maga for beginners." However, I do feel that the authors went a bit overboard with their subtitle, "the world's easiest-to-learn, most effective fitness and fighting program." That however is merely a minor annoyance compared to the amount of good and great information within its pages.
This book starts off with the obligatory front matter which consists of basic Krav Maga philosophy, principles, history, and so on, along with more unique and personal information such as; important considerations to consider concerning Krav Maga and dealing with a violent encounter. All subjects worthy of much larger sections, however, not in this book, which is designed to showcase basic skills for beginners.
The authors break this book down into four (4) sections as follows:
1.Krav Maga Basics
2.Combatives
3.Defenses
4.Ground Fighting
KRAV MAGA BASICS
Under this section, the authors go over a variety of warm-up and conditioning exercises, as well as various training positions. All of which are designed to get your ready for the next section, combatives.
COMBATIVES
Under this section, the authors go over a variety of skills and principles such as; the various fighting ranges, vulnerable areas, etc. As well as the proper mechanics of executing a variety of punches, elbow strikes, kicks, knees, and even a headbutt. Now I do have to say that this section, in any other book, would have been to brief for my liking. However, the authors have already qualified the briefness of the material presented in this book by emphatically stating that this book is a, "guide for beginners." And therefore, should be treated as such.
DEFENSES
Now rather than go into all of the different defenses shown in this section, I am instead going to talk about the way each of the defenses was presented. Which by the way, I thought was done very well.
Each defense is laid out in the following way:
Attack: This is where the author describes the type of attack coming at you.
Immediate Danger: Here the author emphasizes the attacker's intent with his attack.
Secondary Dangers: This is the results of the attack if it is successful.
Solution: Here the authors present a possible defense.
Initial Counterattack: Like the title says, this could be your first responding counter.
Neutralizing the Attacker: Additional counters that should be made after the first one.
Key Points: Important things to consider in the scenario given.
Commonly Asked Questions: Enough said!
GROUND FIGHTING
In this section, the authors go over a variety of common ground fighting tactics that are fairly easy for the beginner to grasp and eventually become proficient enough in to actually utilize them if the situation warrants.
Even though I am not a beginner when it comes to self-defense and combat, I really enjoyed this book and found it to be very useful and would strongly recommend it to anyone interested in not only Krav Maga, but any legitimate self-defense program.
Here are a few other books on the subject that I would also highly recommend:
Complete Krav Maga: The Ultimate Guide to Over 200 Self-Defense and Combative Techniques
Krav Maga: An Essential Guide to the Renowned Method--for Fitness and Self-Defense
Advanced Krav Maga: The Next Level of Fitness and Self-Defense
Krav Maga: How to Defend Yourself Against Armed Assault
Surviving Armed Assaults: A Martial Artists Guide to Weapons, Street Violence, and Countervailing Force
Meditations on Violence: A Comparison of Martial Arts Training & Real World Violence
Shawn Kovacich
Martial Artist/Author of the Achieving Kicking Excellence series.

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