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Book review: Fitness book offers practical advice

Alysa Selby/For Steamboat Pilot & Today
Book review
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“The First 20 Minutes: Surprising Science Reveals How We Can Exercise Better, Train Smarter, Live Longer”

by Gretchen Reynolds

There is a book I read every year, Gretchen Reynolds’ “The First 20 Minutes: Surprising Science Reveals How We Can Exercise Better, Train Smarter, Live Longer.”



“Why,” you ask?

“Because it’s sane,” I reply.



“The First 20 Minutes: Surprising Science Reveals How We Can Exercise Better, Train Smarter, Live Longer,” by Gretchen Reynolds

As a former athlete now desk-bound, I need to be reminded regularly that I am not part of a “hidden tribe of super athletes” who run barefoot with ease. Though mountaineering feats beckon, Mt. Everest would most likely kill me, and despite my one year of rowing on the Sacramento River, I doubt I’d be able to solo in the Atlantic Rowing Race. It doesn’t mean however, that I don’t dream of such exploits and silently wish I was fit enough to accomplish them.

Thankfully, Reynolds’ book brings us Walter Mitty-type athletes back to reality and, in the process, makes us feel that fitness is within our grasp, despite our lack of extreme sports training and age.

Reporting on recent research on the body’s capacity for fitness, Reynolds, phys. ed. columnist for New York Times Magazine and Well blog, deftly and humorously breaks many of our pre-conceived notions.

Revel, for a moment, in the fact that the greatest reduction in your mortality happens within the first 20 minutes of exercise and that there is a law of diminishing returns. You can exercise a little and reap significant benefits, or you can exercise to an extreme and, physiologically speaking, only see a bit more improvement, if not injury. Though science does not know the “optimal” amount of exercise the body needs, studies on the Amish, which science suspects mimics our past active existence, suggest that somewhere between 12,000 and 18,000 steps per day is a healthy lifestyle.

It’s no surprise that exercise is extremely helpful to the brain, making us smarter, happier and less anxious, and that it is one of the best health treatments we have, but what about massage? I love a massage, but as a remedy to post-workout muscle soreness, it does not live up to its promise. Studies have found that massage tends to impede rather than improve blood flow to tired muscles. Moreover, in The American Journal of Sports Medicine, researchers found almost no correlation between wearing the proper running shoes and avoiding injury and, “if anything, wearing the ‘right’ shoes for a particular foot shape increased (the subjects’) chances of being hurt.”

And, sorry, folks, it’s hard to lose weight with exercise unless you modify your diet, as well, but it may determine whether you stay thin in the future. Women’s bodies (no surprise here) rejoice in holding onto every ounce of fat, so try working out before breakfast, since exercising in a fasted state promotes fat burning.

These are just a few vignettes, but what you won’t find in “The First 20 Minutes” are set exercise regimes or diet plans. Instead, at the end of each chapter, Reynolds summarizes the research findings and offers a list of suggestions you might want to incorporate in your fitness routine.

This is the real strength of the book. Each year, I pick a handful of suggestions and try to add them into my daily life yhrough the course of a year. It’s done wonders for my New Year’s resolutions, and if you have already given up on yours, you might want to try out this book.

“The First 20 Minutes: Surprising Science Reveals How We Can Exercise Better, Train Smarter, Live Longer” is available at the Bud Werner Memorial Library and at Off the Beaten Path Bookstore.

Alysa Selby is digital services librarian at the Bud Werner Memorial Library.


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