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Fitness Illustrated - Brian Sharkey
Fitness Illustrated
by Brian Sharkey
NEW, 328 pages
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About Fitness Illustrated
Tired of the same old fitness advice? You know the drill: Eat less, exercise more, and life will be grand. Sounds easy enough, so why don’t the results follow? And most of all, what can you do to achieve your fitness goals?
Fitness Illustrated allows you to see exercise and activity from a whole new perspective. In this one-of-a-kind guide, author Brian Sharkey takes you inside each type of activity to show you what works, what doesn’t, and why! You’ll go beyond the basics to see how your body changes with increased activity. From how muscles gain size and strength to the effect of aerobic activity on heart and lung function, this is fitness as you have never seen it before.
Straightforward explanations, expert advice, and hundreds of full-color illustrations and photographs make Fitness Illustrated your guide to these matters:
- Improving aerobic fitness, strength, muscular endurance, and flexibility
- Shaping and toning your body, including your core
- Coping with various health issues such as arthritis and preventing heart disease
- Managing weight with nutrition and activity
- Preventing and treating injuries, muscle cramps, and joint pain
You’ll also learn to separate fitness fact from fiction, design fitness programs around the activities that you enjoy, and reduce stress and add life to your years.
Whether you want to complete a 5K run, manage your weight, or improve muscle tone and definition, Fitness Illustrated is your personalized map for reaching your fitness goals!
About Brian Sharkey
Brian Sharkey, PhD, is a leading fitness researcher, educator, and author. Sharkey has more than 45 years of experience in exercise, sport, and work physiology. He is professor emeritus at the University of Montana, where he served as director of the Human Performance Laboratory and remains associated with the university and lab. He currently serves as a consultant with several federal agencies in the areas of fitness, health, and work capacity, especially of wildland firefighters. He has won several awards for his work, including the 2009 International Association of Wildland Fire’s Wildland Fire Safety Award for his contributions to wildland firefighter safety and health.
Sharkey authored or contributed to over a dozen books on exercise, sport, and work physiology and fitness and numerous research papers. He is past president of the American College of Sports Medicine and served on the NCAA committee on competitive safeguards and medical aspects of sports, where he chaired the Sports Science and Safety subcommittee, which uses research to improve the safety of intercollegiate athletics. He also coordinated the United States ski team Nordic Sports Medicine Council.
In his leisure time, Brian enjoys cross-country and alpine skiing, road and mountain biking, running and hiking in the hills and valleys, and paddling the rivers and lakes of Montana. He lives with his wife, Ann, close to his daughter, son, and grandchildren in Missoula, Montana.
Reviews of this book
“Beginners of all ages and fitness levels are sure to appreciate this shallow-end-of-the-pool approach to improving one’s health, whose gentle but comprehensive guidance and instruction will equip them to venture, at their own pace, into the deep end.”
Library Journal
"If you want to get in shape but don't have a clue about how to do it the right way, Fitness Illustrated is the book for you! There’s no need to plow through pages of boring information. Brian Sharkey's easy-to-read descriptions will help you jump into action."
Nancy Clark, MS, RD, CSSD -- Author of Nancy Clark's Sports Nutrition Guidebook, Fourth Edition
“Do you ever go to the gym and wonder why you are doing a certain workout? With Brian Sharkey's Fitness Illustrated, you will not only get a step-by-step program but also understand why you are performing each exercise.”
Diane O'Donnell -- ACE-Certified Personal Trainer, Health Editor for the Staten Island Advance
About Fitness
Physical fitness comprises two related concepts: general fitness (a state of health and well-being) and specific fitness (a task-oriented definition based on the ability to perform specific aspects of sports or occupations). Physical fitness is generally achieved through exercise.
In previous years, fitness was commonly defined as the capacity to carry out the day’s activities without undue fatigue. However, as automation increased leisure time, changes in lifestyles following the industrial revolution rendered this definition insufficient. These days, physical fitness is considered a measure of the body’s ability to function efficiently and effectively in work and leisure activities, to be healthy, to resist hypokinetic diseases, and to meet emergency situations.
Physical exercise is any bodily activity that enhances or maintains physical fitness and overall health or wellness. It is performed for various reasons. These include strengthening muscles and the cardiovascular system, honing athletic skills, weight loss or maintenance and for enjoyment. Frequent and regular physical exercise boosts the immune system, and helps prevent the "diseases of affluence" such as heart disease, cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes and obesity. It also improves mental health, helps prevent depression, helps to promote or maintain positive self-esteem, and can even augment an individual's sex appeal or body image Childhood obesity is a growing global concern and physical exercise may help decrease the effects of childhood obesity in developed countries.
Types of exercise: exercises are generally grouped into three types depending on the overall effect they have on the human body. Flexibility exercises, such as stretching, improve the range of motion of muscles and joints. Aerobic exercises, such as cycling, swimming, walking, skipping rope, running, hiking or playing tennis, focus on increasing cardiovascular endurance. Anaerobic exercises, such as weight training, functional training or sprinting, increase short-term muscle strength.
Fitness Illustrated
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