| Description |
292 pages, 8 unnumbered pages plates : illustrations, portraits ; 24cm |
| Contents |
1. Less Is More, or Is It? -- 2. History Repeats Itself -- 3. How Much Is Enough? -- 4. Maximum Heart Rates and Fat-Burning Zones -- 5. Training Lore -- 6. The Athlete's World -- 7. Mount Everest -- 8. Is There a Runner's High? -- 9. Sculpting the Body Beautiful -- 10. The Fitness Business -- Epilogue: The Truth About Exercise |
| Summary |
From the early days of jogging, championed by Jim Fixx� who later died of a heart attack�to weight lifting, cycling, aerobics, and Spinning, Kolata questions such popular notions as the "fat-burning zone" and "spot reducing", the effects of food on performance, how much exercise helps build fitness, and the difference between exercise to help the heart and exercise to change the body. She explains the science of physical fitness and the objective evidence behind commonly accepted prescriptions. Along the way she profiles researchers and mavericks who have challenged conventional wisdom, marketed their inventions, and sometimes bucked criticism only to back down from their original claims. Ultimate Fitness spotlights the machines and machinations of the fitness industry, and cuts through the marketing and hype not only to assess what is healthy, but also to understand what our obsession with staying healthy says about American culture today |
| Notes |
Includes index |
| Bibliography |
Bibliography: pages [269]-282 |
| Subject |
Physical fitness.
|
| LC no. |
2002192523 |
| ISBN |
0374204772 hardback alkaline paper |
|
