[.ca] Ultimate Fitness: The Quest for Truth About Health and ... (ISBN 0312423225)

Narcissism masquerading as Insight:
Like the author, I am a bit of a fitness buff. I workout regularly, (actually am a member of one of the several gyms Ms. Kolata calls home), watch what I eat, and ensure there are places to work out when I travel. 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!

Ultimate Fitness:
Review: Gina Kolata, a Science reporter and author for the New York Times takes a detailed look at all aspects of physical fitness in her book, "Ultimate Fitness, The Quest for Truth about Health and Exercise." It is an interesting book because she discusses not only the trendy fitness crazes that many people in our culture embark on but also the timeless traditional forms of health and exercise. She takes a detailed look at everything from yoga, Pilates, and spinning to running, weight lifting and conventional cardio workouts. Kolata examines various theories as to what drives people to exercise vigorously, and the pros and cons of the various exercise programs. Kolata is extremely knowledgeable in her the subject matter of health and exercise and her journalistic curiosity is quite evident. However, at different points in the book I felt like the author was trying to include too much information... that it was a little difficult to absorb all of it and may have been easier to follow had she stayed a little more on one track with her thoughts. I also found that she seemed to be a little biased when it came to her discussions about "spinning." It was obvious she was a big fan of "spinning," but she did not seem to take an objective look at it, at times it felt more like she was only promoting it. Whereas when she went into depth on other forms of exercise I felt like she was more about pros and cons and benefits and risks than promotion. I also found the books organization to be a bit disorganized. Possibly highlighting different topics and main points within the chapters would have made it easier to follow. On the whole, "Ultimate Fitness, the Quest for Truth about Health and Exercise" is informative and educational. I also feel both male and female readers can learn from it. It does lean more to the feminine side of exercise but as a male athlete I also appreciated this book. There were sections I could have lived without reading but was overall pleased. For all of the information she included I would have liked to see her be more in depth about sports and the fitness benefits of different sports.

Ultimate Fitness:
Chisa Shimoguchi Ultimate Fitness the Quest for Truth about Exercise and Health Weight has been the one of biggest issues amount of people in America. Many people are always concerned about their weight. Today, in 2004, we live in a growing society where it provides everything for us to live our lives with advanced technology and rich agriculture. Because of rich agriculture, we do not have to starve ourselves and because of high technology, we are able to go anywhere we want. We certainly do not have to worry about things that people worried about decades ago such as foods; however, as society has gotten wealthier, our daily life and eating habits have changed which caused many Americans to gain weight. Many of us have started to be concern about our weight. Therefore, exercise has become our culture; however, since there are many theories of different ways to exercise and an excess amount of products from it, we are not sure what to believe about exercise guidelines. Gina Kolata, the author of Ultimate Fitness the Quest for Truth about Exercise and Health, is also one of the biggest fans of fitness. In the book, she did research and answered the general questions many of us had about fitness. Fitness did not start to prevail recently; it has been always part of our culture. To understand about exercise movement, Gina Kolata goes back to its history. She finds out that ancient Greek was the first to report about exercise. At the time, exercise was considered as medicine to better people's health. Gina discusses how the society and people in different times accept exercise over time. In the 18th century, people and scientists thought that low intensity exercise such as walking was better than high intensity exercises like running, but, in the late 1800s, it was "muscular Christianity" (37), when people first began to be strongly enthusiastic about exercise and decided to start training. By today, we still believe that exercise does preserve our health. Many people exercise in different ways. Some people enjoy jogging, running and another people enjoy going to fitness centers. Many scientists and physicians have stated that low intensity exercise is better than vigorous exercise. This statement came up because many athletes have died at very young ages. Is it true? By researching, Gina finds out that low intensity exercises such as walking preserves our health and decreases the possibility of acquiring heart diseases; but if you want to preserve your health and lose weight at the same time, vigorous exercise is a better choice if it's not too intense. If you work hard, you have to make sure you drink plenty of water, and also by taking in the right kind of sugars your body uses less glucose and carbohydrates, which will give you more energy. Not only do people exercise to preserve their health, but also they want an attractive body. How do we know the reasonable level of exercise we need to lose those unwanted calories? Study shows that when the heart rate comes to a maximum of about 60 or 70%, you lose most fat and carbohydrates, but when you go over that heart rate, you would not be able to burn as much. How would we know what our heart rate is? Gina states, "Your maximum heart rate equals 220 minus your age." (79). By using this equation, you are able to know that own zones such as "fat-burning zone". However, if you work out, it is obvious to notice that some people get muscle quicker than others, and some people get better tone of muscle than others. It is because of muscle genes. She also talks about how our heart beats fast while we are exercising, how athletes work, and what they eat in their daily lives. In the book, researcher Dave Costill explains the reason why we are so tired from working out is because we lose a lot of water when we perspire; and so your blood pressure goes down. When your blood pressure goes down, your muscles receive less blood and the surface of your skin gets less blood, glucose and oxygen, so the skin would not be able to cool you down. That causes your heart to beat faster, but since there is less blood, you get hotter and tired, which forces your body to slow down. However, if you work out more, as a result, you get stronger physically, and you will be able to work out for longer periods of time. Because working out betters the condition of your cardiovascular system, the cardiovascular system would be able to transport more blood to muscles. Since muscles develop more blood vessels when they are being worked out, it will be able to accept more blood, and that action allows your heart to recover quicker. Cardiovascular work out causes the mitochondria in muscles to multiply improving their ability to store more glycogen, which is fuel for the body; therefore, you will be able to work out longer without getting tired. Also, when the heart delivers more blood, it increases metabolic rate, so our body will be able to burn more fat. Gina also discusses two major types of muscle fibers, which are fast-twitch and slow-twitch muscle fibers. Fast-twitch muscle fibers require more blood to provide oxygen and slow-twitch muscle fibers, where much of the glycogen is stored, requires less blood; therefore, when you are walking, your quadricep muscles use more of the slow-twitch muscle fibers. This book really answers the questions that majority of people have about fitness. We all should get knowledge about fitness; therefore, we do not always have to depend on media or personal trainers. Because it is about own body, we should be able to take care of it by ourselves. This book is also very easy to understand; therefore, I prefer many people who are interested in fitness read this book.

General Knowledge of Exercising:
Fitness and health, seems to be only a trend that has been around at the most for 100 years however little do many people know that it dates back to the Ancient Greeks. Gina Kolata gave this insite in her most recent book. Continueing on she discussed the different fads and trends about eating well and training the body that have changed so many times since then that as a result many theories about fitness have evolved. 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

Basic info & history - but no revelations - why "ultimate"?:
This is a good history of exercise in the United States and discussion of basic information on fitness. The author has investigated the more commonly held myths about fitness and written out her findings clearly. However, I was disappointed that there is much more history (at least 2/3 of the book) than real news about exercise. Most of the myths explored in this book have been "debunked" by others before; the knowledge is not new if you've done any ready about fitness at all since 1990. (The only thing new I learned, in fact, is that studies have proven that different people's bodies respond differently to exercise - and that approximately 1% do not respond AT ALL. Yikes!) Overall, this is a good book, just not as "ultimate" as I was led to expect.