Richard Bedard was a journalist in his mid-40s, living abroad, when he was diagnosed with patellofemoral pain syndrome, or chondromalacia patella. His burning joints made his life so miserable that he fantasized about hacking off his kneecaps. Four doctors failed to help; one said he would never get better. His physical therapist finally gave up too.Unable to sit normally, he quit his job. Unemployed and desperate, he launched a year-long, round-the-clock experiment to save his knees. He read from scores of clinical studies, medical textbooks, health newsletters. What he discovered left him stunned. There was a familiar story about what patellofemoral pain syndrome was and how to treat it: The advice to focus on strengthening the quads. To stretch. To take glucosamine. To forget about cartilage healing, because that never happened.And that story was completely wrong.Armed with this knowledge, he fashioned a plan to get better. Within two years, he fully recovered. This compelling story chronicles a long journey of healing and discovery. It shows that a patient’s true ally isn’t simply hope, but informed hope.

    

    The Slow Burn Fitness Revolution lays out the accumulating body of scientific evidence that shows the spend-hours-in-the-gym approach to exercise is over. The Slow Burn exercise routine gives great results in just 30 minutes a week. With Slow Burn, you will:*Get strong fast*Increase bone density and ward off osteoporosis*Improve cardiovascular health*Enhance flexibility*Say goodbye to lower back pain*Increase your metabolism, and*Make your body a powerful fat-burning machineSlow Burn promises a leaner, fitter, stronger you with a realistic workout that lets you have a great body and a life!

    Smart Exercise is a comprehensive guide to exercise and a lucid explanation of how our bodies stay fit or fat. Most important, Smart Exercise reveals the world's best-kept secret about fitness: keep your muscles in peak form and everything else will follow. Using his famous sense of humor to great effect, Bailey explains how muscles function, describes the multiple benefits of a good workout, and shows why muscle efficiency is the key to lowering body fat and improving general health. Take Covert's Home Fitness Test, make this book your exercise bible, and enjoy the benefits of being in the best shape of your life.

    Reaching the top of any sport, or any aspect of life, takes years upon years of dedication and proper preparation. But if there's a huge pool of individuals who have undertaken the same commitment and steps towards becoming the best, what truly separates the winners from everyone else? Joanna Zeiger believes proper mental preparation is the answer.The Champion Mindset is a much-needed and long overdue look into how to program a competitor's mind to achieve optimal success. Changing behaviors and ways of thinking are never easy, but the chapters in this book aim to simplify this process to make it manageable and achievable. This book is for every athlete--from the weekend warrior, who wants to complete in his or her first 5k running race, to those who have aspirations of one day becoming Olympians and world champions.The Champion Mindset is a compendium of Zeiger's own personal journey from struggling novice swimmer to Olympian and World Champion. Through steps including: Proper Goal Setting, Keeping it Fun, Building Your Team, Intention in Training, Improving Motivation, Promoting Self-Confidence, and Mind/Body Cohesion, among others, Zeiger uses her decades of personal experience, doctoral-level research, and professional success, to prepare readers to go all-in with their mental game.

    So why are injuries so common? Are our shoes to blame, or is it a question of running form, training, or poor diet? In this groundbreaking book, Peter Larson and Bill Katovsky explore the reasons why runners experience injuries and offer potential solutions to the current epidemic of running-related injuries. Their findings, gleaned from research studies and conversations with leading footwear scientists, biomechanical experts, coaches, podiatrists, physical therapists, and competitive runners, are informative and enlightening. Topics include:-How modern runners differ from their ancestors-Why repetitive stress causes most injuries, and how runners can safely reduce their occurrence-The pros and cons of barefoot running-Why it's time to move beyond the pronation-control paradigm with running shoes-How certain running-form flaws might increase injury risk-How footwear has evolved over the past 10,000 years-The recreational runner-Why running shoes are not inherently evilTread Lightly is a highly readable, multifaceted investigation of running—past and present, with a hopeful look to the future."

    But with the proper advice, these "hardgainers" definitely can realize their fitness goals. In Scrawny to Brawny, the authors draw on their years of practical experience as private strength and nutrition coaches to provide hardgainers with:o A progressive, state-of-the-art program that optimizes results with shorter, less frequent workouts that maximize compound exerciseso A unique, action-based perspective on nutrition that shows how to prepare quick muscle-building meals and snacks-and how to take advantage of several critical times in the day when muscle growth can be stimulated by food intakeo Vital information on how to identify and fix any weak links in their physiques that may be precursors to injuryDesigned not only for frustrated adult hardgainers but also-with its strong anti-steroid message-a terrific book for the large teen market, Scrawny to Brawny - by Michael Mejia and John Berardi - fills a significant gap in the weight-lifting arsenal.

    Doug McGuff to present a scientifically proven formula for maximizing muscle development in just 12 minutes a week. Backed by rigorous research, the authors prescribe a weekly high-intensity program for increasing strength, revving metabolism, and building muscle for a total fitness experience.

    Every topic is covered in almost 600 pages. * Strength and the muscular system * Philosophy of physical training * The muscle complex * Adaptation and the training effect * Sport specific strength training * Factors influencing strength production * The means of special strength training * The methods of special strength training * Organization of training * Strength training methods * Designing sports specific strength programs * Restoration and stress management * Combination of resistance methods * The use of testing * Overtraining * PNF as a training system * Models for structuring the annual training * Preparedness and the training load * Periodisation as a form of organization * Plyometric

    Sooner or later, nearly all climbers get injured and it will be injuries that ultimately dictate how far you get in climbing, if you let them. Unfortunately, the data shows it takes over a decade just to get small proportions of medical research adopted in regular practice. Sourcing reliable and up to date advice on preventing and treating finger, elbow, shoulder and other climbing injuries is challenging to say the least. You need to be the expert, because there are so many strands of knowledge and practice to pull together to stay healthy as a climber, and no single source of advice to cover all of these. The book draws together both the cutting edge of peer reviewed sports medicine research, and the subtle concepts of changing your climbing habits and routine to prevent and successfully recover from injuries. It is a handbook on how to take care of yourself as a lifelong climbing athlete. By spanning the fields of climbing coaching, physiotherapy, sports medicine and behavioural science, it goes beyond the general advice on treating symptoms offered by sports medicine textbooks and into much more detail on technique and habits specific to climbing than the existing climbing literature base. You will learn how your current climbing habits are already causing your future injuries and what you can do to change that. If you are already injured, it will prevent you from prolonging your injury with the wrong climbing habits and rehabilitation choices. You will learn how the ingredients of prevention and good recovery come from wildly different sources and how you have been using only a fraction of them. Fully referenced throughout, the practical advice for diagnosis, rehabilitation and prevention of climbing injuries is drawn from up to date peer reviewed sports medicine research.

    No machines. No space. No hassles! With Your Body is Your Barbell, a reader will have no excuse not to get into the best shape of his or her life…simply, easily, and in just 4 weeks in the convenience of his or her own home. How? Using nothing more than what God blessed—a body with unlimited potential.Metabolic training expert BJ Gaddour, CSCS, who Men's Health magazine calls one of the "100 Fittest Men of All Time," has created a remarkably efficient and effective body-transforming diet and workout program based on just a handful of simple moves, the Bodyweight Eight. These no-equipment-required exercises are all one needs to build a strikingly symmetrical, perfectly proportioned, and classically beautiful physique, just like BJ's. (Not long ago, he was a fat guy with bad knees and an addiction to ice cream sundaes.)But it doesn't stop there. Once readers master each legendary fitness feat with perfect form, he will use BJ's "Sweat Spectrum," scalable, step-by-step progressions to go from ground zero to super hero. From these exercise variations, readers can construct hundreds of personalized workouts. Dozens of sample workouts are already demonstrated through big, bold how-to photographs within the book, and organized by goal, duration, intensity, and targeted body zone. This is the only book a man or woman needs to achieve the body he or she has always wanted anywhere…and without gear.

    The soviet system I started 30 years ago prolonged my career to the point where I made top 10 lifts at 54 years old. It has enabled Westside lifters to break 100 plus world records and has helped countless more. I am proud my resume is never up to date. Why? Because I constantly break new records all the time, check out our top lifts in the back of the book and then check out our website for correct records. You will be amazed!

    Endurance Sports Nutrition will help you select the best foods, fluids, and supplements to train longer, recover more quickly, avoid injuries, and achieve your performance goals in any endurance endeavor.Sports dietitian and former elite runner Suzanne Girard Eberle provides a proven fueling program that addresses the unique needs of endurance athletes:Road and trail running: 5K to 100+ milesCycling and mountain biking: time trials to multiday ridesDuathlon and triathlon: sprint to IronmanWinter sports: Nordic ski races to mountain ascentsWater sports: rowing and long-distance swimmingEnvironmental conditions: extreme temperatures and high altitudeComplete with customizable menu plans, profiles and advice from elite endurance athletes, and strategies for avoiding the most common pitfalls of endurance athletes, Endurance Sports Nutrition will fuel your best performance.

    Listen to their quiet breaths as they talk in predawn pairs, before the rest of the family wakes-- the lessons and questions they share to the rhythm of steady footsteps. 'I never thought I could...' 'I feel so much stronger...' 'I'm ready to take on a new challenge...'Women develop a special sorority on the roads. This bond is an understanding based on acceptance, an appreciation of how far they have come, a knowing wink that says how much is yet to be gained. And so they talk and share and grow-- and run. Singly and in groups, swiftly and slowly, they run."--Dagny ScottChoose the best clothes and accessories * Lose weight permanently * Train for any race, from a 5-K to a marathon * Run through Menopause * Be safe wherever you run * Deal with self-consciousness and body image * Prevent and treat injuries * Run during pregnancy * Eat for maximum energy

    Primitive tools and simple modes are used to power sparse methods. We force the body to favorably reconfigure itself by generating physical and psychological fierceness during training. Commonsense nutritional strategies and Old School training tactics are synchronized and placed within a periodized timeframe. The three interrelated Purposefully Primitive disciplines (weight training, cardiovascular training and nutrition) need to be regularly and routinely practiced in a balanced and proportional fashion. Lock down all aspects of the program and within seven days of full implementation tangible results appear; by the end of the first month, body composition (the fat-to-muscle ratio) undergoes a dramatic turnaround; those who commit completely for 90 days undergo a total metamorphosis. No matter how deep a physical hole you are currently standing in, 90 days of maniacal discipline and teeth-gritting effort will enable you to utterly and completely change the shape, texture, efficiency and hardness of your body.