Book picks similar to
Barefoot Running: How to Run Light and Free by Getting in Touch with the Earth by Michael Sandler
running
fitness
health
non-fiction
The Pursuit of Endurance: Harnessing the Record-Breaking Power of Strength and Resilience
Jennifer Pharr Davis - 2018
With a storyteller's ear for fascinating detail and description, Davis takes readers along as she trains and sets her record, analyzing and trail-testing the theories and methodologies espoused by her star-studded roster of mentors. She distills complex rituals and histories into easy-to-understand tips and action items that will help you take perseverance to the next level. The Pursuit of Endurance empowers readers to unlock phenomenal endurance and leverage newfound grit to achieve personal bests in everything from sports and family to the boardroom.
The Complete Book of Pilates for Men: The Lifetime Plan for Strength, Power Peak Performance
Daniel Lyon Jr. - 2005
Many books on the subject show lithe female bodies stretched across their covers. Top Pilates instructor Daniel Lyon Jr. aims to break the preconception that Pilates only benefits and appeals to women. "This couldn't be further from the truth," he asserts. "Joseph Pilates was a cigar-smoking boxer, acrobat, and gymnast, and he developed his exercise program from that background for men first." Likewise, Lyon designed this book specifically with men in mind, as the number of male Pilates practitioners -- among them professional athletes, actors, businessmen, and other high-profile personalities -- has rocketed to about three million and continues to grow.For athletes, working stiffs, and men recovering from injuries, Lyon offers the first comprehensive exercise program of its kind. He walks you through forty "traditional mat" exercises and more than sixty "reformer on the mat" exercises -- each one brilliantly illustrated -- in an inspiring self-guided program that adapts to all experience levels and requires nothing more than floor space, an exercise mat, and the desire to look and feel your best. Using the Pilates method of engaging the strongest parts of the body, or the "powerhouse" (Joseph Pilates's term for the abdominals, hips, lower back muscles, and buttocks), and integrating all other body parts from this core, Lyon's program targets trouble spots for men and helps them achieve strong, lean, masculine physiques.The Complete Book of Pilates for Men will deliver quick and long-term results to any man who seeks optimal fitness and a competitive edge in all aspects of his life.
The Mindful Athlete: Secrets to Pure Performance
George Mumford - 2015
A widely respected public speaker and coach, Mumford shares his story and strategies in The Mindful Athlete. His proven techniques transform the performance of anyone with a goal, be they an Olympian, weekend warrior, executive, hacker, or artist.A basketball player at the University of Massachusetts (where he roomed with Dr. J, Julius Erving), injuries forced Mumford out of the game he loved. The meds that relieved the pain of his injuries also numbed him to the emptiness he felt without the game and eventually led him to heroin. After years as a functioning addict, Mumford made meditation the center of his life. He kicked drugs, earned a master’s degree, and began teaching meditation to inmates and others.Mumford went on to partner with coach Phil Jackson, a long-time mindfulness practitioner, working with him and each of the teams he coached to become NBA champions. His roster of champion clients now includes executives and Olympians. With a charismatic style that combines mindfulness with lessons from icons like Yoda and Bruce Lee, Mumford delivers an engrossing story and an invaluable resource.
Running Science
Owen Anderson - 2013
His U.S. counterpart, Bill Bowerman, brought Lydiard's term for what until then had been called roadwork, or jogging, to the States. Soon after, the 1970s running boom started, spurred by exercise-advocating research from the growing fields of exercise science and sports medicine and from enthusiasts such as Jim Fixx, author of The Complete Book of Running. One of Bowerman's former runners at the University of Oregon, Phil Knight, saw to it that those millions of new runners had swoosh-adorning footwear designed specifically for their sport.The pace of knowledge enhancement and innovation has, in fact, been so brisk through the years that even highly informed runners could be excused for not keeping up, but no longer. Running Science is a one-of-a-kind resource:- An easily comprehended repository of running research- A wealth of insights distilled from great sport and exercise scientists, coaches, and runners- A do-it-right reference for a host of techniques and tactics- An array of the most credible and widely used training principles and programs- Perhaps most of all, a celebration of the latest science-based know-how of running, now truly the world's most popular sportElite running coach Owen Anderson presents this comprehensive work in a compelling way for runners. A PhD and coach himself, Anderson has both a great enthusiasm for sharing what scientific studies offer the running community and a keen sense of what's really important for today's informed runners to know.
Not Your Average Runner: Why You’re Not Too Fat to Run and the Skinny on How to Start Today
Jill Angie - 2017
With humor, compassion, and lots of love, Jill Angie delivers the goods: overcoming the challenges of running with an overweight body and giving individuals’ self-esteem an enormous boost in the process. This isn't a guide to running for weight loss, or a simple running plan. It shows readers how a woman carrying a few (or many) extra pounds can successfully become a runner in the body she has right now. Jill Angie is a certified running coach and personal trainer who wants to live in a world where everyone is free to feel fit and fabulous at any size. She started the Not Your Average Runner movement in 2013 to show that runners come in all shapes, sizes and speeds, and, since then, has assembled a global community of revolutionaries that are taking the running world by storm. If you would like to be part of the revolution, flip to the inside and find out more!
IronFit Secrets for Half Iron-Distance Triathlon Success: Time-Efficient Training for Triathlon's Most Popular Distance
Don Fink - 2013
Full Iron-Distance races require such painstaking planning and sacrifice that it’s difficult to keep life in balance. The Half Iron-Distance is accessible, while remaining challenging. Also known as the “70.3” for the sum of its 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride, and 13.1 mile run, the half-iron triathlon is not simply a race for which an athlete can use a full-iron training regimen chopped in half. Doing so would in no way approach maximizing an athlete’s performance. The races are performed at completely different intensity levels, with completely different approaches. As a result, the training is completely different. IronFit Secrets to Half Iron-Distance Triathlon Success does for the half-iron what Be IronFit has done for the full-iron. It provides three sixteen-week training programs—Competitive, Intermediate, and “Just Finish”—and details everything an athlete needs to know to successfully prepare for and maximize performance at this racing distance. In as little as four months, any athlete can be physically and mentally ready for the world’s most popular triathlon challenge.
The Fitness Mindset: Eat for energy, Train for tension, Manage your mindset, Reap the results
Brian Keane - 2017
The Fitness Mindset gives you everything you need to get the body you’ve always dreamed of, ramp your energy levels through the roof and develop the mindset to keep it forever. WHEN YOU READ THIS BOOK AND IMPLEMENT BRIAN’S PROVEN STRATEGIES, YOU WILL: • Know exactly what foods work best for you and how to eat to increase energy, lose fat and build lean muscle • Learn how to combine tension-style workouts and High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) to build the body you’ve always wanted • Build better habits and find your ‘why’ so you never lose motivation again • Develop strategies to minimise stress, anxiety and the fear of rebounding so you can create a bulletproof body and mind • Finally get into the best physical and mental shape of your life. About the author: In less than five years, Brian Keane went from a full time primary school teacher in London to one of the top online fitness coaches in Ireland and the UK, transforming thousands of lives and physiques in the process. From playing top level inter-county football as a teenager to travelling the world as a professional fitness model in his twenties, Brian reveals what he has learned in his 16 years of training, nutrition and personal development. Learn more at www.briankeanefitness.com
Keep Sharp: Build a Better Brain at Any Age
Sanjay Gupta - 2020
Throughout our life, we look for ways to keep our mind sharp and effortlessly productive. Now, globetrotting neurosurgeon Dr. Sanjay Gupta offers insights from top scientists all over the world, whose cutting-edge research can help you heighten and protect brain function and maintain cognitive health at any age. Keep Sharp debunks common myths about aging and cognitive decline, explores whether there’s a “best” diet or exercise regimen for the brain, and explains whether it’s healthier to play video games that test memory and processing speed, or to engage in more social interaction. Discover what we can learn from “super-brained” people who are in their eighties and nineties with no signs of slowing down—and whether there are truly any benefits to drugs, supplements, and vitamins. Dr. Gupta also addresses brain disease, particularly Alzheimer’s, answers all your questions about the signs and symptoms, and shows how to ward against it and stay healthy while caring for a partner in cognitive decline. He likewise provides you with a personalized twelve-week program featuring practical strategies to strengthen your brain every day. Keep Sharp is the only owner’s manual you’ll need to keep your brain young and healthy regardless of your age!
Inside the Box: The Culture, Science, and Sweat of the CrossFit Revolution
T.J. Murphy - 2012
Its fervent practitioners, known as CrossFitters, are as competitive as they are sweaty, striving for the pride of marking their time atop the list of the day’s top performers.CrossFit’s “boxes” are brick-walled industrial warehouses, gyms, and garages floored with rubber mats and chock full of kettlebells, free weights, ropes, medicine balls, truck tires, jump ropes, and bags of chalk. CrossFitters race to complete the day’s prescribed workout, many named after fallen war heroes, with exercises that include burpees, box jumps, clean and jerks, and pull-ups—as many times as they can in a designated time period. Workouts are intense, leaving spent athletes dripping with sweat and glowing with endorphin-fueled satisfaction.In a departure from sterile mainstream gyms, it is camaraderie that keeps CrossFitters coming back week after week for their hour of high-intensity suffering—that and the promise of weight loss and a sculpted physique. Its practitioners know well that CrossFit has changed lives, forming biggest losers into lean, mean evangelists.Author and veteran CrossFitter T.J. Murphy goes inside the box to shed light on the extraordinary community of CrossFit and why this fast-growing fitness movement is coming soon to a garage near you.
Run the World: My 3,500-Mile Journey Through Running Cultures Around the Globe
Becky Wade - 2016
But after years spent safely sticking to the training methods she knew, Becky was curious about how her counterparts in other countries approached the sport to which she’d dedicated over half of her life. So in 2012, as a recipient of the Watson Fellowship, she packed four pairs of running shoes, cleared her schedule for the year, and took off on a journey to infiltrate diverse running communities around the world. What she encountered far exceeded her expectations and changed her outlook into the sport she loved.Over the next 12 months—visiting 9 countries with unique and storied running histories, logging over 3,500 miles running over trails, tracks, sidewalks, and dirt roads—Becky explored the varied approaches of runners across the globe. Whether riding shotgun around the streets of London with Olympic champion sprinter Usain Bolt, climbing for an hour at daybreak to the top of Ethiopia’s Mount Entoto just to start her daily run, or getting lost jogging through the bustling streets of Tokyo, Becky’s unexpected adventures, keen insights, and landscape descriptions take the reader into the heartbeat of distance running around the world.Upon her return to the United States, she incorporated elements of the training styles she’d sampled into her own program, and her competitive career skyrocketed. When she made her marathon debut in 2013, winning the race in a blazing 2:30, she became the third-fastest woman marathoner under the age of 25 in U.S. history, qualifying for the 2016 Olympic Trials and landing a professional sponsorship from Asics. From the feel-based approach to running that she learned from the Kenyans, to the grueling uphill workouts she adopted from the Swiss, to the injury-recovery methods she learned from the Japanese, Becky shares the secrets to success from runners and coaches around the world. The story of one athlete’s fascinating journey, Run the World is also a call to change the way we approach the world’s most natural and inclusive sport.
The Wim Hof Method: Own Your Mind, Master Your Biology, and Activate Your Full Human Potential
Wim Hof - 2020
You can overcome disease, improve your mental health and physical performance, and even control your physiology so you can thrive in freezing temperatures.” With The Wim Hof Method, this trailblazer of human potential shares a method that anyone can use—not just extreme athletes or spiritual masters—to supercharge your capacity for strength, health, and happiness.Wim Hof has become a modern legend for his astounding achievements, such as withstanding extreme temperatures, breaking world records, and running barefoot marathons over deserts and ice fields. In his gripping and passionate style, Hof shares the story of how he developed his method, along with testimonials and new insights from the university research studies on its amazing results. With guidance suited for any reader—young or old, sick or healthy—you’ll learn how to harness three key elements of Cold, Breathing, and Mindset to take charge of your own mind and metabolism.Yet the most important result of Hof’s method goes beyond improved health or performance—it is a path for reconnecting with your spiritual nature. “With these practices, you awaken to your inner source of power and fulfillment,” he says. “You find you can control your destiny.”
Swim Smooth: The Complete Coaching Programme for Swimmers and Triathletes
Paul Newsome - 2012
Hundreds of full-color photographs and three-dimensional graphics help you put theory into practice while detailed advice offers help for intermediate, advanced, and elite swimmers alike. The book's approach lets you identify the strengths and weaknesses of your stroke and drills and training tips let you make the most of your time in the water.Swim Efficently. Swim Fast. Swim Smooth.
Overcoming Poor Posture: A Systematic Approach to Refining Your Posture for Health and Performance
Steven Low - 2017
RETOX: Yoga*Food*Attitude Healthy Solutions for Real Life
Lauren Imparato - 2015
lifestyle brand and yoga studio Rest to rage. Meditate to work. Cleanse to get dirty. Enough preaching about self-deprivation. No more striving for bodily purity. Who has the patience—or the time!—for strict dietary restrictions and hours of meditation? Let’s get real. These tactics just don’t work—at least not for long. But that doesn’t mean health and happiness are unobtainable. Most often you just need an anxiety buster you can do while running down the street. Or a yoga pose you can do at your desk. Or a way to debloat what feels like an alien baby in your abdomen. Retox isn’t about changing who you are or denying life’s pleasures. It’s about tailoring sensible, scientifically-based health practices to the life you already live. It’s about working hard, playing harder, and renewing your balance and energy so you can do it all again. In Retox, health expert Lauren Imparato strips yoga down to its anatomical principles, offering practical tips for fast relief. Then, drawing from a variety of disciplines—from psychology to nutrition to Tibetan philosophy—she designs no-nonsense strategies and delicious recipes to combat the most common challenges of modern life: • Stress and anxiety • Low energy • Back pain and headaches • Hangovers • PMS • Sleep Deprivation • And much more…
The Paleo Diet: Lose Weight and Get Healthy by Eating the Food You Were Designed to Eat
Loren Cordain - 2001
This book presents readers with a program that causes weight loss in overweight people - up to seventy-five pounds in six months while normalizing blood cholesterol, and increasing energy levels.