10-Minute L.E.A.P: Lifetime Exercise Adherence Plan [Hardcover]

Richard L. Brown (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1998 | ISBN-10: 0788192906 | ISBN-13: 978-0788192906

Staying healthy isn't just a matter of diet -- exercise is crucial. Brown offers a powerful new exercise program that is easy, sustainable, & guarantees optimal performance at all times. It is based on the most up-to-date physiological & health research. You will be able to determine just how much energy your body is capable of converting at any given time through physical activities -- even such activities such as gardening & vacuuming. In segments as small as 10 minutes a day, you can maintain & improve your health & fitness. Helps in setting training schedules, maintaining a balanced diet, attaining accurate measurements, & reducing stress.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Anyone who isn't confused about exercise hasn't been paying attention. One organization advocates "exercise lite"--gardening and walking and taking stairs instead of elevators. But a significant body of scientific evidence shows that the more work you do and the harder you do it, the greater the benefits you derive. With "The 10-Minute LEAP," Brown has created perhaps the first system designed to help you get the best of both worlds. You can exercise as "lite" as you want on his program, and yet you'll still do it progressively--that is, work a little more and a little harder each week.

Brown developed this system--based on perceived exertion (how hard you think you're working) and total time spent exercising--for the Olympic athletes he trains for a living. But it works for anyone. You set up the program by first calculating your current fitness level, taking into account your age, gender, how much you exercise, how well you eat, how much sleep you get, and how stressful your life is. That gives you a starting point. From there, Brown shows you how to set up 13-week-long exercise programs in which you measure progress through a point system. You can get all your points for any given week in a couple of hard, long workouts, or in seven short, easy stints. Or you can do anything in between. The point is to get your points by the end of the week, get more points in progressive weeks, take a week off at the end of the cycle, and then start the next 13-week progression. It's pretty math intensive, especially at the beginning, and it takes continual monitoring and record keeping. But, hey, it's your health. If you balance your checkbook, why wouldn't you calculate your fitness level? --Lou Schuler --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Richard L. Brown, Ph.D., coach of seven Olympians and recognized by the United States Olympic Track and Field governing body as a "master coach," is an educator who has guided people at all levels of physical ability in their quest to reach personal fitness goals. From tenth grade biology students to cardiac rehabilitation patients to the faculty at the United States Naval Academy, Brown has been involved in helping people make physical activity a part of their lives

Product Details

• Hardcover: 345 pages
• Publisher: Diane Pub Co (April 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0788192906
• ISBN-13: 978-0788192906
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,496,545 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Personal trainer in a box: it works!, October 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The 10-Minute L.E.A.P.: Lifetime Exercise Adherence Plan (Hardcover)

This is the closest thing to an idiot-proof fitness plan out there; trust me, I should know. Before I started using this book, I was overweight and not very fit. In school I was the kid who hated gym class and faked doctor's notes to get out of it. Over the years I had tried and failed at lots of fitness regimens. Then a friend gave me this book, saying it had worked for her. A year later I have slimmed down and I feel a lot stronger and more energetic. This may sound like a cheesy testimonial, but it's true. What's great is that the author, Dr. Richard Brown, uses the same plan with the Olympic athletes he coaches -- it is entirely customized to your level of fitness and your goals.

Under this plan, any exercise counts -- from scrubbing floors to Tae-Bo to sailing -- because you rate the effort yourself according to an easy-to-use scale (no heart-rate monitoring). The main point is to choose something you enjoy, the reasoning being that you'll be more likely to stick with it that way. I get my points mostly from walking, stationary cycling, and a strength-training video workout, but I can just as easily figure out my effort for the occasional day of hiking or swimming in the ocean. Even if you don't keep track of your points, you can still use the general principles to pace yourself. The result for me was that I didn't burn out the way I had on other plans, because I was doing exactly the right amount of exercise, and I started noticing the benefits right away. I'd like to thank the author: L.E.A.P. is quite an achievement.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent research, in a simple easy-to-use model, December 6, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The 10-Minute L.E.A.P.: Lifetime Exercise Adherence Plan (Hardcover)

I recently bought this book and applied its models to my own exercise program. It was a remarkable experience. I answered the list of lifestyle questions, worked out the simple numbers, and was very surprised when the results almost exactly matched my intuitive expectations.

Since the model in this book is based on oxygen consumption to produce energy, the book is on firm theoretical ground. The lifestyle questionnaire is used to estimate your ability to burn oxygen to produce energy. From this knowledge, the model can predict a whole series of useful numbers (energy conversion points) for various exercise/workout levels.

For example, the model identifies the following levels based on your ability to convert oxygen: safe level, disease prevention level, body change level, VO2max change level, optimal level, and overtraining level. These numbers help you to exercise sensibly, without under or overtraining.

I had only 1 or 2 questions after reading the book, and the author was kind enough to explain them. The emphasis on 75% of VO2max is because this estimate (75%) represents the boundary between aerobic and anaerobic exercise. The 75% is not a hard number, and can vary among individuals from around 70% to 82% or so (I hope I remembered these numbers right...). Anyhow, the point is that when you work out hard enough to cross that boundary (wherever it is for you), you suddenly have to work very hard to get small improvements in output.

I think the book is a fine piece of research, based on years and years of experience in working with high-performance athletes. It's particularly nice that the model presented is so simple and easy to use, yet so effective.

I rated the book 9 out of 9 on my book reading scale, based on over a thousand books in various fields. Books don't get any better than this one. Highly recommended.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Works for me!, March 2, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The 10-Minute L.E.A.P.: Lifetime Exercise Adherence Plan (Hardcover)

The biggest benefit this book gave me was a reasonable, sensible goal. Without some kind of measurable goal (in this case, meeting the minimum number of exercise points per week), you have nothing to measure yourself against and I always felt I wasn't doing enough! Now, when I've done my exercise for the week and I don't feel like getting up on Saturday morning, I just crawl back into bed! And it's working! Without changing my diet I've lost 10 pounds over the last month, just by using my stationary bicycle, hiking, and exercise videos.