21st Century Fitness: Your personal guide to getting younger as you grow older. [Spiral-bound]

Larry Nachman (Author), David Grant (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 23, 2002

Beyond the traditional fitness methods developed in the last century there lies a new dimension of fitness. This next dimension is defined by its goal: to reverse the aging process and provide long lasting youth.

It was with fanfare and high hopes that we ushered in the 21st century, thinking that we had the answers to the fitness dilemma. There was information galore: Diets, mega-gyms, and endless array of equipment, videos, classes for everyone's taste, certified personal trainers, and a new theory every second. But as the dust has settled and we take a realistic look at the results, it appears as though we have failed. The United States has the most unfit population of all industrialized nations and its senior citizens have become old long before their time. 21st Century Fitness is a new attitude about aging. It breaks the cycle of stagnant thinking that has made most of today's fitness programs ineffective and obsolete. It is the first re-thinking of a total fitness program for all ages and lifestyles. It is an awakening to the new dimension of fitness that incorporates the best of 20th century methods and fills in the gaps that have long been missing. It provides every detail of exercise and nutrition to answer a question that we have asked throughout the ages: how can I have the essentials of youth in my later years? The new way to think about fitness.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Larry Nachman was born in 1937, only a few years after Muscle Beach in Venice, California had become the focal point of fitness in the United States. Those were the days when big muscles and "the Tarzan look" were quite the rage. However, even though weight training was gaining in popularity, in many ways it was still considered avant-garde.

At age 13 Larry started pumping iron at the Youth School of Bodybuilding in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. Under the watchful eye of the owner/trainer, Roger Servin, he developed his love for fitness.

Through swimming and lifting weights, Larry discovered the principle of stretch and resistance. This two-tiered principle became an important aspect of his thinking that led him to making additions to the Pilates mat, weight resistance, and walking.

Larry moved to New York City in 1960 and made his first visit to the Pilates studio on 8th Avenue. Joseph Pilates was working with a client at one end of the room. His wife Clara, dressed in a starched nurse's uniform, greeted him with a heavy German accent and gave a quick run-down on the Pilates philosophy. He just was too cocky about his fitness knowledge then and rejected it. But he was to return to it over a decade later and refine the Pilates Method with the principles he had learned from his own experiences.

At age 35 things started to happen to Larry. No matter what he did his posture and flexibility started to erode. He tried everything - jogging, bicycling, judo, yoga, aerobics. None of these worked to stop his decline. He finally realized that he was working hard to stay unfit. He realized that he lived in a country obsessed with the illusion of fitness.

He knew that for decades the Pilates Method had been a secret of the physical elite: choreographers George Balanchine and Martha Graham, movie stars Sharon Stone and Melanie Griffith, the San Francisco Forty-Niners and Cincinnati Bengals, and ballet companies in New York, Philadelphia and Atlanta. Larry became a student of the Pilates Method. He found in it everything he had sought in a fitness regimen since the age of 13. But how one could reconcile the seemingly conflicting demands of fitness and life?

He tested, edited, rejected and refined - and in the end produced a formula that offers fast, efficient workouts that can be done anywhere, at any time, with no equipment requirements. And in less that 30 minutes a day! He named his new formula 21st Century Fitness. While it incorporates the best of 20th century methods, it goes beyond to fill in the gaps that have long been missing.

Product Details

• Spiral-bound: 136 pages
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing (December 23, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1553951336
• ISBN-13: 978-1553951339
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.7 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,917,229 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A revolutionary breakthrough in fitness and health!, July 30, 2003

By 

Richard Dowell (Charleston, SC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 21st Century Fitness: Your personal guide to getting younger as you grow older. (Spiral-bound)

Last week Jenny Sanford, South Carolina's First Lady, made a presentation at my Rotary club. She enlisted support for a new effort to fight disease and illness in our society by becoming fit. She documented that the rise in cancer, heart disease and obesity directly correlated with a lack of fitness due to inactivity and poor nutrition. I told Larry (the author) to send her a copy of his book.

The theme of Larry Nachman's 21st Century Fitness is that by attaining the 8 (measurable) essentials of fitness through his formula of exercise and nutrition we can gain access to the 21st Century's "Fountain of Youth." To him most ailments we cite today are symptoms of aging. Stay fit and you are, by definition, both young and healthy.

I developed a commitment to fitness at West Point. During my four years there my classmates and I learned lifetime fitness sports such as golf and tennis. I was a member of the varsity swimming team. I was totally sold on the idea of lifetime fitness. 

In my middle years my favorite exercise was jogging -- I even ran in three Marine Corps Marathons. In my mind I was a model of fitness. Then in the early 90's I developed a lower back problem. It persisted in spite of a special exercise program followed by President Kennedy. Nothing worked until I started the 21st Century Fitness program by following the formula prescribed by Larry in his book.

My worst symptoms evaporated almost immediately! Today at age 69 I get out of bed each morning without an aching back and enjoy the many other benefits of fitness and youth! I'm at my ideal body weight and my blood stats (I've been a part of the West Point heart disease study since the early 50's) are better today than when I was a 25 year old fighter pilot.

Larry's book is a revolution in the field of health and fitness. As one of Larry's students says on his website ... , "There are three books that should be in every family library: the Bible, a dictionary and 21st Century Fitness."

4.0 out of 5 stars Thumbs up for this wonderful inspiring book!, July 11, 2007

By 

Nicky Vanvalkenburgh (South Carolina) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 21st Century Fitness: Your personal guide to getting younger as you grow older. (Spiral-bound)

Larry Nachman is a retired gym owner from Charleston, South Carolina, who lives and breathes Pilates. This book was not written merely to inform or entertain readers. Instead, this book is a work of passion and integrity. It is an attempt to help you master these Pilates techniques and make them a part of your life. Yes, Nachman is absolutely passionate about Pilates, and if you read this book, you'll become a believer yourself! Using black-and-white, cartoon-like full-body illustrations, Nachman makes it look so easy. With a little practice, you'll be able to do all the Pilates excercises, and transform your mind and body in the process. Nachman also shares personal stories, family photographs, and receipes -- which enhances the Pilates experience. The book's handy spiral-bound format makes it easy for you to take this book with you to the gym, or wherever you want to practice. Just open this book, and practice Pilates until you get it right. Thumbs up for Larry Nachman and this wonderfully inspiring book.