Customer Reviews

Age Defying Fitness: Making the Most of Your Body for the Rest of Your Life

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Just a great little book written by two physical therapists. The idea the book is based upon is that the antidote to aging is activity. So what kind of activity do you need?

To answer this question, the book begins by having you evaluate your physical performance so you can identify those areas that you need the most work in. Thus, you complete five tests that assess your posture, strength, balance, flexibility, and endurance- or what the book calls "the five domains."

After finishing these tests, you should have a pretty good idea of what areas you need the most work on. From there, you just go to the posture chapter or the balance chapter, or the strength chapter and so on- whatever chapters you need the most.

Each chapter contains additional "tests" for the reader to do to further hone in on problem areas. These are kinda neat and very easy for just about anybody to do. After these specific tests, easy-to-do exercises are provided. For instance, the posture chapter contains a lot of stretching exercises. the strengthening exercises use a theraband which comes with the book, the balance exercises (there are eight) are simple i.e. stand on one leg, flexibility exercises which cover your neck area down to your legs, and endurance exercises such as walking, jumping rope or cycling.

The book ends with a brief chapter called "Putting It All Together" which ties up loose ends such as coping with soreness and staying consitent with exercise.

All-in-all its a neat book with a wealth of evidence-based information and simple exercises you can do with little or no equipment. Other books I liked in the body repair genre include Treat Your Own Rotator Cuff if you have a shoulder problem or rotator cuff tear that keeps you from exercising. Good luck with the tune-up!

As an exercise trainer myself, I was delighted to see a book on exercise by physical therapists, the real exercise specialists. Because they have the medical background to safely prescribe exercises which respect our aging joints, I highly recommend this book to those over 50 and those under 50 who want to embark on an exercise routine. It is well written, clear, concise and easily understandable and useable. Given that it is so necessary for all of us to work on maintaining good posture and balance, this book maps out exercises with precise instructions and photos to specifically focus on these areas. It provides an excellent explanation of the aging process and the changes that occur within our bodies, and then prescribes exercises to counteract and work with these changes. The exercises will help those who want to gain strength and endurance, increase flexibility, and improve balance. My personal recommendation (after you have read the book) is to suggest hiring a physical therapist to come to your home to help you fine tune your program, see that you are doing the exercises correctly, and to offer a few alternatives as well.

Mady Goldstein, M.S.W., NYC

Three times in the last several years, I have had physical problems bad enough to require a PT (physical therapist). Each time, the PT helped me get back to health. Two of these times, the PT allowed me to avoid surgery. I came away with great respect for the philosophies, skills, and knowledge that PTs have.

Now I find that, while I don't have any major physical problems, I need something to keep my body at its best. There are many books about staying fit past 50. I wanted one written by a PT. I could find two, this one and another book Marilyn Moffat wrote with Steve Vickery. This is by far the better book.

This book breaks fitness down into 5 categories: Posture, Strength, Balance, Flexibility, and Endurance. For each category, the book offers a series of simple self-evaluations. Then the book offers several exercises for each of these five categories. What makes this book particularly helpful is that exercises are targeted according to the results of the self-evaluations. I was able to find those areas where I need the most help, then target the exercises that help me the most.

This is a book that will help ease you back into fitness. I recommend it to friends who would like to get started on a fitness program and don't know where to start, as well as a few who have injured themselves and want to continue exercising. To date, I've purchased three copies for myself and close friends.

Here's my experience with Age Defying Fitness. I purchased a copy after reading a NYT review with the goal of improving my posture. Upon receiving the book, I read the first seven pages then skipped to the chapter on posture. The next morning I took the posture self-assessment tests and got a baseline reading. Next I started through the chapter "8 Great Exercises for Posture". The exercises were challenging but doable and, before I knew it, I was doing them every day!

The improvement in my posture in the next three weeks was astounding, according to both the self-assessment tests and feedback from friends. I was so inspired I decided to work on my core muscles using the "8 Great Exercises for Neck and Trunk." Before I knew it my abs were strong and physical things I enjoy doing, like gardening, just got easier and easier.

I've made so much progress that I no longer regularly see my chiropractor for neck adjustments. Now I know how to release neck tension and have strengthened my back and abdominal muscles to the point that my body stays in good alignment every day. I've also been able to leverage what I learned to help me deeply relax at night. When I go to bed, I use one 10 second repetition of exercise 1, 4 and 5 from "8 great exercises for posture" and one repetition of each of the neck strengthening exercises from "8 great exercises for neck and trunk" (there are four of them) as a 3 minute relaxation sequence which prepares me to sleep.

I haven't made it through the other chapters yet. My physical progress resulting from the posture and core muscle training inspired me to start using my Bowflex again (which had become a sweater holder in the past year). However, I still do the posture and core muscle training from Age-Defying Fitness three times a week and my relaxation sequence every day to keep my posture going strong.

If you know you need to exercise and are wondering how to start, I recommend you buy this book and work your way through it. The self-asessment tests help you document your baseline and progress. Exercises are clearly written and there are photos that illustrate proper positioning for each one. Plus, each section of the book (there are five: posture, strength, flexibility, balance and endurance) starts with an explanation which helps you understand what was going on with your body as your fitness level declined over time and how to reverse the trend.

Get fit! You know you can do it. And when you do, you'll be telling others about this springboard to fitness.

To stay as healthy as possible for as long as possible is the goal of most of us . This book is aimed to help us in this quest. Its focus is on exercising as a means of improving our physical health. It recommends we begin by going to a physical therapist and assessing our physical health in five areas, posture, balance, flexibility, strength and endurance. After the assessment is made we then can begin to seek out the customized health plan we need.
According to the authors even the very old can improve their physical health by the proper forms of exercising. The book contains carefully described exercises to improve our situation in each of the areas involved. It also provides vital information regarding the areas concerned.
Its approach and recommendation is activist. Its implication is that leaving ourselves alone is not good enough. The physical processes of deterioration which take place for instance in bone density, and joint flexibility requre that we try to offset them through exercising.
There is no doubt that careful reading of this book, and application of its lessons will improve the health of most.

I bought the book because inner ear problems have given me balance issues, and normal exercise books don't deal with this. The book does deal with balance, and gives exercises that really help me, but it also has so much more valuable stuff! I had to write a review just to let people know what a useful book this is.

These exercises don't promise abs of steel, or losing weight--they're about being able to walk after hours in the car, and not being out of breath at the top of the stairs, or lightheaded when you get up fast. I'm finding every part of the book really helpful.

I bought this book because I began to realize my reasons for exercising were changing. I no longer expected to get lots of definition and washboard abs. I'm in my 40s and I felt some things changing, and I was bored with my gym routine. Once I gave up on the definition and being as thin as possible I didn't have any goals. This book told me exactly what I needed to know - what the focus on for health and feeling and looking good for, hopefully, the rest of my life. The measurements tests were very interesting. This book is different because it tells you what to focus on - the 5 areas - balance, flexibility, strength, endurance and posture. I'm glad I bought it. I like it a lot better than "Fit Not Fat at 40Plus" which I also bought.

As a specialist in Arthritis and Rheumatic Diseases, I recommend this book to my patients. The exercises help patients achieve flexibility without causing pain and discomfort.

If you've been on a diet, I've probably tried it too. If you've done some cardio/yoga/pilates/weightlifting/hypnosis program to lose weight, I've probably tried that too. But please Give this method a chance - it actually works! I've lost 8 lbs in 3 weeks. My boyfriend has lost 10 lbs.

Jane Brody wrote an excellent article about this book and using it to avoid "boomeritis" in the New York Times on December 19, 2006. It's a good complement to the reviews here.