Customer Reviews

Body Express Makeover: Trim and Sculpt Your Body in Less Than Six Weeks

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

No other book I have read would rise to the level of this one in regard to the integral combination of exercises. All exercises described in this book work on more than one group of muscles. The thighs are worked out with the biceps, shoulders, and back, the chest with abdominals and triceps, and so on, in upbeat and innovative combination that enhances function and reduces the chance of muscular imbalance. It is not about isolation strengthening. It is mainly coordinated and compound exercising that make this book a real addition to strength training.

You will also notice the upbeat happy facial expressions of the two people photographed performing the exercises. In addition, all the exercises are executed in perfect posture and gait.

A brief summary of the book chapters follows.

Chapter 1, "Get on Board", deals with benefits of exercising, stages of change during adapting to new activities, and statistics of diseases that could be prevented by fitness training.

Chapter 2, "Rapid Results", deals with ways of assessing results, fat loss, and making contract with self in binding mind and body for committing to change thru exercise and nutrition.

Chapter 3, "The Body Express", outlines the roles of exercise, nutrition, aerobics, and strength training in altering your physique.

Chapter 4, "Fat-Blasting Nutrition", discusses the four principles of maintaining healthy bodyweight: 1- balancing carbs, protein, and fat intake within the ratios of 40:30:30, 2- small five meals per day, 3- low glycemic index and high fiber food stuff, and 4- choosing fresh produce lean meat, and low sugar. Here, there is some confusion on the definition of the glycemic index. This is defined to vary from 0 to 100 based on the speed of entering the blood stream. Yet, you see numbers such as 111, 126, 115 for Gatorade, potato, and tofu. Then you have a 7-day meal plan, which though simple, is impractical.

Chapter 5, `Superfast Sculpting", discusses the role of aerobics on burning fat and assigns various work load to various classes of people, from sedentary, beginning, intermediate, advanced, and extreme. There is an arbitrary assignment of number of minutes needed for various classes of people and for various tasks such as losing fat, sculpting and toning, heat health, and building muscles.

Chapter 6, "2-in-1 Toning", describes the main theme of the book of incorporating 10 compound exercises and executing them in 10, 20, and 30 minutes depending on the level of conditioning of the person. The doubling of time of exercise is through doubling the number of sets from 1, 2, to 3, with the number of reps varying between 5 and 50. It tabulates combinations of routines for various ages and levels, based on the author's personal opinion.

Chapter 7, "Ready, Set, Go!", introduces the reader to the heart of the book of toning and sculpting.

Chapter 8, "The 10 Routine", describes 10 exercises for males and females with excellent integration of various joints in compound exercises such as: sun salutation with push ups, crunches with chest press, leg lunges with shoulder press, bench dip with leg extension, leg raise with arm raise, squat with biceps curls, etc.

Chapter 9, "The 20 Routine" adds more complexities to the exercises and doubles the number of sets. It maintains the upbeat approach of compounding the exercises, which help conditioning and balancing many hidden muscles such as the rotator cuff and spinal erectors.

Chapter 10, "The 30 Routine", adds asymmetric components to the exercises in addition to tripling the number of sets. This is intended to advanced level of training and constitutes the best section of the book in regards the ingenuity of the author of planning and describing the exercises.

Chapter 11, "YIN and YANG Stretching" describes stretching techniques borrowed from yoga that targets the back, shoulder, neck, torso, and hamstrings.

Chapter 12, "Maintenance" describes how to stay the course of incorporating the described routines into your lifestyle for long-term training.

Mohamed F. El-Hewie,
Author of
"Essentials of Weightlifting and Strength Training".

I read this book hoping to glean some new information, and I did. It's well-written, informative, and covers both diet and workouts. George believes that women should train up to 6 days per week with an emphasis on lower body rather than upper body. Many training books emphasize letting the trained body parts rest for at least 48 hours. Some, including George, realize that women don't want to LOOK like men--that is, get bigger and more muscular (they want to get smaller and more toned and defined)--they shouldn't train like men, either.

To be honest, I only glanced over the men's routines, which may also advocate training daily. I'm not really sure what to make of that, if that's the case.

Ideally, George believes, one should be aspiring to 60minutes of cardio per day and then also, up to 6 days of his 10, 20, or 30 minute resistance/strength training. His routines are fully illustrated with complete notes.

The reason I gave this a 3 star, rather than higher (I almost gave it a 4) is because I think the routines are difficult in the sense that they comprise many compound moves that workout different muscle groups simultaneously. And, I don't mean lunges or squats while doing bicep curls at the same time. His moves are truly unique-- many exercises are comprised of at least 5 entirely separate moves. This is just a little daunting to me in book form. In gym class? Yes. With a workout dvd? Absolutely. But, with a book I just find it too difficult to really follow without compromising my form by referring to the book a zillion times. And, that's what I'd have to do for quite a while since there are three different workouts with very many different exercises that are comprised of very many movements that are supposed to be done smoothly without taking a break to consult the book yet another time.

That said, if there was a dvd to go along with this, I'd be interested in trying it. Half the workouts I do are comprised of compound movements similar to these. . . but I follow along. . . much easier than having to stop once again to consult the book and read the very-lengthy exercise instructions.

This DOES come with a dvd, but it's not a workout dvd. . .it's a motivational training guide.

One more thing that's worth mentioning. George specifically advocates Dr. Barry Sears' The Zone diet. This, if you're not familiar with it, is 40% carbs, 30% protein, and 30% fat. Many eating plans still believe that we need 50% carbs if we're exercising a lot. George's plan does advocate a lot of exercise, and some may feel that this amount of carbs just isn't enough.

Too busy to work out? Michael George has the solution, in less than 45 minutes a day.

Early chapters offer the usual motivational material, but this famous trainer soon shifts into gear with a balanced nutritional and exercise plan. His diet lacks details and requires time for shopping and preparation, but his exercise regime blends cardio with strength training for maximum efficiency. Though incomplete, in terms of a total weight-loss plan, this book is both workable and practical for what it offers.

The author tells the story of how he ordered the Charles Atlas Weightlifting program and started lifting homemade weights. This story cannot be true. Charles Atlas did not have a weightlifting program. The Atlas course is totally devoted to bodyweight exercises called Dynamic Tension and Atlas was very clear that in his methods you did not need any apparatus whatsoever. Anyone who ever really took the Charles Atlas program would know this. I didn't read beyond this section, because I knew he was lying and so I didn't trust anything else he had to say.

For the past 15 years, I researched and bought many fitness books and I would definitely categorize this one as a winner. I won't repeat what the other reviewers already wrote and which makes perfect sense to me regarding the contents and value of the book, especially about the compound moves and the detailed explanations about the diet and so on. The only one thing I'd be happy to know is the following: is there any normal people who already succeeded in following M. George's 6-day/week workout + cardio plans? The workouts leave you quite exhausted and I can't imagine how to train as hard as Micheal advises you to do without injurying yourself. I've done some martial arts and already "trained like a tiger", but it seems to me that his weekly plans are a bit too much, maybe except if you're a celibrity with plenty of money and free time to recover and afford massages and relaxation expert services and so on. But that's only my personal opinion.

All I can say is that the book gives great advise and it explains each exercise. Most of the others books do not give you such detail. Its is better than the rest of the books I have bought (and believe me I have bought a lot of them). I hope Michael George will write another book revealing more Celebrity workout secrets.