Customer Reviews

Bounce Your Body Beautiful: 6 Weeks to a Sexier, Firmer Body

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Bounce Your Body Beautiful tells you everything you need to know about the hottest fitness trend in American--fitness balls. Even better, it offers numerous exercise programs that are convenient, fun, and extrememly effective. I've been doing these workouts for a month now and my belly is the flattest it has been in years and my butt has definition I've never seen before. I really like that I can do the routines in my home, whenever I find spare snippits of time. The author has also provided an eating plan that includes dessert! Though it may sound too good to be true, it's based on science and it definitely works. I've lost 5 pounds already.

I recommend this book to anyone at any fitness level. It has clear explanations and pictures of the various exercises, good nutrition and workout advice and most importantly of all - it produces good results!

Exercises can be modified to accomodate anyone from a beginner to an advanced athlete. This book is especially good for people who would rather work out at home than in a gym setting. The workouts provide better results than machines without the investment in space and money that gym memberships and home equipment require.

I am a former collegiate athlete and working mom with two young children who has been looking for a way to stay in good shape with a minimal amount of time and without having to leave my kids with a sitter. For me, this book was the key. The kids are enthralled with the ball and they use playground balls to imitate me while I exercise. It's the first home exercises I've been able to do without them interrupting. They enjoy watching and participating themselves. This is the first book I've felt compelled to take time out of my busy schedule to write a review for - it is that great!

Dr. Applegate was my nutrition professor when I was a student at UCDavis. She changed my way of thinking about nutrition and fitness. When I saw she wrote a fitness ball exercise book, I couldn't wait to try it.

The exercises are fabulous and the nutrition advice realistic. The book is written in a straightforward way and the exercise positions are clearly explained and include photographs. I appreciate the fact that she included ways to alter the exercises to fit individual needs.

Most people know of Liz Applegate through her informative monthly nutrition columns in 'Runner's World.' In terms of this book in particular, I came to know about it an odd way - Dr. Applegate was injured in a bizarre incident in which her shoulder was torqued by a radio talk show host who had somehow engaged her in an impromtu, on-air arm wrestling contest (Applegate makes a veiled reference to the incident in the book's intro).

Anyway, for those following the saga, the book was an outcome of the changes she was forced to make to her exercise routine to accomodate the injury. Certainly not the typical path to authorship, but I'm pleased this book made it to the market.

While the text of the book is geared towards women readers, I'll point out that these are exercises and routines that can benefit both sexes. Using the ball as your anchor simply takes the drudgery out of what used to seem like work. Even achieving a sense of balance on some of the recommended routines is a challenge and a workout in itself. The exercises are clearly described, and the accompanying pictures really help you envision what you need to do once you're over the ball trying to put an idea into practice.

Frankly, to date I've ignored the sections of the book concerning nutrition (about half the content) and focused solely on the exercises. That's the only reason why this book gets four stars instead of five. I'd rather have paid half the price to get the half of the book that corresponds directly to the title. The nutrition part seems like an ill-fitting add-in to me (although I'm sure some readers will appreciate its presence).

I found this book after being in a workout rut for most of my life. I thought it was just another worout book, until I realized how much fun it is to do. I am only in my first week of the program and already my body is feeling all the benefits of using the exercise ball. If you want to have fun while you weight train this is the book for you.

The information provided in this book is great. I've never been disappointed with Liz Applegate's books or articles. I do, however, think that a spiral binding would have made this book much more user-friendly. Also, when I looked at the web site that goes along with this book, I realized how much nicer color, quality photos would have been. I ended up printing out the few exercises from the website to use as a quick reference. In hindsite, I wish I investigated the website before I purchased the book.

There is a lot of interesting information in this book, especially the explanation of why female fat cells are so hard to conquer (none of my other exercise books cover that subject). Others have said they were not as interested in the food section of the book as the exercise section - somewhat ironic since the author apparently is a nutrition professor. I bought the book for the exercises, but found they were not as rigorous as some other books I have combining weights and balls. This, however, has turned out to be a good thing, since I am currently recovering from a surgery and needed a less taxing exercise program than my usual one. Come to think of it, weren't these exercises designed by the author when she was recovering from a shoulder injury and surgery? My surgery was in that general area. Anyway, based on other reviews, I wasn't expecting much from this book, but it has actually turned out to be a pleasant surprise.

This book is a great reference for people who want athletic ball exercises (as opposed to Pilates- or yoga-based exercises on the ball, which seems to be very popular). Applegate writes that she started using the ball herself as part of her recovery from a shoulder injury and then surgery and felt that she was in the best shape of her life afterward. This is a common story, but very impressive coming from someone who used to compete in triathalons.

If you've done strength training before, have any experience with ball workouts or yoga or Pilates, you may find the exercises she details for the first two weeks less challenging. The exercises for the next two phases of the program (weeks three and four and then weeks five and six) are more demanding. I worked up a sweat on the core exercises and then humbly admitted that I wasn't ready for a few of them. While "sexier" is highly subjective (I just hate when fitness books promise that), I have no doubt that one will be firmer and functionally stronger if they stick with the program for the prescribed six weeks.

This book doesn't rate a perfect five-stars, unfortunately. The book spent more time than I would have liked on nutrition and the "dessert diet". While I found Applegate's overall approach sensible, I also thought it was a little bit simplistic. Also, I felt that the "workbook" section she provided to track the six-week progress was too much- I would have preferred a sheet to copy, or maybe a reference to a website. The workbook section was almost 100 pages, and some of it could have been cut down. Also, while I appreciate that she took the time to add customized routines for various athletics, most of them were two or three exercises. In addition, Applegate could have (and should have) included more stretches to use with the ball. Finally, and this was most troubling to me, I didn't like that she seemed to play into the stereotype that women will "bulk up" by using heavy weights in order to convince her readers to use the heavy balls instead of dumbbells- or her ball program instead of traditional strength training. While some women will bulk up, most will not, and many women don't necessarily find that look unattractive.

In summary, this a good reference guide for ball exercises and programs, but you may want to take some of the other information with a grain of salt.

The good:
1. This book has some good exercises that use the ball. They build strength overall in the body and especially in the core, which is something that is not only important for everyone, but especially women.
2. She gives a lot of details on how to change the exercise to make it easier or more difficult, etc.
3. She talks about the importance of doing different types of exercises.
4. She talks about how many women have been made to feel inadequate when it comes to exercise, and that we can become active regardless of whether we have previously been good at sports. She emphasizes raising women's confidence. Many women have grown up with the idea that women just aren't strong and were told to do things in gym class that at the time they couldn't do, which lowered their confidence. She explains that women can do those things, but need the proper training.

The bad:
1. I didn't enjoy the diet section very much. I thought there were too many "rules" than necessary. She really emphasized counting calories. Since I am not trying to lose weight, this didn't really apply to me, but I can tell you that even if I was trying to lose weight, I probably wouldn't go for the calorie counting approach. I like that she emphasized drinking fluids and physical activity in the pyramid, and eating whole foods. But the pyramid itself is lacking. For instance, she includes a diet pyramid for 1,000 calories a day! That is just insane. Even a thin adult needs more calories than that. She also classifies "calcium rich foods" as only dairy products, forgetting that there is calcium in some other foods such as brocolli and some greens.
2. I don't like the emphasis on planning a program. This may be useful for some people, but I am mostly looking for exercises to do on the ball.
3. There is a big emphasis on changing your body shape as a woman. I realize that this is probably what most women are trying to do when they purchase the book, I just think it is sad that women feel the need to change themselves so much just solely because of the emphasis placed on the way a woman looks. And it just so happens that in our culture, fat is looked down upon while muscle is praised (underlying misogyny could be considered here but that's a whole different issue). One example is on page 97, where the author states "Believe it or not, to truly change your body shape, you must build up your shoulders. The reason? Good shoulders create the illusion of smaller hips." This is after explaining that women naturally carry extra fat in their hips and thighs in their reproductive years because our ancestors needed it for reproduction, and that we can "fight back" against this female fat (pg. 96). So I don't get it, we are supposed to make our shoulders bigger, so our hips look smaller, because having bigger hips is "unattractive," even though that's the way women are designed? And not that this matters, but men find it attractive as well. I just don't like the negative attitude toward extra fat in the hips and thighs, because it seems to me a cultural sexism toward women. Men naturally have more muscle mass, and that isn't looked down upon, while it is looked down upon that women have more fat, even though it's completely normal. I hope you get what I'm saying here and I welcome any comments on the issue.
4. She claims that all women take the shape of a pear with fat in the hips and thighs before menopause and an apple after menopause. I'm sorry but I strongly disagree. I have seen many women with a lot of extra fat in the abdominal area and less in the hips and thighs, and they were in their young child bearing years. I believe everyone has a different shape and some women have a lot of extra fat in their hips and thighs and some don't.

Overall, the book is easy to read and the numerous pictures leave no doubt about how to perform each exercise. The six-week plan and diet suggestions will help anyone looking to improve their body, regardless of their current condition. Additionally, I found the exercises for toning and strengthening your abs, and all the muscles in your core, to be particularly useful. I've always had a soft belly, but by using the ball and the recommended exercises, I've seen a noticeable difference. These muscles are notoriously difficult to strengthen with traditional weights and nautilus equipment, but need to be worked because they are so important in nearly every sport. The ball workout is one of the best I've found for working your core. Dr. Applegate provides excellent exercises for the whole body and doing them on the ball forces you to work your core to stay balanced.