Chronic Fatigue: Your Complete Exercise Guide (Cooper Clinic & Research Institute Fitness Series) [Paperback]

Neil F. Gordon (Author), Kenneth H. Cooper (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1993 | Series: Cooper Clinic & Research Institute Fitness Series

This book is part of a series designed to provide exercise rehabilitation alternatives for people who live with chronic medical conditions. Each book details the most beneficial activities and exercises for particular disabilities. In each book readers will find: an explanation of the chronic medical condition; essentials on tailoring an exercise programme to fit individual capabilities; guidelines for safe exercise; four complete exercise programmes (for walking, stationary cycling, jogging and the Schwinn Air-Dyne); and a Health Points System to help patients maintain motivation and gauge their progress. The Health Points System helps exercisers monitor their long-term progress. Points are received for levels of exercise and workout intensities as shown on the Health Points Chart. Exercisers then tally their points each week to determine the effectiveness of their efforts. Charts for many additional aerobic exercise activities are provided so readers can add variety to the exercise routines.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"This is a well-written, easily understood textbook from the Cooper Clinic and Research Institute Fitness Series. . . this book would be an excellent reference source for anyone who has been diagnosed with CFS or is prescribing exercise for someone who has CFS."

Indiana AHPERD Journal

"For those that have Chronic Fatigue and nothing has helped or who have made very little progress toward recovery, this book offers great promise".

Fred Nelson Director National Foundation for the Chemically Hypersensitive

"Dr. Gordon is to be congratulated for writing Chronic Fatigue: Your Complete Exercise Guide. This complex and poorly understood health problem cuases a great deal of disability and markedly reduces the quality of life for millions of people. . .. The sensible exercise program outlined by Dr. Gordon can help stabilize or reverse this downward spiral, and can restore some function for many patients. Much remains to be learned about chronic fatigue syndrome, and the type and amount of physical activity that is most beneficial. Dr. Gordon's book is an excellent set of guidelines that can be applied now to help these patients."

Steven N. Blair, PED Director of Epidemiology Cooper Institute for Aerobics Research

About the Author

Dr. Neil F. Gordon is widely regarded as a leading medical authority on exercise and health. Before receiving his master's degree in public health from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1989, Dr. Gordon received doctoral degrees in exercise physiology and medicine at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. He also served as medical director of cardiac rehabilitation and exercise physiology for 6 years at I Military Hospital in Pretoria, South Africa.

Since 1987, Dr. Gordon has been the director of exercise physiology at the internationally reknowned Cooper Institute for Aerobics Research in Dallas, Texas. He has also written over 50 papers on exercise and medicine. Dr. Gordon is also coauthor of the book Don't Count Yourself Out: Staying Fit after Thirty-Five with Jimmy Connors.

Dr. Gordon is a member of the American Heart Association and American Diabetes Association. He is a fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation (AACVPR). He also has served on the board of directors for AACVPR, the Texas Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation, and the American Heart Association (Dallas affiliate).

Product Details

• Paperback: 130 pages
• Publisher: Human Kinetics Publishers (January 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0873223934
• ISBN-13: 978-0873223935
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,206,288 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Very definitely NOT for people with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, September 28, 2009

By 

e. verrillo (williamsburg, ma) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chronic Fatigue: Your Complete Exercise Guide (Cooper Clinic & Research Institute Fitness Series) (Paperback)

If you have been diagnosed with CFS--aka CFIDS (Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome) or ME (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis)--by a competent medical professional, don't even think of reading this book. On page three, the author states that "CFS is simply a chronic, unexplained fatigue that a person has had for more than 30 days." This definition not only flies in the face of the CDC criteria (six months of unexplained fatigue along with a host of other symptoms), it creates a veritable diagnostic nightmare. A gazillion things can cause a person to feel tired for a month. And if, in fact, it turns out that you really do have CFS, the advice given by Dr. Gordon to "fight back" with exercise will most assuredly make you worse.

One of the hallmark symptoms of CFS is exercise intolerance. In short, if you exercise you will feel much worse, usually within 24 hours. Not only will you feel worse, you will get worse. Why? Because, like polio, the cause for the fatigue is the disease process itself. According to Dr. Paul Cheney, one of the world's leading experts on CFS, people with this illness have a cellular defect at the mitochondrial level which leads to a deficit in ATP production. The result of this deficit is post-exercise exhaustion, malaise, and a general worsening of all symptoms. Cells which have spent their energy on exercise (among other things) simply can't recuperate. People with CFS are literally "running on empty."

If you don't have CFS then this book might do you some good. Otherwise, follow the advice given by bona fide CFS experts, and REST.