Customer Reviews

Core Performance Endurance: A New Training and Nutrition Program That Revolutionizes Your Workouts

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

 

 

To the point: This book is full of fluff. If someone is an endurance athlete they most likely aren't interested in what Mr. Vestegen has to say on aerobic conditioning. I know I wasn't - I wanted some help on correcting imbalances in my body that cause too many nagging injuries that take away from valuable training time.

In this regard, the book delivers. There are a solid 40 pages of exercises that are helpful in strengthening/lengthening the core and other problem areas. Unfortunately, the book is well over 250 pages long. A good chunk of it is normal "eat well" filler, with a heaping helping of "buy my stuff" blended in. My wife's comment on the book after reading it one night was "this reads like an infomercial in print form". I think that's a bit harsh, but not far off the mark.

The good information is worthwhile - just be prepared to skip the fluff.

As a strength-endurance athlete and a certified personal trainer in the Z-health system (I also do hard-style Kettlebell training and movement coaching), I've read a number of different books targeted towards endurance athletes, from running-specific books such as _Running Well_ or _Chi Running_ to nutrition books for endurance athletes to functional movement and coaching books such as those by Vern Gambetta, Gray Cook, and Michael Boyle.

While not as deep as any of those books, Mark Verstegen's _Core Performance Endurance_ is a short volume that serves as a decent introduction to early 21st century thinking about how we should train endurance athletes, by making sure to include a small about of movement prep / corrective exercise, training the core mainly as a stabilizer and as a generally anti-rotation / anti-flexion mechanism. The topic of regeneration is also briefly covered, describing how to make use of foam rollers and proper rest (Work + Rest = Success, as Mark says).

If you already listen to the StrengthCoach podcast and are already a fan of Gray Cook (chop & lift, FMS, movement as king and queen of athletics) then you may not deepen your knowledge base considerably, but it's still worth learning a few simple assessments (such as the neutral stance single leg hip flexion balance test mentioned, looking for asymmetry and compensation) covered, and reflecting on the medium-sized set of movement prep and strength exercises (this new edition suggests the use of Valslides for split squats and lateral lunges).

On the other hand, if you've never used a foam roll, don't do any movement prep and have never been assessed for movement dysfunction or the like, this is a decent, albeit short, introduction to modern thinking on how early 21st century endurance athletes could and should train.

[Note: I reviewed the Kindle edition, which was sufficiently readable and legible.]

Mark Verstegen deserves a lot of credit for his ability to take a basic concept and milk it into a very lucrative cottage industry. While I actually liked his earlier Core Performance Essentials book (it's a good basic introductory book, though admittedly not much is new there either), Core Performance Endurance offers virtually no new material. Instead, the book is a complete rehash of Essentials and his first book. The rehashing goes so far that entire sections of Endurance are copied word for word from the earlier two books. Other sections show substantial overlap (but not verbatim) with the earlier two books. The two exceptions is that he spends a little more time introducing plyometics (though an introductory text on plyometrics can do it better) and regeneration (the novel concept that endurance athletes should schedule regular rest and active regeneration instead of going 100% every day).

I was also disappointed in the lack of new exercises presented. Whereas Essentials provided an interesting variety and progression of exercises, Endurance was fairly minimal in its presentation. I was especially expecting more challenging exercises that would be appropriate for endurance atheletes.

Finally, I was annoyed by the endless cross-selling of other products endorsed by Verstegen. I already bought the book and buy into the philosophy, but there were too many pushes of the coreperformance website (a subscription service that offers more exercises) and other products sold by Athletes Performance or strategic partners. There is a time and a place for cross-selling, but this book crossed the line.

Overall, if you're a Verstegen fan and want to know what the whole core thing is all about, I'd recommend Essentials over Endurance, but even then I'd recommend it only if you're looking for something fairly introductory.

A great book that is very informative and explains the art of endurance running very well. The book got complicated and a little to in depth for a beginner in some areas or the equipment asked to use was not readily available. Over all, it really helped with my running form and helped me understand nutrition.

This is a great book. The principles taught by Mark Verstegen in this book will help you take advantage of your work-out time and truly become stronger and healthier. He'll teach that working out doesn't have to just be about trying to look better, but it can and should be about improving your body's strength, flexibility, resistance to injury, and efficiency so that you can make to most out of any physical activity that you desire to do. And here's a great bonus: he teaches you how to do it so that in can be done almost anywhere. You don't have to have a full gym to do these exercises. My life has benefited greatly from this book, and I recommend it to my family and friends whenever one of them is inquiring about what I do to stay healthy and in shape. Take care.