Customer Reviews

Five Factor Fitness

5 star:		(64)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Actually I give it four-and-a-half stars. My wife and I read this book this Fall in our lengthy quest to find the best book for us (click on "see all my reviews" for the other books we've reviewed). First, a word about us: we are in our late 40s and looking for a fitness program we can stick with for a long period of time, not some "quick fix" that we rapidly tire of and forget a couple months after Christmas. I'm about 15 pounds heavier than I'd like to be ... she just gave me a scowl ... OK, 20 pounds heavier than I'd like to be. Her weight is fine but her job leaves her exhausted. We have always worked out to some extent but it can be a real grind as the years pile up. My comments below will be based on our needs. Your needs may of course be entirely different.

5-Factor Fitness is almost, but not quite, our favorite book so far. Pasternak has done a good job of defining a realistic and concise fitness and diet regimen. It has a good number of positives to recommend it, and few of the negatives we found in other books. It's a thin 182 pages, including the index. We like that. Most sections have actual usable content. Some of the other books are needlessly fluffed up to the point you are bored out of your gourd by the time the last page is mercifully reached. BFL for Women comes to mind.

Pasternak's exercise routine is short, just 25 or 30 minutes a day, and in our opinion the exercise routine he defines is very sound. It's based on free-weights and a weight bench. It can be done at the gym or at home with a relatively modest investment (this is a big plus to us). No gimmicks, no fads, no colorful bouncy or stretchy thingies, no thousand dollar pec-decks, etc. Just 5 minutes cardio, 10 minutes strength training, 5 minutes core, and 5 more minutes of cardio. Some tidbits that ring true to us: The dropout rate of most diet (and exercise?) programs is astonishingly high because the severity of the program outweighs the benefits provided. The author believes balanced muscle development, and muscle development that fits your body type is best. He thinks treadmills are the best cardio machine.

Similar to his exercise regimen, Pasternak's diet recommendations are also sound, realistic, and fad-free: "quality protein," reduced fat, awareness of the glycemic index, sugar free beverages (he obviously believes in the wisdom of keeping blood sugar steady), no counting, 1 cheat day. The overall strategy is to do a brief but comprehensive workout 5 days a week, eat smart, improve your metabolism, and strive to raise your muscle-to-fat ratio. We really don't think you can get much better advice than this. Here's how my wife and I rank the books we've read so far:

Joe X by Avery Hunicutt - 5 STAR. It's a remarkable piece of work and fits our needs to a tee. We've never read anything like it. Our only disappointment is it doesn't address the diet side of the equation. We even contacted the author about this and his answer was he really couldn't add any more than has already been written on the topic and recommended Harley Pasternak's book!

5-Factor Fitness by Harley Pasternak - 4.5 STARS. There's a lot of similarity in Pasternak's and Hunicutt's exercise program. Pasternak focuses on the short-term makeover (ala Bob Greene's Total Body Makeover) in, you guessed it, "just 5 weeks." He really doesn't give you much help dealing with the drudgery after the 5 weeks is over. Joe X is the only book that realistically deals with the long term.

Body for Life by Bill Phillips - 4 STARS. Solid benchmark. Reasonably sound content delivered with self-serving ego, color photos, and global marketing. Some people aren't going to like the physical stress involved.

Men's Health Home Workout Bible by Lou Schuler - 3 STARS. More narrow in scope than all the others. Primarily for wanna-be stud-muffins. Sexist delivery.

Total Body Makeover by Bob Greene - 3 STARS. An aggressive program for those that are in serious need of help. Not realistic for most people. Irritating with the ego, name drops, and case histories.

Body for Life for Women by Pam Peeke - 2 STARS, and we're being kind. I'm sure some people will find benefit in its pages some where, but to us it was like a sequel to a B-movie that skipped the theaters and went directly to DVD.

Miscellaneous comments: Pasternak prides himself on being a personal trainer for celebrities. He holds up Halle Berry as a shining example. When first getting into his book we feared it was yet another "oh look at me and how great I am," followed by one name drop after another. But 5-Factor Fitness is different. Pasternak stuck to imparting useful info to his readers and we appreciated that. He and his editors also didn't load the book up with pages and pages of "personal case stories" and the almost pointless before-and-after photo shoots. Thank you Mr. Pasternak!

The exercise portion of this book is very well done. Simple, well explained and easy to adjust to your fitness level.

The food portion, not so great. The recipes mostly contain high sodium foods (canned tomatoes, preserved meats), so if you have chronic high blood pressure (like I do), you will need to figure this part out on your own.

Overall, I think this is a great program.

ADD: After six weeks on this program I lost 6lbs of the 12lbs of fat I want to lose. For me, this has worked as promised in the book. Good Luck!

I have long been a 5-er. In my early 20's as a weightlifter, I would eat 5 smaller meals a day, and spent half the time in the gym than the gym rats did, and it worked wonders. So when I saw Harley Pasternak's book, 5-Factor Fitness, I knew he had put together a helpful book, and not just another piece of firewood for the health, weight loss and fitness industry.

In 5-Factor Fitness encourages you to work out less and eat more. Yes, you heard me correctly. Work out less and eat more. Eating 5 meals a day raises you metabolism and provides a steady stream of vital nutrients, including protein, that help you body maximize a tone, fit, physique. And working out less? Well, most people who are gym rats over train. It is a myth that you need to live in the gym. "Overtraining" is very common and can tax your body. The rest in between training, and proper nutrition, are actually just as important in keeping your body rested, healthy, fit and running the way you want it to.

From Harley Pasternak's website:

"5-FACTOR FITNESS is based on the simple premise that less is more, especially when it comes to exercise and planning meals. There is no magic, no hidden secret. Instead, this plan taps solid scientific research as well as the author's vast experience as a personal trainer and as a consultant to military organizations on two continents. With a master's degree in exercise physiology and nutritional science as well as an honors degree in kinesiology, Pasternak is an expert on how the body works. Here he pulls together his best advice for training and fueling it efficiently.

5-FACTOR FITNESS calls for five workouts per week and each workout lasting just 25 minutes. Combining strength training and aerobics in five five-minute intervals, these short, intense workouts are designed so that people stick with the program over the long haul. No need to join a gym or buy expensive equipment; the program calls for only a workout bench and a few dumbbells."

Try this program and drop you overtraining routine and dietary obsessions. Great book.

As an ex-dancer, ex-anorexic, and a student of nutrition, I have done everything and known everything. While living on 1,000 calories a day and working out for 2 hours every day- I thought this plan would make me gain weight.....boy, was I wrong! I could write a novel on how much I love this plan- but I'll spare you. Overall, I am converted for life to this wonderful plan- you can sustain it forever, actually eat, it doesnt provoke those pesky "eating disorder" obsessions or habits, and I get a cheat day to eat my beloved ice cream!
I've done this plan for a month now- and already the muscle tone in my arms, shoulders, and stomach speaks wonders. I actually LOVED being soar, because I knew this plan was working. Best of all, it keeps challening my body- so I continue to be soar in new ways. I can't wait to give this another month to see where my results take me- and I love reading other people's success and progress with this plan. Please feel free to contact me at va_monroe@yahoo.com. Thanks!

I have tried billions of diet plans. 12 months ago I weighed nearly 200 pounds. I picked up this book at a local library one day, sat down and read it, as I have read plenty of diet books, and once I put it down after finishing it I started my diet. The first thing I did was go to the pantry and ate a donut! I started on the cheat day. Then the next day I started with the 25 minute workouts and the eating plan. In ten months I lost 66 pounds and I'm still losing. Without the cheat day I don't think this would have worked for me. I love to eat, and I love my junk food, and my cheat days allow me to eat just that, while fitting into a size 6 for the first time in my life!!

I've been on the program for 2 weeks and have already lost 5 pounds and seen a huge change in my body shape. Five pounds may not seem like much, but I'm not overweight and was merely looking to lose a few pounds (who doesn't) and tone up and flatten the stomach a bit.

I used to spend lots of time in the gym which helped me keep my weight down, but with Harley's program I've FINALLY toned-up with MUCH less effort! And I have much more energy now too.

It really can be done in less than 30 minutes a day (which I was very skeptical about at first). AND you don't have to spend lots of money at a fitness center. But I must admit, three days a week I usually put in a good 15 minutes of high intensity cardio at the end (instead of 5 minutes), which according to his plan is okay. So my workout can go to 40 minutes.

This plan is so EASY to follow. No more spending hours at the gym and buying fancy products to eat. This book is practical and simply THE BEST....and IT WORKS! I can't urge you enough to try it and see the results yourself.

Harley Pasternak thinks you can stay fit on 25 minutes per day and he backs up his confidence with quotes from celebrities who say he's right. Halle Berry leading the list of enthusiasts. This reviewer thinks most of us lack the genes and the circumstances to manage that. Still, I think Pasternak's program is a great supplement to gym-based fitness disciplines. I travel half the time and take 5-Factor Fitness on the road. This works if you stay in a hotels that have a cardio machine (stationary bike, treadmill) and a set of dumbbells and will actually go there before settling into ESPN and your in-room minibar. Perhaps G.P. Putnam's Sons should work out a strategic alliance with the Gideons.

Fitness on the road is the holy grail of many business travelers and there isn't a lot of help waiting in the hotel hallway to nudge us in the right direction. Pasternak's plan will for some readers be the missing page of the fitness-while-in-Peoria playbook.

In the book, Pasternak divides his time between the 5-Factor fitness regimen and the 5-Factor way to eat. Along the way, he mixes in plenty of encouragement without going gushy on his reader.

I find the fitness part of his book valuable because it provides a plan a guy like me can stick to. The food portion of the book is unnecessarily harsh on the better diets, claiming that each one he mentions is extreme, will keep you from eating like a human being, and `not the whole story'. Arhur Agastston, the creator of the South Beach Diet, might find Pasternak's negativity surprising, since the entire South Beach approach is set up around eating well and enjoying your food. Agatston also majors on explaining nutrition and why diet and the body work the way they do.

However this review is not the International Human Rights Court and Pasternak's criticism has hardly sent cardiologist Agatston to the poor farm, so we'll let that past.

On the positive side, Pasternak provides plenty of workable recipes to complement his 25-minute workout.

If you want a concrete plan to get fit and have only a little time for doing so, Pasternak's 5-Factor Fitness is not a bad place to start.

For me, this book lives in my suitcase. At home, I'll stick with the Y.

I'm 23, and over the years I've experimented with various diets (Atkins/Keto Diet, South Beach, Zone, Sugarbusters), and various workout concepts (HIT, German Volume Training, etc). I've stayed in pretty good shape for the most part, but over the last couple of years I've slipped a bit, being in school and all.

I heard of this book this summer when I ran into my old martial arts teacher. He's 50ish and last I saw him he'd gotten pretty husky. He still lifted weights some, but he wasn't in great shape or anything. When I ran into him this time, he was ripped and looked like a hollywood star or something. I asked him about it and he told me about this book and mentioned some of the concepts to me. I know this sounds like a tv infomertial but...

This book is the best. This guy really really knows his stuff. He clears up so many misconceptions about nutrition and exercise, and the system he has devised is really very innovative... it's not just "eat this, do 3 sets of 10 reps on bench press, blah blah"; there's sound science to it... but at the same time, he's set it up in a way that is simple and will make sense to everyone.

The way I see it, there are three main aspects to working out correctly; something that works, something that evades adaptation (and encourages muscle growth), and the key thing, something that won't damage your body (joints, etc). This plan hits all these points.

Anyway I can't say enough about this book... after reading so many books and having to substitute my own ideas and concepts I'd read in still other books, it's nice to see all the right information in one book that is easy to read.

Before harvey's fitness book i was working out three hours a day six days a week burning 1500 calories a day (according to the elliptical machine) and was getting no results i was gaining weight. I had no idea how to eat, when i got harley's book it was wonderful i learned how to eat and incorporated my own strategy for maintaining weight loss i cut sugar out of my daily life when once i couldn't live without it i started watching how much i ate and brougt plates that where small such as large saucers which is enough food (we as americans eat to darn much for our bodies to digest at one time turning the left overs into fat) I started making my own recipes like for a snack i'll have---FAT FREE SUGARLESS PLAIN YOGURT, w/alittle splenda and a apple cut up in wedges (to give the illusion of much more on a saucer) started putting my salads in a child bowl or a little larger for lunch --CREAM OF WHEAT w/ a turkey sausage or two and lots of water, for dinner a half of a salmon steak a small portion like a 1/2 a cup or less of mashed sweet potatoes w/ splenda and some asparagus or other green vegetable and my weight has stayed off. My arms are toning i do 15 minutes of high intensity cardio a day like up hill power walking-or the elliptical on high intensity or power jumproping their are web sites on that. I am extremely happy as far as life time use i think i will incorporate different intensity, reps and rest times as I get stronger and definitely keep the eating habits which account for 80% of my success. I LOOOOVVVE YOU harvey if anyone wants any more ideas please feel free to contact me at Tjonesnewark@aol.com GOOD LUCK>

This book promotes an idea that I call resistance aerobics. It is primarily an aerobic type of fitness program with weights to up the intensity and fat burning of an aerobic program. There are faults with this book. One, the author in trying to keep the program as short as possible short changes the pure cardio section by limiting it to 5 min. It should be longer. Second there is no mention of stretching. This is an important component of fitness that is often overlooked. Third is my general problem with the use of the glycemic Index to choose what foods to eat. Some foods that are good for you are given short thrift such as carrots and baked potatoes. They're roots in a natural state with lots of vitamins and few calories. Eat them. With the potato you may put on some fat free cottage cheese and/or tomatoes. You won't miss the sour cream and butter. My last problem with this book is that it will not build serious muscle unless you are new to weights altogether. The author seems to imply otherwise and that is plain wrong and misleading. I do like the selection of exercises with the exception of the "tap squat". I'd recommend the use of the normal squat. I also like how the author mixes up the reps and recovery time to prevent muscle adaptation.
In short this program is good for people new to exercise, for general fitness and to tone up for a special event such as a reunion. It is not good if you goal is to put on serious muscle. For that you need to lower the reps and increase the weight used.