Customer Reviews

Just Say Now...to Fitness

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Just Say Now...to Fitness
I have waited for weeks to write this review. My Grandma always said, "If you don't have anything good to say, don't say anything." So I'll start with the good.

This book accurately conveys the conventional wisdom about fitness and weight control. You can understand the exercises from the text and pictures. There is a clear program of exercise set out. It will seem fresh and interesting to someone who has never taken a physical education course at any level, never listened at all to the many sources of diet and exercise advice on radio and television, avoided any contact with Oprah, never listened to their mother.

But the book's dense text is unnattractive (needs more paragraph breaks). The minimalistic graphics are of beefy men, exclusively. The author says eat less, exercise more, because it will work, and it is the only plan that will work. Okay, true.

Enough said. Take a walk or a hike. Go biking with your friends. Skip this book.

When I first got this book I must say that I wasn't very impressed, the type face, layout and line drawing weren't the professional level that has become the norm, especially in a field littered with books ghostwritten by half of Hollywood and their personal professional trainers. Most of the books that fill this niche have photos designed to titillate, give some trainer's trademark shtick, and sells some overpriced piece of equipment that pauses in homes before moving to the garage sale circuit.

However, once I read through it I must say that I do think this book fills a role in the inexpensive overview of getting people to the gym - prescription. While Gregory Sherowski does sound like a traditional long term gym rat, he was actually quite informed and up to date. The number of sports coaches and personal trainers that advise people to exercise in the mode that they learned long ago proves that most trainers and coaches can't read. The field of research and experimentation around diet, physical exercise and therapy changes daily and I noticed that most of the recommendation that Gregory made were up to date.

Many reviewers were upset with the diet advice in this book but I would suggest that this is just about the right level for this book. Basically eat a balanced quality and exercise more. This is not a diet book, (of which there are thousands yearly that promise weight loss and fitness if you eat color coordinated juices modified by your mother's astrological blood type)

Most importantly the key summaries of each short chapter which addressed why people don't actually get started, and how to avoid early pitfalls, were just that, short sweet and pithy. Many people may be off-put visiting a gym worrying about violating gym etiquette. No one wants to seem stupid asking a question of the long term gym rats--true they often treat newbies like pond scum, so this book fills that void get you up to speed.

Eventually once you've been there awhile you'll develop our own exercise system, your own unsubstantiated opinions based on the system that works for you.

I feel like this little book on fitness was written for guys like me. I mean exactly for guys like me. Mr. Sherowski has skipped most of the glitz, glamour and complexity to get right at it: "Here is what you have to do in simple terms." He makes very practical, basic suggestions, that are exactly right.

We have all read the articles and we have all gone on diets or programs that haven't lasted. What we need is motivation and a simple strategy, and for a grown man and for many grown women, keeping it simple means less mental stress, and less intimidation.

I have used this book to begin my own fitness program. I'm three weeks in and I'm four pounds lighter. But the most important thing is Mr. Sherowski's advice to avoid everything that you can't enjoyably work into your ongoing lifestyle.

I can't disagree with previous "Vine" reviewers (who have invested the standard 90 seconds to prepare their reviews!) who accurately noted that the graphics and text layouts are minimal. Its as if you are reading a college thesis, rather than a major market publication. But again, I see this as another manifestation of the theme of the book. Keep it simple. Save the glitz for those infomershals.

I give high marks for the very detailed listing (with the little cartoon strongman demonstrating!) of lifting and stretching exercises. Take the time to read the text. Its simple and too the point.

I also give high marks for the comments with regard to middle age, which seemed to written exactly for this "40ish" reviewer. According to Mr. Sherowski, its all about the quality of life.

2/13/09 update: Four weeks in and I'm nine pounds lighter. It was a good week.
2/22/09 : Five weeks - eight total pounds lighter. No problem. I'm still on program. 3/6/09: Seven weeks in - nine total pounds lighter. I feel great. 4/8/09 Twelve total pounds dropped since mid-feb. I feel good about staying on plan. The key is to incorporate this healthy lifestyle into ...my life! Its feels so good right after a workout. 5/22/09 Down 17 total lbs. I think its all about learning to live with life's little discomforts.... and my daughter dragging me out on the road to run a few times every week! 6/23/09 Down total of 21 lbs. so far. Not much change, but consistency feels good, when it appears I've been able to incorporate these changes into my lifestyle. Being healthier is great, but for my fragile male ego, its all about things like my other daughters co-worker telling her I looked hot.

I was hoping this book would be different than the thousands of other titles just like it out there on getting healthy and fit...but I guess that was asking too much. Yes, exercise is important and that message comes through loud and clear in this book by Gregory Sherowski. Unfortunately, he is stuck on the conventional wisdom that grips so many people in his profession. Just eat less calories, smaller portions, and exercise more especially with cardiovascular movements to create a calorie deficit and you'll lose weight. I'm sorry, but that's DEAD WRONG!

If someone truly wants to "Just Say Now...to Fitness," then the best thing they can do is start with fixing their diet. Sherwoski wants people to eat a diet with upwards of 55% carbohydrates in their diet! Are you crazy, man? If I ate that many carbs, then I'd balloon back up to 400+ pounds again like I weighed in 2004. How about encouraging LESS carb intake to control insulin, the fat-storing hormone responsible for obesity and disease? That is a plan of action that will get people started the right way towards a fit lifestyle.

Then, when they get their metabolism working properly burning fat for fuel rather than sugar/carbs, the right kind of exercise can be highly effective in burning stored body fat. High-intensity, interval training is an amazing way to blast fat giving people short bursts where the pounds will fall off while building endurance and muscle. And to focus on those muscles even more, a moderate amount of "slow burn" resistance training for as little as 15-30 minutes a week is adequate to exhaust the muscles and build them stronger and faster than you ever thought possible.

This book was a nice try, but there's nothing new in it. Read GOOD CALORIES BAD CALORIES by Gary Taubes and THE SLOW BURN FITNESS REVOLUTION by Fred Hahn if you truly want to learn about what a healthy diet and fitness regimen is all about.

This book is dollar for dollar the best fitness bargain on all of Amazon.

* For under $15 you get an end to end overview of fitness culture
* You get detailed instructions on performing dozens of exercises
* Pros and cons of gym vs. home training
* Weights, cardio, body-weight, machines, stretching and even diet are covered
* 70 pages of Apendix which included a template for an exercise log

One thing I like about this book is the line drawings. Some will find it "cheap" no doubt, however they are functional, and have all the charm of the 1970's karate courses one could purchase through mail-order. I was not put off by the illustrations one bit.

In fact, in a world where you can barely get a fitness book for under $30 or a single workout DVD for $35, it would be hard to argue agains the value of this little utilitarian tome of beginning physical culture.

Yes it is a book for somebody new to exercise to be sure. So it would only appeal to 80% of Americans. :)

Long story short, there is more than $15 worth of information here, and certainly everything you need to get you well on your way to being fit. In fact, if you worked out an hour a day, sticking strictly to what you find in this book, you would not have to suppliment this book, to continue seeing gains in your second year. How's that for value?

First off, I've been going to a gym regularly for the last eight years or so, so I didn't come to this book and an exercise regime as a total newbie all gung ho and ready to start my new year's resolution (although I am in a slump and was hoping for some mental encouragement). According to the intro, author Sherowski became a certified personal trainer after his retirement from another career -- sounds like a bit of a hobby -- and I don't recall any clarification on when he became certified. I also found this book to be more of a "guy" book exercise wise than geared towards women as the photo of woman on the cover seems to imply.

I did find some helpful information, the first few chapters detailing how to get started, pick an exercise program and/or gym, and most especially gym etiquette (perfume = very bad, I so agree). I liked the weight exercises and the drawings, although they could have been larger and/or real pictures as another reviewer mentioned. The stretches section had a good selection, but I found the "Other Equipment" chapter sadly lacking. I love the exercise ball and only saw the briefest of mention, nor anything on Pilates or other low-impact options

All in all I guess if you need some motivation to get yourself working out and keeping a diet and exercise diary this might do OK for you, although the price is a bit high (is this self published?). I would recommend shopping around and look at other books (this one is on the small size and no color pics) on the market prior to making a final purchase decision.

There is an old saying among writers is that there are people who write and there are people who think about writing. Just Say Now to Fitness comes across as a book for people who are THINKING about getting fit.

First let me say that Gregory Sherowski obviously knows the theory behind fitness but I'm not so sure he knows the psychology of unfitness. He spends almost 60% of the book in discussion of the whys and wherefores of exercising, the merits of gyms vs home-based routines, the benefits of cardio, the difference between machine-based exercise and hand weights-- in other words there is lots of discussion and very little meat. He relegates the weight lifting and flexibility exercises to a couple of appendices. The weight lifting exercises are a combination of machine-based, barbell and hand weights, which is frustrating for someone trying to map out a home routine with only hand weights as there are no alternatives for some of the machine based or barbell exercises. The book is aimed at couch potatoes who are completely unfit, however many of the suggested core development exercises are of an intermediate or advanced level and will be impossible for someone who is way out of shape to complete.

What I was looking for in this book was a series of stages-- a fitness program for just starting out, with suggestions for modification in case of injury or special circumstances, with increasingly progressive programs. An unfit person who is really looking to get fit does not want to read through all the theory about fitness; s/he wants to jump in and get started.

So if you are someone who is thinking about getting fit, but you aren't ready to actually put on the gym clothes and work out, by all means get this book. However, if you are someone who is looking for a fitness routine to get you off the couch and onto the exercise mat, look somewhere else because this book isn't it.

If you are a total novice to exercising and haven't seen any other literature on exercises be it a book, magazine article, etc., then this book would probably be your cup of tea, so to speak. However, if you have access to any magazine articles on fitness or any of the multitudes of books available on the subject, then you probably want to pass up this book in favor of one that is going to give you a lot more information for your dollars.

Now this is not a horrible book by any means, and a lot of the information that the author provides is good solid information. However, the author never really goes into any great detail on a lot of the topics he brings up, two of which, the stretching section and the abdominal exercise section only had 5 exercises and 2 exercises respectively demonstrated in this book. If the abdomen is supposed to be all that important, and it is, you would think this book would have included more than just two exercises. The same can also be said for the stretching section, once again if stretching is so important, and it is, there should have been more than five stretches demonstrated.

The other major complaint I have with this book is the tiny illustrations used to demonstrate the various exercises and stretches. They are simply too small to be of any real use and actually detract from the book instead of adding to it. I would have much rather preferred to see actual pictures of the exercises being performed and also of the various machines talked about in early sections, rather than just written text and the use of these tiny line drawings.

In my opinion, if the author totally revamped this book and added the following things, this book could be a whole lot better than what it is.

1. Get rid of the tiny line drawings and substitute actual photographs demonstrating the various exercises and stretches.

2. Add more stretching and abdominal exercises.

3. Reevaluate all the exercises shown and perhaps add a bit more to the written explanation of each one.

4. Reevaluate the layout and format of your book, with a little polish, that would help considerably.

5. Add some illustrations and photographs to each section to help break up the text a little bit and to also further emphasize the particular points you want to make in each section.

There is an old saying in business that goes something like this, "If you want someone to buy your product, come up with something that improves upon an existing product that everyone needs, or something entirely different that everyone needs." This book attempts to add something new to the fitness book industry, but merely adds to the collective pile.

Here are a few books that I recommend that are quite good in respects to covering their respective topics:

Stretching, 20th Anniversary Revised Edition

Stretching Scientifically: A Guide to Flexibility Training (4th Revision ed)

Practical Programming for Strength Training

Starting Strength (2nd edition)

The Naked Warrior

These are just a few of the books that I personally own and recommend. Although none of these books are the answer to every persons needs, they are some of the best ones out there and well worth checking out. There are a lot more out there, but I don't have the time or space to try and list them all. Do a little research and find out which books best fit your fitness needs.

Shawn Kovacich
Martial Artist/Creator of numerous books and DVD's.

Just Say Now to Fitness, is a nice place to start for people new to exercise. Sherowski, a certified personal trainer, gives a basic rundown on all three aspects of getting fit - cardio, strength training and flexibility - and includes illustrations of correct lifting and stretching techniques. In addition to guiding readers through common road blocks to starting and maintaining a fitness routine, he addresses whether to use a gym or exercise at home, how diet fits into fitness, and gym etiquette. Some books stop there but Sherowski provides sample weight lifting routines and an exercise diary template.


Just Say Now to Fitness isn't a book for people with intermediate or advanced fitness knowledge; it's written for people new to fitness and is perfectly geared towards novices. And, since it's relatively short, you won't have to spend hours reading before you get started.

Just Say Now...to Fitness is an easy to read text that systematically breaks down the barriers that impede individual fitness for life. Greg Sherowski not only provides an easy to follow process for improving one's health but also discusses the most motivating reasons to just say now to fitness.

If you can but muster the motivation to buy this book then you are just a few shipping days away from the most fulfilling years of your life. Do it.