The Portable Personal Trainer: 100 Ways to Energize Your Workouts and Bring Out the Athlete in You [Paperback]

Eric Harr (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 12, 2001

Exercise Your Body. Enjoy Yourself. Experience the Difference.

Whatever your fitness level, world-class Iron Man triathlete Eric Harr shares 100 inspirational strategies to uncover your passion and improve your performance.

•See each workout as a celebration and an opportunity for personal growth (#5).

•Stop counting calories and listen to your body for nutrition information it knows what you need (#22).

•Learn why morning workouts are best–and it's not just because you’ll burn more body fat (#35)

•Experience the power of a “breakthrough session” in your training program (#60).

•Find out the five best fat-burning secrets, and why you must be selfish about your fitness.(#s 90 and 91).

•Put less effort into your workout for world-class results (#73).

•Let go of your ego and rely on your inner strength and confidence (#84).

Gleaned from thousands of hours of training and shared wisdom from the very best athletes in the world, these simple lessons will transform your approach to getting fit, staying active, and being alive.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School-Sized to fit in a pocket of some baggy gym shorts, this book offers easily digestible tidbits on how to get the most out of a workout. With its emphasis on aerobic activity, it is tailor-made for people seeking general fitness or wanting to excel at endurance sports. The book's forte is handing down strategies for getting past the psychological barriers everyone faces on the road to fitness. Some suggestions are geared more toward a fully grown adult body, and YAs should probably check with a physician before doing things like drinking two cups of strong coffee to boost performance, fasting occasionally, or taking two multivitamins a day. Fortunately, the book mostly sticks to the conventional wisdom of eating well and drinking plenty of water. With the plethora of supplements and exercise gadgets in the marketplace, the book's refreshing counsel is to avoid most of that stuff and keep things simple. Like a good coach, Harr urges readers to challenge themselves and get excited about physical activity while cautioning against overdoing things. A selection suitable for couch potatoes and eager beavers alike.

Sheila Shoup, Fairfax County Public Library, VA

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From the Inside Flap

Exercise Your Body. Enjoy Yourself. Experience the Difference.

Whatever your fitness level, world-class Iron Man triathlete Eric Harr shares 100 inspirational strategies to uncover your passion and improve your performance.

?See each workout as a celebration and an opportunity for personal growth (#5).

?Stop counting calories and listen to your body for nutrition information it knows what you need (#22).

?Learn why morning workouts are best?and it's not just because you?ll burn more body fat (#35)

?Experience the power of a ?breakthrough session? in your training program (#60).

?Find out the five best fat-burning secrets, and why you must be selfish about your fitness.(#s 90 and 91).

?Put less effort into your workout for world-class results (#73).

?Let go of your ego and rely on your inner strength and confidence (#84).

Gleaned from thousands of hours of training and shared wisdom from the very best athletes in the world, these simple lessons will transform your approach to getting fit, staying active, and being alive.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 242 pages
• Publisher: Broadway (June 12, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767906411
• ISBN-13: 978-0767906418
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (60 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #774,446 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Portable Personal Fitness trainer, June 12, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Portable Personal Trainer: 100 Ways to Energize Your Workouts and Bring Out the Athlete in You (Paperback)

This book contains 100 strategies about how to bring passion and delight to any personal training program and into one's life. Each "tip" is followed by an action item that provides specific recommendations about how to incorporate it into one's fitness program and life. My personal favorite strategy is # 89, "exercise with a dog". This tip talks about how dogs can lift our spirits and keep us living in the moment.The action item suggests you watch your dog closely during the excercise and notice how focused they are on the "thrill of movement"."Passion and performance"; what a wonderful connection! A motivational book that actually has great advice! I highly recommend this "trainer".

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The first fitness book that made a difference!!, June 23, 2001

By 

Eric Harr (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Portable Personal Trainer: 100 Ways to Energize Your Workouts and Bring Out the Athlete in You (Paperback)

I've read countless fitness books trying to reach my goals. I had a baby last year and I could not, for the life of me, get back to a respectable weight. Time, motivation and lack of enjoyment for exercise were killing my efforts. I'd try the Adkins diet or aerobic tapes. They'd work for three weeks, then I'd go right back. Then my husband bought me Eric Harr's book. I am not kidding: I read it for about an hour and got more excited about my exercise than I have ever been. It motivated me and got me out the door every morning for the past three weeks. I have lost 8 pounds in three weeks and I've had fun the whole way. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Eric Harr for writing this book. It's a gem! I will tell all my friends.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ranks as one of our top three books of all time!, July 21, 2001

By 

Jessica Simpson (Phoenix, AZ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Portable Personal Trainer: 100 Ways to Energize Your Workouts and Bring Out the Athlete in You (Paperback)

This is an absolutely lovely, lovely book. I exercise three times a week with a group of about nine women and have been doing so for six years. We have "book club" meetings every Sunday. We discuss books that have had the most impact on our lives -- an "Oprah's Book Club of Fitness" if you will. We've reviewed hundreds of books together and this ranks as one of our top three books of all time.

- Perhaps the most valuable part of this book was that it helped us clear up so much confusion surrounding exercise, nutrition and weight loss. So often these days, fitness, diet or health books are more confusing than they are helpful. The Portable Personal Trainer cuts right through the clutter with 300-500 word strategies that get right to the point and offer great instruction, humor, passion and inspiration.

- The insights are from an author who obviously spends every ounce of his being on fitness and shares it so eloquently with his readers. How many fitness authors are the "real deal?" This guy

- The strategies are fresh. Harr's book is so wonderfully fresh offering concepts I simply have not heard before.

- The 100 strategies contain a lovely mix of mental, physical and spiritual. They range from nutrition basics (he tells you everything you need to know about nutrition in 12 words!) to exercise tips to motivational secrets to empowering yourself through exercise.

This is a very special book and I believe it's destined for greatness, just as we imagine the author is. So, a heartfelt thanks, Eric Harr, from a group of women in Phoenix, Arizona who just think you and your book are about the best things to happen to the fitness world in the last five years.