Customer Reviews

Pushing Yourself to Power: The Ultimate Guide to Total Body Transformation

5 star:		(92)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I've been meaning to write a review of this book from some time, but I wanted to wait until I had a chance to really work with the exercises.

A little background on me (since anyone thinking of buying an exercise book wants to know: Will it work for a guy like me?)

I am ready to turn 45. I am what you might call a weekend athlete. I play hockey in a league here. I have never been a world-class athlete or body-builder, but I've never been horribly out of shape, either. I take care of myself. Don't smoke, drink a little, and watch what I eat. I'm in pretty good shape. I am not as trim as I was in High-School, but I don't have much of a gut. I am 6'2" and about 200 pounds. So, kind of middle of the road physique-wise.

I am a reader, so I have read all kinds of books on fitness and bodybuilding, and buy Men's Health every month (damn, I could save some money with a subscription, come to think of it!). I know about every theory you can name. (If only knowing were the same as doing!)

Last year, I joined a local fitness club. After three weeks, I felt a difference. My body tightened up nicely. My waist trimmed. I looked better in clothes, and my wife appreciated the difference out of them.

I wasn't bulky big. But the difference was noticeable. I felt good.

But, you know how it is... you have a job, a wife, two kids... Getting to the Gym is hard when you are also designated Kid Taxi.

I stopped going... lost my definition, put on some weight, and was pretty disappointed in myself.

Enter Push Yourself to Power (PYPT). I've been working out with it for a couple of months, and the gym results are back - even though I haven't darkened the door of any gym. That's very cool!

Is it magic? Are you kidding?

No exercise program is. And buying it won't make you any fitter, any more than buying a Tae-Bo DVD will trim inches off of your waist-line. Unfortunately, you actually have to use it to see a benefit.

But it does work.

There are, however, a couple of things that you have to know... because this exercise program won't work for anyone.

The beauty of the system is that you don't have any weights.

The problem of it is that you don't have any weights.

Let me explain:

When you lift a 25 pound weight, two things work together: The weight offers resistance, and your muscle provides the effort. This will make your muscle work hard and which eventually leads to muscle breakdown. Your body, being incredibly smart, rebuilds the muscle better - seeing that it now needs more strength.

This is the basis of all body-building theory. Your body builds what it needs. If you eat potato chips and sit on a couch, it doesn't need muscle. If you work digging ditches, it does. The body adapts.

Weight training, essentially, fools your body into thinking it needs to develop efficient muscles to exist. So it does.

So, resistance + effort = growth.

In normal weight lifting, you provide half of the equation: Effort.

In PYTP, you need to provide BOTH the effort AND the resistance. And that is the challenge. If you are lazy, this will not work for you.

You can be lazy and get results with lifting weights. 25 pounds is always 25 pounds, whether you are fired up and ready to go, or tired and wishing you were in bed. It always takes 25 pounds of effort to lift it.

But with PYTP, you have to provide the 25 pounds of resistance with one muscle so you can reap the benefit of 25 pounds of effort with the other. This is where the "Pushing" part comes in. If you are unwilling to push yourself, you will get a lame workout, and get no results.

That is the challenge... But, there is a tremendous upside to this:

You see, if you do a set dumbbell curls you pick a weight that you can lift 8 or 10 times. The problem is that your muscle has different needs at the beginning of a set than it does at the end. If I can curl 50 pounds 8 times, that means the first couple of reps are too easy for my bicep, whereas the last couple are actually too hard. (And these last reps can actually be a problem... because your muscle is breaking down and getting weaker, the stress of the weight is now being partially borne by your joints and tendons... this is how "lifting" injuries can occur. It isn't just bad technique... sometimes it is simply working with a weight that is too heavy...)

Now imagine lifting a dumbbell that magically changed resistance as you went. So it was heavier for the first couple of reps when you start out, and got lighter as your muscle fatigued. If this were possible, you would get a better, and safer, workout.

That's the theory behind PYTP. And, if you focus and concentrate, you can achieve this.

But, there is another drawback to no weights, and that is: No measurement.

If I bench press 180 pounds for a week, and then move up to 200 next week, I can MEASURE my improvement.

But this won't happen with PYTP. My resistance and effort will change daily. I will never be able to see that my right arm is now stronger, because it is being resisted by my left arm which is now proportionally stronger, too. In fact, it will FEEL like exactly the same workout.

Other than the fact you can see your arms are bigger, you won't notice a difference. Of course you can set up measurements that you do once a week. Maybe go to a gym and test yourself. Or see how many pull-ups you do, or whatever.

For me, I don't care. When I was in high school, the question of: "How much can you bench?" came up often... but it never does any more. No one cares in my world. All I want to do is play hockey, take care of my family, and spend time with my wife. I want to look "good" and feel good. I don't want to run out of steam at the end of the day, and I don't want my body breaking down too soon as I age.

I measure strength differently these days.

There is one HUGE advantage to PYTP that should be mentioned: It can be done anywhere.

Last week, I was watching a hockey game on TV, and thought: "Wow, it's Tuesday...I need to workout today." Ordinarily this would mean either blowing off the workout, or turning off the game, grabbing the keys, and heading to the gym. (Guess which one usually won...?)

But, now it meant simply standing up, and starting. I got a full workout in, while watching the game. That is such a great feeling!

OK... so that's how I feel about the "theory". What about the book?

First of all, I view PYTP as more of an encyclopedia of exercises than a routine. Beginners may be frustrated by this. If you want "here's how you start" type of advice, you should get PYTP with something like the Miracle 7 or Powerflex - both of which have more routines, and fewer exercises.

There is a website, which is very cool. And John Peterson is actually involved in the website. I don't know of many other places were you can post a question for the author, and actually get an answer from him (usually in less than a day).

Now, be forewarned, many of the answers boil down to: "You need to do what feels right to you and your body" but usually other guys on the board will also chime in. John is about as non-pushy as I've ever seen. If you are looking for the drill sergeant type approach: "Do this now you maggot!" you're not going to like Bronze bow website.

But it is a great add-on for the book. And I have been amazed at the tone of the site. Even when some guys come on and try to start a flame war, the mods and author simply smooth things over without resorting to flaming back. It's a very "gentlemanly" site. (Though a few women do post, I am speaking of the classy tone...)

There is also a chapter on nutrition, but I don't think anyone is going to have a huge epiphany after reading it. The South Beach Diet is a good book for anyone who needs a diet. And there are better books on nutrition in general (some from Bronze Bow as well). But, I don't think John considers himself a nutritionist, anyway.

The goal-setting and life/time management chapter is fairly thin, too. If you want to read on this more (and it is worth reading) I highly recommend: "10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management" by Hyrum Smith (founder of Franklin Time Management). Best book I've ever read about it.

There are some chapters on John's heroes. It's OK, but, to be honest, I wasn't overly inspired. It might be nice if someone would do a rewrite... maybe one of those guys who writes those tear-jerking stories in Reader's Digest. As prose goes, I didn't find PYTP inspiring. But then again, I didn't buy it for that.

There has been a lot of comment on the "Christian" tone of the book. I have a few thoughts on that... First, if you read any martial arts book, you will be inundated with the "Zen" philosophy, and eastern religion... but I've never seen a reviewer in the martial arts books even comment on it. Why is the fact that John is a Christian so irritating to so many reviewers?

Personally, I'd much rather have a guy come right out and proclaim what he believes so I know where he is coming from. And it's not like each exercise starts out with a Bible verse. Basically, you can skip his chapter on his personal beliefs and go straight to the exercises. It's not a big deal. Unless you're looking for something to be offended about...

Over all, I really like this book. The pictures are good, the descriptions accurate, and it gives you what you need to get in shape - and stay in shape - no matter how busy your schedule is.

Highly recommended. Definitely worth the purchase price.

This is the best book you can buy on increasing your strength, losing weight, and just getting into perfect shape. The money you would have to spend to equal the information in this one book, would be alot. Its an encyclopedia on Physical culture. Its the best resource that Im aware of. And the book is just filled with information. 182 pages filled with text and pictures. Unlike Pavel and Matt Furey's books that use huge font, and 1 or 2 pictures of the exercise. Example John does the Furey Pushup and shows 8 pictures of him doing it during different parts of the exercise. Matt Furey shows 2 pictures of him doing it. If you buy Matt's book "Combat Conditioning" you would still probably have to buy a video to figure out how to actually do the exercise. Not with PYTP after seeing the 8 pictures of John doing the exercise you know exactly how to do it. And the whole book is like that. Thats just one example.

The strong part of the book is the layout. The book breaks down like this.

John's writing style is very readable. You can tell he knows what he writing about. Every subject from the exercises to nutrition, to goal setting is very well done. Good explanations of the exercises, good uplifting advice(motivational), with enough humor thrown in to keep it from ever getting dry.

As far as books about BWE's go this is the best one Ive read to date. He outdoes Atlas and Furey with this book. I havent read anything from Liederman so I cant comment on his work.

John's workouts are designed to give you 7 attributes of Dynamic Fitness
1.Strength
2.Flexibility
3.Endurance
4.Speed
5.Balance
6.Coordination
7.Asthetics
All done working with the greatest piece of exercise equipment ever made, YOU

The book has a good introduction and a list of Johns hero's who built themselves up with bodyweight exercises. Good reading.

Then we get to the lessons
1.(Deep Breathing, Super Joints, and Chest exercises)
2.Nutrition
3.Energy
4.Abs
5.Neck
6.Shoulders
7.Back
8.Biceps
9.Triceps
10.Forearms
11.Thighs
12.Calves
These lessons are done mixing Dynamic Self Resistance, Dynamic Visualized Resistance, A few Isometrics, McSweeney's Tiger Moves, Bridging and Calisthenics.
Then a section with Power Calisthenics (Furey Pushups, Furey Squats, Pullups, etc.)
By far this is the best book for beginners that Ive seen.(Something finally knocked off Solitary Fitness)

And these pages are packed with info. You wont get the feeling that these 182 pages could have been done with using 50. No this book is wall to wall. Alot of Furey and Pavel's books could actually use alot less pages than they do. Not the case here.

All in all this is the best book on BWE's that mix Calisthenics with Isotonic, Isometric, old style conditioning. A great value for the money. Very motivationg book. That realizes that people are different sizes and have different leverages. Good Q&A's after every lesson. Great Nutritional Advice. Good goal setting and health advice in lesson 3. I wasnt offended by the religous overtones in the book. I highly recommend this book. And those two other reviewers PJ and Orange are mistaken. Not everyone on John's board is old, Im 27. And Im not sure of everyone else age, but Im sure its all across the board.

This is one of the few fitness books (especially those dealing with bodyweight training) that really can be used by anyone of any fitness level. Can't do a pushup or a chinup? No big deal, John has a workout that can allow you to build up strength until you can handle your own bodyweight. On the other end of the spectrum, he presents several ways that you can continue to challenge yourself through a lifetime of working out without ever having to go to a gym or buy special equipment.
The exercises John teaches have been around for years and since the old Charles Atlas stuff (a big part of these workouts) went out of fashion at least a quarter century ago, many of us have never heard of some of these techniques.
While the workouts haven't been mainstream for a generation or so, the nutrition advice is pretty much in line with what most registered dieticians would recommend. It's not a low carb diet, but an approach that will allow you to shed fat and provide enough energy for your workouts.
It's a good, entertaining read and the workouts are definitely worth a try.

It's so hard to find a balanced review of this book. There are people who love it, and people who hate it, and a lot of the difference between those groups comes from their background and what they were expecting. Hopefully you can figure out from my outline of what's good and bad whether this title would be useful to you, and set your expectations accordingly.

Most of what PYTP discusses is musty history. The main value of the book is to serve as an aggregator of techniques rather than an innovator of them. There's a heavy influence from the many decades old Charles Atlas "Dynamic Tension" program. The book gives Matt Furey credit he probably deserves for popularizing ancient exercises that Furey himself never tried to take credit for inventing; this seems to annoy some for no good reason. If you're already familiar with the classic systems from people like Atlas and Liederman, and you're familiar with Furey's exercises, then, no, you won't find much value here.

Those who are new to these techniques will find this glossy treatment an easier way to learn than trying to accumulate all of them separately. Suggesting one should instead decipher the tutorials or ancient texts scans floating around the Internet is really missing the point. When I was trying to learn how to do a "Furey Pushup" aka "Hindu Pushup" aka any number of other names it's been called, I appreciated having Peterson's clear pictures sitting next to me on the floor as I worked it out. I know perfectly well that I can download and print many valuable bodyweight training systems myself, for "free", from sites like Sandow Plus. My time is valuable enough that purchasing this book made more sense to me, and I appreciate the way in which the similar exercises from multiple schools of training are sorted by body part for easy comparison in this title.

On the personality side, John Peterson has a curious mix of enthusiastic sincerity with naivety, and this can come off as salesmanship. He really does think these exercises are the best approach, because it's worked great for him and he's never really looked at the other options, and he really has helped many people. He enthusiastically passes along the legends of his inspirational heroes without checking to see if those are really just ad copy. He really does believe in the power of Christ to help you, and he sometimes feels compelled take a moment to tell you how wonderful that is. I don't really agree with a lot of his philosophy, but relative to the size of the book these are pretty small diversions, and I find they entertainingly paint the author as a likable but fallible personality without interfering with my use of the text.

There is a brief section on nutrition. I can summarize his findings: "this is what worked for me once". Just skim that as an amusing interlude and move along to the next section.

You can't miss the clear bias against weightlifting in this book, and it oversells the body-weight exercises it suggests as being at least equal and generally superior to those done with weights. Weight training has an enormous efficiency for building muscle that cannot be equaled by any other approach. If you're already training with weights, and you purchase this book expecting that it will improve your performance in those weight exercises, you are confused; there is no better way to improve weight training performance than just doing more of it. But training with weights, presumably at a gym, requires several types of commitment: the money for a membership, wanting to exercise badly enough to leave the house for a while, and aligning ones schedule with the gym's hours are just some parts of that. If you'd like a program that's moderately effective but doesn't require any of these things, Peterson will give you the building blocks to make one here. You'll still need to be motivated to exercise, in some ways more motivated than someone at a gym because of the intensity required to get results from this approach. And there's plenty of assembly required--you'll have to put together a program from the encyclopedia-like presentation yourself. The pieces are all here, and there is a useful organization to the material, but it can be a bit fuzzy how to start if you're not already familiar with the mechanics of assembling a workout plan.

Weight training also presumes a level of fitness and freedom from injury that isn't always available. You can easily injure yourself with weights, either from bad form or doing exercises that just aren't compatible with your body structure; once you've started to have some muscle or joint issues, continuing to use weights becomes very dangerous. You can also injure yourself with body weight exercises, and this book deserves criticism for recommending the controversial neck bridge without appropriate safety warnings. But for the most part, the exercises in this book are suitable even for the unfit and the mildly injured, and you'll be hard pressed to overdo them such that you get hurt. That's why it has such a following among older folks and those whose bodies won't support weightlifting. And the bias against weights makes it really mesh with the worldview of those whose injuries were from weights. Try to read comments from those enthusiastic fans the same way you should treat the author's enthusiasm toward his religious beliefs: it's not that they're shills, they really do believe and have a reason for that belief that is valid to them.

What I believe is that this is a good reference guide to classic body weight, isometric, callisthenic, and similar exercises presented with better than average photos of form. The price tag is reasonable considering the density of material, and that you're getting just about everything Mr. Peterson (and the many people whose material he has assimilated) has to say on this subject in one shot here. That itself is refreshing compared to some of the piecemeal releases other authors in this genre (Matt Furey and Pavel Tsatsouline spring to mind) offer in their books. Don't believe people those who tell you this program is perfect, and be similarly skeptical to those who suggest it has nothing to offer.

Many who started bodybuilding and weight lifting back in the seventies; fondly remember starting our physical culture journey by doing the Charles Atlas dynamic tension exercises as a teen. The course was over fifty years old by then, and while it had good advice, the directions were hard to follow without coaching. So, after pulling and pushing our way through the first few weeks of the course, many of us gave up and turned to the barbells that were beginning to show up in our high school weight rooms.

Much later, after years of heavy weight training, I found myself, like many other life time weight trainers, with aching and deteriorated knees, shoulders, and back. I got winded easily. I had lost much of my flexibility and coordination as well. This was despite hours spent stretching and working out hard in the gym. For some reason my bulky build lacked functional strength. While I could lift heavy and go hard in the gym, this didn't give me strength and energy for daily tasks or sports.

For someone hitting middle age, who had been a black belt martial artist, this was hard to take. So ditching my thirty year love affair with the weights, I began stumbling around for an alternative for conditioning.

Enter Pushing Yourself to Power. John Peterson followed the Atlas program as well, but he was fortunate enough to have the coaching of a grandfather and great-uncle who were life long physical culture devotees. Pushing Yourself to Power is a master text of physical self development. It covers everything from breathing, nutrition, joint mobility, power calisthenics, dynamic tension type exercise, and isometrics. The Dynamic Visualization program in the book can be used safely for out of shape beginners or athletes suffering from injuries. For the more advanced athlete there is the five hundred pushup challenge. There is an excellent and inspirational biographical section on remarkable athletes who developed Herculean builds without using weights, such as the late actor and athlete, Woody Strode. John also shares his refreshingly, positive Christian faith in the book.

If you are interested in bulky, superfluous muscles and pushing heavy weights in the gym, this book is not for you. But, if you are interested in building a pain free, lean, lithe and muscular physique with coordination, flexibility, endurance, speed, and strength to spare, this book is tailor made for you. You see, as John's grandfather explained to him many years ago, the athletes of the twenties, thirties and forties lived closer to agricultural life than we do today. They had seen the mighty musculature of the plow horse and the strength he developed. But they had also seen how the plow horse had to be put down at a relatively early age, because of deteriorated joints. They compared this to the race horse, which enjoyed a longer life without swollen joints and pain.

The choice is yours. Do you want to be a plow horse or a race horse? After almost two months of utilizing this book, I've lost ten pounds, dropped a pant size, and increased my coordination, endurance and flexibility dramatically. I can now do things I haven't been able to do in years, such as run, climb, and perform one arm pushups. It's the race horse for me. How about you?

John Peterson's book offers a comprehensive bodyweight exercise program. This book is a great introduction to bodyweight training. He goes above and beyond Furey for a fraction of the price, and is available on his message board to answer questions. This book targets a different audience than many of the "bodyweight gurus". I am more interested in MMA so the book wasn't exactly what I was looking for.

If you want to gain absolute strength via bodyweight exercise, stick with Pavel's (dragondoor.com) Naked Warrior.

If you want to condition yourself for mixed martial arts, stick with Ross Enamait's Warrior Fitness program (warriorforce.com).

If you want to waste money, go with the crooked Furey.

If you are looking for a general fitness program, go with PYTP. Peterson is a genuine man, with a quality product. It just wasn't what I was looking for (based on my specific goals). Nothing wrong with the quality of info.

Kindest regards,
Michael - Canada

I'm only 18 and I've gone through a lot with different fitness plans and stuff. I used to be this fat obese kid with no life, and found running to be my way out. Anywho, once i learned that strength was an important part of fitness and health i took to it with a vengeance, learning as much as i could about nutrition and technique, I even bought the home workout bible by mike meija. After only 3 months of lifting, and just 17 years old, my physique had only slightly improved, and my strength still seemed to me be average. Plus, even though I was only doing 145 pounds on benches, and 200 on squats, my knees and back were already giving me a hell of a time.

It was then that I learned about Matt Furey. An man who had amazing strength, flexibility and character. So I ordered his combat conditioning book. I was skeptical and only half heartedly took to it, yet I did feel a lot better by doing hindu puhsups, squats and bridges. But the book was all about strength and health... yay thats exactly what i wanted, but I wanted a good-looking physique too.

So i went onto some more research, decided to look up more things. I found out about Charles Atlas, Joseph Sandow and all those other old guys who were strong as heck yet still looked amazing. Then I came across John Peterson. I can tell you that the first time I saw his picture, it was of him doing a pullup. HE DID NOT LOOK 50 LOL! The guy is amazing... he is as inspiring as my father, as strong as anything and looks amazing too. I bought the book at once, decided to go at it, left the weights. I can tell you, In 3 months, I can now see my abs, I have definition all over, and i since I test myself monthly with weights, I can say that my bench has gone from 145 to 170, biceps from 20 to 35 and i can now do 5 pullups instead of none.

If you're looking for good health/good read/super strength/good looks/flexibility/extreme conditioning... trust me go for this book. You can't fail on the wisdom of this man.

I have been doing the exercises in the book for about a month now. I have increased my definition and bulk. I can do more push ups and squats than I could previously. I do this program with my wife. She has also enjoyed good progress.

The author is a devout Christian and is very open about that. His motivational talk references his faith.

You will need to read the book. There are many pictures, but it is necessary to read the accompanying text.

The diet section is sound. He emphasizes natural foods and smaller portions. He also endorses proportions similar to the food pyramid.

The author is critical of weight training. If you like lifting weights, you may find this annoying.

The author credits his heroes throughout the book. Some of these references (particularly those to Matt Furey) sound like advertisements.

Bottom Line: These are excellent exercises. You can get a great workout without using any equipment. The Author's writing style and opinions can inspire and offend. (Or you can ignore them and focus on the exercises.) That all depends on the reader.

One word of advice: I took my copy to Kinkos to have it spiral bound. That made it much easier to follow when working out.

The decision on buying this book was a hard one, partly from the price being quite high (especially converted to Australian dollars) and partly due to the hype flowing from many of the other reviewers on the net and on Amazon. You do not have to be that old to quickly learn that many of the things in life that seem to good to be true are too good to be true.

As a potential purchaser of this book, I was initially very interested about the book but quickly put off due the number of reviews which just seemed so positive that they just had to be followers of the authors own cult and I'm not knocking these guys and girls it is just that there is quite a mad and biased adulation for many of the authors that publish these types of books that make people leap in blind faith towards them, regardless of the actual level of quality or basis (eg. Pavel)

I can't tell you the exact reason I ended up getting the book or why after feeling so negative about it I went ahead and purchased it. I also can not tell you that this book has changed my life or has made me do this or that as I have only just gotten the book and other than reading it, I have not tried everything out.

What I can tell you as a potential purchaser is that this book is one of the most clearly illustrated books that not only provides detailed explanations on why and how to do something in words but provides pictures that are so clear you could be watching the authors muscles flex while he shows you how to do them.

This book should be the template on how to make a book on exercises or fitness, there is no other book (and I've seen a lot of them) that comes close to providing the clarity necessary for you to carry out the exercises safely and correctly in your own home.

But this book will not be for everyone. You really need (as a potential purchaser) to decide that you want to undertake some sort of exercise routine, you also need to know that this exercise routine will be one that is based on bodyweight exercises and not pumping weights at a gym. If you can answer yes to both of those and you probably should be able to answer yes due to the benefits of exercise and the fact that you will not require expensive gym fees and can exercise at your own rate in you own home or any other place that you have a level of privacy suitable for your own feelings, then this may be the book for you.

All I can suggest if you are considering this book is to search around at some of the other books (the search inside this book feature is great) then decide if you want to pay for the quality and easy to follow nature of this book.

Just remember one final point. There is not one review (including mine) on Amazon that should mean anything to you, as the person who looks you in the mirror every morning is the only person who knows how successful any exercise, method or training routine is ever going to be. This book will provide tried and tested methods which have been for ages to achieve physical fitness but it is only you who is able control your own destiny and future potential. Do not be mistaken or mislead by this, if you are going to buy a book that is well rounded, informative and above all oozes quality then this book is head and shoulders above the rest in its class.

A couple of months ago I was given Pushing Yourself To Powewr as a gift and what a gift it has turned out to be!!This book is packed full with tons of exercises for each body part.For someone like me who is disabled with a lot of medical problems and can no longer lift weights this book has been a Godsend. I have tried free weights, every workout machine from soloflex to bowflex etc, health clubs ,you name it, Ive tried it. Ive had to quit all of that because of a bone disease I have. Within 2 weeks of doing the pushing yourself to power workout I started seeing visible results. I also started feeling better about myself. This was important to me because living in pain constantly I was just about to give up on everything. I can do these exercises and feel no pain whatsoever. The results are amazing. By the way I have also had 20 surgeries from head to toe literally. I also have severe obstructive sleep apnea. I used to be so tired during the day I would fall asleep every during the day. Since I started doing this workout I have more energy and dont fall asleep during the day anymore. Now lets talk about customer service. There are a lot of people out there selling fitness books that make a lot of promises but dont deliver what they promise. Once youve bought their product they dont have any time for you if you have any questions. Not so with Mr. Peterson. Both Mr. Peterson and Wendie Pett always have time for their customers and are more than willing to answer any questions you might have. They deliver on their promise and back it up with excellent customer service. They also have an awesome forum that is extremely friendly and very helpful with any questions anyone might have. I cant say enough about Mr. Peterson and his books. They are the real deal and deliver real results not a bunch of empty promises. Take it from me, the best thing you can do for yourself is get a copy of Pushing Yourself To Power. You will be amazed at the results you will see in a short amount of time. If it can transform a broken down body like mine, just think what it can do for you. Sincerely, Lou (kong2).