43 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A MUST HAVE!!!!, November 28, 2002
This review is from: Slow Burn: Burn Fat Faster by Exercising Slower (Hardcover)
I am a fan of Tony Robbins and I decided to follow Tony's advice on how to exercise. His advice is based on the work of Stu Mittleman and I decided to buy this book and get a better understanding for myself.
I am very pleased. I was unaware that you can get such great results with such little effort!!!!!
I am a former football player (lineman) and competitive Powerlifter [web page]. I worked so hard to build a huge benchpress (560lbs bench--life time drug free) that I let my bodyweight swell to 360lbs @ 6'5 tall. As long as my benchpress went up I did not care if my waist line did as well.
It became clear that I needed to lose weight, but I was tackling weight loss as I did with weight lifting. High intensity for short training sessions. It was not working in the aerobic arena. I learned to run at football practice. Push it!!! You have to make 2 miles in 16 minutes no matter how your heart is acting or how winded you are. Make the time.
With Stud's book, I learned a far better strategy. Longer workouts, training in your target heart rate--with a heart monitor.
I HAVE LOST 25LBS OF PURE FAT AND ZERO MUSCLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My benchpress has increased and my waist line has decrease. I train on an elliptical trainer 4-6 times a week for over an hour in my target heart rate. Something I never thought I would do. And it looks and is so easy, that when I am finished, I could do the workout all over again. Results are what I am concerned with.
I was so successful with Stu principles, that other powerlifters and even comptetive runners in the gym have come to me and asked for running and weight loss advice. Needless to say, I recommend Stu's book, Slow Burn.
BUY THIS BOOK, USE IT, AND CHANGE YOUR WEIGHT/HEALTH/QUALITY OF LIFE. If you were to pay $300.00 for this book, it would still be a good deal...
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119 of 129 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Utterly fascinating read!, June 24, 2000
This review is from: Slow Burn: Burn Fat Faster by Exercising Slower (Hardcover)
Mittleman's book makes an outstanding contribution to health and fitness for beginners and old-timers alike by presenting a profound insight--the way to health is not paved with suffering, but ongoing, daily joy. I have for years now subscribed to an "easy does it" philosophy like Mittleman's, an approach to movement which emphasizes exercise as pleasure, not pain. Like Mittleman, over the past 25-30 years, I have been exposed to countless, "no pain, no gain" thinkers in the world of fitness. And, like him, I've seen far too many people hurt themselves, sometimes permanently, by enforcing on themselves this attitude.
Mittleman does an outstanding job of describing what it looks like to have a "process-oriented" approach to the body, both in achieving basic health and establishing a productive, exercise routine. This is defined as being "in the moment," fully experiencing where you are right now with each and every workout. Not living for some future moment when you are done working out and have reached some (often mythical) goal. I agree heartily with that and also with Mittleman's suggestion that we treat our bodies as our "partners." I have taken this approach for about 20 years. It is an amazing (and ongoing) journey working through the socialization we receive in the West to distrust our bodies as our enemies. We are trained to either be terrified of our bodies (when they do something "mysterious," such as getting ill or injured), or to treat our bodies like our personal slave, to be subjected to our whim (either harsh workout regimes or used to gain fleeting pleasure through various compulsions and addictions).
Mittleman is from California, and, having lived there myself over 20 years (not presently, alas), a Mecca of alternative medicine, I was very familiar with various alternative healing modalities Mittleman proposes in his book. I was particularly happy that he reminded me of kinesiology ("muscle testing"), a concrete way of asking your body what it wants which, like him, I learned about first from a chiropractor. I hadn't used the technique in a while, but I tested it out on some running shoes and some supplements I had just bought the day I read the book and was happy to find my body approved of them!
I was interested to note that Mittleman eats and recommends a diet very similar to the Atkins diet, what Atkins himself eats, primarily protein and vegetables. This is a diet that takes a while for some of us to break into. Like Mittleman, I have been in the past a vegetarian (for 10 years from age 19-29), and most of my adult life bought into the belief first perpetuated among vegetarians in the early 70s and, later, Nathan Pritikin in the 80s, that protein is "satan." Years of too little protein left me seriously protein deficient, and going on a "protein-sufficient" diet, the Zone, in 1996 immediately ended 7 years of chronic fatigue in one fell swoop, never to return. For me, the Zone, however, was ultimately not enough, because it allowed a lot of fudging in the sugar-consumption department. Six months ago I switched to the Atkins diet, and have noted additional improvement in my general health and well-being eating only vegetables and some fruits for my carb consumption.
Mittleman is a real advocate of eating fish, a truly high-quality protein rich in important fats. Though he voices a concern I share about the inability to control what you are getting with fish (unlike beef, chicken, eggs and dairy, which you can get organic) because of the terrible pollution of streams, rivers and oceans today, Mittleman has decided for himself that the benefits of fish outweigh the risks of toxic pollution. He consumes it as his virtually exclusive protein source. As for myself, after spending well over $10,000 getting all the mercury fillings out of my mouth several years ago, I've strongly hesitated about eating fish as frequently as Mittleman does for fear of more heavy metal contamination. If that is not a concern of yours, you may well enjoy trying out Mittleman's suggestion of making fish your main protein source.
Mittleman has an interesting section on how he has experimented with his clients applying the theories of blood type and diet. I found it interesting that he is a Type O (as am I) and that Type O's naturally enjoy extensive, vigorous exercise, which is very true for me. I was also delighted to be lumped in as a marathoner type as one who exercises more than 3 hours a week. During the past few years I have stopped going to a gym and have worked out on my own, enjoying daily exercise sessions of walking alone alternated with walking plus lifting light weights, each session 1-3 hours, with an average of 2 hours. Being by myself in this process, I have occasionally slipped into a non-self-approving mindset that this is all "nothing" because it is so entirely effortless and simple--and feels so darn good. Mittleman reminds me in his book that this is the way it is meant to be.
One of my favorite statements from Mittleman is on what happened to him when he stopped eating high-carb, low-fat around 1986 (p. 214): "When I first started competing in multiday events, I viewed meal breaks as a welcome relief from an otherwise tedious and austere day. Food is instant gratification in a world devoid of pleasure; it exists only to provide me with immediate energy and pleasure and enough of an incentive to keep me going until my next meal break. Now, after changing my nutrition strategies to rely more on a balanced approach to eating, not just on carbohydrates for energy, I've come to recognize that moving itself is what I crave--not the eating. I feel as if I can move continuously, effortless, and forever. Food is now the means to an end, not an end in and of itself....In essence, my relationship to food has flipped-flopped. Eating is no longer the reward for continuously moving; being able to continuously move is the reward for eating right." I love this quote. I have it posted on the wall where I can see it when I exercise to remind me of what I have experienced personally, the utter joy of feeling when you exercise that you could go on forever. Sometimes it isn't enough to experience something--we need to be validated, too, that we are on the right track. I am very grateful to Mr. Mittleman for that validation.
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