Customer Reviews

Walking for Fitness

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I got this out of the library, and am thinking of buying it for keeps. It gives a good comprehensive overview of fitness walking, what you need to get started and progress to an advanced walker. It has training programs for beginner, intermediate, and advanced, and covers equipment, technique, stretching, hydration, etc. Great pictures too, as with all DK books.

This book was given to me as a present and I loved it so much that I already have given away three copies to friends and I am back to order more.
I have been power walking for many years and I find it a great and strong form of exercise. But it always upset me to see other people/friends walk without proper guideance and consequently not achieve the full benefits.
This book is wonderfully illustrated and a joy to leaf through.
It gives great instructions and addresses everything.
I bet you'll love it too.

It is very high quality paper and it covers every aspect walking
from shoes, clothes, caring feet and body. I do not like its weekly schedules for the different type of walkers.

This is an overall great introduction to fitness walking. She covers all sorts of things like supplies, safety, strengthening exercises, stretching, etc. The main things I liked about the book were:
1. She discusses diet, and although she advocates a vegetarian diet and I'm not a vegetarian, she did help me to understand that carbohydrates provide slow burning "fuel" for your body and that we really don't need as much protein as what a lot of sources are claiming. I did like what she recommended as far as diet since I am definitely an advocate of eating simple whole foods. Some other fitness books that claim you need to eat an animal protein every few hours don't seem correct to me.
2. The stretching and strengthening exercises are great, since I think this an area a lot of people neglect. There is a big emphasis in our culture on doing cardio, and not a whole lot on how stretching and strengthening benefit the body.
3. I felt the models used for the pictures were good "role models." They were mostly women, some men, who were in good shape but not overly thin or anything like that. There wasn't an emphasis on "looking good" or living up to some ideal shape that you see in so many women's fitness books.
4. She included information on walking for meditation or doing affirmations and how this may benefit your overall well being.
5. She emphasized the importance of doing other exercises such as swimming, bike riding, the main idea being that you shouldn't just do the same thing all the time.
6. She even gave a little bit of information on doing a simple manicure and pedicure.

There wasn't much that I didn't like abaout the book, but here are some areas I thought could have been better:
1. She basically only talked about power walking. I know the book is called "Walking for Fitness," but walking is walking, and I thought she could have at least touched on the idea of doing other types of walking. Personally I am not sold yet on the idea of "power walking" quite yet.
2. It would have been nice if she included walking with a dog or a stroller.

Overall a good book and since it is a DK book, it has a lot of pictures.

I've read a few fitness books (Matt Roberts, Anita Bean and Running Made Easy). There are some very good books out nowadays and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed reading Walking for Fitness. It's not really true that the book is aimed purely at Power walkers as I think any fitness seeking walker would benefit from the advice here.

Of all the books I've read, this one made the most sense to me. It is motivational without being OTT (as these type of books often are). The book is clear and progresses very naturally through all aspects of fitness without making it feel like any part is going to be a struggle. That is the beauty of this book for me: a lot of the time, fitness manuals (in their OTT approach to superhuman healthy living) send you into an OTT regime you'd rarely keep up with. This is gentle and sensible and covers so much more besides just power walking (meditation whilst walking, positive thinking and visualisation, pedicures, massage, healthy diet (where fry ups are allowed!!!), and even basic pilates and yoga). On top of this, you get a good grounding in walking and general fitness. Nothing is too much; just enough to start and enjoy without feeling there is any pressure to succeed.

I thoroughly enjoyed this and hope that Nina Barough writes more books in future. It may not be strong enough to motivate a health fanatic, but if you're looking for a solid and gentle fitness book -- which allows you to develop at your own pace without feeling pressured to do more -- you can't really go wrong.