Crunch: A Complete Guide to Health and Fitness (Paperback)

by Liz Neporent (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Crunch, from the New York gym of the same name, is a fitness book you'll read cover to cover just for the fun of it. It's got all the facts right for beginners, plus the entertainment of a hip and trendy style and quirky models against bizarre backgrounds. One black male aerobics instructor wears a long blond wig and garter belt and stockings with bike shorts and aerobic shoes. A trainer, MadDog, wears a ballet tutu performing step aerobics. A club member demonstrating strength training is missing one arm. Female models range from a super-slim fashion model to the 94-year-old grandmother of the photographer.

The Crunch program includes figuring out your body shape and the best program for reshaping it, fitness tests, calorie burning ("slow, pulsating, throbbing sex" burns calories faster than a "brisk walk to the store, massage parlor, or away from [a] crime scene" but not as fast as "gardening, clipping bushes, or burying evidence"), aerobic exercises, strength training, stretching, and much more. You get illustrated and clearly described strength training, circuit training, abdominal, and stretching routines. The information is accurate, well chosen, and presented in such a sprightly style that even dedicated exercise haters will enjoy reading it. --Joan Price

Product Description
Love the body you were born with!

Easy to say, but often hard to do. Until now. In CRUNCH: A Complete Guide to Health and Fitness, the creators of the innovative Crunch fitness movement in New York City and Los Angeles bring you a radically different fitness book. One that incorporates cutting edge information on every aspect of health and fitness, and one that will leave you loving your body, not envying someone else's!

Based on the belief that being healthy involves understanding your own body first--your capacity for aerobic exercise, as well as your genetic makeup, muscle-to-fat ratio, flexibility, posture, and overall strength--the book begins with charts and tests to help you customize an exercise program that will meet the goals you've set. Goals that are realistic for your body, not some super-deluxe supermodel's.

Once you know what you want to achieve, Crunch tells you how to achieve it. From aerobic exercise to strength training, nutrition to posture, Crunch gives you the latest information. And over 150 photos of easy-to-follow, proven exercises help you mix and match moves that will have you firming up, slimming down, getting strong, and--most importantly--having fun working out!

So, if you believe beauty comes from understanding and making the most of your body--and you want to have a good time doing it--Crunch is for you.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Main Street Books; 1 edition (January 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385488092
• ISBN-13: 978-0385488099
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 8 x 0.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,839,434 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Best No-nonsense fitness book ever!, October 9, 1998

By A Customer

I've read a lot of books about health and fitness and quickly lost interest. Not with this book! It gets right down to the facts and presents in an easy, fun to read format. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about getting in shape!

4.0 out of 5 stars A fun and easy way to fit exercise/fitness into your life., August 4, 1998

By A Customer

This book is fun to read and straight-forward in it's information on exercise and nutrition. The hip graphics and photos of many different types of people demonstrating the exercises make the book interesting to browse through. The instructions for the exercises not only tell you how to do a certain move, but they tell you what you should be feeling and where. No special equipment is needed for the workout routines - in place of weights you may use cans, books, rollerblades, anything. The only part I didn't find especially helpful was the body type section - once you find out your body type, there's not a lot of info. on what types of exercises are best for it. All in all, though this is an easy-to-follow and informative read that will make you want to get moving.