Hot Point Fitness: The Revolutionary New Program for Fast and Total Body Transformation (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Mark Laska (Author) "Unless you have been living on a remote island without satellite TV, we have all been victimized by empty promises..." (more)
Key Phrases: stretch after each set, week workout routines, pull your belly button, Training Reps, Exercise Abdominal Demo, Phase Three (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Hot Point Fitness author Steve Zim is a personal trainer/gym owner who has "a small army" of personal trainers that uses his method. Zim personally trains mostly celebrities and professional athletes, especially Olympic figure skaters and professional baseball players. His clients aim for optimal physical appearance as well as physical performance. Their sports depend on strength, agility, flexibility, and speed. According to Zim, you can achieve your own best personal fitness level by using the Hot Point Fitness program. The goal: to transform your body into the best shape ever.

The main difference between Hot Point Fitness and most fitness books is intensity and structure. Zim leads you through each workout, much like your own personal trainer would. "Hot Point Weight Training is designed to work each muscle to 100 percent of its capacity, and consequently completely transform the way the muscles in your body look," writes Zim. "The point of Hot Point Nutrition is to speed the metabolism and make it burn calories at a white-hot pace. Hot Point Aerobics will super-heat your muscles, and burn fat from your body quickly, safely, and forever," he says.

Zim's program is precisely structured and divided into three 28-day phases. During phase 1, you become a regular exerciser by spending one hour at the gym, three days per week. Phase 2 keeps you in the gym for 90 minutes, four days per week, and gets you to the point of "needing" to exercise. Phase 3--up to two hours a day at the gym, five days per week--brings you to an athlete's level of fitness (strength, flexibility, and endurance).

Zim developed his weight-training exercises by using MRI technology and infrared imaging to examine which muscles work during which exercises, and how hard. He was amazed to learn that traditional weight-training exercises only work 20 to 30 percent of the targeted muscles. He altered exercises and perfected techniques to build muscle density (not necessarily muscle mass), optimally by working muscles to exhaustion.

Zim describes the exercises clearly, with plenty of attention to technique. Each is illustrated by several photographs, which vary in quality (sometimes the lighting or clothing color doesn't provide enough contrast between model and background). Experienced exercisers will find almost all the exercises familiar, but will learn much from the technique recommendations that make the difference between a humdrum workout and an effective, muscle-blasting one. --Joan Price

Review

"Steve Zim does not let you say 'I can't.' Your exercise excuses are busted!" -- Glamour --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press; illustrated edition edition (December 26, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 073820403X
• ISBN-13: 978-0738204031
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (59 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #781,109 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

92 of 96 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Just a comment, May 1, 2001

By A Customer

It doesn't say so in the jacket or even most reviews, but it would probably help book shoppers to know that this book is a gym-only book, for those with access to a variety of high-tech machines. There are few--and I mean FEW--exercises that use free weights and no free-weight alternatives. I'm not saying it's a bad book; it's just not for people looking for a home workout or one that uses a minimum of equipment.

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hot Point Fitness, January 3, 2001

By	Jim Santucci (Miami, FL) - See all my reviews

After reading Hot Point Fitness, I got back in the gym and I have stayed at it to the present time. I liked the honesty of the author who says that there is no magic to getting fit other than going into the gym and staying on a path. This book was very easy to read and did not make any promises that a lot of other fitness books make.

I found out about this book because Self Magazine had an article article about Steve Zim and Hot Point Fitness. It was entitled "Happy Nude Year". I plan on having just that.

The exercises in the book were very easy to follow with pictures showing exaclty how to perform the exercises.

Having this book is the like having a trainer at all times. At the beginning I took this book with me to the gym. I paid under $30.00 for this book which doesn't even cover a trainer for an hour and I never have to get a trainer as a result.

The author trains pro athletes and Olympic athletes. I figured if these people who know a lot about fitness and have the money to hire anyone picks Steve Zim as their trainer, then it is good enough for me.

I recommend this book to anyone going into the gym or anyone who has been going to the gym without a trainer.

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Work Out Book To Date, January 8, 2001

By	Sam Dillon (MA, USA) - See all my reviews

I made a New Year's resolution and that was to get fit. My wife baught me Hot Point Fitness because she read about it in one of her women's magazines. This was the best gift I have ever received. I usually hate getting books as gifts, but this one has changed my life. I have followed the author's routines very closely and I have already changed my body shape and as a result, my life. I am less tired during the day, I have lost 15 lbs. and I have a whole new outlook on my health and fitness. I was ready to make this change on my own, but this book made it that much easier for me to do.

Steve Zim knows his stuff! I recommend this book to anyone who wants to look better and change their life to a healthy one. This book was the best present I ever received!