Age Defying Fitness: Making the Most of Your Body for the Rest of Your Life (Paperback)
Review
Clinical physical therapists Moffat (NYU) and Lewis (geriatrics, George Washington Univ.; founder & president, Premier Physical Therapy) provide excellent, easy-to-understand guidance for baby boomers looking to assess their level of physical fitness in five domains: posture, strength, flexibility, balance, and endurance. Chapter 1 sets the scene, explaining changes that take place as our bodies age. Simple tests, well illustrated with clear black-and-white drawings and photographs, enable readers to assess their capabilities and lead to a personal profile for physical fitness in each of the five domains. Many of the strengthening and stretching exercises use the Thera-Band resistive band; others use only wrist or ankle weights and a sturdy chair. The benefits of each exercise are listed, while charts and work sheets allow readers to track their progress. A great resource for determining one s fitness level and custom-tailoring a program: highly recommended for p … >>> Special Offers & Product Promotions
Just a great little book written by two physical therapists. The idea the book is based upon is that the antidote to aging is activity. So what kind of activity do you need?
To answer this question, the book begins by having you evaluate your physical performance so you can identify those areas that you need the most work in. Thus, you complete five tests that assess your posture, strength, balance, flexibility, and endurance- or what the book calls “the five domains.”
After finishing these tests, you should have a pretty good idea of what areas you need the most work on. From there, you just go to the posture chapter or the balance chapter, or the strength chapter and so on- whatever chapters you need the most.
Each chapter contains additional “tests” for the reader to do to further hone in on problem areas. These are kinda neat and very easy for just about anybody to do. After these specific tests, easy-to-do exercises are provided. For instance, the posture chapter contains a lot of stretching exercises. the strengthening exercises use a theraband which comes with the book, the balance exercises (there are eight) are simple i.e. stand on one leg, flexibility exercises which cover your neck area down to your legs, and endurance exercises such as walking, jumping rope or cycling.
The book ends with a brief chapter called “Putting It All Together” which ties up loose ends such as coping with soreness and staying consitent with exercise.
All-in-all its a neat book with a wealth of evidence-based information and simple exercises you can do with little or no equipment. Other books I liked in the body repair genre include Treat Your Own Rotator Cuff if you have a shoulder problem or rotator cuff tear that keeps you from exercising. Good luck with the tune-up!
Three times in the last several years, I have had physical problems bad enough to require a PT (physical therapist). Each time, the PT helped me get back to health. Two of these times, the PT allowed me to avoid surgery. I came away with great respect for the philosophies, skills, and knowledge that PTs have.
Now I find that, while I don’t have any major physical problems, I need something to keep my body at its best. There are many books about staying fit past 50. I wanted one written by a PT. I could find two, this one and another book Marilyn Moffat wrote with Steve Vickery. This is by far the better book.
This book breaks fitness down into 5 categories: Posture, Strength, Balance, Flexibility, and Endurance. For each category, the book offers a series of simple self-evaluations. Then the book offers several exercises for each of these five categories. What makes this book particularly helpful is that exercises are targeted according to the results of the self-evaluations. I was able to find those areas where I need the most help, then target the exercises that help me the most.
As an exercise trainer myself, I was delighted to see a book on exercise by physical therapists, the real exercise specialists. Because they have the medical background to safely prescribe exercises which respect our aging joints, I highly recommend this book to those over 50 and those under 50 who want to embark on an exercise routine. It is well written, clear, concise and easily understandable and useable. Given that it is so necessary for all of us to work on maintaining good posture and balance, this book maps out exercises with precise instructions and photos to specifically focus on these areas. It provides an excellent explanation of the aging process and the changes that occur within our bodies, and then prescribes exercises to counteract and work with these changes. The exercises will help those who want to gain strength and endurance, increase flexibility, and improve balance. My personal recommendation (after you have read the book) is to suggest hiring a physical therapist to come to your home to help you fine tune your program, see that you are doing the exercises correctly, and to offer a few alternatives as well.
Mady Goldstein, M.S.W., NYC