Happy New Year friends! With the start of every year, new gym membership numbers skyrocket as well-intentioned folks across the country make resolutions to get fitter, slimmer, stronger, and/or more active. If this is one of your goals this year, we have all the guidance you need to get started, stay motivated, and see progress with this list of some of our favourite books on fitness.
The Champion’s Mind By Jim Afremow
Even amongst the most elite performers, certain athletes stand out as a cut above the rest, able to outperform in clutch, game-deciding moments. These athletes prove that raw athletic ability doesn’t necessarily translate to a superior on-field experience—it’s the mental game that matters most.Sports participation—from the recreational to the collegiate Division I level—is at an all-time high. While the caliber of their game may differ, athletes at every level have one thing in common: they want to excel. In The Champion’s Mind, sports psychologist Jim Afremow, PhD, LPC, now offers the same advice he uses with Olympians, Heisman Trophy winners, and professional athletes, including:• Tips and techniques based on high-performance psychology research, such as how to get in a “zone,” thrive on a team, and stay humble• How to progress within a sport and sustain excellence long-term• Customizable pre-performance routines to hit full power when the gun goes off or the puck is droppedThe Champion’s Mind distills actionable advice into clear and concise steps for athletes looking to find confidence, concentration, and mental preparedness—the mental edge that sets champions apart.
No Sweat By Michelle Segar
We start out with the best intentions. We’re going to exercise more and get in shape! Then five days a week at the gym turns into two… then becomes none. We hit the snooze button and skip the morning run.
We really do want to be healthy and fit, but we’re over whelmed and overextended—and exercise feels like another chore to complete. Is it any wonder we don’t stick with it? Behavior expert Michelle Segar has devoted her career to the science of motivation. In No Sweat, she reveals that while “better health” or “weight loss” sound like strong incentives, human beings are hardwired to choose immediate gratification over delayed benefits. In other words, we’re not going to exercise unless it makes us happy right now.
So what’s the solution? To achieve lasting fitness, we have to change our minds—before we can change our bodies. In No Sweat, Segar shows us how. Translating twenty years of research on exercise and motivation into a simple four-point program, she helps readers broaden their definition of exercise, find pleasure in physical activity, and discover realistic ways to fit it into their lives. Activities we enjoy, we repeat–making this evidence-based system more sustainable in the long run than a regimen of intense workouts. Even if we don’t sweat, we really benefit.
The success of the clients Segar has coached testifies to the power of her program. Their stories punctuate the book, entertaining and emboldening readers to break the cycle of exercise failure once and for all. Complete with worksheets, tips, and techniques, getting in shape has never been so easy—or so much fun.
How Bad Do You Want It? By Matt Fitzgerald
The greatest athletic performances spring from the mind, not the body.
Elite athletes have known this for decades and now science is learning why it’s true. In his fascinating new book How Bad Do You Want It? , coach Matt Fitzgerald examines more than a dozen pivotal races to discover the surprising ways elite athletes strengthen their mental toughness.
Fitzgerald puts you into the pulse-pounding action of more than a dozen epic races from running, cycling, triathlon, XTERRA, and rowing with thrilling race reports and revealing post-race interviews with the elites. Their own words reinforce what the research has strong mental fitness lets us approach our true physical limits, giving us an edge over physically stronger competitors. Each chapter explores the how and why of an elite athlete’s transformative moment, revealing powerful new psychobiological principles you can practice to flex your own mental fitness.
The new psychobiological model of endurance performance shows that the most important question in endurance sports how bad do you want it? Fitzgerald’s fascinating book will forever change how you answer this question and show you how to master the psychology of mind over muscle. These lessons will help you push back your limits and uncover your full potential.
Fitness Confidential By Vinnie Tortorich
America’s Angriest Trainer, Vinnie Tortorich, exposes the nasty underbelly of the fitness industry while getting you into the best shape of your life. For over 20 years, Vinnie has been Hollywood’s go-to guy for celebrities and athletes looking to get fit fast. Now, in this hilarious and often r-rated memoir, he holds nothing back. What’s the best piece of fitness equipment money can buy? What’s the fastest way to lose weight: diet or exercise? Why are health clubs worse than used car lots? In FITNESS CONFIDENTIAL, Vinnie tells all. So get ready to get fit, get inspired and get the dirt with Hollywood’s most outrageous personal trainer!
The One Minute Workout by Martin Gibala
A decade ago, Martin Gibala was a young researcher in the field of exercise physiology—with little time to exercise. That critical point in his career launched a passion for high-intensity interval training (HIIT), allowing him to stay in shape with just a few minutes of hard effort. It also prompted Gibala to conduct experiments that helped launch the exploding science of ultralow-volume exercise. Now that he’s the worldwide guru of the science of time-efficient workouts, Gibala’s first book answers the ultimate How low can you go?
Gibala’s fascinating quest for the answer makes exercise experts of us all. His work demonstrates that very short, intense bursts of exercise may be the most potent form of workout available. Gibala busts myths (“it’s only for really fit people”), explains astonishing science (“intensity trumps duration”), lays out time-saving life hacks (“exercise snacking”), and describes the fascinating health-promoting value of HIIT (for preventing and reversing disease). Gibala’s latest study found that sedentary people derived the fitness benefits of 150 minutes of traditional endurance training with an interval protocol that involved 80 percent less time and just three minutes of hard exercise per week.
Including the eight best basic interval workouts as well as four microworkouts customized for individual needs and preferences (you may not quite want to go all out every time), The One-Minute Workout solves the number-one reason we don’t lack of time. Because everyone has one minute.
Change Your Brain, Change Your Body By Daniel G Amen
THE KEY TO A BETTER BODY—in shape, energized, and youthful—is a healthy brain. Based on the latest medical research, as well as on Dr. Amen’s two decades of clinical practice at the renowned Amen Clinics, where Dr. Amen and his associates pioneered the use of the most advanced brain imaging technology, Change Your Brain, Change Your Body shows you how to take the very best care of your brain.
With fifteen practical, easy-to-implement solutions involving nutritious foods, natural supplements and vitamins, positive-thinking habits, and, when necessary, highly targeted medications, Dr. Amen shows you how to:
* Reach and maintain your ideal weight
* Soothe and smooth your skin at any age
* Reduce the stress that can impair your immune system
* Sharpen your memory
* Increase willpower and eliminate the cravings that keep you from achieving your exercise and diet goals
* Enhance sexual desire and performance
* Lower your blood pressure without medication
* Avoid depression and elevate the enjoyment you take in life’s pleasures.
Whether you’re just coming to realize that it’s time to get your body into shape, or are already fit and want to take it to the next level, Change Your Brain, Change Your Body is all you need to start putting the power of the brain-body connection to work for you today.
The Fitness Mindset by Brian Keane
How would it feel to have the body you’ve always wanted, a huge boost in energy, and the mindset to keep it forever? Have you ever felt frustrated about not getting the results you want? Do you feel you are eating the right foods and doing the correct workouts but your body still isn’t changing as quickly as you want? Are you grinding through your workday with low energy levels, praying for the next day off so you can sleep in? If this sounds familiar, then The Fitness Mindset is the book for you. The Fitness Mindset gives you everything you need to get the body you’ve always dreamed of, ramp your energy levels through the roof and develop the mindset to keep it forever.
Eat to Love By Jenna Hollenstein
Eat to Love is a joyful, non-diet approach to mindfulness, intuitive eating, and falling in love with the body you live in.
In Eat to Love , nutritionist Jenna Hollenstein leads a spiritual revolution against pervasive attitudes towards food and dieting, and demonstrates how to free your mind from the fear, frustration, and shame often associated with eating. Through a series of revelatory exercises, along with simple instructions for time-proven mindfulness and meditation techniques, you’ll learn to identify prejudices around eating and reset your relationship with food.
Eat to Love is not a diet book, not a “clean eating” manual, and not a guide to “being your best self.” Rather, it is a liberating path to sanity, and to loving the body you have right now.
Since early childhood, many of us have heard that something is wrong with our with the way they look, the way they feel and the food we crave. This diet culture–surrounding us in the form of media, fashion, food trends, and even messages from friends and family–tells us that the only way to be happy is to be thin and to rigidly follow the latest eating dogma. Eat to Love challenges this insidious, pervasive messaging and resets your relationship with food from one that’s shameful to one that’s nourishing, liberating, and enriching.
Own the Day, Own Your Life By Aubrey Marcus
Revolutionise your life one day at a time with this empowering handbook designed for men and women which provides simple strategies for each element of your day. Aubrey Marcus, author of the book is CEO of Onnit, a human performance company that he has built into one of the fastest growing companies in the world.
How can we get the most out of our body and mind on a daily basis? Want to change your life for the better?
Aubrey Marcus answers these questions in this handbook that guides the reader to optimise each moment of the day. With small, actionable changes implemented throughout the course of one day we can feel better, perform more efficiently and live happier. And these habits turn into weekly routines, ultimately becoming part of a lifelong healthy choice.
From workouts and diet to inbox triage, mindfulness, shower temperature and sex this groundbreaking manual provides strategies for each element of your day. Drawing on the latest studies and traditional practices from around the world, this book delivers cutting-edge life hacks, nutritional expertise, brain upgrades and fitness regimes.
Own the Day presents a path to change. It guides readers through a single 24-hour day of positive choices and optimal living that will form the groundwork for all their days to come. From foundational elements like workouts, diet, and mindfulness, to more routine opportunities to optimize your choices, such as shower temperature and inbox triage, readers will learn to make the most of every moment.
Ultimately, Marcus creates a choose-your-own-adventure guide to living that brings the reader’s mind, body, and spirit to life. It is a promise delivered on the back of real, concrete strategies for better living. And the all-encompassing results are what make this book’s simplistic approach so successful. By focusing on optimal decision making for just one day —by making several small, key changes in your daily approach—you end up addressing your health at every level. And owning your day.
Boundless By Ben Greenfield
What if the ability to look, feel, and perform at peak capacity wasn’t the stuff of lore but instead was within easy reach? In a perfect world, you would be able to have it complete optimization of mind, body, and spirit. In Boundless, the New York Times bestselling author of Beyond Training and health and fitness leader Ben Greenfield offers a first-of-its-kind blueprint for total human optimization. To catapult you down the path of maximizing cognition, mental clarity, and IQ.
