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 - Thumbs up for exercise program, down to nutritional planI wish I could have given this book 2.5 stars. I had great hopes for this book. Like many, I have participated in the 12-week Body-for-Life challenge. While the challenge itself was beneficial and I achieved great results, I was left wondering "what now" after the 12 weeks were done. Therefore I was thrilled to find "Strength for Life" and it's program for extending exercise past a 12-week program throughout the year and to fit it into a busy lifestyle. The book is laid out similar to Body-for-Life, and Shawn Phillips program also covers a 12-week period. Initially, however, he incorporates a 12-day "base camp" for warm up purposes and to get your body ready for exercise. There is no explanation for the length of 12 days other than simply to have a catchy system of 12-days base camp, 12-weeks strength program, 12-month fitness plan. The 12-12-12 program - cute. He also spends a lot of time on the mental approach to fitness and intensity levels, similar to his brother Bill. In his actual 12-week strength program, Phillips utilizes super sets instead of the drop sets used by his brother in Body-for-Life, and also throws in some circuit training on the weekend - called the Fit Circuit. Like Body-for-Life, he also recommends HIT cardio training on non-strength training days. This is a nice alternative program to Body-for-Life, but nothing revolutionary. I do like his variety based on body parts rather than the "one-size-fits-all" approach with Body-for-Life. Shawn Phillips clearly explains why he changes up sets and reps for different body parts to achieve a better workout. Phillips 12-month approach to fitness seasons is something I liked. He divides fitness into three areas - strength, stretch, and stamina - and proposes a 4:2:1 ratio of activities in a "season" thus rotating the focus area every 12 weeks or so. While he recommends one 12-week strength training session a year, I like to idea of using the Body-for-Life system for 1/4 of the year and the Strength-for-Life system for another 1/4 of the year, both sandwiched between programs with a flexibility and aerobic focus. I think this type of approach to fitness will help keep things fresh and avoid the boredom typical with most exercise programs. I am looking forward to giving it a try! The section on nutrition is very elementary and nothing you haven't read before (eat good fats, whole grains, lean protein) and like Body-for-Life Phillips recommends eating 5 smaller meals a day. Of course with that recommendation comes, what else, the emphasis on nutritional shakes. His push for the consumption of his own nutritional shakes is evident throughout the book. If he is not directly pushing shakes (p. 92 "consider using a quality nutrition shake in your daily plan", p. 93 "I created Full Strength, the next-generation nutrition shake - the future of fast food", p. 102 "an ideal time for a quality nutrition shake", etc.) he is placing the product in sample meal plans and referring you back to those pages elsewhere in the book. Phillips even blatantly adds his own terms to the glossary to push his product ("shake brake - a brief five minute break for refueling your body and recharging your mind that is integrated in Full Strength premium nutrition program designed by Shawn Phillips", "Full Strength - the world's finest, most premium total-nutrition shake designed by (guess who?)"). As I questioned some of Phillips nutritional recommendations, I thought I would check out the "about the author" page to see what his credentials are. This is all it says: "Shawn Phillips is CEO of Phillips Performance Nutrition, maker of the world's total-nutrition shakes. He lives with his wife, son, and daughter in Golden, Colorado." I think that explains things. Although the exercise routine in this book is nothing revolutionary, it is a nice variety on the Body-for-Life and Gold's Gym programs and I would recommend it for a 12-week change-up. Phillips "seasons" approach to exercise and fitness could be a nice way to keep things fresh and keep people exercising year-round. If you can get past the blatant marketing of Phillip's nutritional shakes, this book is a nice complement to other fitness programs. I just recommend you skip chapter 10 ("Your Path to Nutritional Freedom") and instead check out some quality books on nutrition like SuperFoods Rx: Fourteen Foods That Will Change Your Life by Steven G. Pratt and Kathy Matthews and The Omega Diet: The Lifesaving Nutritional Program Based on the Diet of the Island of Crete by Artemis P. Simopoulos. Hopefully I have provided a fair, accurate review of this book. There are many positive reviews of this book, but many are by people (22 out of the total 41 reviews so far) who have reviewed only one product (this book) and that makes me suspicious. I definitely recommend picking this one up, at least from your local library as I did, and check it out. Throughout all the nutritional shake marketing hype there is some solid fitness advice in the area of strength training with weights. Good luck with your fitness goals! Rating:  - Outstanding Life ChangerI've enjoyed reading this book as well as I've started my first day today and it was a great workout. Only took 30 minutes and worked up a good sweat. Can wait to get further along and see the results....I know they'll be there. Rating: - A thoughtful approach to fitness and strength -- has worked wonders for meStrength for Life is a sophisticated program for developing strength that lasts a lifetime. If you follow the program outlined in the book you will get stronger -- I can vouch for that, as I've been working the program for about 10 weeks now. I've lost over 20 lbs, gone from a waist size of 44 to 40 (I am 6'9" -- so that is not as big as it may sound, relative to my frame -- I was a 38 in high school and was a skinny beanpole at the time) and feel more energy than I have in about 6 years. I had been starting to feel the pains and aches of a sedentary middle age -- and when I had a hard time bending over to tie my shoes I decided it was time to do something about it. 10 weeks later I am running with my kids, kayaking on the ocean, going out for walks instead of sitting down at the TV. I am just getting started, really, but I can't say enough how much better I feel. Of course, there may be other programs that would work to achieve similar results. The most important thing is to find a program and stick to it. For me, at least, the best way to get results is to follow a program as if it were scripture -- to follow the advice without deviation until it becomes firmly entrenched into my routine. But I've tried other programs over the last several years (such as the "Abs Diet") that didn't bring me nearly as much success and were not as well thought out as this one. More importantly, what is needed is a program that you can really follow for life -- with adaptations to fit your own experience and growing knowledge of your own body -- and this one fits the bill. I was drawn to Strength for Life because it was written by Shawn Phillips, the brother of Body for Life: 12 Weeks to Mental and Physical Strength author Bill Phillips. About 7 years ago while teaching in London I picked up Body for Life and decided to follow it. I lost a lot of weight and got a lot stronger -- and it lasted until I came home and got back into my old routine. Then I found myself spending all my time working and hardly any time exercising -- part of the problem was that I'd gotten bored with a program that put looking good as its top priority. Shawn Phillips' book offers a similar program to the one in "Body For Life" -- but it is aimed in part at people like me who can't see the value of following a tough weight training program indefinitely for the rest of their lives. He modifies the program in a few ways -- but above all adds a "mindfulness" dimension to the exclusive body focus of "Body for Life." Strength, for Shawn Phillips, combines mental focus and body discipline. Each workout becomes both about building strength and practicing mindfulness. In addition, while he makes clear that the quickest way to lose weight is through a smart combination of strength training and aerobics exercise, he also knows that a good routine is one that offers variety. Following a 12 week intensive body transformation program over and over for the rest of your life is just not something that most people are able to do -- and in the long run such a plan would be destructive since the body needs to rest. What Phillips suggests is that you follow his 12 week transformation program once a year -- and consider that like the on-season of a sports program, or like the build-up to a yearly marathon. Use the other three quarters of the year to focus on another dimension of strength, such as flexibility or endurance, or as a time to build expertise in a sport of choice. This is a plan that I could live with. Even now, during the intensive 12 week program, it only takes about 45 minutes a day to do my workouts -- and the food I eat tastes much better and leaves me with a lot more energy than before -- and the results have been astonishing. The nutritional guidelines are easy to follow and merely simplify and clarify nutritional advice that the best experts and research provide: don't eat junk food, eat small meals 5-6 times a week instead of 3 large meals, eat a healthy balance of lean proteins and good carbs and the right kind of fats. There is a lot of very useful advice packed into this book on how to think about eating and exercising and other matters, written by someone who has obviously been living this for a long time and reflected carefully on what works and what doesn't. For example, he suggests that you think about eating in a whole new way: not as a way to fill a hunger, but as a way to provide your body with the energy it needs to accomplish what you need to in the next few hours. That simple advice has been like a paradigm shift for me -- eating better no longer feels like a restriction, rather it feels like liberation, because I see it as enabling myself to accomplish what I want to. My only qualm about the book -- and a point that I think could be improved in an otherwise excellent program -- is that it doesn't seem to give enough attention to stretching. The program includes a stretching routine one day a week -- but everything I know about exercise and fitness says that stretching, after a warm up, should be included as part of every aerobic and strength training session. An excellent complement to this book, for anyone who really plans to take it seriously, would be Nicholas DiNubile and William Patrick's "Framework." Rating:  - Not my cup of teaI didn't get much from book. Sort of philosophical and not much meat. Someone else may find it great. Just my personal opinion. Rating: - Solid advice from experienceThis is just good! It was easy enough to just get started with the base camp training but as you progress both in your training and the book it really gets better and better. The tone does not feel textbook but you can certainly feel the knowledge the author has in fitness and nutrition. I have had a hard time sticking with anything healthy until now. I'm on week 7 and going strong. I highly recommend this book to anyone. In association with Amazon.com | |