From Charles Atlas to Jane Fonda, the fitness movement has been a driving force in American culture for more than half a century. What started as a means of Cold War preparedness now sees 45 million Americans spend more than $20 billion a year on gym memberships, running shoes, and other fitness-related products. In this first book on the modern history of exercise in America, Shelly McKenzie chronicles the governmental, scientific, commercial, and cultural forces that united - sometimes unintentionally - to make exercise an all-American habit. She tracks the development of a new industry that gentrified exercise and made the pursuit of fitness the hallmark of a middle-class lifestyle. Along the way she scrutinizes a number of widely held beliefs about Americans and their exercise routines, such as the link between diet and exercise and the importance of workplace fitness programs. While Americans have always been keen on cultivating health and fitness, before the 1950s people who were preoccupied with their health or physique were often suspected of being homosexual or simply odd. As McKenzie reveals, it took a national panic about children's health to galvanize the populace and launch President Eisenhower's Council on Youth Fitness. She traces this newborn era through TV trailblazer Jack La Lanne's popularization of fitness in the '60s, the jogging craze of the '70s, and the transformation of the fitness movement in the '80s, when the emphasis shifted from the individual act of running to the shared health-club experience. She also considers the new popularity of yoga and Pilates, reflecting today's emphasis on leanness and flexibility in body image. In providing the first real cultural history of the fitness movement, McKenzie goes beyond simply recounting exercise trends to reveal what these choices say about the people who embrace them. Her examination also encompasses battles over food politics, nutrition problems like our current obesity epidemic, and people left behind by the fitness movement because they are too poor to afford gym memberships or basic equipment. In a country where most of us claim to be regular exercisers, McKenzie's study challenges us to look at why we exercise - or at least why we think we should - and shows how fitness has become a vitally important part of our American identity.

Functional Awareness and Yoga is an essential book for all who wishes to deepen their yoga practice and discover strategies to reduce strain or discomfort on the mat as well as in daily life. It is also an excellent book of introductory concepts in anatomy as applied to yoga required during a yoga teacher training. Each chapter provides essentials in functional anatomy with over 60 practical illustrations. The chapters also apply specific postures in yoga with cues to support the practice on the mat. Finally, each chapter contains a mindful practice section to help readers integrate anatomical imagery into daily life in order to release unnecessary tension, improve posture, and support ease of movement. The reflective practice of Functional Awareness (R) changes how one goes through simple daily tasks in living and demonstrates how these small simple shifts can have a profound effect on ease in action and resilience in movement both on and off the yoga mat. Guiding readers through the essentials in body alignment by providing engaging explorations in body/mind awareness, the book offers a pathway to improve resilience and balance in action.

Walking should be one of the most natural things we do. Most of us have been walking almost all of our lives. However, many have learned walking in a haphazard way. Wearing improper shoes, modeling ourselves after others whose walking is inefficient, and wrong ideas about how our body works are all factors that take their toll on us over time. Because walking is natural, it is not hard to improve it to the point where it becomes meditation and improves our health at the same time. For Tai Chi practitioners, walking provides an excellent opportunity to augment, refine, and reinforce Tai Chi principles and bridge the gap between formal practice and everyday life. For non-practitioners, Tai Chi Walking trains us in walking concepts for improving health, balance, peace-of-mind and safety. *If you hurt after a long day on your feet, this book is for you.*Learn how to walk properly and naturally.*Discover why poor walking posture can damage your health.*Understand how proper walking can increase longevity and vitality.

All runners should have a fundamentally sound stride, yet few runners seem to find one on their own. After more than fifty years of studying and experimenting, competitive runner Jim Satterfield shares his method of how he has taught countless others to run like a natural, ultimately improving their stride and their enjoyment of running. As an athlete and coach, Satterfield combines his competitive and personal running experiences in order to provide a unique series of lessons that teach other runners how to master the fundamentals of correct running movements and eliminate the movements that slow them down. Satterfield includes various exercises and routines that will help runners find their best stride, use their core muscles, and make their workouts more efficient while specifically teaching runners how to: Develop a warm-up routine that mimics movements used in running Build strength and flexibility around the core Locate and harness power in a stride Run with a better form that takes advantage of body type and laws of physics Satterfield provides the expert guidance and motivation that will lead runners of all experience levels to unleash their stride and cross the finish line feeling like a winner.

From world-renowned adventurer and bestselling author of The Art of Resilience and The World's Fittest Book, comes the ultimate blueprint to building a bulletproof body. 'He's an animal' CHRIS HEMSWORTH 'The inner workings of a sports science genius' EDDIE HALL, former World's Strongest Man Ross Edgley has spent decades perfecting the principles and practice of extreme fitness to achieve the impossible. Following a career-threatening injury in 2018, Ross was forced to reassess his training and take the next steps in a lifelong journey of redefining what the human body is capable of. In Blueprint, Ross shares the cutting-edge training program that empowered him to rebuild his body from surgery and a doctor's gloomy prognosis in just 365 days to complete a world record swim. Whether it's climbing a mountain, swimming the English Channel, or a gruelling triathlon, Blueprint will teach you the tried and tested principles of sports science that have been used for decades by Olympians, explorers and adventurers at the limits of peak physical endurance. Blueprint is Ross Edgley's complete training journey that shows you how to: * Divide a 365-day training plan into seasons (winter, spring, summer and autumn) * Rebuild your body using evolutionary medicine * Build a superhuman work capacity with forgotten Spartan-style training * Gain bulletproof resilience through Soviet-inspired strength training * Boost your aerobic base with Olympian techniques. Blueprint applies the exact same principles that enabled Ross to complete extreme feats such as the World's Longest Sea Swim, World's Longest Rope Climb, World's Heaviest Triathlon and World's Strongest Marathon. Ross is your elite guide to achieving the impossible in the gym and beyond. Featuring almost 30 tailored workouts for different phases of training, packed with digestible sports science to help you optimise your workouts, and interspersed with Ross' own daring adventures across the world, Blueprint is the ultimate guide to optimising your time and training to make the impossible possible.

The Tai Chi Concepts and Experiments book clarifies and makes accessible critical aspects of the art that only a small number of high-level practitioners currently understand and manifest. Numerous step-by-step experiments are provided for readers to experience and perfect these critical tai chi aspects. Contents include: The meaning and importance of releasing tension in movement for stability, health, and spirituality. The differences between contractive and expansive strength including a promising mechanism for the nature of expansive strength. Numerous experiments for readers to recognize and experience expansive strength and to confirm that they have achieved it. Elucidation of famous master's sayings on mind, strength, and chi. Health and martial advantages of expansion over contraction in tai chi. Protocols using expansion including those for helping an excess curvature of the upper and lower spine and for relieving plantar fasciitis. Quotes from the classics and how they confirm the interpretations of the principles of tai chi. How to achieve optimal balance through an understanding of physical, anatomical, physiological, and mental factors. A detailed analysis of "rooting and redirecting" including physical and internal aspects. Understanding natural movement from physical, philosophical, health, and martial points of view. This interdisciplinary book utilizes, elementary physics, physiology, anatomy, psychology, and spirituality. It contains detailed analyses and explanations for achieving internal, expansive strength, known as nei jin, and for attaining optimal timing and natural movement.

Whether you want to boost your fertility, ensure your body is in the best possible shape before birth, or get it back afterwards, staying active and eating healthily is more important than ever. James Duigan's Clean & Lean philosophy has encouraged thousands to improve their diet and lifestyle and here he turns his attention to helping you achieve optimum health for you and your baby. A proud father, James uses first-hand experience to cover: - Gentle, safe exercises, illustrated with step-by-step photographs, for every stage of your pregnancy, including post-birth exercises designed to get rid of your 'mum tum' - Healthy eating dos and don'ts, plus advice on dealing with morning sickness and cravings, and simple, delicious recipes that deliver all the nutrition you need - Advice on life post-baby, including getting enough sleep, recovering lost energy and how, gently, to get yourself back in shape

The Indoor Epidemic is an accessible, readable book that educators, parents, policymakers, and general readers can use to develop an in-depth understanding of the role the outdoors has played in our evolutionary and cultural history-and how it affects their own daily life. Readers will be astounded by the depth to which a sedentary, indoor lifestyle has negatively affected their ability to live a fulfilling life. But it's also a story, the story of our connection with the world, its inhabitants, and our own relationship with nature. It's the story of what we know is right for our children, and yet what we deny them because of the imagined importance and fabricated effectiveness of indoor schooling. The book's readability, and its emphasis on practicality, will deeply engage readers. Furthermore, it serves as a guide to parents who are seeking to understand how to utilize the natural pathways to learning-simply by getting children outside.

Master the ancient Chinese art of Tai Chi Chuan with this informative guide. One of the most popular Chinese martial arts, Tai Chi Chuan is also one of the most effective stress relievers available. In China, it is also used extensively for the prevention and treatment of illnesses, and its beneficial effects on health and fitness are now widely recognized in the West. The Complete Book of Tai Chi Chuan is a comprehensive and fascinating guide to the practical application and potential benefits of Tai Chi Chuan. This tai chi guide is packed with step-by-step illustrations for practice at home and covers everything you would want to know about this ancient art, including its benefits for mental, spiritual and emotional development. It is both an ideal introductory guide and an invaluable reminder for those who have already taken classes. Topics in The Complete Book of Tai Chi Chuan include: Tai Chi Chuan as a Martial Art The Concept of Yin-Yang and Tai Chi Chuan The Historical Development of the Various Styles Advice from the Great Masters Techniques and Skills of Pushing Hands Specific Techniques for Combat Situations Taoism and Spiritual Development in Tai Chi Chuan And much more

Are you looking for simple ways to improve your mental and physical health and well-being, and bring back the hurray to your day? The Book of Health Hacks is a compendium of easy strategies and practices for you to add to your daily routine. They don't take too muchtime to do, and most won't cost a penny! Plus, each health hack has been tried and tested, some of them for thousands of years, andmany are backed by science. Kerry Sanson is a movement and massage therapist, a personal trainer, and a student of Eastern philosophies including Yoga and Oigong.She has helped many clients to make simple improvements to their fitness, nutrition and lifestyle, producing successful and long-lasting benefits. You can choose to add one or several health hacks to your day - perhaps you'll practice Face Yoga every morning, or drink YinYang water with lunch, or add Torso Bouncing to your breaktime. These hacks can help you be more mindful and give you more energy to win your day, one hack at a time! There are 40 health hacks tochoose from, you can mix them up or create a daily routine. Each hack is described in step-by-step guide or linked by QR code to aYouTube demonstration video. The Book of Health Hacks can help you change your lifestyle in simple ways that suit you. "I have worked with Kerry over a number of disciplines for 5 years now, and her impact on me has been huge. She really has collected some effective and beautiful practices from her deep delves into all things health and wellbeing. Her thirst for learning is boundless and we get to reap the rewards of her diligent curiosity This book is practical and powerful, a perfect gift for those looking for gentle self-work in a brash and busy world." Charlotte Church

There are many fitness books devoted to getting a better body. There are also many books devoted to the mindfulness, inside-out approach to success, several of which focus on exercise. However, there has not been a book that turns the inside-out concept on its head (pun intended), taking an outside-in approach to show how strengthening the body first leads to a stronger mind and inner self. Work Out fills that void, first by explaining how exercise creates the sound mind and changes us on the inside and then by describing the workouts to create the sound body.

In a cathartic journey from yoga-hate to yoga-love, I Hate Yoga explores why yoga has become so controversial in Western society, all the while growing in popularity. Social media, religion, a bad boy guru, yoga competitions and other unlikely bedmates are humorously and conscientiously exposed in this thoughtful look at the world of yoga today. You'll find yourself shocked, tickled, and perhaps even transformed as author Paul McQuillan takes you through a maze of dissent and praise-ultimately enabling you to arrive at your own surprising and unlikely conclusion. You'll want to put this book down, but only to go to yoga and begin your own love/hate relationship.

A unique and comprehensive approach to functional anatomy through the lens of myofascial continuities, from the coauthor of Fascial Release for Structural Balance.

Whether we describe them as anatomy trains, myofascial chains, meridians, or slings—insights into the interconnected nature of fascial tissue have had a profound impact on our understanding of anatomy.

The concept of tensegrity—the idea that changes in tension may affect the whole body rather than just one part—has likewise opened up new appreciations for the complex and interdependent nature of real-world bodily movements. But musculoskeletal anatomy still tends to be taught in a drastically simplified fashion, through the study of fixed anatomical positions that do little to prepare us for the reality of actual movements.

In Functional Myofascial Anatomy, James Earls suggests that we need a new set of tools and vocabulary for watching and describing anatomy in motion. Earls argues that it is seeing movement in action—in different bodies and in different environments—that should inform our understanding of anatomy, rather than the other way around.

By situating the different theories and metaphors of myofascial continuities against the context of common real-life movements such as sports exercises and yoga asanas, Earls explains how each theoretical system may be useful in different situations and applicable to different issues.

Using up-to-date research, Earls digs into important questions for physical and manual therapists: which tissues really are contiguous? Does continuity of tissue actually show or demonstrate transmission of force and communication along those lines? And does fascial tissue have to be continuous for the body to actually transfer force?

Accessibly written and fully illustrated, Functional Myofascial Anatomy offers practical applications for physical therapists, chiropractors, and bodyworkers, as well as new tools for teachers of yoga and pilates to develop a deeper understanding of anatomy and movement.

Tai-chi Ch'uan is an ancient Chinese art based on the principles of physiology, psychology, and dynamics for the purpose of increasing and sustaining health. By practicing Tai-chi Chu'an, you can strengthen muscles, promote and regulate good blood circulation, refresh your whole body-and stimulate your spirit as well. Proper practice of the simple exercises clearly shown in this book can improve your digestion, adjust your weight up or down, clear your mind, allow you to think more clearly, and help you in dozens of ways you will find almost miraculous.

The Game Centred Approach (GCA) is the ideal framework for coaches and teachers to develop comprehensive tactical or technical lessons for any game, both in physical education and in extracurricular sport contexts. Learning about the pedagogical models included in this approach has never been easier thanks to this short introductory guide. The book helps the reader acquire the skills needed to design effective session plans, regardless of the sport that is being taught or coached. It introduces the core concepts underpinning the GCA model, complemented by practical examples of tasks and strategies for each game category and assessment instrument. This is essential reading for all educators, coaches or sports professionals who wish to improve their teaching or coaching to enhance their students and players' physical literacy and sport competence. It is also invaluable reading for any student or researcher working in physical education, sport coaching or sport pedagogy.

Follow personal trainer and influencer, Caroline Idiens’ six-week programme, designed to help you get Fit at 50.

With week-by-week, full-body strength-based workouts, accompanied by 60 recipes developed with a registered dietitian specializing in women’s health, Fit at 50 will help you get stronger, fitter, and healthier in just six weeks. Caroline’s 360-degree programme will help you establish your fitness goals, progressively build up to longer workouts, and continue your fitness for decades to come.

Caroline Idiens is a woman on a mission – a mission to show you that midlife can be the best time in a woman’s life. She has already helped thousands of women transform their fitness, confidence, and mid(life), with her global online members programme Caroline’s Circuits, and with Fit at 50 she can help you do the same.

Many of us are guilty of choosing to binge-watch TV after a stressful day at work rather than hitting the gym to exercise - but what if you could do both at the same time? Self-help expert and stretching guru Susan Clark has devised over 40 simple exercises you can sneakily squeeze in while in bed, at your desk, commuting, watching TV, in the bath and more. Stretching is the ultimate low-intensity exercise, with science-backed benefits including improved flexibility, toned muscles and a stronger core - and it might even increase your life expectancy. You don't need any special equipment, and just 10 minutes of 'flexercise' each day will benefit your health. Featuring charming illustrations of each stretch, as well as a bonus chapter on how to meditate to stretch your mind, this book is the perfect way to get back into fitness without even leaving your house.