5 Best Books to Read on Health & Fitness
We admit that while we love surfing the net and audibly groan whenever the
WiFi goes down, our joy in curling up with a great book is unparalleled. And
the transformative power of a good read can be a touchstone you turn to again
and again.
With that in mind, we’ve rounded up our
favorite reads on the subjects of fitness and health. So whether you’re
looking for a good book for your next flight or just a couple fun items to add
to your Amazon wish list, we have you covered. Below are the titles that we
found inspirational, profound, informative, and straight-up fun.
1. Off Course
Electric shock. Ice water plunges. Oil-slicked
half pikes. How did these American Ninja-style obstacles become a part of our
fitness landscape? In Off Course, Erin Beresini charts the rise of OCR
(obstacle course racing) and the adventurous, ragtag bunch of endurance
athletes it attracts. But this isn’t an account from a cushy spot on the
sidelines. Beresini dives into these courses, relishing every physical shock
and hysterically hard booby trap in her path to the finish line. Her story of
triumph from running burnout to OCR junkie is the stuff of feel-good sports
movies.
2. The
21-Day Yoga Body
Author and yogi Sadie Nardini has sass
for days. Or more accurately, sass for 21 days. Just witness the way she
describes her practice: “What does it feel like to live in a yoga body? Like a
boring ol’ monk who just took a vow of silence and has nothing even resembling
fun. Kidding!” And that hand-on-hip attitude is precisely what makes this book
such a joy. In it, Nardini outlines 21 days of yoga practice along with various
nutritional plans to fuel up your poses. But she also admits to losing her cool
in noisy cafes, overdoing it on wine, and Instagraming her steak dinner
(#foodporn), and what comes across is her total humanity. Which is important,
because if you’re going to launch into a yoga practice, you want someone that’s
funny, compassionate, and, above all, human cheering you on.
It seems few people can go too long without
checking their fitness tracker to see how many times they woke up in the night
and how that affects their workout or how many glasses of water they’ve had so
far today. Author Mark McClusky is in this camp too, but he doesn’t just want
to mine his own data, he wants to see how it’s done for elite professional
athletes. And while talk of ACE sports genes and or LHTH running can get a
little dense here, the crossroads of science and sports McClusky documents is
compelling and shows a wild range of variables that impact performance. Does
beet juice make you run faster? Can napping unlock better jump shots? These are
the types of questions pondered by sports science. And the teams of scientists
pursuing these answers have now become the entourage for super-athletes. (HBO
spinoff?)
4. Body by
Simone
Blame Black Swan. It seems like barre
classes and dance cardio are here to stay. (Leotards optional.) Simone de la
Rue is one of the front-runners in this trend, and her book runs down all the
cancan and around-the-world moves. To take the fantasy a step further, fitness
levels are divided between corps de ballet (beginner), soloist (mid-level), and
principal (advanced). Workouts at every level are split between cardio and
strength training, the later using barre-type moves like swan arms. (We told
you!) Still, one of the most refreshing things about this book is that despite
its advice aiming to tighten, tone, and drop weight, de la Rue is ultimately
about loving—and shaking—what you got. To that end, every workout includes
“mirror minutes” where you simply look at yourself and recite things you love
about yourself and your body. Oddly, “my body’s too bootylicious for you, baby”
isn’t on the list of recommended phrases.
5. Make Your
Own Rules Diet
What’s a diet book doing among our
fitness titles? Well, this books defies categorization: It’s part yoga
instructional, part meditation manifesto, part cookbook, part lifestyle
workbook—there’s a lot of moving parts. But what’s clear is the attitude and
approach all stems from yoga. It’s the calming force of yoga and meditation
that lead author Tara Stiles out of a dark moment of sexual assault and
disordered eating into a place where she could trust her body again. In terms
of fitness, Stiles makes a compelling case against chasing calorie burn using
fitness trackers, saying the focus “is sadly missing all the benefits of feeling.”
Likewise she advocates for breaking up with your scale and establishing your
own dietary rules by tuning into your body. Stiles offers her own rules as an
example, but she’s refreshingly flexible when it comes to food with family:
“When food is made with love, it has a whole other set of healing properties
you just can’t get even in the most perfect organic broccoli stem on the
planet.”
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