5-Factor Fitness
by Ethan Boldt, Harley Pasternak
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Book Summary Information
Author: Ethan Boldt, Harley PasternakEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-12-29
ISBN: 0399152296
Number of pages: 192
Publisher: Putnam Adult
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Book Reviews of 5-Factor Fitness
Book Review: Excellent, one of the best
Summary: 4 Stars
Actually I give it four-and-a-half stars. My wife and I read this book this Fall in our lengthy quest to find the best book for us (click on "see all my reviews" for the other books we've reviewed). First, a word about us: we are in our late 40s and looking for a fitness program we can stick with for a long period of time, not some "quick fix" that we rapidly tire of and forget a couple months after Christmas. I'm about 15 pounds heavier than I'd like to be ... she just gave me a scowl ... OK, 20 pounds heavier than I'd like to be. Her weight is fine but her job leaves her exhausted. We have always worked out to some extent but it can be a real grind as the years pile up. My comments below will be based on our needs. Your needs may of course be entirely different.
5-Factor Fitness is almost, but not quite, our favorite book so far. Pasternak has done a good job of defining a realistic and concise fitness and diet regimen. It has a good number of positives to recommend it, and few of the negatives we found in other books. It's a thin 182 pages, including the index. We like that. Most sections have actual usable content. Some of the other books are needlessly fluffed up to the point you are bored out of your gourd by the time the last page is mercifully reached. BFL for Women comes to mind.
Pasternak's exercise routine is short, just 25 or 30 minutes a day, and in our opinion the exercise routine he defines is very sound. It's based on free-weights and a weight bench. It can be done at the gym or at home with a relatively modest investment (this is a big plus to us). No gimmicks, no fads, no colorful bouncy or stretchy thingies, no thousand dollar pec-decks, etc. Just 5 minutes cardio, 10 minutes strength training, 5 minutes core, and 5 more minutes of cardio. Some tidbits that ring true to us: The dropout rate of most diet (and exercise?) programs is astonishingly high because the severity of the program outweighs the benefits provided. The author believes balanced muscle development, and muscle development that fits your body type is best. He thinks treadmills are the best cardio machine.
Similar to his exercise regimen, Pasternak's diet recommendations are also sound, realistic, and fad-free: "quality protein," reduced fat, awareness of the glycemic index, sugar free beverages (he obviously believes in the wisdom of keeping blood sugar steady), no counting, 1 cheat day. The overall strategy is to do a brief but comprehensive workout 5 days a week, eat smart, improve your metabolism, and strive to raise your muscle-to-fat ratio. We really don't think you can get much better advice than this. Here's how my wife and I rank the books we've read so far:
Joe X by Avery Hunicutt - 5 STAR. It's a remarkable piece of work and fits our needs to a tee. We've never read anything like it. Our only disappointment is it doesn't address the diet side of the equation. We even contacted the author about this and his answer was he really couldn't add any more than has already been written on the topic and recommended Harley Pasternak's book!
5-Factor Fitness by Harley Pasternak - 4.5 STARS. There's a lot of similarity in Pasternak's and Hunicutt's exercise program. Pasternak focuses on the short-term makeover (ala Bob Greene's Total Body Makeover) in, you guessed it, "just 5 weeks." He really doesn't give you much help dealing with the drudgery after the 5 weeks is over. Joe X is the only book that realistically deals with the long term.
Body for Life by Bill Phillips - 4 STARS. Solid benchmark. Reasonably sound content delivered with self-serving ego, color photos, and global marketing. Some people aren't going to like the physical stress involved.
Men's Health Home Workout Bible by Lou Schuler - 3 STARS. More narrow in scope than all the others. Primarily for wanna-be stud-muffins. Sexist delivery.
Total Body Makeover by Bob Greene - 3 STARS. An aggressive program for those that are in serious need of help. Not realistic for most people. Irritating with the ego, name drops, and case histories.
Body for Life for Women by Pam Peeke - 2 STARS, and we're being kind. I'm sure some people will find benefit in its pages some where, but to us it was like a sequel to a B-movie that skipped the theaters and went directly to DVD.
Miscellaneous comments: Pasternak prides himself on being a personal trainer for celebrities. He holds up Halle Berry as a shining example. When first getting into his book we feared it was yet another "oh look at me and how great I am," followed by one name drop after another. But 5-Factor Fitness is different. Pasternak stuck to imparting useful info to his readers and we appreciated that. He and his editors also didn't load the book up with pages and pages of "personal case stories" and the almost pointless before-and-after photo shoots. Thank you Mr. Pasternak!
Summary of 5-Factor Fitness
The personal trainer to such celebrities as Halle Berry, Christian Slater, and Angela Bassett presents his amazing five-week program for achieving a celebrity body by working out less and eating more.If you're eating three meals a day, exercising an hour or more a day at the gym, and not getting results, you're eating too little and working out too much.
Harley Pasternak's Five Factor Fitness shows the five moves for the five/five-minute workout cycles (totaling twenty-five minutes) five days a week. Pasternak explains how to do this at home or at the gym through detailed instructions and illustrations. He includes recipes and a five-week meal plan for the five meals a day, and each meal takes just five minutes to prepare. Nothing in the recipes requires a trip to a specialty or health food store.
In five weeks, you'll have the celebrity body you've always dreamed of, and it won't have taken much of your time.
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