Product Description

Functional training is the hottest, new trend in fitness. Functional training enables everyone to perform better at the things they must do and the things they like to do. And now the techniques and training regimens employed by the world's best personal trainers are revealed for the first time in Functional Training: Everyone's Guide to the New Fitness Revolution. From the older American who needs to get up and down the stairs to the middle-aged weekend golf player to the young office worker who wants to improve her racquetball game, functional training is the individualized fitness program that can help everyone achieve their goals or just live a better life. In interviews with the leading trainers, fitness expert RoseMarie Alfieri takes us behind the scenes of the exercise craze and shows how you can integrate functional training into your everyday fitness routine.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #710865 in Books
• Published on: 2001-08-21
• Released on: 2001-08-21
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 184 pages

About the Author
RoseMarie Alfieri is a professional fitness writer for such noted magazines as Let's Live and Ms. She is a certified personal trainer, a group instructor and holds a masters degree in Health Education. She grew up on Long Island and currently resides in Larchmont, New York.

Customer Reviews

Don't miss the point
To the reviewer who said they never do "heavy lifting while balanced on an oversized inflatable ball...": That's not the point. The point is to strengthen your core muscles, to help you develop a healthy and strong back and abdominal muscles, which will help you prevent injury and reduce your risk of getting hurt when you perform other daily activities. It's a way of a) training your body to stay healthy and in shape and b) transferring the skills employed in the gym to your every-day life.

The stability ball is merely a tool in helping you strenghthen your core, and your ability to balance and multi-task.

Give this type of training another chance, keeping this information in mind, and I guarantee you will start to see things differently.

Based on the Latest In Fitness!
Unfortunately the latest is not the greatest. The author's idea of functional training is that the most important element in any excercise is instability. However, I rarely find myself doing heavy lifting while balanced on an oversized inflatable ball. Sure, there are some good uses for Swiss Balls, but they're more of a supplement to traditional heavy weight routines. This is the type of training that I have always found most "functional". Unless you have very poor balance or you do most of your activities on an unstable surface, then other types of training will probably give you better carryover.
Basically, this book is capitalizing on a recent trend in the fitness industry towards functionality. Unfortunately, nothing in this book will help you move furniture, open a pickle jar, or become a better athlete. Take a look at books by Tsatsouline, Kubik, Bass, Strossen, Siff or others for more thorough books on fitness.

Not the best
This book, while offering some good guidelines for general fitness, does not have adaquate, specific, workout plans to address the various areas of fitness. Any book by Stew Smith, especially Maximum Fitness, or The Boot Camp Workout does a better job without all the high-and-mighty "I am a trained professional so just do as I tell you" attitude that these authors show. This book is written by several different people and as such. lacks continuity and a definitive workout plan. Alot of it comes across as the various authors' opinions. Do yourself a favor and buy Stew Smith's books instead.