Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
93rd out of 478 books
—
84 voters
The First 20 Minutes: Surprising Science Reveals How We Can: Exercise Better, Train Smarter, Live Longer
by
Gretchen Reynolds (Goodreads Author)
A cutting-edge prescription for exercise by the New York Times “Phys Ed” columnist
At one point or another, nearly every person who works out wonders: Am I doing this right? Which class is best? Do I work out enough? Answering those questions and more, The First 20 Minutes helps both weekend warriors dedicated to their performance and readers who simply want to get and st...more
Hardcover, 288 pages
Published
April 26th 2012
by Hudson Street Press
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
2,046)
Very good book. The style is a little wordy for me. Similar to 'The Power of Yoga', I'd have preferred to have more bullet points and less history of scientific discoveries. Therefore, I summarized the key points myself:
1) Inactivity is the greatest public health threat of this century. A great deal of the physical effects that we once thought were caused by aging are actually the results of inactivity.
2) Although 'Health' and 'Fitness' are often automatically joined together, they are differen...more
1) Inactivity is the greatest public health threat of this century. A great deal of the physical effects that we once thought were caused by aging are actually the results of inactivity.
2) Although 'Health' and 'Fitness' are often automatically joined together, they are differen...more
Whether you've never exercised in your life or you're a professional, competitive sportsperson this is a must read.
Exercise helps depression, reduces the negative effects of stress, anxiety, and anger, encouraging a calmer and happier disposition, and makes you smarter from better blood flow to the brain, enhances memory and general brain functioning (neurogenesis). A difference can be seen 6-8 weeks after starting regular exercise. It's also the ultimate anti-aging solution, preventing frailty...more
Exercise helps depression, reduces the negative effects of stress, anxiety, and anger, encouraging a calmer and happier disposition, and makes you smarter from better blood flow to the brain, enhances memory and general brain functioning (neurogenesis). A difference can be seen 6-8 weeks after starting regular exercise. It's also the ultimate anti-aging solution, preventing frailty...more
5 likes · like · see review
view 2 comments
This is one of the best books about fitness I have ever read -- and I have read a bunch of them.
Most of them are full of baloney. Or, to be more accurate, have some good info mixed with a lot of foolishness.
Gretchen Reynolds, however, has distilled the most evidence-based research on the subject of how to exercise most efficiently and effectively as well as how to eat and drink while exercising. Hint: It's not with Gatorade or other special concoctions.
Most of them are full of baloney. Or, to be more accurate, have some good info mixed with a lot of foolishness.
Gretchen Reynolds, however, has distilled the most evidence-based research on the subject of how to exercise most efficiently and effectively as well as how to eat and drink while exercising. Hint: It's not with Gatorade or other special concoctions.
This is a superb collection of the latest insights about physical fitness. --- summarizes what is most important, how to go about it, and what myths can now be ignored. The most important components of a personal fitness program are endurance and cardio conditioning, strength training, �burning enough calories, functional fitness, rest when needed, and, to a necessary extent, balance and flexibility. The primary benefits are longevity, slower aging, stress resistance, better mental performance,...more
At first I was impressed at how many scientific studies the author relied on, but as I read on, page after page of animal torture just left me feeling disgusted and depressed. If you are someone who cares about animals at all: DON'T READ THIS BOOK. I wish some of the other reviews here had warned me about it!
There is also NO BIBLIOGRAPHY, which I find incredibly suspect given the author's extreme reliance on so many scientific studies/papers to support her book. Lastly, her book seems to be wri...more
There is also NO BIBLIOGRAPHY, which I find incredibly suspect given the author's extreme reliance on so many scientific studies/papers to support her book. Lastly, her book seems to be wri...more
I wanted to start a new exercise regimen so I picked up this book for inspiration. Unless you've been in a coma since grade school and have learned nothing new in the ensuing decades about fitness, everything within these pages and its never ending paragraphs will give you no updated information. I even checked the publication date to see if The First Twenty Minutes had been released several years ago. Nope, it's a new release.
I would love to copy and paste any paragraph at random from the book...more
I would love to copy and paste any paragraph at random from the book...more
For those of us who have been running for decades the first few chapters of Reynolds' book tell us little that we hadn't already figured out ourselves. But I persevered in the hope that I'd learn something new. By chapter 4 my perseverance was rewarded. She quoted experiments and studies that confirmed my own theories resulting from my decades running. I had found from my own running that intervals are the way to improve - forget this LSD stuff. That just trains you to run slowly. The brain's re...more
This is a rousing book--literally, it will rouse you right out of your chair. I'm already a convert, I've been exercising regularly for six months now and my body feels completely differently and my energy levels and happiness level is a lot higher. But I learned a lot of interesting information from this book. It's written by a journalist who in her personal life is a runner and interested in the subject. She has culled the results of many scientific studies for this book. Some of the findings:...more
I heard Gretchen Reynolds on NPR and bought the book immediately. As a sixty-four year old woman who ran a marathon at fifty and cycled 334 miles in three days at fifty-five, this book has just been a wealth if new scientific insights on fitness and health. I really appreciate that while many of the research studies are done on young male athletes, she has gone out of her way to find studies on older non-athletes and women. The information on exercise and weight loss was particularly useful and...more
The title makes it sound like the kind of ad you'll see on google or facebook (or even goodreads?), the kind that begs you to click through so you can see how a "weird tip" will cause you to "cut flab," and that you learned long ago never to follow because the promise of a quick answer is always false. Always.
So, bad title maybe, but hey, you've already got the book (ideally, it's a library copy), so why not click through? The result is more than a promise kept. Yes, it discusses numerous ways i...more
So, bad title maybe, but hey, you've already got the book (ideally, it's a library copy), so why not click through? The result is more than a promise kept. Yes, it discusses numerous ways i...more
This is a book about exercise and living a life with a body that is as healthy as possible until your last decade. How to be as self-sufficient and healthy from age 20 to age 120. I learned much about the benefits of exercise until you take your last breath! Even if you are in your seventh or eighth decade you can begin to exercise and get big benefits that will make everyday life more enjoyable.
This book does a great job covering many exercise related topics. The first half of the book address...more
This book does a great job covering many exercise related topics. The first half of the book address...more
I don't usually read exercise books and I'm no fitness buff, but I picked this up after it was recommended in one of my science magazines, as a good evidence based book on health. I'm not sure what I was expecting, maybe a book with a 20-minute exercise programs or something, but there's actually very little in the way of recommended exercise routines. Each chapter is broken up into broad health themes (aging, flexibility, fat burning, etc) and within the chapter are synopses of the latest studi...more
I can't tell you how much this book has changed my thinking about exercise. I have always exercised, played soccer, running. I knew that I did it to maintain my weight and keep my mood up. I had little idea that I was also working my mind. I am adding years to my life. I have been so inspired. I took my bike into the shop this week. I started swimming again. I look so differently at exercise now. I am buying this book for my parents so that they too can see that just moving their bodies, 30 minu...more
A well-written and informative book about what we now know about exercise and fitness. A lot of what is covered has been known by elite athletes for a long time - but not many of us are elite athletes or know one to ask questions. (As a side note, I am not an elite athlete, but I did discuss much of what I learned from this book with one.) Reynolds has a pleasant writing voice and covers this topic in an encouraging and engaging manner, without being either condescending or too technical. My onl...more
I loved this! For one thing, Gretchen Reynolds is quite funny and down to earth. She amuses me going on about how slow a runner she is (which I don't really believe but I appreciate the self-deprecating tone). There were plenty of things I already knew (stretching before a work out is pointless) but a lot of things that I really didn't (ice baths are pointless and so is massage - physiologically). There were also some comforting things (I'm never going to be flexible; I couldn't sit cross-legged...more
Everything we thought we knew about fitness and nutrition is wrong. But that probably won’t surprise most people, as we’re all quite accustomed now with the latest research trumping the “truth” as we learned it. Basically, you should keep moving and not buy into the sedentary lifestyle that so many of us have adopted – this will improve your health, your happiness, and stave off what we used to think were the inevitable effects of old age (loss of muscle tone, bone density, and brain function)....more
Reynolds has a straightforward writing style - matter-of-fact, perfect for a book about science and health. She looks at many common and ubiquitous beliefs about exercise, training, sports nutrition and uses science to either disprove or reinforce them. Chapters tackle big subjects like the importance of warm-ups, whether or not stretching before a workout really does anything, the "myth" of dehydration, etc. She covers a lot of ground - using case studies of athletes and their trainers, as well...more
I loved this book. I read it after hearing Gretchen Reynolds on NPR, and was afraid that all the good "myth-busters" would be in the interview. This was not the case. The book is packed with information and studies--I learned so many new things that it has literally transformed many of my habits/practices. This is not a fad diet/exercise book. Reynolds takes a wholistic approach, that ANY one of ANY age (and any health status) could benefit from reading. The chapters on genetics and aging were m...more
I really enjoyed this book. It's one of the best I've read in a while and I would highly recommend it, but with one serious caveat. The author quotes extensively from the scientific literature, but does not include a single citation in the entire book. I'm sure a professional journalist is familiar with the idea of a bibliography. This book needs one. Desperately. Yes, I've written a doctoral dissertation and I know that reference lists and bibliographies are a time-sucking nuisance. That's life...more
Gretchen Reynolds writes a weekly column on fitness for the NYTimes...this book is an expanded version of that...she is an amusing and entertaining writer and offers up a wealth of current info on health and exercise..the title refers to the fact that for most (sedentary) Americans, the exercise that will benefit them the most is getting up off the couch! It's recommended that we get 30 minutes of moderate exercise a day, but Gretchen says they have found that "Almost all of the mortality reduct...more
I think this is one of those books you have to actually read as opposed to listen to. There's so much information (including equations for things like finding your max heart rate) that unless you're sitting there with pen and paper and writing down the pertinent facts, you're going to miss something. And that defeats my purpose of an audiobook -- to be doing anything except sitting down. Also, the narrator would pause before every quote, sort of to indicate it was a quote from someone, and I'm p...more
I've read Men's Health religiously for 12 years and can safely say this book contains things I've never heard before. Some great anecdotes and quotes from top leading scientists. I also liked how each chapter is summed up in a shortened list format. It helps if you don't want to slog through a particularly boring chatper.
Okay now with the positive…the negative…
1. Not sure why it's called the first 20 minutes. Not a lot of what she talks about is about the first 20 minutes.
2. 90% of the time Rey...more
Okay now with the positive…the negative…
1. Not sure why it's called the first 20 minutes. Not a lot of what she talks about is about the first 20 minutes.
2. 90% of the time Rey...more
this book was filled with bad jokes and extended descriptions of recent exercise studies that would end with "what does this mean for you? probably nothing." awesome. awkwardly written, full of unnecessary information, and totally unclear who the target audience was -- if this was a book for beginners (as it seemed to be) why include so many studies that pertained information admittedly only relevant to ulta-athletes? the last chapter talked about how periods of exercise throughout the day make...more
There were two main messages I got from this book:
1. Exercise is really good for you in almost every way. Except when it isn't.
2. You should pretty much do what feels right.
An engaging overview of recent studies in exercise science, this isn't the how-to book the title suggest; it doesn't give precise info on how to exercise and how much. There's some contradictory information, which can be confusing and frustrating. Also, it was sometimes hard to tell who the given information applied to. But t...more
1. Exercise is really good for you in almost every way. Except when it isn't.
2. You should pretty much do what feels right.
An engaging overview of recent studies in exercise science, this isn't the how-to book the title suggest; it doesn't give precise info on how to exercise and how much. There's some contradictory information, which can be confusing and frustrating. Also, it was sometimes hard to tell who the given information applied to. But t...more
2 likes · like · see review
Though Reynolds correctly reports that exercising is of limited value in helping anyone lose weight - discouraging news, indeed - she does, however, offer encouragement to do so for two other very important reasons. Exercise will, no surprise here, make you more able bodied and, therefore, likely to live longer. All well and good to be sure. But, and this was news to me, it will also improve your cognitive abilities as you age. Even baby boomers and the elderly benefit in terms of both memory an...more
We were doing so well right up until the chapter about how activity and fitness level is more important than thinness, that thinness can't actually tell you anything about a person's activity level or health, but being fat is still bad, so you should probably stop that, even though exercise probably won't make you thin, either. Sigh.
Ignore the food and body size commentary (and the handful of "funny" asides about women being one way and men the other, isn't it funny how they're sooooo different...more
Ignore the food and body size commentary (and the handful of "funny" asides about women being one way and men the other, isn't it funny how they're sooooo different...more
If you need some motivation to get some exercise, any exercise at all, this is the book for you. The thesis is basically that going from sedentary to exercising merely twenty minutes a day offers an enormous health benefit, with more incremental benefits from additional exercise. That some exercise is better than none is mostly likely true, and has been basically proven to death. However, the book suffers greatly from the same flaws as Reynolds' columns (and pretty much most other "health &...more
I liked this book. I thought it was very informative without trying to have all the answers - because basically, nothing is written in stone and as the author says, as much as we know about the human body, we are such complex organisms that we can only gather information. (Well, actually, that's what I said, but it was based on the general theme of the book...) Anyhow. What I learned from this book is that static stretching doesn't matter, we really DON'T need to drink 8 glasses of water a day a...more
This book is an interesting summary of the most recent fitness research. The author made the material as entertaining as she could, but it wasn't a book I was dying to return to. The main lesson I learned from this book is that doing a little of something significantly improves your fitness and decreases your chances of heart disease, diabetes, etc. if you were a couch potato. Those of us who already have a developed a regular exercise routine, though, need to do some serious interval training i...more
Ms Reynolds is a health and science reporter who took a lot of the information she had been writing about for years and made a book. The science is good, but the references are not well documented. She refers to a study of x number of men in such and such a situation, and this is what was found, but the study is not specifically cited. There is a long list of references at the back, but no way to put the stories told in the chapters to specific science in the back. This made me a bit skeptical....more
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
“Every hour of television that a person watches after the age of twenty-five, the researchers concluded, potentially snips twenty-two minutes off of the viewer's life span.”
—
2 people liked it
“Drop onto all fours and crawl the length of the court or field, as if you were climbing a wall. This prepares you, too, for light cat burgling, should your athletic career flag.”
—
1 person liked it
More quotes…
