Fitness Science Explained : A Practical Guide to Using Science to Optimize Your Health, Fitness, and Lifestyle

by Michael Matthews, James Krieger

Want to know how to read, understand, and use scientific research to optimize your health, fitness, and happiness? This book is the shortcut. Have you ever wondered why science can appear so contradictory and confusing? Why it seems like there’s a study to “prove” or “disprove” just about any claim about diet, exercise, and lifestyle? And what it really takes to protect yourself from bad science and benefit from good science? If so, then Fitness Science Explained is for you. It’s a crash course in reading, understanding, and applying scientific research to get fitter, healthier, and happier, and it’ll get you up to speed quickly regardless of your educational background. Whether you want to discover and use evidence-based methods for building muscle or losing fat faster, reducing your risk of disease and dysfunction, or maximizing some other aspect of your body, mind, or life, this book will show you the way. Here are just a few of the things you’ll discover The 9 little-known reasons fitness science only appears to be so conflicting and convoluted (but isn’t when you have the inside baseball). How to quickly and easily determine the quality of scientific evidence and how much “weight” to give it. Precise and layperson-friendly definitions for each of the key terms you must understand to speak the “language” of science. A quick-and-dirty breakdown of the anatomy and operations of a scientific study, including methods, statistical analysis, results, funding and competing interests, and more. A paint-by-numbers simple checklist for rapidly and accurately assessing whether research passes the sniff test. How to find and access high-quality scientific research without spending a fortune. And more. The bottom line is you can quickly and painlessly learn how to unlock the power of science and upgrade your fitness, health, and happiness. Fitness Science Explained will show you how. So, scroll up, click the "Buy" button now, and get ready to learn how science can help you level up your life.

Genres: Fitness, Health, Science

182 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 22, 2020

About the author

Hi,

I’m Mike and I’ve been training for nearly a decade now.

I believe that every person can achieve the body of his or her dreams, and I work hard to give everyone that chance by providing workable, proven advice grounded in science, not a desire to sell phony magazines, workout products, or supplements.

I’ve helped quite a few people achieve their health and fitness goals, and at their urging, I am sharing what I’ve learned and know works here in this website, and in my books.

So if you’re looking to get in shape and look great, then I think I can help you. I hope you enjoy my website and books, and feel free to contact me with any questions or suggestions and I’ll do my best to help.

Sincerely,

Mike

http://www.muscleforlife.com/

Reviews

[Moein Esmaeeli · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about how to analyze researches on any field of study so the title is a bit misleading. However the writer uses fitness field for the examples which is cool.

[Allan Fredrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not actually about fitness

I’ve been a fan of Mike Matthew’s work for years now, have read I think all his other books, and have even recommended certain titles of his quite often. So when I saw he had this new book out I didn’t hesitate to download and read it immediately, and was not only disappointed, but was almost angry for the total waste of time. It is at least somewhat my fault for not thoroughly looking into what the book is about, but the title is quite misleading, especially if you’ve read his other books. This is not actually a book about fitness, it’s a book about how scientific studies are done, beginning with what science and even the scientific method is.. in short, it’s super boring, super dry, and has next to nothing to do with fitness itself. The only reason to read this is if you’re a researcher and want to know how to do better research by quoting more accurate studies. If you’re just into fitness and want to read more about fitness practices, this is almost surely not the book you are looking for.

[Mo Coghlan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not sure who the right audience for this book is. This definitely isn't "fitness science explained". It's "how to read a peer-reviewed journal article on fitness".

I went to grad school. I have done critical reviews of peer-reviewed journal articles. But honestly, I have had zero desire to do so since grad school.

I imagine it was cathartic for the authors to write this book. I imagine they are frustrated with the click bait culture where we all read the "headline" about a study rather than take the time to understand the science. But, I kind of rely on authors like Michael Matthews to read those studies and give me their conclusions in their latest book. This book didn't inspire me to seek out the source material and analyze it.

[Maria Renee Ortiz Ortiz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Research Science well explained

Great book, easy to read and full of knowledge.
The way the author breakdown the book make it easy if you don’t have a statistical and research background.

[Matthew Nicholls · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not really about fitness, so a little misleading

This book was almost entirely devoted to how to understand experimental design and clinical trials. There's nothing at all about fitness science but only how to read a white paper or scientific article and evaluate it based on the effectiveness of its design. Did I say it was nothing to so with fitness? I did right....pretty misleading title

[Ryan Farrow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honestly, if this was re-worked slightly or marketed a little differently, this book would serve as an excellent layman’s introduction to the process of finding, analysing, and critically evaluating scientific research papers period. It definitely helps to have a consistent subject matter to serve as the example foundation, but really, this book is only nominally about fitness and exercise science and is really just broadly applicable to scientific studies in general. Scientific literacy is more vital than ever thanks to the overwhelming mountains of misinformation spread around the internet and the eroding of trust in major intellectual institutions, whether disingenuously perpetrated by dishonest bad-actors or, more recently, somewhat well-founded with the appointment of moron charlatans in positions of authority. Regardless, everyone can stand to gain from actually engaging in the process of learning and understanding. “Do your own research” should not be the mindless slogan that translates roughly to “listen to my favourite anti-establishment podcasts and A.I. generated Facebook ads. It should mean trying to find the best available information gathered by people who are best educated and trained to provide it, and using it to inform yourself. Books like these are a small piece of that puzzle.

[Rick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Let me preface this review: I've interacted with James quite a bit on Facebook and am a personal trainer and nutrition coach. This may bias my review somewhat as I am a big fan of Weightology and respect James both as a person and as a scientist. Unfortunately I have not gotten to know Michael Matthews, however he seems to know his way around research quite well.

Now with that out of the way let me just say this book is great. So few books cover the topic of research review and even fewer do so with a focus on the research done in the fitness and nutrition world. The book takes the reader from the basics of the scientific method to the importance of statistics and everything in between while using well thought out examples to illustrate the points being made. Though it doesn't go as in depth as a great education on the topic would it is an amazing resource for someone without a scientific background to get their feet wet and help them better understand how to approach information as a whole.

[Mary Ann Merlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you know nothing about science this book is for you.

I got flashbacks to my undergraduate days. The authors do a pretty good at explaining how science should work. Unfortunately many professional become sell outs at the mention of large grants. Do you remember the studies that said smoking was harmless ?? As to what is studied, that depends on the money. Right now the government hands out the millions in grants. They decide. I would check the sponsor of any study. That tells you a lot. Look at the sponsors for the Heart Assoc. You'll be surprised. Still a good read.

[Austin · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this book wasn’t exactly what I thought it was going to be, it still gave me some helpful information when looking into different fitness guidance.

I’m sure it was challenging as writing this book to not give any sides or bias, but the other spoke purely on how to conduct your own research from A-Z. I’m becoming a big Michael Matthew’s fan.

[Brett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Knowing how is key!

In this day and age, it is easy to get false or misleading information about well, everything. This book will give you some key tools to help you cut through a lot of the junk info.

[Linda Cieslak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good information. And I ALWAYS trust Michael Matthews.

[Steve Papanastasiou · Rating 3 out of 5]

A useful and simple explanation of fitness science.

[Gregory Groves · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easy to follow

Love that this book makes it easy to read scientific studies and actually know what you're reading, and how to know if the study is actually valid.

[Chukwudike C-Madù · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book to refresh you on the scientific method and scouting research papers. Good for anyone from a non STEM background to get up to speed. Short and to the point

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very basic science research 101 bit if you don't know this stuff already, it would be great!

[Shannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was just a book on how to analyze research..
So misleading