Review of Martial Arts After 40 (Paperback)

The hardest I've ever been hit was by a 57 year-old Japanese martial artist who nearly broke my leg with an arm block, a truly amazing feat. If you truly understand the techniques and bio-mechanics, age matters not in the martial arts.

This interesting book covers attributes of fitness, flexibility, power, reflexes, coordination, speed, and endurance with a focus on older martial artists. There is pretty good coverage on the effects of aging and how to train hard without hurting yourself. The sections on injury prevention, self-care, and over training are worth the price of admission. If you've never practiced martial arts before, the sections on progression in the martial arts, sparring, and forms are also very good. They are not particularly useful if you've been doing this a while, however. The introduction and the first few chapters are very basic indeed. The section on weapons forms near the end is a nice bonus though.

All in all the vast majority of material in this tome has been covered better in other books, some written by Kim himself. The target audience is the middle-aged beginner who is interested in pursuing an education in martial arts. If you are over 40, new to martial arts, and only going to purchase one book, this is it.

If you have been training for a while I wouldn't put this too high on the priority list. I'd recommend "Ultimate Flexibility: A Complete Guide to Stretching for Martial Arts" by Sang H. Kim along with "The Fighter's Body: An Owner's Manual: Your Guide to Diet, Nutrition, Exercise and Excellence in the Martial Arts" by Loren W. Christensen instead. Yeah, it's two books rather than one, but I think that combined they have the depth advanced practitioners require.

Lawrence Kane
Author of Surviving Armed Assaults, The Way of Kata, and Martial Arts Instruction

Product Description
Martial Arts After 40 is the first book on the market tocater to two growing populations, martial artists and babyboomers. Once a blood and guts sport for tough young men, martial artsis now touted by athletes, aerobics trainers, actors, super models andsoccer moms as the number one way for adults to get fit and stay inshape. This book addresses important questions like:
How old is too old start a marital art?
What type of exercises are best (and which ones are dangerous) forthe over-40 martial artist?
What are the effects of aging and how can martial arts combat them?
How can baby boomers keep up in a martial arts class full ofgen-Xers?
What types of injuries are most prevalent after 40 and how can theybe prevented?
This book takes a positive and enthusiastic approach to taking up orcontinuing a martial art in middle age or later. Readers will beinspired, reassured and educated.

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Review of Longevity in Action (Paperback)

After working for over 45 years and wondering how to manage my senior years, I read Mr Bull's book "Longevity in Action" with great interest. He did not let me down. His "been there, done that" approach to senior fitness is very motivating. Great reading for all ages.

Product Description
Although the life expectancy of Americans was rising, an alarming number of the author's family members, boyhood chums, and military buddies were passing away . . . years too soon! Then came the shattering blow when his dear wife, Alice, mother of their seven children, nearly succumbed to cancer at 59! It was then that Arnold Bull, an admittedly burned-out, chain-smoking "couch potato" took his life in another direction at the age of 62. He plunged headlong into research in preventive medicine, which led to the study of nutrition and physical fitness, eventually leading to his acquiring the title of America's Oldest Certified Aerobics Instructor.
This informative, lighthearted book, based largely on Arnold's motivational lecture series, is an inspiration to not only senior citizens, but to their offspring-the millions of Baby Boomers tentatively entering their 40s and 50s.

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Review of Rage Against Age (Paperback)

Frank Covino at 70 + years can out-run, out-ski and out-lift most men a third his age. Dr. Anderson probably could also, although I have not met him as I have Mr. Covino (I'm one of his art students). While I would, as he also does in this book, recommend ALL people see a physician before beginning any excercise/nutrition/supplement program, there is much food for thought here. He details many vitamins, minerals etc. and their effects on health and longevity and also provides an excellent weight loss and fitness program. However, the most important part of the book is in the last chapters where he writes of "Your Self and Its Role in Society" and the importance of psychological balance in both health and what he calls "active longevity". Many health-longevity books overlook this important factor.
My only concern is that some of the supplement dosages are higher than I would personally risk.
By following his diet program I lost nearly twenty pounds in two months and in four months had developed much more upper body strength with his excercises than I had previously from years using weight machines.

Product Description
Rage Against Age tells you what your mainstream physician hasn't told you about growth hormone, melatonin, testosterone, viagra, pregnenalone DHEA, norandrostenediol, thyroid, estrogen, and the right way to diet and exercise.Page after page gives you age-reversing tips and techniques to achieve your goal.

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Review of Healthy Holistic Aging; A Blueprint for Success (Paperback)

What is exemplary about Healthy Holistic Aging is that the book not only provides an easy to follow blueprint for health and holistic aging, but the author is an exceptional role model for his program. Can you live a healthy and independent life to the age of 100? Can you enjoy positive relationships? Can you maintain a healthy environment? Carl Helvie says you can and at age 74, he's a perfect example of the right things to do. He has no chronic illnesses and is among the 11% of the age 65-and-overs who take no prescribed medications. As a professor emeritus and a doctor of public health, he knows whereof he speaks and cites overwhelming scientific evidence that good diet, exercise, adequate sleep, prayer, meditation, positive relationship with others and a clean and safe environment can ensure successful aging.

I just hope all of us will listen.

Carolyn Chambers Clark, RN, EdD
Author, Living Well with Anxiety



Product Description
Can you live a healthy and independent life to the age of one hundred? Can you enjoy lifelong positive relationships? Can you maintain a healthy environment? Carl Helvie presents his holistic theory of aging and concludes that we influence our health and other life circumstances by our thoughts, decisions, and actions. Helvie believes that we must strive to reverse negative thoughts and actions to facilitate a healthy aging process. Citing overwhelming scientific evidence, he demonstrates that the combination of good diet, exercise, adequate sleep, prayer, meditation, positive interaction with others, and a clean and safe environment can ensure successful aging.

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Review of Healthy Aging: A Lifelong Guide to Your Physical and Spiritual Well-Being [DECKLE EDGE] (Hardcover)

This review is written by a former hospital administrator of just under 2 decades. I have been studying health and nutrition for more than decade. I became very interested in alternative medicine when a family member was diagnosed with kidney cancer and the allopathic doctors (traditional MD's) could give no reason for the tumor.

If you have not read one of Dr. Weil's books before, I think you will enjoy his writing style.His tone is very conversational, you feel as though you are talking to a friend while you are reading his books, this one included.Dr. Weil has a gift for taking a dry and complicated subject and explaining it in a manner that anyone can understand.The purpose of this book is NOT to stop aging, but rather to prevent or minimize the impact of age-related disease, to learn how to live long and well, and to age gracefully.

He subdivides his book as follows:

PART ONE:The Science and Philosophy of Healthy Aging
1.Immortality
2.Shangri-Las and Fountains of Youth
3.Antiaging Medicine
4.Why We Age
5.The Denial of Aging
6.The Value of Aging
7.Interlude:Jenny

PART TWO:How to Age Gracefully
8. Body I:The Ounce of Prevention
9. Body II:The Anti-inflammatory Diet
10. Body III:Supplements
11.Body IV:Physical Activity
12.Body V:Rest and Sleep
13.Body VI:Touch and Sex
14.Mind I:Stress
15.Mind II:Thoughts, Emotions, and Attitudes
16.Mind III:Memory
17.Spirit I:Unchanging Essence
18.Spirit II:Legacy

A TWELEVE PROGRAM FOR HEALTHY AGING
Appendix A:The Anti-inflammatory Diet
Appendix B:Suggested Readings, Resources and Supplies

The doctor does a wonderful job of explaining why and how we age.Even without an educational background in the sciences I was able to comprehend advanced glycation end products (AGEs) and how they cross link (form abnormal bonds) to adjacent protein strands leading to inflammatory and autoimmune responses.If you have been reading much about nutrition or health lately you know that inflammation is the new "hot topic" in medicine linked to almost everything.According to Cardiologists inflammation is more important in determining heart health than cholesterol.After reading Dr. Weil's explanation of inflammatory response this concept now makes much more sense to me.

Dr. Weil explains in great detail which nutrients the body requires to function properly and how to incorporate them into your life.He also goes into much detail about dietary suggestions.These are pretty much what you would expect, but he does a thorough job of explaining why he is making these recommendations, which I personally find very helpful.

The doctor also goes into great detail regarding his recommendations for physical activity and how this should change as we age.The concept of a pool disinfected without chlorine was new to me, and one that I was very happy to know is an option.

If you want to age gracefully, but feel as though you need more information, this is a wonderful book on the subject.I highly recommend this book to baby boomers looking for information on how to minimize or eliminate the impact of disease in our lives as we grow older.



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Review of Your Right to Be Beautiful: How to Halt the Train of Aging and Meet the Most Beautiful You (Paperback)

This is the first review that I have ever written, and I am writing this review because I think that the book is highly overrated and that this is a problem for those considering buying this book.Like others, I am sure, I use reviews to determine whether to buy a book.But this is the first book that received mostly five stars that I regret buying.

The reason why I regret buying this book is because the book is not very helpful in adopting the raw foods lifestyle.Rather than giving any practical advice, the book rambles on about beauty (the author discuss beauty envy, famous "beauties" of our generation, etc.) and gives some basic facts and generalities about the raw food diet, most of which are obvious to anyone who knows even a modicum about it (e.g., don't eat meat, dairy, and wheat--pretty obvious, eh?).It is clear that the author is totally obsessed with beauty, and so the book reads like what you would imagine one of her rants on beauty would sound like in person.Of course, there are some interesting facts scattered throughout the book, but not enough to make it worth buying.Also, while the author certainly knows a lot, you sometimes may doubt her reasoning ability based on some of the far-fetched conclusions she comes to.She also talks a lot about creationism, and her health theories are intimately tied with her religious beliefs.The most helpful things I learned from this books are the benefits of eating seaweed and fasting (though these sections are only a cursory foray into these areas), and that's about it (save a few random factoids).

So my advice is don't buy this book if you need advice on how to transition to a raw food diet or what a raw foodist eats on a typical day; the book is mainly an argument for why the author belives the raw food diet will make you beautiful (but there are still too few facts!!).You might want to consider buying this book only if you need inspiration to adopt the raw foods lifestyle, especially if you are doing it for beauty reasons, or perhaps if you want some basic facts on the raw food diet (i.e., you know nothing about it).However, I personally find the "I became a raw foodist and cured myself of disease X" stories more inspiring than arguments about how beautiful you will become, so if you are like me, I recommend just looking up such testimonials online, rather than buying this book.Finally, because I was so disappointed with the content of this book in comparison to what I was expecting giving the glowing reviews, I can only surmize that many of the authors friends wrote the reviews; she is from TN and a number of reviews appear to be from there.I hope this review helps!

Product Description
Advice on how to become more attractive often comes from those blessed with exceptional beauty to begin with. Yet a woman born to beauty instructing others on how to become beautiful is like a winner of the lottery teaching people how to make a fortune in diligent enterprise! In contrast, Tonya leads by her shining example to empower you to take responsibility for your own appearance and health. Placed by a physical disability in a disadvantaged position, Tonya was nevertheless able to fulfill her long-cherished dream of becoming beautiful despite adversity and being over the age of 40.

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