The Best 13 Books on Fitness
I finished thirteen fitness-related books this month, including two textbooks. Below, I’d like to give some of my takeaways, favorite recommendations and some notes on each book.
The 1-Minute Summary of What I Learned
To summarize, in a few words, what I learned about fitness this month:
Regular exercise is essential for your health — probably more so than you think!
Going from zero exercise to some has steeper benefits than going from some to a lot…
…but outside of athletes and physical laborers, most of us are well below the threshold where benefits from increasing exercise plateau.
The recommended minimum of 150 minutes of weekly cardio and twice-weekly weight training is a good baseline (although even more would probably be better).
Cardio is probably most important for health and weight management. However, strength training has benefits you can’t easily achieve through aerobic activities alone, so you should probably do that, too.
Fortunately, the practical advice for exercise is largely uncontroversial. This meant I got to spend a lot of time reading fun and interesting books this month rather than trying to get to the bottom of endless debates.2
