STRENGTH SENSEI BOOKSHELF

STRENGTH SENSEI BOOKSHELF

7 Minutes to Fit

7 Minutes to Fit is not the type of book that Charles R. Poliquin would carry around in his travel bag. Nor would he purchase dozens of copies to give to his best and brightest students. It’s more like the type of book Pee-wee Herman would have on his bookshelf, wedged between Tony Robbins’ Awaken the Giant Within and Richard Simmons’ Sweatin’ to the Oldies DVD Collection. That said, this book serves a purpose.

The subtitle of 7 Minutes to Fit is “50 Anytime, Anywhere Interval Workouts.” It delivers on its promise, providing 50 interval circuits consisting of bodyweight exercises or those requiring no more than a bench or a chair. So, if you live in a downtown apartment and don’t want to visit the gym, here are some workouts that may not “Pump…You Up!” but will increase your heart rate and help you work up enough of a sweat that you may need a shower.

The author of 7 Minutes to Fit is Brett Klika, whose bio would have Charles R. Poliquin saying, “Can you be a little more vague?” Klika is promoted as a “certified strength and conditioning specialist, a personal trainer, and a fitness consultant for health and Fortune 500 companies.” According to his Amazon page, Klika has won awards for personal training. In his book, he claims to have helped “tens of thousands of people from all over the world.”

Digging deeper, Klika provided a statement about his personal training journey on a website associated with the American Council on Exercise (ACE). Klika is certified by ACE, “earned several certifications from esteemed organizations,” and interned at the Olympic Training Center in San Diego, California.

Klika is the CEO SPIDERfit Kids. On its website, SPIDERfit Kids offers some sound advice on motivating kids to become involved in fitness. He often provides some references, but there’s nothing so controversial that it would make a splash headline on the cover of Flex magazine. It is what it is.

Klika begins 7 Minutes to Fit by offering a short introduction discussing the superiority of a strength training circuit over traditional cardio for fat loss. He cites a study by Australian scientists who found that 60 minutes of interval training caused the same amount of fat loss as seven hours of low-intensity work – so, 7 x 60 = 420. Anyway, Klika also got the idea for his book title from a popular New York Times article called “The Scientific 7-Minute Workout.”

The bulk of 7 Minutes to Fit is divided into three parts. The first part is an exercise glossary containing drawings of the exercises and a written description. The second part contains the workouts. The third part is a short section offering some challenging variations, such as wearing a weighted backpack while exercising. The workouts are divided into full body, upper body, lower body, and abdominals; this section contains the drawings showing the start and finish of each exercise.

7 Minutes to Fit is 160 pages, written for a general audience, and should be considered a reference book. Probably the best approach is to purchase the Kindle version (which is somehow 628 pages!) so you can refer to it on your smartphone when you travel.

Although the promise of getting fit in seven minutes is a bit of a stretch, 7 Minutes to Fit is a handy book to have when you’re short on time and can’t get to the gym. (TSS)

[You can purchase 7 Minutes to Fit by Brett Klika in paperback and Kindle editions through Amazon.com.]

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