randomosity

Hav­ing thor­oughly enjoyed Cook­ing for Geeks (which I highly recom­mend), when I saw that a sim­il­arly novel approach to fit­ness was avail­able I was all on board to enjoy this one as well. And…enjoy it I did. Bruce Perry’s approach in Fit­ness for Geeks is a com­pre­hens­ive and quirky walk through a new way of ima­gin­ing fit­ness. As the author quickly points out, things such as fit­ness, diets, ets are ejec­ted from the dis­cus­sion — not for lack of rel­ev­ance but simply because they con­note some pop­u­lar dis­trac­tions from the geeky approach pro­posed. The approach is unique…get into the mind­set of the ‘geek’ (not the cir­cus type ) and look at a dif­fer­ent sort of approach to fit­ness and well-being. It is prob­ably best summed up in the adage iden­ti­fied early on: if one is aware that they are observed or that the met­rics are being com­piled one intrins­ic­ally tends towards doing that little bit more, to keep­ing things within the bounds,or the like. Its a bit of a dif­fer­ent approach indeed and for the geek in me I appre­ci­ated the new and novel ways that the author intro­duces to look­ing at tak­ing care of self. Its not just abut the gad­gets (of which there are many great ones recom­men­ded) but about a cer­tain hol­istic approach that brings together a sci­ence and process.

This approach cov­ers a won­der­fully diverse series of top­ics and it’s not that the stand­ard aspects of fit­ness that you would find else­where are dis­missed — quite to oppos­ite, they are brought together — the hol­istic approach as ref­er­enced — to appre­ci­ate how all pieces fit together. The arc of the books is not lin­ear. I had a sense that you could jump in at any point and stay with the sec­tion and gain much as well. I did work through the book as a whole and enjoyed it immensely. The author has a great light and lyr­ical style. This prob­ably rather unique in itself in the fit­ness area as things tend towards being rather didactic and per­ceived as so. It is the fun of enga­ging with this topic from this unique way that fla­vors the book. There are tid­bits of things for every­one in this book and I am not quite sure who I would see it dir­ec­ted towards. I would recom­mend it to all and think that any­one that can approach fit­ness with a fresh and open mind will appre­ci­ate it. It is not try­ing to provide a pro­gramme by way of note, its more about plant­ing thought­ful ideas in the mind that may take hold and inform your own approach to fit­ness and well-being. As the author states, ‘this is a book about fit­ness and nutri­tion for the inde­pend­ent of spirit and irre­press­ibly curi­ous.’ I heart­ily agree.

A greatly enjoy­able read. Highly recommended!