Survival of the Fittest:: Understanding Health and Peak Physical Performance - Hardcover

Mike Stroud

4.36

382 ratings by Goodreads

9780224044851: Survival of the Fittest:: Understanding Health and Peak Physical Performance

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0224044850 ISBN 13: 9780224044851

Mike Stroud, polar explorer, practising hospital physician and until recently adviser to the Ministry of Defence on matters of survival, sets out in this fascinating book the genetics, diet and exercise that are employed to enable human beings to perform at their peak. Based soundly in medical science, the book takes an anecdotal form, describing individual feats of survival and athletic prowess that illustrate the way the body functions at its best. In a highly entertaining and humourous way, Dr Stroud dissects his own experiences crossing Antarctia (the subject of his bestselling book Shadows on the Wasteland), running marathons in the Sahara and participating in gruelling cross-country endurance races in the United States. He charts the astonishing bursts of speed produced on the running track by Linford Christie, the stamina and concentration of tennis star Martina Navratilova, and some remarkable mountaineering fears and military escapes. He ends with some hints for those of us who do nothing more strenuous than walking the dog on how we too may remain 'fit for life'.

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Review:

Mike Stroud, it would seem to most, is a very remarkable man. A qualified doctor, his fascination and involvement in the study of human performance and endurance fitness have obsessed him rather more than the average fitness fanatic. From crossing Antarctica unaided with Sir Ranulph Fiennes, to participating in countless marathons and triathlons traversing deserts and glaciers, Stroud has become his own human guinea pig, testing the limits of human strength and survival in some of the most extreme and inhospitable environments of our planet.

Yet far from simply the journal of one man's extraordinary fitness, Stroud sets out in Survival of the Fittest to tell us that we are all capable of the physical achievements usually left to realm of world class athletes. We are all able to attain such performance levels, Stroud assures us, because we are evolutionary designed to do just this.

At the heart of the book, Stroud claims that human beings have not altered genetically in the last 10,000 years, so physiologically we are identical to our ancestors. The problem is that we now have a markedly different lifestyle to the hunter-gathering times of our Cro-Magnon forefathers-�a lifestyle that simply does not match our evolutionary heritage. This, Stroud believes, is the reason why we are seeing an emergence of modern diseases such as heart disease, obesity and cancer.

Illustrating each chapter with adrenline-inducing accounts of his own expeditions and Adventures--falling through Antarctica ice into minus 40 degree water is just one that springs to mind--Stroud examines the physiological capacities of our bodies to perform and adapt to extreme situations, all the time reminding us that these capabilities are a fundamental part of our evolutionary inheritance.

This is a captivating book, not only a serious comment on the dangers of our modern "civilised" lifestyle, but also a source of remarkable facts on our human design, sure to liven up conversations and office chit-chat (this book certainly gets you talking). Although unlikely to spur you on to organise the next Polar expedition, it will give you the confidence--and quite possibly the inspiration--to become more active and to take up the challenges our genes intend us to do. --Abi Frisby

About the author�
Mike Stroud qualified as a doctor in 1979. He was the doctor on the "In the Footsteps of Scott" expedition in 1985-6, and in 1992 he teamed up with Sir Ranulph Fiennes to cross Antarctica on foot, breaking two world records for the longest unsupported walk in history. His book, Shadows on the Wasteland, is the account of that expedition. In 1993 he was awarded the OBE for Outstanding Achievements and Charity. Mike Stroud continues to practice medicine and to study metabolism and nutrition.

Review:

Illuminating... Mike Stroud, an Arctic explorer, medic and marathon-runner, explains how modern life-styles and diet have made us prone to a new array of diseases unknown until the industrial revolution. Demonstrating why it is essential for us to exercise, he also provides useful guidelines for changing our culturally-moulded bad habits' Mail on Sunday The ultimate sporting diet documented in mouth-watering detail The Times

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