Are you one of the millions of people out there who feel like they've read everything there is to read on fitness and have spent an enormous amount of time and money trying to get fit—and still failed? Until you know how your body really works and reacts to physical activity, you may never succeed. Eric Heiden, M.D., and Massimo Testa, M.D., two preeminent sports physicians who know the training needs of beginners as intimately as those of elite athletes, want to fix this problem. They know there has been an entire field of training science and medicine that has never been translated for the general public—until now. In a program that is designed for everyday people, Heiden and Testa bring us Faster, Better, Stronger, a customized, science-based program designed to guide you into a lifelong fitness habit, giving you step-by-step instructions on how to make the most of your body through exercise—physically, mentally, biomechanically, and nutritionally.

In Part I, the doctors detail the solid science behind your body's responses to exercise. They share the same philosophy and medical expertise they have shared with world-class athletes and give scientific "secrets" in several areas of fitness: the prescriptive aspects of exercise; the biology of movement; the importance of fueling your body with the right food and water; what rest really accomplishes; and motivation. They also debug and clarify some all-too-often misunderstood medical and biological truths about training, and offer you ways to find your hidden talents and strengths.

These doctors know that the luxuries of time and access are significant factors in getting fit, and thus Part II helps you design your own unique, individualized exercise program no matter your age, ability, experience, or schedule. Once you have assessed your current fitness level, the doctors guide you through assembling blocks of activities into a twelve-week program that will get you started on the road to lifelong health.

Faster, Better, Stronger

HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

Better Shape

When you buy a car, you know that it will slowly deteriorate the more you use it. Park it in a garage and it will remain pristine, but drive it and the tires will wear out, its oil will need changing, its paint will grow dull, and its working parts will break down. Put more miles on a compact and it does not become a Mercedes or a Ferrari.

Your body, however, is different. It does become a Ferrari the more you use it. How? We have arrived at ten requirements, or secrets, to making that happen. These basic tenets, listed here and explained in the coming chapters, are guaranteed to usher you to greater fitness. If you follow these general rules, you will get better.

1. Follow the right program. Choose a program that is scientifically based and can be tailored to your needs. Then stick with that program for at least twelve weeks.
2. Set a goal. The right main objective along with certain incremental goals provides the perfect mix of mile markers and motivation.
3. No patience, no gain. Gauge your expectations for achieving your goals not by the clock, as you would a salon treatment, but by the calendar, as you would a vegetable garden.
4. Assess your starting point. To get from Point A to Point B, you have to find out your current condition—your Point A.
5. Alternate hard and easy days, working on not just one but all four components of fitness: aerobic conditioning, strength training, flexibility, and balance and coordination.
6. Treat exercise like the powerful drug that it is. "Take" your exercise at the right time, in the right amount and intensity, for the right duration.
7. Fuel your body with the right food and fluids. Eat from all of the food groups, and at the right times (especially before, during, and after exercise), to provide the ideal building blocks your body requires for fitness.
8. Equip yourself with the right basic gear and troubleshoot aches and pains early. Doing this can go a long way in helping you go a long way.
9. Train your brain. Know the vast physiological metamorphosis exercise sets in motion in your body. Your positive (or negative) thoughts and your understanding of what's happening with your body have a motivational and a biological impact.
10. Everyone can get better. Everyone.

These ten concepts encapsulate what we have witnessed working when it comes to the discipline of fitness. If you read no further but apply these rules to any program you use from now on, you will have already notched up your ability to hone your body through exercise. We'll show you how to apply these rules in the rest of this chapter and throughout the book.

Follow the Right Program

We live in the most fitness-conscious civilization ever known. The proliferation of gyms, popular exercise regimens, videos, and yoga studios has made fitness a multimillion-dollar business and has sustained a variety of fitness philosophies, many in conflict with one another. Millions of people spend too much time, money, and sweat to get fit, and often they fail. Why? They suffer from the same debilitating fitness problem: oversimplified approaches and techniques, often explained by people with limited medical or scientific background.

Too many of these fitness ideas are based on one piece of scientific understanding and not the whole picture. They address only one facet of fitness, or they address all of us as if we were so many identical widgets marching out of a factory with the same strengths and weaknesses, the same starting point, and the same schedule. "Experts" of the moment oblige everyone's desire for fitness information. They dish out advice that is loosely based on a technique that worked for a few celebrities or one high-profile athlete; thus a "hot new training tip" starts circulating. Would-be athletes instantly feel that they have been given some secret to achieving higher performance?.?.?.??until they start applying it. Then they realize they have nothing. And they fail again.

The sheer number of magic fitness tricks out there tells you there's no magic trick. Magic? No. But there is an entire field of training science and medicine relatively unknown to the average fitness-seeker. So we will give you an exercise plan, yes, but also the proven science that is the basis of the plan. We will give you "what to do" but also "why to do it," backed by a huge body of evidence, which is the root of our guarantee: You can definitely get more fit. Once you understand the how and why, you will be armed for fitness for the rest of your life.

Why a Program?

So why do you need a program? Why not just do a lot of everything?If you moved to a part of the world where there were no cars, no escalators, no UPS—say, to the steppes of Mongolia—maybe you wouldn't need an exercise program. Or if you lived in a society where your lifestyle required a great range of daily physical activity, again, maybe you wouldn't need a program. Certainly preceding generations did not. But because the amount of activity required of most people today is so minimal, and the time available to exercise is so tightly circumscribed by work, family, civic, and other obligations, most people need to be precise with the precious time they do commit to fitness.

Fitness is a term that encompasses a fistful of physical qualities: cardiovascular health, muscular strength, flexibility, balance and coordination, and ideal weight. A person who is fit, in our mind, embodies all of these qualities. To help you get there while making the best use of your exercise time, money, and energy, our fitness program proposes the best activities at the correct duration and intensity, a week at a time.

Each week of this program is a cocktail of varying activities, thirty to sixty minutes in length. A typical week looks something like this:

We prescribe to patients the exact duration and intensity of activity they need each day, but those specifications would be hieroglyphics to you now if we listed them here. By the time you reach Part Two, however, it will be a piece of cake. There we will shepherd you through assembling the ideal twelve-week program for you, based on your current level of fitness.

Excerpted from Faster, Better, Strongerby Eric Heiden Copyright © 2008 by Eric Heiden. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.