Tuesday, February 15, 2011

The Great Fitness Experiment


I just finished reading The Great Fitness Experiment: One Year of Trying Everything by Charlotte Hilton Andersen. It's all about the author's experience of trying different forms of exercise to find out what was most effective. I figured it would be like a women's version of the popular 4-Hour Body .


Each chapter describes a different month in which Charlotte tried a new workout and sometimes, a diet that came prescribed with it. She also writes a personal essay that relates to health and body image. She gets pretty personal with her essays and you'll find out about her struggles with self image and where they originated.


Some of the different workouts she tried were Functional training, Double Cardio, CrossFit, Tracey Anderson's celeb workout, and Jillian Michaels. Though Andersen is honest about the results of her workouts, it is still somewhat hard to say which was the most effective at helping her obtain her fitness goals. Some months saw her gain weight in muscle, others saw no difference, and a couple showed some weight loss and fitness gain. Nonetheless, I learned a lot about the benefits and pitfalls of these different workouts that will be useful to my fitness regime.


This is a recommended read for lady athletes and health buffs.