Bruce W. Perry

If you are looking for a book which presents a systematic model for fitness that is backed by well integrated science, you will be disappointed. Likewise, if you are looking from a book to give you a simple plan to follow, you will be disappointed. This book does cite a number of science studies, and has some broad organizing principles, but nothing I would bet my life on. We still don't really understand a lot about how our bodies work, they are extremely complex systems, so I shouldn't be show more surprised that this book fell short of my hopes. I have observed contradictory papers on nutrition and exercise in top peer reviewed journals within a few years of each other. Rather than offering a systematic in integrated model with a clear blueprint for an action plan, this book is more like highlights of what you would find visiting some of the better paleo diet and the quantify self movement websites. So if you are looking for a book to give you numerous ideas, techniques, and tools to consider, this would be a valuable book. show less

I tried to like this book.

About three chapters in, I decided this book wasn't for me. From indirectly talking about people's auras after working out, to indirectly recommending paleo diets, this book just hit my woo-woo trigger one too many times. I enjoyed the discussion about different sites for tracking fitness, but when push came to shove about nutrition and such, I felt like I was spending more time on the web trying to verify every little piece of information in this book. I felt like show more I was reading the equivalent of an infomercial for something that will be thoroughly debunked in ten years.

I was really hoping this book would be something I could enjoy reading without having to be too critical, but this book isn't it.

(Note: I received a promotional copy of this book from the publisher, of whom I have enjoyed just about every other book they've published). show less

It was a nice, straightforward, easy reading, with useful, practical information, and lots of references to websites and/or other books to get more details about the covered topics.
As for the "geek" part, I think is a bit overrated, and quite a few of the "for geeks" tips & tricks might seem obvious and even kind of silly if you are a computer geek (but maybe for other geeks are ok?).
I picked this book with a lot of reservations, because I was afraid of it trying to "sell" some silver bullet show more or magic method. Fortunately it doesn't. It's NOT a "do this" book. It just presents several fitness-related topics with some background and tools and small interviews with athelts or scientists. It's up to you to decide what's better for you, and the book kind of encourages you to try different things and experiment a bit. And that's nice.
I enjoyed all the information about nutrition the best. show less

This is more like one of the O'Reilly "cookbooks" than a Hacks books.It's a good introduction to Ajax, with quite a few demonstrations. I wish I had read it first. Now, however, it seems rather superfluous.