Younger Next Year: The Exercise Program, Chris Crowley and Henry S. Lodge (Workman Publishing paperback), 167 pages, $10.95
This book came out in January, why review it now?
Are you sure about that? Usually, to find out how old a book is, we can check the back of its title page. In this paperback, that page reads: "Copyright 2016 ... Most of this book was previously published in 2004 in Younger Next Year and in 2012 in Thinner This Year."
But also I looked up the listing in the Library of Congress and found three dates: The Titles List page said "2015"; the full record said "Published/Produced: New York: Workman Publishing [2016]," but then the full record went on to list a "projected pub date" -- 1512.
Why the Library of Congress lists it with a projected publication date in the 16th century, I don't know. But my sister-in-law gave my brother a shiny new copy of the paperback for Valentine's Day, and last week he told me he's just about ready, finally, to start using it.
So let's call it a "recent release."
(Dear Librarian, thank you for the email you are about to send to me at [email protected].)
Wasn't there an exercise program in the first of the Younger Next Year books?
Former litigator Chris Crowley and his doctor, Henry S. Lodge, a geriatrician and professor of medicine at Columbia University Medical Center in New York, made an enthusiastic argument in favor of relentless exercise in that first book -- whose success led to a small industry of Younger Next Year products, including adventure retreats.
That book aimed squarely at aging men. It told such men to take their pick: a slow, steady decline into a longish infirmity leading to lingering death, or a long period of relative vitality followed by a short, sudden descent and death. It continued cheerfully to explain the authors' faith that the difference between those options was near-daily, sweat-inducing exercise.
Most of this recent book comes straight out of that first edition or the 2012 follow-up Thinner This Year. But this recent book trims many, many words. It focuses on exercise and an exercise "cookbook" with diagrams of little people hoisting medicine balls or leaning on their elbows next to instructions for doing exercises.
The menu includes physical therapist Bill Fabrocini's 17 warmup exercises and 25 strength-training exercises, which still are available as free downloads from the website youngernextyear.com. There's also an aerobic exercise training plan developed by physiologist Riggs Klika.
The book aims at the aging novice, man or woman.
Does it take the same amusing, conversational tone that made the earlier books fun?
Yes, but this one is shorter, and so there's less to skip if you aren't a fan of conversation. The authors, though, say don't skip ahead: "The essence of this book is not the exercises, as important as they are. The essence of the book is the long prose buildup that tells you why the exercises are important."
What is the advice?
Six days of deliberate, 45- to 60-minute exercise every week: four days of aerobics (two long and slow workouts and two endurance sessions); two days of strength training. Spread them across the week as you please, but leave a day between strength sessions.
Also, sessions should include a five- to 15-minute warmup and a five-minute cool-down.
The exercises aim to support everyday activities rather than help the exerciser crush opponents in sportive combat.
Are you sure Younger Next Year came out in 2004? Amazon lists 2007 as the publication date of the first Younger.
The Central Arkansas Library System says it was published in 2004. So does the Library of Congress. So does the backside of the title page of The Exercise Program.
But willy-nilly, if you've never read it before, it will be new for you. Useful is useful, no matter how old a book becomes.
ActiveStyle on 05/02/2016