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crowyhead's review
5.0
This book is just AWESOME.
Disclaimer: I am not the target demographic for this book, in that I fall within the range of what's generally considered "not fat" and I have not had the social experience of being considered overweight. I say this just to make it clear that my perspective is from outside that lived experience, and thus there are some things that this book might be lacking that I'm just not aware of.
Ok, disclaimer over. I loved this book. I recently started voluntarily exercising for the first time in my life, and a LOT of what is here spoke to me. Gym fear, body consciousness, changing perceptions of oneself... Blank addresses them in ways that I found incredibly useful.
Blank approaches exercise as body practice, with a real focus on functional fitness. Her feeling is that rather than approaching exercise with weight loss in mind, or with visual goals ("I want a flat stomach"), it is most beneficial to approach it with the idea that we all deserve to be in touch with our bodies and have bodies that do what we want them to do. The physical and mental benefits of regular motion are undeniable. And yet, as Blank points out, products, classes, and gyms are often designed with the assumption that you're already relatively thin and able-bodied. It can be difficult for a person of size, or a person with mobility issues, or someone who has been recently injured to feel comfortable and at home while exercising. I think this book does a great job of beginning to address this, offering resources and strategies to handle mental and physical hurdles, as well as the hurdles imposed by the outside world.
I feel it's important to note that this is not an exercise manual: Blank includes a few sample work-out routines to get you started, but mainly it concerns itself with the mental work and the physical practicalities of exercise in general. There is a thorough resource guide in the back that does offer suggestions for other books and for DVDs that offer actual routines, though, along with resources for plus-size exercise apparel and other gear.
I highly recommend this not just to the target audience, but also to men and women who are exercising for the first time (or who have come back to exercise after a long time away), to fitness centers, gyms, and community centers who want to improve their service to all portions of the population, and to all public libraries.
Disclaimer: I am not the target demographic for this book, in that I fall within the range of what's generally considered "not fat" and I have not had the social experience of being considered overweight. I say this just to make it clear that my perspective is from outside that lived experience, and thus there are some things that this book might be lacking that I'm just not aware of.
Ok, disclaimer over. I loved this book. I recently started voluntarily exercising for the first time in my life, and a LOT of what is here spoke to me. Gym fear, body consciousness, changing perceptions of oneself... Blank addresses them in ways that I found incredibly useful.
Blank approaches exercise as body practice, with a real focus on functional fitness. Her feeling is that rather than approaching exercise with weight loss in mind, or with visual goals ("I want a flat stomach"), it is most beneficial to approach it with the idea that we all deserve to be in touch with our bodies and have bodies that do what we want them to do. The physical and mental benefits of regular motion are undeniable. And yet, as Blank points out, products, classes, and gyms are often designed with the assumption that you're already relatively thin and able-bodied. It can be difficult for a person of size, or a person with mobility issues, or someone who has been recently injured to feel comfortable and at home while exercising. I think this book does a great job of beginning to address this, offering resources and strategies to handle mental and physical hurdles, as well as the hurdles imposed by the outside world.
I feel it's important to note that this is not an exercise manual: Blank includes a few sample work-out routines to get you started, but mainly it concerns itself with the mental work and the physical practicalities of exercise in general. There is a thorough resource guide in the back that does offer suggestions for other books and for DVDs that offer actual routines, though, along with resources for plus-size exercise apparel and other gear.
I highly recommend this not just to the target audience, but also to men and women who are exercising for the first time (or who have come back to exercise after a long time away), to fitness centers, gyms, and community centers who want to improve their service to all portions of the population, and to all public libraries.
jennoux's review against another edition
2.0
So with the title I was expecting something more on the funny side than on the self-help side... I don't think this book was for me. It was mostly common sense and I didn't learned anything. What I liked the most about the book was the Resource at the end I might look at it in the future to see the websites and the dvds she mentioned but otherwise it just wasn't for me.
nextboldmove's review
4.0
[a:Hanne Blank|61858|Hanne Blank|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1314821136p2/61858.jpg] is someone whose writing I have enjoyed for almost a decade now. She appeared with some regularity on the LiveJournal blogs of other authors I read regularly, and her confidence and intellect were readily apparent. I started following her there at the mostly-defunct LJ, and I have made it a point to read her books at they come out.
This book was one in which I was particularly interested, since Blank's blog entry from back-in-the-day about being a fat girl on a bicycle was particularly helpful. Her tone is both informative and protective throughout this novel, encouraging the new fat-lady exerciser to take that same approach to her body-practice. Have the facts, and never apologize for the way you have a body in this moment. You might lose weight. You might not. Your body might change shape in ways you don't like, but the practice itself is still a net-good because it will improve your health.
There's information in here that's helpful for the never-active and for the newly active, as well as for people who have already made meaningful movement a part of their lives. You don't even have to be overweight to find this warm, cheery book a good resource, but overweight people will find it especially informative. The Resource section in the back of the book alone is worth the cover price!
sapphic's review
3.0
This was pretty good! It was nice to read a super fat-positive book about exercise that did not try to get fat people to lose weight, but it also didn't contain any revelations at all. It's just a book full of advice on where to start if you wanna start exercising. Since I already regularly exercise, I think I wasn't really the target audience.
evenstr's review
4.0
I regret having reading this in January while suffering from a sinus infection. It made me wish for the summer, when I biked every day.
lyricallit's review
3.0
I appreciated the easy, accessible tone that made me chuckle at times! When the author described herself as "intrinsically athletic as an oyster," I knew we'd get along!
This is one long "yes, you can!" to fat friends. "Planning and practicing" summarizes much of the book's advice.
I was surprised at its original publication date of 2012, mostly because its ideas about body positivity are so "on trend" now. From that regard, though, I must point out that many of the resources are a tad outdated but - fortunately! - there are now even more books, influencers, and brands which would body positivity, fat activism, appropriate to include in the Resource Guide section.
This is one long "yes, you can!" to fat friends. "Planning and practicing" summarizes much of the book's advice.
I was surprised at its original publication date of 2012, mostly because its ideas about body positivity are so "on trend" now. From that regard, though, I must point out that many of the resources are a tad outdated but - fortunately! - there are now even more books, influencers, and brands which would body positivity, fat activism, appropriate to include in the Resource Guide section.
kim_n31's review
4.0
I really like the writer's style, and if you are new to exercising while fat, this is definitely a great book to check out. The only thing is, I feel like there are many "how to get started" books out there (although maybe not with the same fat-acceptance theme), and what I really need is the "okay, you've been doing this awhile, now what?" exercising while fat book. But still, I greatly enjoyed the book and would recommend it.
kiwie's review
3.0
This book is (mostly) for (fat) people with little experience with physical activity and body acceptance. I am not a vigorous exerciser myself, but I know and understand the basics, and I've been reading about body acceptance for years now. Therefore a lot of this was old news to me, but I did pick up a few new tips and got a lot of inspiration. I am also not from the US so certain information was just not relevant, and as stated in the book, a lot of the resources will be out of print or gone offline by the time it reaches you.
I like the philosophy of body practice. I found that the first chapter was the most inspirational for me, and then I really enjoyed the attitude presented in the whole book about you knowing your body best, and about ignoring people who want to shame you or make you feel bad. It did nothing for my fear of gyms though, but I can see how it might help some people with that (though a "get over it" attitude was present for this, "just do it" is hard for a lot of people, and I felt like this book provided little more than that so if you are looking specifically for that kind of advice you might look further, or at least delve more into the topic elsewhere). It did inspire me to go out and move whenever I picked it up. I also loved that it addresses that we control the input we give our bodies (what we do with it), but not how it reacts, and that all bodies are different. This is something that is easily forgotten and I certainly needed a reminder.
I did find the book a bit repetitive about certain things (which has been my experience with most books in health/fitness/self-help categories so I'm not surprised). I also disliked the writing style as it wavered between light and colloquial and really dry passages with a few funny/colloquial phrases thrown in to lighten it up a bit and it didn't read naturally. It just really spoon-feeds you the message. It feels like a pamphlet that tries to be a book. It also wavers between "you can look this up online" comments and explaining things as if I've barely heard of the internet (not to mention some of the online resources sited are not as great as touted even if they're still around). I also don't understand why this book is gendered, most of the information is valuable to fat men as well.
All in all I did pick up a few things from this that I hadn't considered, and i affirmed my belief about moving around so it was not a waste of my money, but I think I am outside the target audience and would recommend this mostly to those thinking that they should get moving more, but don't know where or how to start.
I like the philosophy of body practice. I found that the first chapter was the most inspirational for me, and then I really enjoyed the attitude presented in the whole book about you knowing your body best, and about ignoring people who want to shame you or make you feel bad. It did nothing for my fear of gyms though, but I can see how it might help some people with that (though a "get over it" attitude was present for this, "just do it" is hard for a lot of people, and I felt like this book provided little more than that so if you are looking specifically for that kind of advice you might look further, or at least delve more into the topic elsewhere). It did inspire me to go out and move whenever I picked it up. I also loved that it addresses that we control the input we give our bodies (what we do with it), but not how it reacts, and that all bodies are different. This is something that is easily forgotten and I certainly needed a reminder.
I did find the book a bit repetitive about certain things (which has been my experience with most books in health/fitness/self-help categories so I'm not surprised). I also disliked the writing style as it wavered between light and colloquial and really dry passages with a few funny/colloquial phrases thrown in to lighten it up a bit and it didn't read naturally. It just really spoon-feeds you the message. It feels like a pamphlet that tries to be a book. It also wavers between "you can look this up online" comments and explaining things as if I've barely heard of the internet (not to mention some of the online resources sited are not as great as touted even if they're still around). I also don't understand why this book is gendered, most of the information is valuable to fat men as well.
All in all I did pick up a few things from this that I hadn't considered, and i affirmed my belief about moving around so it was not a waste of my money, but I think I am outside the target audience and would recommend this mostly to those thinking that they should get moving more, but don't know where or how to start.
emmi_reads's review
5.0
Excellent resources
The author covers just about every obstacle to exercise and and every resource you could ever need to start a body movement practice.
The author covers just about every obstacle to exercise and and every resource you could ever need to start a body movement practice.