让我们面对现实吧，作为一个“极客”（正如人们今天(term today)所理解的那样）经常需要大量坐着盯着电脑或视频(computer or video) 游戏屏幕(game screen)。极客拥有在虚拟世界中做令人难以置信的活跃事情的化身，而化身背后的人基本上只是坐在椅子上移动一只手臂或几个拇指。我在电子游戏方面很糟糕，所以我什至没有一个化身跑来跑去为我把东西吹成碎片。我只是坐在这里打字和移动手写笔或鼠标。我的现实生活中的形状肯定会(shape sure)显示出来。这就是为什么我真的很期待回顾《极客健身》(Fitness for Geeks)。我的热切期待是否合理？(Was)让我们(Let)看看。
那么，到底什么是极客呢？什么是健身？
作者Bruce W. Perry对极客的定义立即引起了我的注意。这就是他要说的话。
问问我的家人就知道了。这就是我。（我的律师兄弟甚至每天都知道“日常”是什么意思，而无需查找。）我可以向我的非技术兄弟解释他们不知道存在的计算机东西(computer stuff)，并告诉他们如何解决几乎所有问题他们打破。可悲的现实是，大多数时候我都在锻炼我的大脑而不是我的身体。
很明显，我早就需要把我的腰包从椅子上拿下来，让我的整个身体动起来。这本书的方法是否提供了这样做的灵感？当我读到“健身”的定义时，我深受鼓舞。
独立于精神和无法抑制的好奇......检查。身体强壮...必须拥有它。尽可能地老化......是的，让我们走吧！
人员和指标
极客喜欢用度量单位，对事物进行量化，从硬件和软件(hardware and software)的角度来思考事物。这就是为什么这本书一开始就提出了人们不会“被编码”成整天坐着的想法。事实上，我们并不是按照我们（指有椅子的人）的方式坐着的。我们不应该吃我们吃的东西，我们不应该在人造光源下，我们不应该做很多我们的祖先没有进化到做的其他事情——但我们做了反正他们。损害我们的福祉。
那么，极客如何开始放弃这种最终自毁的行为，开始走向更健康的生活呢？更好(Better)的是，如果没有与极客生活方式完全不同的激进行为改变（因此几乎注定会立即失败），如何做到这一点？作者采用了一种非常聪明的方法，解释了人类“预装软件”是如何工作的，以及为什么住在隔间、坐在椅子上的存在让我们感到疲倦和恶心，然后直接解释了一堆令人讨厌的(geeky web)网站和小工具不仅玩起来很酷，而且是运动的极好动力。
喜欢最新的 whizbang 小玩意几乎是极客的必然选择，对吧？如果这些小玩意能帮助我们摆脱久坐不动的生活，那就更好了。如今，我们拥有数百个应用程序和小工具(apps and gizmos)，可以让我们跟踪运动和食物(motion and food)，让我们保持运动，并跟踪他所谓的“个人指标”，例如血压(blood pressure)、体重和心率(heart rate)。
Perry 先生(Mr. Perry)从我个人最喜欢的FitBit Tracker开始，它代表了一系列充分利用现代技术精华的最新发明。无需尝试弄清楚如何设置旧式计步器来匹配您的步幅——FitBit Tracker和其他类似设备使用加速度计来告诉您已经走了多远，相关的网站会向您显示各种有用的图表、图形和统计数据，让您不断前进。
然后是对移动和基于网络的应用程序的深入讨论，这些应用程序可以让您手动或与Garmin GPS等设备一起跟踪自己的活动。没有任何书可以讨论所有选项——这需要一本百科全书。但是作者达到了高点，并解释了感兴趣的人可以在哪里找到更多信息。
讨论了几个可以跟踪营养数据的应用程序和网站，逻辑上分为四个章节，其中充满了很好的营养建议。
你吃什么，怎么吃，什么时候吃
极客健身对(Fitness for Geeks)营养素和营养基础知识进行了令人难以置信的详细介绍。您之前可能读过书籍，这些信息似乎旨在让您直接入睡或吓跑您，因为无论您在做什么，您都做错了。不是这本书。它包含有关各种营养素的深入技术细节，以及为什么它们很重要以及为什么我们需要保持它们的平衡。它揭开了“碳水化合物”的概念以及碳水化合物和单糖代谢方式的神秘面纱（以及为什么以糖果棒和奇(Cheetos)多糖为生不仅在理论上对你有害）。它解释了为什么各种营养素需要相互平衡，
这本书还讨论了维生素和矿物质，并解释了为什么它们对身体健康至关重要，以及弄清楚为了自己的身体健康需要服用多少这些东西的最佳方法。
美妙的东西。通过阅读这些章节，我学到了更多关于营养的知识，而不是在阅读了许多其他声称可以解释这些事情但从未真正解释过的书籍之后。我无法总结这一切——说真的，拿到这本书，你就会得到教育。
购物，不要放弃
然后对购买食物的方式、地点和时间进行了深入的解释。Fitness for Geeks揭示了典型的超市布局做法，以及如何形象地对它们嗤之以鼻。
有一个很棒的部分介绍了使用应用程序找到购买食物的最佳地点，以及如何智能地导航传统超市（而极客的定义是聪明(definition intelligent)的，所以这是很棒的东西）。
还有一些建议是关于如何在旅行时找到最好的食物，以及当你在路上的餐馆吃饭时如何保持健康。
我对禁食的章节持怀疑态度。虽然作者确实仔细解释了健康优势，但禁食绝对不适合所有人，无论是极客还是非极客。有些人的健康问题使禁食成为一个非常糟糕的主意，作为其中之一，我认为这个问题没有得到足够仔细的考虑。
向右移动
本书的后半部分是关于锻炼的，对于一般的、新近不久坐的公众来说，肯定没有前半部分那么多。从一开始就很明显，作者并不是多年来第一次出现在阳光下的小隔间居民——他是一个严肃的运动员。(cubicle dweller)这使得他的锻炼方法与初学者的锻炼方法有很大不同，以至于一开始有点令人反感。
他还假设极客拥有智能手机，因此可以使用Endomondo应用程序来跟踪距离和其他细节。不。我确信我属于极少数，但我没有智能手机。我能买到的最接近的是第 3代 iPod (generation iPod) Touch，它不适用于Endomondo。我希望看到有关我可以用来做同样事情的等效应用程序或小工具的建议。(app or gadget)
短跑、跑步和高速自行车(speed cycling)的讨论并没有真正承认初学者水平的技能。有一个简短的提及，一些新人可能无法跟上，但总的来说，作者似乎认为读者的适应度比实际情况要高得多。再次(Again)，他明确表示他是一名运动员，他认为这些事情对他的读者来说并不难。我发现这种方法与本书的前半部分完全不同，他鼓励久坐不动的人站起来活动。如果您不习惯，起床和移动应该是一个渐进的过程。冲刺跑得更远。
关于体重锻炼（俯卧撑、引体向上等）的部分也是同样假设的牺牲品。当我看到这个时，我真的大声笑了起来：
如果你还不能做 30-50 个俯卧撑？有多少刚开始健身的人会开始做多达 10 个俯卧撑？再一次，我认为佩里先生(Mr. Perry)有他自己的人，或者接近他自己的健身水平。
远足、交叉训练、海滩锻炼和滑雪的部分也是如此。它们主要针对可以使用智能手机跟踪数据的严肃运动员。老实说，作为一个没有必要智能手机的(requisite smartphone)健身新手(fitness newbie)，我感到被冷落了。我希望能获得更多关于如何使用身体和手头技术的信息。
进出健身房
关于在健身房或健身设施(gym or fitness facility)锻炼的部分要好一些。我希望我在拥有健身房会员资格时能读到它，因为我几乎是靠自己，必须尽我所能设计自己的锻炼程序(exercise routine)。本章重点介绍举重和阻力训练(resistance training)，其理念是大多数人都可以使用普通健身房提供的器械和举重来完成这些事情。我不同意的一件事是使用智能手机应用程序(smartphone app)的想法。许多健身房专门禁止在健身房使用手机。
本节有很多插图，展示了普通机器的正确使用。如果您是健身房的新手，绝对值得花时间研究这些照片。知道自己在做什么对避免严重问题大有帮助。
热身，冷却，Z out
这本书的结尾部分解释了不要每天坚持相同的例行程序、获得足够的休息、良好的睡眠和冥想技巧的重要性。我认为这些部分代表了锻炼后的“冷却”期。这里提到了很多很好的资源，而且并非所有资源都需要智能手机。我对冥想应用程序(meditation apps)特别感兴趣，它们非常便宜，而且看起来很值得购买。
之后，有些部分会回顾营养章节中涵盖的一些内容，并进一步探索蛋白质摄入、代谢率、水合作用以及在此过程中补充营养和液体的重要性。我认为这些东西应该在营养部分(nutrition section)涵盖并强调，因为它们都至关重要。
那么，我怎么想的？
总的来说，这本书是一个优秀的资源。它写得很好，研究得很清楚，作者知道他在说什么。关于营养和营养素(nutrition and nutrients)的信息特别好，比许多类似的书籍更容易理解。网站、应用程序、链接和其他资源非常适合它们的用途，并且有很多机会可以自行查找其他资源。
在我看来，练习部分的不足之处在于没有为初学者提供足够的东西。严肃的运动不是人们可以摆脱久坐不动的生活方式并立即取得成功的事情。必须有一个学习期，而本书不承认这一点。我敢肯定，我们都希望成为像佩里先生(Mr. Perry)那样出色的运动员，但我敢打赌，即使他第一次踏上赛道时也没有参加短跑比赛。我希望这本书的未来版本将更加包罗万象。
判决
这本书的某些内容不是为初学者设计的，但这并不意味着它不能适应低得多的健身水平，需要一些思考和创造力(thought and creativity)（尽管作者应该至少做一点对我们来说）。极客的定义是聪明的。如果我们一次还不能跑超过 15 秒，我们会想办法改进。列出的网站和应用程序几乎适合每个人，让我们面对现实吧，所需要的只是一点动力，任何能让你摆脱腰部并变得健康的方法。
Book Review - Fitness for Geeks
Let's facе it, being a "geek" (as people understand the term today) often involves lots of sitting around staring at a computer or video game screen. Geeks have avatars who dо іnсrediblу active thіngs in virtuаl worlds, while the person behind the avatar is basically just sitting on a chair moving one arm or a couple of thumbs. I am lousy at video games, so I don't evеn have an avatar rυnning around blowing things to smithereens fоr me. I just sit herе and type and move a stylus or a moυse. And my real-life shape sure shows it. Thіs is why I really looked forward to reviewing Fitness for Geeks. Was my eager anticipation justified? Let's see.
So, just what is a geek anyway? And what's fitness?
The author, Bruce W. Perry, grabbed my attention right away with his definition of a geek. Here's what he had to say.
Just ask my family. That's me. (And my brother the lawyer would even know what "quotidian" means—everyday—without having to look it up.) I can explain computer stuff to my non technological brothers that they didn't know existed and tell them how to fix nearly everything they break. The sad reality is that most days I'm exercising my brain and not my body.
Clearly, I have long needed to get my fanny off the chair and my whole body moving. Does this book's approach provide the inspiration to do that? I was very encouraged when I read the definition of "fitness."
Independent of spirit and irrepressibly curious... check. Physically stronger... gotta have it. Aging as well as we can... yeah, let's go!
People and metrics
Geeks like to use units of measure, and quantify things, and think about things in terms of hardware and software. That's why this book starts with the idea that people are not "coded" to sit around all day. In fact, we were not designed to sit the way we (meaning people who have chairs) do. We aren't meant to eat the stuff we eat, and we're not meant to be under artificial light sources, and we're not supposed to do a lot of other things that our ancestors did not evolve to do—but we do them anyway. To the detriment of our well-being.
So how does a geek begin to abandon that kind of ultimately self-destructive behavior and start moving toward a healthier life? Better yet, how can this be done without radical behavior changes that would be totally alien to the geek way of life (and thus pretty much doomed to immediate failure)? The author takes a very clever approach, explaining how human "preinstalled software" works, and why a cubicle-living, chair-sitting existence makes us tired and sick, and then moving right into an explanation of a bunch of geeky web sites and gadgets that are not only cool to play with but excellent motivators for motion.
Loving the latest whizbang gadgets is pretty much a given with geeks, right? And if the gadgets help us get away from the sedentary life, so much the better. These days we have hundreds of apps and gizmos that let us track motion and food, keep us moving, and keep track of what he calls "personal metrics" such as blood pressure, weight, and heart rate.
Mr. Perry starts off with my own personal favorite, the FitBit Tracker, which is representative of a whole host of recent inventions that take full advantage of the best of modern technology. No need to try to figure out how to set an old-style pedometer to match the length of your stride—the FitBit Tracker and other similar devices use an accelerometer to tell you how far you've walked, and the associated web sites show you all kinds of useful charts, graphs, and statistics to keep you moving along.
Then there's an in-depth discussion of mobile and web-based apps that let you track your own activities, either manually or in conjunction with a device such as a Garmin GPS. There's no way any book can discuss all the options—that would take an encyclopedia. But the author hits the high points and explains where the person who's interested can find a lot more information.
A discussion of several apps and sites where nutrition data can be tracked leads logically into four chapters full of great nutritional advice.
What you eat, how you eat, when you eat
Fitness for Geeks goes into incredible detail about nutrients and the basics of nutrition. You may have read books before where this kind of information seems designed either to put you straight to sleep or else scare the bejeebers out of you because no matter what you're doing, you're doing it all wrong. Not this book. It's got in-depth technical details about all kinds of nutrients and why they're important and why we need to keep them in balance. It demystifies the concept of "carbs" and the ways in which both carbohydrates and simple sugars are metabolized (and why subsisting on a diet of candy bars and Cheetos is not just theoretically bad for you). It explains why the various kinds of nutrients need to be balanced against each other, and how to accomplish that without making yourself sick.
The book also discusses vitamins and minerals and explains why they are essential for good health, and the best ways to figure out how much of these things you need to take for your own body's well-being.
Wonderful stuff. I learned more about nutrition by reading these chapters than I did after plowing through a lot of other books that purported to explain these things but never really did. There's no way I could possibly summarize it all—seriously, get the book and you'll get an education.
Shop and don't drop
Then there's an in-depth explanation of how and where and when to shop for food. Fitness for Geeks exposes the typical supermarket's layout practices, and how to figuratively thumb your nose at them.
There's a great section on using apps to find the best places to buy food, and how to navigate the conventional supermarket intelligently (and geeks are by definition intelligent, so this is brilliant stuff).
And there's advice on how to find the best food when you're traveling and how to stay healthy when you're stuck eating at restaurants on the road.
I was skeptical about the chapters on fasting. While the author does carefully explain the health advantages, fasting is definitely not for everyone, geek or non-geek. Some people have health issues that make fasting a really bad idea, and as one of those people I don't think this issue was considered carefully enough.
Moving right along
The second half of the book is devoted to exercise, and it's definitely not as much for a general, newly-not-sedentary public as the first half was. It's clear from the beginning that the author is not some cubicle dweller emerging into the sunlight for the first time in years—he's a serious athlete. This makes his approach to exercise different enough from that of the beginner that it's a little off-putting at first.
He also assumes that a geek has a smartphone and can therefore use the Endomondo app to keep track of distance and other details. Um... no. I'm sure I'm in a very small minority, but I don't have a smartphone. The closest I can get is a 3rd generation iPod Touch, and that won't work with Endomondo. I would have liked to see suggestions for an equivalent app or gadget I could use to do the same thing.
The discussions of sprinting, running, and high speed cycling don't really acknowledge beginner level skills. There's a brief mention that some newcomers might not be able to keep up, but in general it seems that the author assumes the reader has a much higher level of fitness than is likely the case. Again, he makes it clear that he's an athlete and he thinks these things will not be difficult for his readers. I found this approach completely at odds with the first half of the book, where he's encouraging people who've been sedentary for a long time to get up and move. Getting up and moving should be a gradual process if you're not used to it. Sprinting comes a lot farther down the line.
The section on body-weight exercises (push-ups, pull-ups and the like) falls victim to the same assumptions. I honestly laughed right out loud when I saw this:
If you can't yet do 30-50 pushups? How many people just beginning to get fit are going to manage even as many as 10 pushups to begin with? Once again I think Mr. Perry has people of his own, or close to his own, fitness level in mind.
The same goes for the sections on hiking, cross-training, beach workouts, and skiing. They're aimed mostly at the serious athlete who can use a smartphone for tracking data. To be honest, as a fitness newbie without the requisite smartphone, I felt left out. I was hoping for more information on how to use the body and the technology I have on hand.
In and out of the gym
The section on workouts in a gym or fitness facility was a little better. I wish I'd read it when I had a gym membership, because I was pretty much on my own and had to do the best I could to design my own exercise routine. The chapter focuses on working with weights and on resistance training, with the idea that most people can do these things with the machines and weights available at the average gym. The one thing I'd disagree with is the idea of using a smartphone app. Many gyms specifically ban phones from the workout rooms.
There are a lot of illustrations in this section, that show proper use of common machines. It's definitely worth your time to study the pictures if you're a newbie at the gym. Knowing what you're doing goes a long way toward avoiding serious problems.
Warm up, cool down, Z out
The book concludes with sections that explain the importance of not sticking to the same routine every day, getting enough rest, sleeping well and meditation techniques. I thought of these sections as representing the "cooldown" period after the workout. There are a lot of good resources mentioned here and for once not all of them require a smartphone. I was especially interested in the meditation apps, which are very inexpensive and look like they would be well worth getting.
Afterwards, there are sections that go back over some of the things covered in the nutrition chapters, with an additional exploration of protein intake, metabolic rates, hydration, and the importance of replenishing nutrients and fluids along the way. I think these things should have been covered in the nutrition section and emphasized, because they are all vitally important.
So, what did I think?
Overall, this book is an outstanding resource. It's well written and clearly well researched, and the author knows what he's talking about. The information on nutrition and nutrients is especially good, and much easier to understand than many similar books. The web sites, apps, links and other resources are excellent for their purpose and there are plenty of opportunities to find other resources on your own.
The exercise sections fall short, in my opinion, in not offering nearly enough for the beginner. Serious exercise is not something that people can just jump into out of a sedentary lifestyle and find immediate success. There has to be a learning period and the book does not acknowledge this. I'm sure we'd all love to be outstanding athletes like Mr. Perry, but I bet even he wasn't running sprints the very first time he set foot on a track. I hope future editions of the book will be more all-inclusive.
The Verdict
The fact that some of the book isn't designed for beginners doesn't mean it can't be adapted to suit much lower levels of fitness, with some thought and creativity (even though the author should have done at least a little bit of that for us). Geeks are ingenious by definition. If we can't yet run for more than 15 seconds at a time, we'll figure out ways to improve. The web sites and apps that are listed have something for nearly everyone, and let's face it, all it takes is a little motivation, whatever works to get you off your fanny and getting fit.
