Book Review: ‘Fitter Faster: The Smart Way to Get in Shape in Just Minutes a Day’ by Robert J. Davis with Brad Kolowich Jr.

Today I took part in a free biometric health screening offered by my workplace. Results? I’m in good health, but could be better with some exercise. I recently had a sleep study done to find out why I twitch so much in my sleep. Results? A severe sleeping disorder that can be mitigated through medicine and exercise. Time and again, whatever ailments you have, you can be sure one of the remedies is going to be exercise. There really is no reason not to be doing it.‘Fitter Faster: The Smart Way to Get in Shape in Just Minutes a Day’ by Robert J. Davis with Brad Kolowich, Jr. is more than just another fitness guide promising the world.

I admit even being skeptical myself when I received the book for review, but I kept an open mind and dove in. What I found was an honest, refreshing, and heavily referenced discourse on why exercise is good for you, the myths surrounding it, and step-by-step guidelines for you to follow, even if you don’t use their plan. I was not only impressed, I was motivated, which I imagine is exactly the result they wanted.

Davis makes points throughout which stand in stark contrast to commonly held beliefs. One of the first that popped out to me was regarding whether exercise leads to longer life spans. Turns out there is more to it than that:

“Of course, some people may say “no, thanks” to those extra years if they come with a poor quality of life. But research suggests that fitness may lead to a “compression of morbidity” — delaying debilitating conditions until a short time before death so you have more healthy years.”

Not just a longer life span, but a longer span of useful, active years into your old age. It puts an amazing new perspective on what we do in the present being even more effective decades later.

It was around this point in the book I began feeling incredibly sedentary and lazy in comparison, but I pushed on.

Another point made in Fitter Faster dealt with one of the most popular reasons to begin an exercise routine, to lose weight. Davis contends that this is mostly a myth because the amount of exercise a person would need to do in order just to lose one single pound of fat is far greater than most people would attempt, let alone complete. That’s not to say exercise won’t result in weight loss, but a larger factor in that is your diet in connection with working out. Don’t do one without the other and expect to posing in all those “before-and-after” shots you see on Instagram.

Davis and Kolowich succeeded in creating a book that does more than just spout various routines and exercise plans to get you in shape. It breaks down mental barriers readers may be hiding behind to have an excuse not to begin a new regimen. Fitter Faster needed to be inspiring, motivational, and instructional to truly reach readers like me (vacant from the exercise world for far too long,) and it did that perfectly.

You can check out the book trailer here.