Squat


Non-Fiction - Health - Fitness
176 Pages
Reviewed on 03/09/2019
Buy on Amazon

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Free Book Program, which is open to all readers and is completely free. The author will provide you with a free copy of their book in exchange for an honest review. You and the author will discuss what sites you will post your review to and what kind of copy of the book you would like to receive (eBook, PDF, Word, paperback, etc.). To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email.

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Review Exchange Program, which is open to all authors and is completely free. Simply put, you agree to provide an honest review an author's book in exchange for the author doing the same for you. What sites your reviews are posted on (B&N, Amazon, etc.) and whether you send digital (eBook, PDF, Word, etc.) or hard copies of your books to each other for review is up to you. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email, and be sure to describe your book or include a link to your Readers' Favorite review page or Amazon page.

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Donation Program, which was created to help nonprofit and charitable organizations (schools, libraries, convalescent homes, soldier donation programs, etc.) by providing them with free books and to help authors garner more exposure for their work. This author is willing to donate free copies of their book in exchange for reviews (if circumstances allow) and the knowledge that their book is being read and enjoyed. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email. Be sure to tell the author who you are, what organization you are with, how many books you need, how they will be used, and the number of reviews, if any, you would be able to provide.

    Book Review

Reviewed by Steve Leshin for Readers' Favorite

Squat by James T. Speirs is a straightforward, sometimes funny, sometimes deadly serious indictment of the myriad expensive diet plans and celebrity-endorsed corporate exercise gyms that we are steered to by the media every day. Speirs starts out by attacking the various exercise and diet programs by pointing out that “the industry’s success is based on failure”. He also states “the multi-billion-dollar diet industry could not sustain itself financially if ... the plan worked”. With that thesis, Speirs takes the reader through a history of attempted exercise programs and the psychology behind them. As a kid I remember the ads for men of the Charles Atlas program where you can go from a 90 lb weakling to a Hercules in a few short weeks. The author points out the folly of this in a clear yet humorous way. Over the years up to present day, Speirs covers why expensive gyms with state of the art equipment, personal trainers and such, and diet fads, surgery to remove fat, etc. are a waste of money and not really needed.

As the title of this book implies, the road to success in any exercise program is through simple moves in the weightlifting field of squats, cleans, bench press and deadlifts, or “kinetics”. It is the “simple transfer of energy from the large muscle groups to the smaller ones”. As far as dieting, it is simple. Calories in, calories out. Speirs also points out if you follow his weight program properly, you will burn more calories and have more energy. The theme is: keep it simple. Filled with historical tidbits of past stars of weight lifting fame such as Steve “Hercules” Reeves and Arnold Schwarzenegger, Squat is a good read for serious students of diet and exercise, or read it just for fun.