Athletics Books

I have known David and Roger since the 70's and have other books by them. They love running foot races and it shows. You can count that this will be the best researched and well written book. I was not disappointed. I dug in and read the book over a couple of weeks. If it is not in this book then it is an unproved rumor.

If you are a runner (especially a marathoner) you have to get this book. It goes through every marathon in Olympic history, giving each race history, events, course, statistics, etc. It is very thorough, while pacing itself to get in all the Olympic marathons into a single volume. And, it was written in an interesting and readable manner.

The competition and sport of the races themselves give a great basis for an exciting read.

If you are doing a research project (like I was) this was the only book I would recommend - or, at least the first book. I could not find a book anywhere that showed the 1960 Rome Olympic course. Martin and Gynn had it. In fact, their race course map was better than the map a friend obtained for me from the Italian Olympic Library (Federazione Italiana Di Ateletica Leggera).

The authors, Martin and Gynn, have put together an unbelieveably detailed review of every Olympic Marathon in the modern era. The detail provided brings the excitement of each successive Marathon alive. The Olympic Marathon is, perhaps, the most grueling Olympic event, and the comprehensive coverage of each race makes the reader feel as if it's taking place before their very eyes. Read this book and you'll get a sense of the drama of the event, the personal history of the runners, and the historical setting of each race. The authors have even reconstructed old Olympic documents to trace the paths each Olympic Marathon took. The information in this book is truly encyclopedic, and the authors have given us with a wonderful sense of what this race is about. This book is a gem.

Most disease and health problems start with the wrong food, bad quality of the food, bad digestion and trouble with a leaky gut, leading to inflammation and pain. Kathryn Pirtle presents this on the background of her own experience in an easily understandable way, helping the reader to a full understanding of the basic facts. This will free the reader from symptom treatment with potentially dangerous drugs ad lead the way to remove the causes of inflammation and pain.

This is a great new addition to the Weston A, Price/Nourishing Traditions literature. "Performance Without Pain: A Step-by-Step Program for Healing Pain, Inflammation and Chronic Ailments in Musicians, Athletes, Dancers...and Everyone Else" is a long title for a book that is a modest 132 pages, but it lives up to its billing. The author is Kathryn Pirtle, who is a clarinetist with the respected Orion Ensemble, and has a long list of professional credits. Co-authors of the book are Sally Fallon, President of the Weston A. Price Foundation and Dr. John D. Turner, DC, CCSP, DIBCN and former National Qualifying Gymnast.
The author tells her story of increasing pain and physical disability related to her profession as a musician, and her search for answers. As her very successful musical career unfolds, she develops pain in many areas of her body, stiffness, nausea and other digestive disturbances, as well as something called "embouchure shaking" (shaking in the area of the mouth) which is apparently quite a serious condition, especially for a clarinetist. Ms. Pirtle seeks help from all sorts of alternative and medical professionals. Finally, someone identifies that she has celiac disease, and extreme sensitivity or intolerance to grains.
What's interesting in her tale is that all along the way, she seems to be doing all the `right' things, such as including supplements, massage, lots of fruits and veggies and whole grains, but it wasn't until she discovered the Weston A. Price (WAP) approach to nutrition that things really began to turn around for her. After this quite compelling true story, most of the book is a very succinct, clear explanation of the basic principles of the WAP diet, its relation to people who use their bodies in the special ways of dancers, athletes and musicians, and the extra problems of those with grain sensitivity.
There are good recipes, suggested readings and helpful ways to "make it practical". This book would make an excellent gift for anyone as an introduction to WAP principles and especially to any musician, dancer or athlete. As a university dance teacher and former ballet dancer, this book came along at a great time. I will be teaching a course in Dance Alignment, in which I try to cover many topics related to basic body care for dancers. I always try to include information about Weston A. Price, and the Nourishing Traditions approach to eating, but I feel that having this book available to show my students will make the information that much more credible. (I know they'll like the testimonial in the front of the book by Daniel Duell, a former New York City Ballet soloist.)
I also know that this approach to eating (it's not a 'diet' per se) works, as it has, over the past five years, changed my life dramatically for the better also. You can do yourself a wonderful favor by reading this book, and trying it!

Performance Without Pain is a remarkable book about surviving prevailing medical "wisdoms", dogmas, and devastating ailments caused not by bad genes or bad lack, but by foods which are, amazingly, considered "wholesome" and "healthy".

If you are a concerned parent, promising professional, aspiring artist, successful executive, or simply a health-conscious and responsible individual, you must read this book to assure yourself and your children productive and disease-free future.

Unlike most books about health and nutrition, Performance Without Pain is beautifully written and edited, concise, honest, and up-to-the point. And it is also inspirational: if the author had been able to overcome her career-breaking illnesses with, literally, a right menu, so can you!

At the end, it all boils down to this: food can kill and food will heal. Kathy Pirtle had suffered a great deal to tell which food does what. Get to know her story, so you too can eat without fear, live without disease, and perform without pain!

This instructional book is fantastic. The detailed lesson plans for the whole year is very helpful. It's a PE teacher's best friend!

In my first year of teaching PE, I needed some help in figuring out how to meet all of California's State Standards (they were new this year). This book became a valuable resource in planning out my classes.

I used their plan and then tailored it to meet my classes (I taught nine classes K-6). I was able to identify which standard the plan met and could cut and paste to meet the needs of my students. AS only having an outdoor area to work in, I was able to use most of the plans with what equipment I had. It did lack in outdoor activities for limited areas, but I used other resources for that.

This book provides practical and useful lessons as well as important information about teaching at the middle school level.

This is a great book. Buy it for your father for father's day, for your mother for mother's day, for your son or daughter for their birthday, for your friend for Christmas, or just for you. You deserve a nice little treat. The fact is, anybody can enjoy this book. It is fabulous and I HIGHLY reccommend it. Buy it as soon as you can. It is great!

This book COULD have changed my life if my parents had read it when I was a child. I never played sports. I was an "academic" kid but the lessons and principles that Durrant shares here are applicable to any kind of pursuit that your child may desire. I was inspired by his suggestions and have used his stories to teach my daughters, one who is on the swim team and one who is only an occasional tennis player. This book is an excellent resource for parents who want their children to have the chance to excel in whatever they choose to do.

I am a grandparent and this book was totally inspiring. It makes me want to help my grandchildren even more than before. It gave a lot of good ideas for both parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, anyone who is involved in a childs life. It was written well, and it has brought much discussion to our household.

This book has changed the way I see running and has inspired me to train for a marathon. It's so incredibly helpful and motivatingThere isn't one person I haven't showed it to who hasn't wanted to start running. This includes my flatmate, her dad, her little sister, my mom, and my best friend. The enthusiastic approach, stories of inspiration, charts, and running plans for every stage of runner has turned it into something I read and use every day. It's the best.

I bought this book in March and I have been running ever since. I was an overweight asthmatic who hated to exercise but was determined to get fit. This book made it easy to start running with their 60-second-secret plan. They have you run for 60 seconds, walk for 3 minutes and repeat three times. Each week you repeat more times or run for longer stretches of time. I found it easy to get going and stay motivated. With the help of this book I have now been running for over 4 months and can run for 13 minutes, walk two minutes and repeat twice!

I love the format of "Running made easy" it's modern, exciting and filled with practical advice and information that's fun to read and mostimportantly easy to apply. This is the first book on running that I really enjoyed reading and the only book I continually refer to. The book has a wealth of information on all aspects of running. The personal stories of other runners achievements were exactly what I needed to motivate me to start running again and with this book as a handy reference I trained for and succesfully completed my first marathon. I highly recommend this book to both existing runners and those considering taking up running.

Between about 1954 and 1984 I read huge amounts of material on training for middle distance running - books, magazines and journal articles on sports physiology. Nothing I read, and nothing I was told by several High School and College coaches of the time came close to explaining what interval training really was, how it worked or why. This book contains most of this explanatory information in the introductions to each chapter. Once the recovery aspect of this training method was made clear, I could use the tables to design workouts for running 10K and 15K road races. (By that time the "running boom" was growing fast and I had "aged up" into the master's group.) Nonetheless, with no real coaching available in the mid-1980's, I added one good, long, "middle distance" interval session per week. Sometimes I did it every two weeks. I used a combination of a college track and a nearby measured cross country course. I designed several different workouts to avoid boredom. I ended up running faster, longer and with better form than at any younger age. I had to quit competition because of family and job commitments. Otherwise, I think I was headed towards "top ten" rankings (regionally) within the coming year. The only other ingredient a runner needs is a good reference on sensible, active recovery workouts after the interval training and how to be careful in building up your volume of work over the long term to avoid injury. Books on foot care, shoes and orthotics might be good as well. There used to be a booklet by Tom Osler called "The Conditioning of Distance Runners." I suspect it is out of print, but by now there must be updated resources (see books on "periodization"). If you don't have access to a good coach, or even if you do but want to learn more, this may be the best studying you can do. I believe these workouts can be modified for use by swimmers and cyclists without too much difficulty.

This book helps you see where your running potential lies. You can find out, based on your PR in a given event, how fast your intervals should be run.

Payton Jordan suggested to me to try this book of charts indicating the current progress of a runner and the step-up procedures necessary to improve. It was, and still is, "the" book to understand effort levels and training procedures within the reach of the user!!

This book covers everything from Adrenaline to Windchill and anything you need to know in between. Starting with the category 'The Biology of Endurance' then 'Training Tools and Techniques' then 'Nutrition for Maximum Endurance' followed by 'Injuries, Obstacles, and Perils' and finally 'Great Endurance Challenges'(a listing of many major endurance athletic events around the world).

Ogranised in Encyclopedia format, this book is packed with the information you need to become a good endurance athlete. Wether looking up Massage Therapy, Fartlek Training, or Aerodynamics you'll find the information you're looking for quickly and easily. If you're a Personal Trainer or a beginner you will find this book usefull. I've had this book for almost as long as it's been published and have consulted it again and again. This is a book I'm sure any athlete would enjoy.

This is a book you can go back to anytime. Tinley (and McAlpine) cover all the aspects of endurance training. This is not a book that will give you all the detail, but it offers just the right amount of advice to help you through. I've done a few Ironman Triathlons myself and have actually met and talked to Scott tinley; he is the book and the book works.

This book is simply great for the endurance athlete. It deals with training, diet, mental aspects of endurance training, and medical issues. The book is instructional as well as motivational and is a work that you'll keep referring back to time and time again.

Even though I bought this book used it was brand new and in excellant condition. It was shipped in a timely manner.

Awesome book, it has helped me understand a lot about massaging and is going to be of great use for my career. thanks very much

Being a bit biased because I know the author and attend/ed her school, I can truthfully say her book leaves nothing out. It covers basics of therapeutic bodywork all the way up to actual helpful techniques for working with athletes. Contraindications, assessment techniques, rehab, case studies, it's all here.
There are plenty of pictures demonstrating techniques and the muscles that are being addressed.
There's even a video, that accompanies the book, to visually demonstrate even more, some of the techniques discussed.
If I could say anything negative about the book I'd say 'overkill'. Sandy has strived to leave absolutely nothing out. Kudos, Mrs Fritz!
James Nichols NCTMB

This is the one dog-eared text on my bookshelf that I would never loan out to anyone. Written in a concise and to the point format this is the foundational textbook for anyone who cares for athletes. A favorite of mine is the "Quick Facts" and "Practice Points" that are included in the 24 chapters. If you are only going to purchase one sports medicine textbook this is the one to get. Lets hope the next edition comes out as planned so we can actually find this textbook!

I have been using this book for years and find it to be the most comprehensive, thorough, and accurate tool for assessment and treatment of sports injuries from head to toe. I especially like this author because he is was a physical therapist who went on to become an orthopedic surgeon. This undoubtedly gives him a wonderful ability to combine overall physical assessment with an MDs assessment. He gives great side notes and provides the reader with all options available for treatment, from conservative to aggressive. A must have for me!

Reading this book was very helpful with my profession as an athletic trainer. It was very well in detail when it comes to evaluation of an injury and to rehabilitation of an injury. I find this book to be very helpful in different ways. And I find it to be a excellent book and an excellent resource.

I've sworn by Gaines' book for thirty years. It's got programs for everyone, with equipment and without, and the results are superb.

This is the very best book I have come across dealing with fitness. It gives the reader great latitude assuming we all have different access levels to training equipment. Gaines's philosophy towards fitness is excellent!

I bought a copy of this book in 1981 and in my opinion, this is probably one of the most effective exercise books ever published. With this book, I lost mearly 60lbs in 3 MONTHS! My biggest regret is I misplaced my copy of this book and I have been trying to find another copy of this book for years. If amybody can get me another copy of this book, I greatly appreciate it.