Fitness Crazed

Nope. The book is far superior to any of the trainers I've encountered. The book has so much detail on each exercise, it will take you weeks to absorb it, but if you read relevant parts before/after each workout, to make sure you're doing everything right, you'll probably wind up with much better form and technique than a random trainer's personal opinions.

And if you don't already know the correct form/technique, then how on earth are you going to evaluate which trainer you can trust? Answer: you can't. The book is the way to go, if you can be conscientious about reading it thoroughly, constantly reviewing it, and following what it says.

Really. Only your body and the space to use it.

I worked out with weights for years and occasionally would do some cardio. I think the logic was... cardio doesn't make you look good in a swimsuit like lifting weights does, and at the time impressing ladies and intimidating other guys was priority (lets don't lie to ourselves about motive here!).

Then, I got a little older and impressing ladies became less important and general health and a sense of well being more important. I read an article that made me realize many of the same principals of weight training can be applied to inner muscles as well. A knowledgeable person wouldn't go to the gym and lift 5 pound 300 times and expect to get stronger. Instead they would lift 80% of what they could 5 times in sets. This is what builds strength.

The same principal applies to interval training for heart and lungs. Rather than getting on a treadmill for 45 minutes at a slow slog you push yourself to a percent of max heart rate for like 3 minutes in sets (the same as weight training). The workouts don't take that long and I found they greatly improved my feeling of health and general vigor. There are a number of studies on the benefits of improved heart stroke volume etc. from interval training which I can't find at the moment.

For the rest of people interested in getting strong: get a competent trainer (one easy evaluation metric is, as I mentioned, their deadlift maxes; greater than 500 pounds makes avoiding injury w/o good form very unlikely; or participation in powerlifting events; etc).

However, doing the same week every week just isn't very fun.

Most of the problem with being and staying in shape is the lack of interest in it.

The author enjoyed weightlifting because he had never done it before and he saw himself getting stronger, which is very fun the first time you do it.

The most important part of a fitness program is interest and motivation. A close second should be safety, but generally you can get into decent shape doing almost any sport or activity.

For me, this article's fitness program, Starting Strength, sounds insanely boring, but that is because I have been doing these lifts off and on since I was 15 years old. And I did them a lot in college for football, so, it no longer appeals to me.

I say, find something that is interesting to you and do that thing. It can be yoga, martial arts, soccer, basketball, walking, whatever, as long as you really enjoy it you will do it hard enough to get in shape and improve your health.