Sensible and demanding, training both mind and body.
A veteran sports trainer serves up a challenging plan for succeeding instead of just trying to get in a good workout.
How-to-build-a-better-body books litter the landscape, but Mancias has a built-in advantage: LeBron James follows the author’s program, writing in his foreword, “I’m staying in the game for as long as possible by being consistent with my training, my recovery, and eating as clean as I can—and a big part of that is because of Mike.” Mancias reinforces these key points by dividing the book into sections devoted to eating, moving, and mending. Before all that comes the mind—intention and commitment. Afterward comes the stretch. James stretches when he wakes up, before a game, and before going to bed, knowing that keeping the body flexible and tuned means longevity. Mancias counsels eating nutrient-rich foods that both allow movement and promote healing and recovery. As he notes, there’s no promise that his program will help a person shed weight, but if that’s a goal, it can be adapted to accommodate. One thing readers will notice is the author’s devotion to drinking water constantly; another is his view that five or six small meals are better than two or three big ones, since they provide “a constant level of energy that keeps your blood sugar levels even all day.” His repertoire doesn’t require superhuman ability, and some exercises seem downright fun (compared to, say, walking a treadmill) while reinforcing the maintenance and strengthening of the core muscles. Interestingly, those exercises require no equipment, and the author is humane about them. If you’re not used to exercise, Mancias allows a two-days-on-one-day-off schedule instead of a boot camp regimen. Finally, the author insists on recovery through sleep, meditation, and massage, among other things, reassuring, “None of these tactics are ineffective or self-indulgent.”
Sensible and demanding, training both mind and body.Pub Date: May 21, 2024
ISBN: 9780063316430
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
Skloot's meticulous, riveting account strikes a humanistic balance between sociological history, venerable portraiture and...
A dense, absorbing investigation into the medical community's exploitation of a dying woman and her family's struggle to salvage truth and dignity decades later.
In a well-paced, vibrant narrative, Popular Science contributor and Culture Dish blogger Skloot (Creative Writing/Univ. of Memphis) demonstrates that for every human cell put under a microscope, a complex life story is inexorably attached, to which doctors, researchers and laboratories have often been woefully insensitive and unaccountable. In 1951, Henrietta Lacks, an African-American mother of five, was diagnosed with what proved to be a fatal form of cervical cancer. At Johns Hopkins, the doctors harvested cells from her cervix without her permission and distributed them to labs around the globe, where they were multiplied and used for a diverse array of treatments. Known as HeLa cells, they became one of the world's most ubiquitous sources for medical research of everything from hormones, steroids and vitamins to gene mapping, in vitro fertilization, even the polio vaccine—all without the knowledge, must less consent, of the Lacks family. Skloot spent a decade interviewing every relative of Lacks she could find, excavating difficult memories and long-simmering outrage that had lay dormant since their loved one's sorrowful demise. Equal parts intimate biography and brutal clinical reportage, Skloot's graceful narrative adeptly navigates the wrenching Lack family recollections and the sobering, overarching realities of poverty and pre–civil-rights racism. The author's style is matched by a methodical scientific rigor and manifest expertise in the field.
Skloot's meticulous, riveting account strikes a humanistic balance between sociological history, venerable portraiture and Petri dish politics.Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4000-5217-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.
The chef, rapper, and TV host serves up a blustery memoir with lashings of self-help.
“I’ve always had a sick confidence,” writes Bronson, ne Ariyan Arslani. The confidence, he adds, comes from numerous sources: being a New Yorker, and more specifically a New Yorker from Queens; being “short and fucking husky” and still game for a standoff on the basketball court; having strength, stamina, and seemingly no fear. All these things serve him well in the rough-and-tumble youth he describes, all stickball and steroids. Yet another confidence-builder: In the big city, you’ve got to sink or swim. “No one is just accepted—you have to fucking show that you’re able to roll,” he writes. In a narrative steeped in language that would make Lenny Bruce blush, Bronson recounts his sentimental education, schooled by immigrant Italian and Albanian family members and the mean streets, building habits good and bad. The virtue of those habits will depend on your take on modern mores. Bronson writes, for example, of “getting my dick pierced” down in the West Village, then grabbing a pizza and smoking weed. “I always smoke weed freely, always have and always will,” he writes. “I’ll just light a blunt anywhere.” Though he’s gone through the classic experiences of the latter-day stoner, flunking out and getting arrested numerous times, Bronson is a hard charger who’s not afraid to face nearly any challenge—especially, given his physique and genes, the necessity of losing weight: “If you’re husky, you’re always dieting in your mind,” he writes. Though vulgar and boastful, Bronson serves up a model that has plenty of good points, including his growing interest in nature, creativity, and the desire to “leave a legacy for everybody.”
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4478-5
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf