Book Reviews

Me: You should read "The 4-Hour Body.”
Friend: Actually, I'm reading the 3-Hour Body. Saving myself a whole hour.

Ha! An allusion to the joke from There's Something About Mary. But yeah, I can see the rationale. Still, four hours isn't a lot of time. The title is based on the idea of a short workout each week for a massive muscle gain and fat reduction in just a few weeks. Oh yeah, with some vitamins and an eating change too.

The book offers a lot of information—too much in fact. The author is trying to cram way too much information in there (e.g., a chapter about hitting a baseball better). While this isn't a totally bad thing, it inflates the book, making it harder to obtain the useful information, and easier to get overwhelmed and lost. If anything, the book just gets bogged down in too much superfluous data.

However, there is good information in there, and it even backs up many of my own theories on weight loss and muscle gain. As well, I didn't mind the extra chapters on running better, though they're a little inflated too. Most importantly is how the author really states the idea of take away what you will. You don't have to agree with everything he writes to obtain some good stuff from this book.

I would strongly suggest perusing it first at a book store before buying it. Some may find a few of the chapters objectionable. I had no problem with it though. Again, take away what you find useful. It's not a bad thing to have as a reference manual on the shelf.