Take the Warrior Challenge – let top trainer Martin Rooney get you into the best shape of your life, OK, I know what you’ve just read sounds corny, I took that from the synopsis at amazon, but this book is jam packed with training tips from international fighters in the disciplines of Judo, Karate, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Sambo, Boxing, Kickboxing, and Muay Thai. The book starts with a forward by Roger Gracie then Rooney offers hundreds of exercises, covering everything from warming up, weights, kettlebells, isometrics, and gauntlet circuits, to bone tempering techniques, as well as advice on mental training, flexibility, and nutrition. The book includes hundreds of exercises from martial arts practitioners around the the world, demonstrated in nearly 1,000 full-colour training photos. It also features explanations of the history, training, diet, and philosophy behind each of the martial arts. 3 Eight-Week Warrior Workouts which can be combined into 6 complete months of training as well as 12 Warrior Challenges to assess fitness levels (1-10) as you progress in the program and, cutting-edge nutrition information for athletes, from Sports Dietetics Specialist (CSSD) Glen Tobias.

Rooney traveled to the top fight destinations in the world, from Russia to Thailand, to train with the experts in the core traditions that comprise Mixed Martial Arts: Judo, Karate, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Sambo, Boxing, Kickboxing, and Muay Thai. In each country, Rooney studied with practioners of each discipline as they trained. The full-colour training photos in this book were all taken at the locations these fighters trained, from the slopes of Mount Fuji to the beaches of Brazil. Whether you are looking for new workouts to add to your routine or you are an MMA enthusiast who is interested in learning more about the history of the martial arts, this book has it!

Martin Rooney is a Performance Enhancement Specialist and the director of the Parisi Speed School. In addition to training many world champion martial artists, Martin has also been a speed consultant to the New York Giants as well as other athletes from the NFL, MLB, NBA, WNBA and numerous top Division I colleges across the country. He has also trained Olympians including one gold, and one silver medalist. He holds a Master of Health Science and Bachelor of Physical Therapy from the Medical University of South Carolina. He also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Exercise Science from Furman University.

Training for warriors is available from amazon.

There are many bodyweight exercise books out there and many are full of false promises, exaggerated claims, pressure sales tactics and marketing nonsense written by self proclaimed “Internet Gurus” who have no real expertise whatsoever, so, how does the TBK Fitness Program measure up against far more hyped and expensive bodyweight books.

Tamir B. Katz is a practicing doctor, a graduate of SUNY Stony Brook School of Medicine. he attended college at Cornell University, majoring in biology. He has been studying different diet and exercise systems through books, journal articles, and practical experience since 1993. Dr Katz says in the TBK Fitness Program however, “I don’t expect any of you to take my word blindly. Educate yourselves. Read the suggested articles and books on my Recommended Reading section. Do your own research. Always question the rationale and the evidence behind any diet or exercise program you follow.” There aren’t many bodyweight books out there written by a practicing doctor.

* Diet – 82 pages
* Exercise Program – over 60 exercises, 13 ‘Core Routines’
* Why diet, exercise & smoking cessations fail
* Advice for healthy living
* Bibliography

The diet part of the TBK Fitness Program is about the the paleo diet, a way of eating in the modern age that best mimics the nutrition of our evolutionary and genetic heritage – the ancestral, Paleolithic diet. For millions of years our hunter-gatherer ancestors ate combinations of lean meat, seafood, plants, fruit, and nuts. The theory is that man’s ideal diet is that of a hunter-gatherer, and that our digestive systems have not evolved to digest modern processed foods and that modern diets are responsible for modern ailments like heart disease, diabetes and obesity.

The bodyweight part of the TBK Fitness Program has over 60 different bodyweight exercises of varying difficulty targeting all of the muscles in the body many of which can be performed without any equipment (exceptions would be chins, dips and pushups between chairs – all which require equipment but can be improvised easily). Calisthenics isn’t rocket science and Dr Katz doesn’t feed you any bullshit about ‘turning you into a russian spetznas over night’. Dr Katz lays out the many advantages of bodyweight training (cost, time, safety etc.) there are no false promises or exaggerated claims about it being absolutely the best way to get big and strong.

The exercises themselves are a mix of basic PT (running on the spot, star jumps etc), calisthenics, yoga positions and self resistance exercises.

The routines themselves are pretty simple and to be trained 5-6 days a week many are to be interspersed with wind sprints. Dr Katz doesn’t like jogging, most aerobic exercise machines or excessively high reps as he feels you may get a repetitive strain injury.

For a bodyweight proponent Dr Katz isn’t anti weightlifting and recognizes that weights are good for some things however, he recommends you choose useful exercises that work many muscles at the same time, exercises such as cleans, snatches, jerks, presses, squats, and deadlifts, using barbells, dumbbells, or sandbags.

The third part of the TBK Fitness Program is a look at Why Diet, Exercise, and Smoking Cessation Programs Fail and What to Do About it, including 4 steps you can take to ensure long term success in implementing your own fitness program.

The fourth part is Advice for Healthy Living based on the latest scientific research, information on stress management and preventive medicine, recommendations on vitamin and supplement use, and the final part of the TBK Fitness Program is a comprehensive bibliography of all of the articles and books used in coming up with the information for the program so that you can read up and educate yourself.

Overall the book is very well written and well thought out. Has a lot, if not more content than many bodyweight exercise books. Takes a pragmatic approach to diet and realizes that you may not always be as strict as you’d like. The illustrations are a little “primitive” and could be better but its good hype free and cheap training book written by a doctor. The TBK Fitness Program is available from amazon.