This is a really good book. I’ve said this before, but it’s worth mentioning again: We are approaching a renaissance of what strength coaches have known for decades – taking command of your own health is your best option to long term success. These are not novel concepts to strength coaches, but they are getting more traction with more audiences which is good. 

Attia is a good writer. You can tell that from the way this book sequenced from start to end. What is the problem, how should we solve this, and what he thinks we should do to solve the problem. Disease and reduced quality of life is the problem. Research says we need to exercise more (strength and cardiovascular training), eat less (and better), sleep, and practice better mental/emotional health. The path to working, eating, sleeping and focusing on mental health is laid out from start to finish in the book. 

Nothing earth shattering is presented to be honest. But what was compelling was how Attia presented it. Research was used in a very compelling, intuitive way. We look at research as this guiding light, but it is used so poorly most of the time it becomes this overarching premise that lacks practical application. In fact, most research is more than likely viewed as laggard to what we do on a daily basis. But Attia did a good job forming a practical approach to health and then supporting his approach with research. It appeared to be a vector of finding what works and then  corroborate and challenge it with research. 

His approach was centered on exercise, nutrition, sleep, and emotional health to increase ‘healthspan’ (high quality of life combined with longer life). Exercise was well written and structured. Improve cardiovascular health through oxidative/zone 2 work while increasing lean muscle mass/bone density through strength training. The nutrition aspect was centered on eating less through caloric restriction, dietary restriction, or time restriction combined with eating better foods. Sleep was about having better routines and approaches overall. Emotional health was kind of hard to follow, to be honest this section felt like his own personal journal for us to read. 

For the most part, each section was really good. My only criticism was that it took on this biohacker/life optimizer like approach. The approach to exercise, and even nutrition, is pretty formulaic from what I call ‘compilers’ of health research. They have their sphere of influence they pull from. A secular group of ‘experts’ creating their version of a holistic approach. For instance they will pull from one expert for strength training, one for nutrition, one for emotional health, etc. Then they will consolidate this information down into an itemized list: you should carry stuff, hinge, and pull for your strength program. Or you should spend this amount of time in zone 2. Then they will form their list into a written product and give a mention to the person they pulled that information from. Maybe they will say ‘if you want to learn more….’ which is a pretty good tell on where they pulled that information from, and what it means relative to being truly vetted thoroughly. 

I think it is noble that we have a medical doctor talking about exercise, nutrition, sleep, and emotional health. It’s way better than throwing pharma down our throats. But I cannot help to wonder how potentially incestuous or nepotistic this information really is and whether that is a good thing or not? Ferris, Greenfield, Attia are all essentially mediums of other people’s information. How did they get exposed to this and what is the potential agenda or benefit? These people have a large influence as the gatekeepers to what is good or bad for a large number of people. It’s essentially group think, dictated by a secular group. On the surface level it is generally good, but I could argue that there are some missing aspects in some key areas. 

It could be jealousy or envy on my part that the people listed in these books are not me. It is frustrating for me that someone needs to be a ‘translator’ or medium of someone like myself to the outside world. It could be a fear that this is potentially a bad thing, and that someone of influence is speaking second hand about information from sources that may not be aligned with my approach. How far is Attia away from someone like Mercola? But at the same time, millions of people are going to read a book telling them to strength train more, do more zone 2 cardio, eat less food, sleep more, and practice mental health. Are my gripes actually fair? 

It could be fear of me becoming obsolete. My position as a gatekeeper to health for so many could be challenged due to the sheer number of people who are likely to read through this book. I understand that this is far fetched. Humans are humans, and I will always be needed. But on the other end is the frustration of someone cherry picking certain talking points and me having to explain or rationalize that it is a lot for strength coaches to take on. I deal with the repercussions of people forming their own opinions on what something means and not reaching a higher level from snippets of information (like this book). Then I have to step in and reorganize that information to an executable plan. Sometimes I simply prefer a blank slate to start from. 

This book is really good. Sorry for the rant on the current state of consolidated info based books, think it has to be said eventually. But overall it is a good book with good information. It really may help you as a strength coach to convey your current ideas more succinctly and effectively.