Body by Science summary

Imagine you hire a personal trainer. At your first meeting, she offers you two paths toward reaching your fitness goals. 

Option one: you’ll meet four days a week. Each day, you’ll spend an hour stretching, an hour jogging, and an hour doing light repetitive activities like pushups, pullups, and crunches. Option two: you’ll only meet once a week and perform three short sets of very intense exercises. 

Imagine this: your forehead throbs. A tightness grips your temples. It feels like a jackhammer is pounding away inside your skull. Yes, you’ve got a migraine. Painkillers should help, but how many should you take? Too few may not work, and too many may cause an overdose. No, it’s important to get the dosage exactly right.

Exercise works the same way. Just like medicines, workouts stimulate the body to achieve certain results. And, just like with medicines, it’s crucial to get the dosage right. Not enough, and you won’t see the results. Too much, and you risk an injury. 

Let’s say you’ve got a few hundred bucks lying around. Now, like any savvy saver, you want that money to grow. So, you decide to put it in the stock market. What's the best investment strategy?

Well, you could aim high and bet it all on the latest start-up, or you could just pour cash into whichever industry catches your eye. These are risky strategies, sure, but you could see big payoffs. 

Congratulations! After weeks of consistent training, you’ve managed to reach a real fitness milestone. You can perfectly execute a 200-pound leg press routine for the exact 90 seconds which the Big Five plan calls for. Now you just need to maintain that level of fitness. Easy, right?

Not exactly. After a few weeks, that same 200-pound press for 90 seconds becomes increasingly difficult. After a month, even 80 seconds make you fatigued. Two weeks on, and you’re tapping out at 70 seconds. What’s going on?

Consider Arnold Schwarzenegger. A former Mr. Universe winner, a star of action films, and an all-around fitness icon. For many aspiring bodybuilders, the goal is to look like Schwarzenegger did in his prime. 

But how many of these weightlifters will build bodies like Arnold’s? Not many. In reality, for many of us, it is simply not possible to bulk up to Hollywood standards. And it’s not our fault.

Bad news: you’ve worked so hard to lose weight, but now you’ve slipped up. In a moment of weakness, you hit the local all-you-can-eat buffet and overindulged on snacks and sweets. In one mealtime binge, you probably packed in an extra 3000 calories. 

But, you’re telling yourself, it’s probably OK. After all, you can always burn off those excess calories on the treadmill, right? Well, yes and no. As an average 120-pound woman, you can reach that goal with a brisk jog. But here’s the thing: you’ll have to keep pounding the pavement for 44 straight miles.