Never Gymless : An Excuse-free System for Total Fitness Paperback – January 1, 2006

Practical workout program that anyone anytime, Anywhere can be used to build your core body.

One of the better books out there written for those people who do not always have access to fancy equipment and gym memberships.I highly recommend this to anyone looking to improve their health.

Ross is an inspiration. This is a great book.

I'm a fan of bodyweight workouts, especially isometrics. I bought this book at a used book store and read it in an afternoon. I found the writing and instructions great. I also discovered some useful and new (to me) exercises that I'm anxious to try. You don't need any equipment with any exercises unless you want to use some bands in a few of them.The book seems to be directed at boxers and fighters, also professional athletes. I'm none of those things. So, I just overlooked some of it. But the exercises are just great. And the author pretty much covers everything. I've read most all of the current books on bodyweight training. I've also read some of the ancient classics. I find this book to be a real keeper.Having it in a spiral edition makes it easy to use during your workouts too.Here are the contents:Chapter 1: IntroductionRoss explains the reasons and concept behind the book.Chapter 2: The DuelThis section discusses the debate between body weight and weight exercises.Chapter 3: Training PrincipalsDiscusses the types of strength and how to build them. Lots of training principals here.Chapter 4: Pulling Strength and PowerTypes of pull-ups, rope climbing, resistance bands so forth. I found this different from any other book I've read with lots of really valuable ideas you can easily incorporate with little more than a rope or towel.Chapter 5: Pushing Strength and Powermany push up variations, pushing your car or truck, and more. (I don't intend to run out and push my car. But lots of the exercises are great.)Chapter 6: Lower Body Strength and PowerBody weight squats galore, Burpees, many exercises and concepts for building super hero legs.Chapter 7: IsometricsExerting force against a stationary object. examples are holding dumbells straight out at the sides like a cross and just maintaining this static position or simply pushing on a wall. While he suggests incorporating isometrics with other forms of training, I find it to be useful alone.Chapter 8: A Powerful CoreThis is the center of your mass. He demonstrates numerous wonderful (non-crunch) ways to strengthen your core.He goes into great depth on the subject. Planks, situps, crunches, supermans, bands, L-sits and more.Chapter 9: Conditioning is King"Fatigue makes cowards of us all."Hill sprinting, bear crawls, crab walk, woodchoppers, burpee variations and more.Chapter 10. NutritionLots of useful information. A must-read.Chapter 11. Program DesignThis is where you build your own program. Remember, you want to change when necessary. He says you lose 30% of your muscle when you take off a week!Chapter 12. FAQChapter 13. Works CitedChapter 14. Exercise ListI appreciate the exercise list. This way I can quickly look up an exercise that I'm interested in and go right to that page. Many books omit this.Highly recommended.-- Susanna K. Hutcheson

- Why I Read This BookWhile researching one of Pavel's books, I read a review that recommended one of Ross' books instead. Between *Never Gymless* and *Infinite Intensity*, I emailed Ross about the difference between the two books, who replied within less than 24 hours. I chose *Never Gymless* because it places a greater emphasis on bodyweight exercises, which was what I was looking for at the time. (During lent I give up using weights as a small penance.)- PositivesAn easy - but nonetheless detail-oriented - read, you can read this book very quickly, and yet it provides years worth of exercises for the beginner (pushups, chinnies) to the serious strength athlete (one-armed fingertip pushups, one-armed wheel rollouts).One of the strengths of the book is that it gradually walks you through an exercise from its easiest incarnation (e.g. the assisted pullup) to its hardest (e.g. the one-armed chinup), but there is never any "pressure" to do more than you are interested in.I especially enjoyed the section on isometrics. When I bought this book, I could not care less about isometrics: who wants to push against a wall, right? I was wrong: isometrics are an incredibly easy way to gain strength. I credit one-armed isometric pushups to helping me achieve the strength and body awareness to do the real thing (I went from two in poor form on each side to three solid pushups on each arm).I also appreciated the section on nutrition. Nutrition has been a hobby of mine, and after years of the politically-correct low-fat, high-carb diet that brought me disease, I switched to a healthy high-fat, lower-carb diet (I recommend  The Metabolic Typing Diet: Customize Your Diet To: Free Yourself from Food Cravings: Achieve Your Ideal Weight; Enjoy High Energy and Robust Health; Prevent and Reverse Disease  and  Life Without Bread: How a Low-Carbohydrate Diet Can Save Your Life ). Consequently, I cannot stand most of the drivel that passes for nutritional advice in the fitness world. However, Ross does not fall into that category: he gives practical, (seriously) healthy advice, and even advocates raw milk!Finally, I like how Ross emphasizes not only raw strength, but power and conditioning. It made me realize that I have been focusing too much on strength, to the detriment of my speed and power.- Negatives?The book is only available at outrageous prices on Amazon - buy direct from Ross Enamait's website instead (he processes and ships orders very quickly).A minor quibble: Ross de-emphasizes stretching, since in his own experience, he has found it unnecessary with the other exercises he performs. (In all fairness, he does assert that one should do as they see fit in that regard.) I have found, in my experience, that stretching is necessary for my overall health and avoidance of injury (particularly of back pain - I recommend  7 Steps to a Pain-Free Life: How to Rapidly Relieve Back and Neck Pain ).- SummaryNot only have a profited from some of the many exercises in this book, but it has encouraged me to reassess my fitness level. Consequently, I have resumed, as Ross says on his blog, "training with my gloves on", that is, getting back into martial arts training. This has restored some of the speed, power, and endurance that I had lost when I overemphasized strength training.As a final note, I have enjoyed both Ross' and Pavel's books, which to some extent overlap topics. However, I believe that with Ross, you get more for your money, without the hype. I have enjoyed Ross' material so much, that I have just purchased his DVD on sandbag training.

I am not sure who I bought this book from, since it does not seem to be in my Amazon history. Anyhow, I am just finishing it up. It has an overwhelming amount of information geared towards beginners, intermediate and advanced athletes, and whatever your level I am sure you will get something worthwhile out of it. It discusses hundreds of exercises, modifications, training schedules, different types of strength, conditioning etc. My only issue - which is not a dig at the book - was that there is so much information that it takes a while to get through the 230 pages of text. However, I suppose if one is a beginner (in my case, a fairly healthy old guy who wants to be a really healthy old guy) and you do the basic stuff in a disciplined fashion you won't stay a beginner and will already know what you need to know to transition into the intermediate exercises when you get to that stage. Although the exercises for the most part are designed to work with minimal equipment (thus "Never Gymless") , a power tower would be a good accessory (I picked up a used one in nice shape for $80). The book also contains a very good chapter on nutrition. It is a very worthwhile book.