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Beyond Training: Mastering Endurance, Health & Life
Whether you're an extreme exercise enthusiast or you're just looking to shed a few pounds, this is the last book on training, endurance, health, and life you will ever need.
In this book you will learn:
• The 2 best ways to build fitness fast without destroying your body
• Underground training tactics for maximizing workout efficiency
• The best biohacks for enhancing mental performance and entering the zone
• How to know with laserlike accuracy whether your body has truly recovered
• 26 ways to recover quickly from workouts, injuries, and overtraining
• The 25 most important blood and saliva biomarkers and how to test them
• 5 essential elements of training that most athletes neglect
• 7 stress-fighting weapons to make your mind-body connection bulletproof
• Proven systems to enhance sleep, eliminate insomnia, and conquer jet lag
• 40 high-calorie, nutrient-dense meals that won't destroy your metabolism
• Easy tools for customizing your carbs, proteins, and fats for your unique body
• 9 ways to fix a broken gut, detox your body, and create a toxin-free life
• A complete system to safeguard your immune system and stomach
• Simple time-efficiency tips for balancing training, work, travel, and family
In this book you will learn:
• The 2 best ways to build fitness fast without destroying your body
• Underground training tactics for maximizing workout efficiency
• The best biohacks for enhancing mental performance and entering the zone
• How to know with laserlike accuracy whether your body has truly recovered
• 26 ways to recover quickly from workouts, injuries, and overtraining
• The 25 most important blood and saliva biomarkers and how to test them
• 5 essential elements of training that most athletes neglect
• 7 stress-fighting weapons to make your mind-body connection bulletproof
• Proven systems to enhance sleep, eliminate insomnia, and conquer jet lag
• 40 high-calorie, nutrient-dense meals that won't destroy your metabolism
• Easy tools for customizing your carbs, proteins, and fats for your unique body
• 9 ways to fix a broken gut, detox your body, and create a toxin-free life
• A complete system to safeguard your immune system and stomach
• Simple time-efficiency tips for balancing training, work, travel, and family
480 pages, Hardcover
First published March 4, 2014
498 people are currently reading
2388 people want to read
About the author
Ben Greenfield
56 books254 followersBen Greenfield spent most of his childhood years with his nose in a book. President of the chess club, violin player, and a complete nerd in school, he especially loved writing fantasy fiction.
After graduating high school at fifteen and university at the age of twenty, Ben’s life took a turn as he delved into another passion: fitness. He was soon named as America’s top personal trainer, one of the world’s top 100 most influential people in health and fitness, and also penned the New York Times bestseller Beyond Training, along with 13 other books.
After years of success in the health and fitness industry, Ben has returned to his love of fantasy. The Forest, the first in his new fantasy series, takes its inspiration from Ben’s own twin sons, combined with his deep knowledge of survival, wilderness, adventure, intrigue, health, suspense and a true hero’s journey.
Ben resides in Spokane, Washington with his wife, Jessa, and twin boys, River and Terran, where he can be found caring for his goats, chickens and organic vegetable garden, playing the ukulele and penning his next fantasy tale.
After graduating high school at fifteen and university at the age of twenty, Ben’s life took a turn as he delved into another passion: fitness. He was soon named as America’s top personal trainer, one of the world’s top 100 most influential people in health and fitness, and also penned the New York Times bestseller Beyond Training, along with 13 other books.
After years of success in the health and fitness industry, Ben has returned to his love of fantasy. The Forest, the first in his new fantasy series, takes its inspiration from Ben’s own twin sons, combined with his deep knowledge of survival, wilderness, adventure, intrigue, health, suspense and a true hero’s journey.
Ben resides in Spokane, Washington with his wife, Jessa, and twin boys, River and Terran, where he can be found caring for his goats, chickens and organic vegetable garden, playing the ukulele and penning his next fantasy tale.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 88 reviews
July 16, 2014
Pseudoscience infomercial. Overwhelming and repetitive. This book is essentially a compilation of blog posts: endless lists of the 25 ways to achieve the greatest XYZ with constant references to the author's podcasts and website. There are occasional nuggets of good information (hence two stars), but mostly it's an overload of product plugs - supplements and gadgets for sale on the author's website and recommendations to buy shoes that ground you to the earth's magnetic field (say what?).
October 25, 2014
Quantity over quality. Another reviewer mentioned 'infomercial' and 'pseudoscience' and I have to agree. There are a few decent pieces of information but nothing noteworthy. On the other hand the author just sells the crap out of supplements, vitamins and gadgets, which of course can be found through links on his site. Seriously, follow a few of his supplement protocols and see how much money you have left at the end of the month, it's just ridiculous. On one hand the 'Ancestral Athlete' approach is preached, and on the other hand hundreds of supplmements are pushed for every imaginable ailment.
Greenfield appears to be following the Tim Ferris model of writing/business here, although I did find value in Tim's 4 HR Body amongst the marketing mountains.
Again, just very disappointed, because Greenfield does seem to have extensive athletic experience, and I've read some good stuff on his site. I would've preferred less quantity and more quality. Cm'on Ben, put out something solid with less salesmanship, you are capable and have the knowledge!
Greenfield appears to be following the Tim Ferris model of writing/business here, although I did find value in Tim's 4 HR Body amongst the marketing mountains.
Again, just very disappointed, because Greenfield does seem to have extensive athletic experience, and I've read some good stuff on his site. I would've preferred less quantity and more quality. Cm'on Ben, put out something solid with less salesmanship, you are capable and have the knowledge!
November 13, 2014
I'm always looking for new angles and approaches to improving endurance/ race performance. I wasn't very impressed with this one, too much advertising and focus on supplements. Check out the triathlon training guides by Joe Friel instead for practical planning and no supplement shilling.
September 24, 2015
Near the end of this book, the author has a small section about how jealous he is of his wife, because she basically ignores every piece of 'advice' that he gives in the book, and just eats a balanced diet when she is hungry, goes for a run outside when she needs to get out, and sleeps when she gets tired. It's not complicated. But he somehow manages to turn this into a 467 page behemoth that took me about a year and a half to work through. Some of it is legitimately useful training and recovery tips. But the useful stuff is buried in a lot of garbage that seemed just like a promotion for products he sells or is sponsored by. Also a lot of just plain hokum, like something about buying a special wire to connect to you and/or your bed so that you can be 'grounded' like some kind of lightning rod. What??? I'll just try to keep things simple, like his wife does. Eat a good, balanced diet. Go to sleep and wake up naturally. Don't work out when you don't feel good.
January 3, 2016
The Biohacking Tome for the Performance Athlete
My latest obsession has been all things biohacking. When Ben Greenfield announced his latest book, Beyond Training, I was over-the-top excited. I have been listening to his podcast since 2009. As a marketer myself, it’s been fun to watch him grow his brand over the past few years.
Beyond Training was no disappointment. I am no endurance athlete--which the book is geared towards--though I would consider myself a non-competitive female bodybuilder. Regardless, it’s a must-read for anyone interested in improving performance in all areas of life, not just short-term, sport-specific training.
What I liked most about the book:
- Easy-to-read. It was not hard to read or understand, and I am no biomechanist or health scientist. There are a few tough terms, but Ben explains them in layman’s language.
- Comprehensive. I think Ben touched on just about all aspects of training, recovery, health, longevity, hormones, biohacking and everything in between. It felt like a very organized version of the topics he talks about in his podcasts.
- Practical. Ben is human, just like the rest of us. If you ever wondered how he gets in all his biohacking, recovery, training and racing into his daily life, read this book. He shares his daily schedules and how he gets in everything he talks about without getting stressed out.
- Resource Lists. Most of us don’t want to dig into scientific journals or spend boatloads of time researching supplements to ensure their efficacy. Ben does it all for you at the end of each chapter. You get a comprehensive list of all the supplements and where to purchase them. The book would have been more than worth purchasing for this aspect alone.
- Addicting. This book was very hard to put down. I saved it for reading during my Bulletproof Coffee breaks and before going to bed.
What I would have tweaked:
- Prioritization. If you are relatively new to biohacking, it’s tough to know exactly which purchases you should save up for first. I would love a price list of all the hacks, how much they cost, and somehow ranked on a scale of 1-10. This would be very helpful for us budgeters, who want to allocate funds monthly to biohacking without breaking the bank.
- Expensive. You could spend tens of thousands of dollars on all these hacks, if not more. Start with the stuff that is free or low cost, and work your way up the ladder.
- Focus on other athletic types. It’s definitely geared more towards endurance athletes, as those are Ben’s specialty and his own personal passion. He does mention Crossfit a bit, but that’s a bit different than what I do. His book would probably need to be volumes long to include all athletic types, but there are a few questions I had about how his hacks affect physique athletes.
- Overwhelming. If you get easily overwhelmed, this book might make you like there’s no possible way for you to do everything, all the time. My advice would be to pick one new “hack” to implement each week. That’s it!
In conclusion, I would highly recommend this book to both seasoned and new biohackers. This is one of those books you must have in your biohacking library and as a reference for when you’re ready to try a new hack for enhancing a specific area of your life.
My latest obsession has been all things biohacking. When Ben Greenfield announced his latest book, Beyond Training, I was over-the-top excited. I have been listening to his podcast since 2009. As a marketer myself, it’s been fun to watch him grow his brand over the past few years.
Beyond Training was no disappointment. I am no endurance athlete--which the book is geared towards--though I would consider myself a non-competitive female bodybuilder. Regardless, it’s a must-read for anyone interested in improving performance in all areas of life, not just short-term, sport-specific training.
What I liked most about the book:
- Easy-to-read. It was not hard to read or understand, and I am no biomechanist or health scientist. There are a few tough terms, but Ben explains them in layman’s language.
- Comprehensive. I think Ben touched on just about all aspects of training, recovery, health, longevity, hormones, biohacking and everything in between. It felt like a very organized version of the topics he talks about in his podcasts.
- Practical. Ben is human, just like the rest of us. If you ever wondered how he gets in all his biohacking, recovery, training and racing into his daily life, read this book. He shares his daily schedules and how he gets in everything he talks about without getting stressed out.
- Resource Lists. Most of us don’t want to dig into scientific journals or spend boatloads of time researching supplements to ensure their efficacy. Ben does it all for you at the end of each chapter. You get a comprehensive list of all the supplements and where to purchase them. The book would have been more than worth purchasing for this aspect alone.
- Addicting. This book was very hard to put down. I saved it for reading during my Bulletproof Coffee breaks and before going to bed.
What I would have tweaked:
- Prioritization. If you are relatively new to biohacking, it’s tough to know exactly which purchases you should save up for first. I would love a price list of all the hacks, how much they cost, and somehow ranked on a scale of 1-10. This would be very helpful for us budgeters, who want to allocate funds monthly to biohacking without breaking the bank.
- Expensive. You could spend tens of thousands of dollars on all these hacks, if not more. Start with the stuff that is free or low cost, and work your way up the ladder.
- Focus on other athletic types. It’s definitely geared more towards endurance athletes, as those are Ben’s specialty and his own personal passion. He does mention Crossfit a bit, but that’s a bit different than what I do. His book would probably need to be volumes long to include all athletic types, but there are a few questions I had about how his hacks affect physique athletes.
- Overwhelming. If you get easily overwhelmed, this book might make you like there’s no possible way for you to do everything, all the time. My advice would be to pick one new “hack” to implement each week. That’s it!
In conclusion, I would highly recommend this book to both seasoned and new biohackers. This is one of those books you must have in your biohacking library and as a reference for when you’re ready to try a new hack for enhancing a specific area of your life.
November 27, 2014
Disappointed. This was a total supplements/mickey mouse/gimmicky sales pitch.
August 17, 2014
Some good nuggets mixed with a whole lot of natural extremism. Don't buy the book if you're looking for a book on how to train smarter, this is much wider than that.
August 28, 2017
This was an enjoyable read. There was nothing in it that was glaringly wrong and there were some new and interesting ideas.
That being said, this book was, as somewhat indirectly stated in the cover, geared heavily towards endurance athletes. I guess I was hoping to get a more general education out of it as this was Ben's most accessible book. There was some of that, but as someone whose health and mindset rule out any endurance training any time soon this book wasn't particularly useful for me (especially since I follow Ben's podcast and have heard some of this already).
You can take my review with a grain of salt as I am a fan of Ben's via his podcast and came into this biased.
That being said, this book was, as somewhat indirectly stated in the cover, geared heavily towards endurance athletes. I guess I was hoping to get a more general education out of it as this was Ben's most accessible book. There was some of that, but as someone whose health and mindset rule out any endurance training any time soon this book wasn't particularly useful for me (especially since I follow Ben's podcast and have heard some of this already).
You can take my review with a grain of salt as I am a fan of Ben's via his podcast and came into this biased.
July 14, 2014
Wow! Holy mind overload. This book is just packed full of information about how to live "clean". The book is geared more toward super athletes than the average joe who runs roughly 3-4 miles per day (like me). And while the author is a bit on the "extreme" side of the coin, it is a great book to get resources and research to incorporate into your own lifestyle.
September 14, 2017
Fantastic on depth of health and training information, particularly for those focused on optimizing human performance potential. Bit of a tough read, however, due to that depth. Many sections will probably provide more detail than you are seeking.
June 16, 2021
Hands down the holy grail to efficient and effective training for any type and genre of physical training.
February 17, 2022
Couple good bits on fitting training into your life, and then a bunch of pseudoscience, supplement recommendations that sound like infomercials, and chapters that are really just blog posts. And he tells you to go to his site about every fourth paragraph.
abandonned
August 3, 2019no
September 25, 2022
Some stuff is too extreme for me but I keep other stuff in mind: don’t multitask; keep moving, doing stuff you like; eat more fat; don’t go too low carb.
February 4, 2016
Disclaimer here: This is a book directed at triathlon and marathon athletes. I am neither. But I found the book fascinating, and have recommended it to several people who agree with my assessment.
Disclaimer II - I did not READ the book but listened to it as an audiobook. THe author voices it himself, and some of is personality comes through. At times it seems relentlessly self-promoting, mostly because when he cites his sources many of them are on his own websites or podcasts. So he gets to say his name a lot.
Ben Greenfield has done lots of research, done lots of running, trained lots of athletes, and thought about it a bit too. BEYOND TRAINING is his wholistic look at recent research into what makes a body run well, and what makes it break down. He makes strong arguments about conventional wisdom about training, diet and health habits being wrong in so many ways. He offers metabolism, lifestyle and brain hacks to give the reader an edge over negative momentum and long-term damage upon the bodies of road warriors. And he provides illustrations from his wide range of colleagues, accomplices, and acquaintances.
The author offers up an amazing amount of information in a direct, no-nonsense style that is both easy to digest and to apply.
The citations for the audio book are all on the website associated with the book, and make for a great bibliography of health and nutrition. Having the actual book in hand might be easier to follow up on the interesting side notes and in-depth explorations of his assertions.
I recommend the book as a great review of the state of knowledge about healthy living in America.
Disclaimer II - I did not READ the book but listened to it as an audiobook. THe author voices it himself, and some of is personality comes through. At times it seems relentlessly self-promoting, mostly because when he cites his sources many of them are on his own websites or podcasts. So he gets to say his name a lot.
Ben Greenfield has done lots of research, done lots of running, trained lots of athletes, and thought about it a bit too. BEYOND TRAINING is his wholistic look at recent research into what makes a body run well, and what makes it break down. He makes strong arguments about conventional wisdom about training, diet and health habits being wrong in so many ways. He offers metabolism, lifestyle and brain hacks to give the reader an edge over negative momentum and long-term damage upon the bodies of road warriors. And he provides illustrations from his wide range of colleagues, accomplices, and acquaintances.
The author offers up an amazing amount of information in a direct, no-nonsense style that is both easy to digest and to apply.
The citations for the audio book are all on the website associated with the book, and make for a great bibliography of health and nutrition. Having the actual book in hand might be easier to follow up on the interesting side notes and in-depth explorations of his assertions.
I recommend the book as a great review of the state of knowledge about healthy living in America.
May 12, 2014
This is some seriously cutting edge stuff. I'd strongly recommend Ben to anyone with an interest in improving the workings of 'the human machine' - whether that's in your exercise output or just functioning as a more healthy person.
Yes, some of it seems somewhat paranoid/borderline OCD, but hey, I don't think I could follow all of his recommendations even if I tried! Still, I'm going to read this at least 3 times, back to back.
Yes, some of it seems somewhat paranoid/borderline OCD, but hey, I don't think I could follow all of his recommendations even if I tried! Still, I'm going to read this at least 3 times, back to back.
May 2, 2021
Ben Greenfield is crazy and extreme, which is why I love this book so much. I love how he cuts straight to the science in every topic of this book. He claims that this is the most complete book on training out there, and I may have to agree - he covers training plans, techniques, drills, hormones, time management, nutrition, sleep, circulation, and so much more. I love that he is so thorough, but I will warn that this is not a light read.
November 22, 2021
At first I thought simply that Greenfield was a condescending prick, but after reading suggestions like "Wear an Encoder wristband, which is designed to vibrate with the Earth's natural frequencies," I realized he was moreso a delusional prick. This was definitely a skim read for me, but I highly recommend it for those folks that are into the self-masturbatory "hustle culture" mindset that seems overtly prevalent these days.
August 3, 2019
Pseudo science for pseudo healthy bio hackers. Nutritionism at it's finest. This book articulates this commonly held ideology. This is what happens when dogmatic people try to write about science. There's a bunch of product recs that fortunately Ben has a discount code for if you're still interested.
February 10, 2016
Best training book I've ever read. I will reread again so I can look more stuff up. Ben Greenfield is second to none !
May 29, 2018
Here's how I think you should approach Beyond Training instead of making the mistake I did by sitting on this book for so long: go listen to a few podcasts with Ben Greenfield, either on his own podcast or as a guest on a show like Joe Rogan. He's a quirky guy and you may not like him enough to want to buy his book. I know people who think he talks too arrogantly. I found that I came to like his writing style even more than his audio persona.
I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by this book and disappointed that I was initially reluctant to give it a shot for a long time. I had read many negative reviews about Beyond Training that said that is was nothing more than a glorified infomercial and rife with pseudoscience and biased plugs for supplements and products. Having already been unsure about Greenfield, since I know him to be a quirky and overzealous guru of biohacking and believer in earthing, grounding, and the dangers of EMFs, I didn't want to waste my time on something if I didn't really like or agree with what he had to say.
Reading Greenfield's book totally changed my mind though and I wish I had bought the hardcover of the book instead of a digital copy from the get-go since it's a biohacking bible for athletes looking to maximize their performance. I don't deny that there is some pseudoscience in this book but Greenfield does something I think is super awesome by admitting that the evidence is lacking for certain things he says or suggest but he feels better doing them and that's why he still recommends it and does it himself. How many people have superstitions or funny rituals that calm their mind or set them at ease but don't actually do anything verifiable by science? Almost everyone right? As long as it doesn't hurt anyone, I don't see what's wrong with most of the pseudoscience claims like only using hardlines to avoid wi-fi signals in your home. And if he recommends a goofy talisman to shield you from the harms of EMF, be logical and decide whether you think it's important enough to waste money on something like that or simply discard that idea and make use of many of the other great suggestions found in this book.
Some people hate on his chapter titles and say that the chapters are like really long blog posts - like many great modern business models, Greenfield gives away 99% of his material for free through blogs, podcasts, and videos and you can probably read about a lot of this book material on his blog if you don't want a single compendium of awesomness and are willing to spend many hours more digging thruogh his free material. I thought the writing style with light and informal enough to make it feel like an enjoyable conversation with Greenfield instead of a dry and humourless book of information. And the chapter titles were descriptive of exactly what they entailed; what more could you ask for?
Many people seem to think that Greenfield turned the book into a glorified infomercial with all the gizmos, products, and services he refers to in the book. I actually think it was the best thing he could possibly have done for the book. For one thing, Greenfield doesn't beat around the bush about disclaiming his affiliations and the people griping about him plugging different products and services must not know how online businesses work. More importantly though, Ben has built his reputation around being a biohacker and self-experimenter in the fitness industry and he cares deeply about quality, especially when it comes to foods and supplements, so who better than him to make recommendations to the general public about these things? You don't have to listen to his suggestions but it certainly helps those who are uninformed about the fitness industry start off on a better path than going straight for the cheapest quality product on the shelf and not getting anything of benefit out of it.
Oh yeah, I'm not even a typical endurance athlete, which is what the training section of this book is geared towards, but I think that there is enough outstanding training advice in the training chapters to up the game of any athlete. I compete in strongman and I have already started applying the information for my betterment.
I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by this book and disappointed that I was initially reluctant to give it a shot for a long time. I had read many negative reviews about Beyond Training that said that is was nothing more than a glorified infomercial and rife with pseudoscience and biased plugs for supplements and products. Having already been unsure about Greenfield, since I know him to be a quirky and overzealous guru of biohacking and believer in earthing, grounding, and the dangers of EMFs, I didn't want to waste my time on something if I didn't really like or agree with what he had to say.
Reading Greenfield's book totally changed my mind though and I wish I had bought the hardcover of the book instead of a digital copy from the get-go since it's a biohacking bible for athletes looking to maximize their performance. I don't deny that there is some pseudoscience in this book but Greenfield does something I think is super awesome by admitting that the evidence is lacking for certain things he says or suggest but he feels better doing them and that's why he still recommends it and does it himself. How many people have superstitions or funny rituals that calm their mind or set them at ease but don't actually do anything verifiable by science? Almost everyone right? As long as it doesn't hurt anyone, I don't see what's wrong with most of the pseudoscience claims like only using hardlines to avoid wi-fi signals in your home. And if he recommends a goofy talisman to shield you from the harms of EMF, be logical and decide whether you think it's important enough to waste money on something like that or simply discard that idea and make use of many of the other great suggestions found in this book.
Some people hate on his chapter titles and say that the chapters are like really long blog posts - like many great modern business models, Greenfield gives away 99% of his material for free through blogs, podcasts, and videos and you can probably read about a lot of this book material on his blog if you don't want a single compendium of awesomness and are willing to spend many hours more digging thruogh his free material. I thought the writing style with light and informal enough to make it feel like an enjoyable conversation with Greenfield instead of a dry and humourless book of information. And the chapter titles were descriptive of exactly what they entailed; what more could you ask for?
Many people seem to think that Greenfield turned the book into a glorified infomercial with all the gizmos, products, and services he refers to in the book. I actually think it was the best thing he could possibly have done for the book. For one thing, Greenfield doesn't beat around the bush about disclaiming his affiliations and the people griping about him plugging different products and services must not know how online businesses work. More importantly though, Ben has built his reputation around being a biohacker and self-experimenter in the fitness industry and he cares deeply about quality, especially when it comes to foods and supplements, so who better than him to make recommendations to the general public about these things? You don't have to listen to his suggestions but it certainly helps those who are uninformed about the fitness industry start off on a better path than going straight for the cheapest quality product on the shelf and not getting anything of benefit out of it.
Oh yeah, I'm not even a typical endurance athlete, which is what the training section of this book is geared towards, but I think that there is enough outstanding training advice in the training chapters to up the game of any athlete. I compete in strongman and I have already started applying the information for my betterment.
June 27, 2021
Ben Greenfield basically does everything, all the "hacks", and he has all the gadgets. But he is his own experimental subject, so when it works he doesn't really now if it's really something, or not. That's an anecdote. Now he does site studies, but in typical human fashion, he sites studies that support the conclusion he wants to reach.
I've done enough of my own reading and research that I know some of what is backed by science and what isn't. It's when it comes to a topic I've not done any research in that a book like this gets troublesome. Do you believe Ben or not? Well if you want to give him the benefit of the doubt you believe him; if you want to be precautionary you don't. Why? Some of what he endorses is on solid footing, (e.g. HRV monitoring) some... not so much (vitamin C?). Sadly I have to throw the baby out with the bathwater because I can't tell when Ben has been credulous or not.
Some examples:
Vitamin C: this has been debunked for decades.
Acupuncture: yes it seems to work, but not because of meridians, more because sticking pointy things into you promotes healing.
EMF radiation: Ben is inconsistent here, sometimes it's OK, sometimes is very bad. But he never outlines which frequencies are good or bad and the reasons why.
For a book like this I need to be able to trust the research is solid, and the author is not credulous. Sadly Ben seems more interested in selling books and promoting his blog & podcast and has given recommendations that don't really stand up to scrutiny.
I've done enough of my own reading and research that I know some of what is backed by science and what isn't. It's when it comes to a topic I've not done any research in that a book like this gets troublesome. Do you believe Ben or not? Well if you want to give him the benefit of the doubt you believe him; if you want to be precautionary you don't. Why? Some of what he endorses is on solid footing, (e.g. HRV monitoring) some... not so much (vitamin C?). Sadly I have to throw the baby out with the bathwater because I can't tell when Ben has been credulous or not.
Some examples:
Vitamin C: this has been debunked for decades.
Acupuncture: yes it seems to work, but not because of meridians, more because sticking pointy things into you promotes healing.
EMF radiation: Ben is inconsistent here, sometimes it's OK, sometimes is very bad. But he never outlines which frequencies are good or bad and the reasons why.
For a book like this I need to be able to trust the research is solid, and the author is not credulous. Sadly Ben seems more interested in selling books and promoting his blog & podcast and has given recommendations that don't really stand up to scrutiny.
November 9, 2019
Good primer. Wide ranging topics. It's a lot of science, research, and technical information all at once - therefore it'd be hard for a person to retain everything. However, once you've gone through the book once, you'd have a sense of the plethora of topics it covers. When you have a health, wellness or fitness problem to crack, you can always turn to this book again.
60% of what's covered in the book is not relevant to me right now. But as I fine-tune my training and diet, some of what weren't previously relevant will become relevant at different points of my life.
The 40% relevance alone was worth reading the entire book.
For example: the book gave me hypothesis as to why I was gaining both fat and muscle despite lifting 3x a week and running 120km a month. It gave me hypothesis as to why I was sleeping more than usual. And it prompted me to look at cortisol spikes from both work and over-training and their impact on my overall energy level despite being such an active person. My fatigue and incessant sleeping was something I talked to my doctor about and he couldn't point me in the right direction even after a bunch of blood tests. But the book connected the dots and gave me some clues on what areas to investigate further.
60% of what's covered in the book is not relevant to me right now. But as I fine-tune my training and diet, some of what weren't previously relevant will become relevant at different points of my life.
The 40% relevance alone was worth reading the entire book.
For example: the book gave me hypothesis as to why I was gaining both fat and muscle despite lifting 3x a week and running 120km a month. It gave me hypothesis as to why I was sleeping more than usual. And it prompted me to look at cortisol spikes from both work and over-training and their impact on my overall energy level despite being such an active person. My fatigue and incessant sleeping was something I talked to my doctor about and he couldn't point me in the right direction even after a bunch of blood tests. But the book connected the dots and gave me some clues on what areas to investigate further.
November 13, 2023
More sometimes does not mean better
In this book, the author covers a very comprehensive list of topics of interest to endurance athletes. From training and recovery to nutrition and lifestyle, no aspect of an endurance athlete's concern is left untouched. Unfortunately, there are some issues with the book. First, it is lengthy. It took me months to finish it. Despite that, in general, the topics are not covered in enough detail, compromising the understanding of several important subjects. Indeed, the explanations sometimes are so shallow and complicated that one can have a very hard time trying to grasp them. It is a good example of the law of diminishing returns: more content in this case doesn't mean it is a good book. The author takes the opportunity to advertise its web site, podcast, merchandising, and everything else one can imagine. This is so bad to the point it is almost impossible to read a couple of pages without seeing an advertisement. Last, but not least, I'm not saying that the prescriptions, advice, recommendations, and so on, made by the author don't work. Actually, most of them make perfect sense. My point is the book is not that good. But, if you have enough time and prefer quantity over quality, maybe this books works for you.
In this book, the author covers a very comprehensive list of topics of interest to endurance athletes. From training and recovery to nutrition and lifestyle, no aspect of an endurance athlete's concern is left untouched. Unfortunately, there are some issues with the book. First, it is lengthy. It took me months to finish it. Despite that, in general, the topics are not covered in enough detail, compromising the understanding of several important subjects. Indeed, the explanations sometimes are so shallow and complicated that one can have a very hard time trying to grasp them. It is a good example of the law of diminishing returns: more content in this case doesn't mean it is a good book. The author takes the opportunity to advertise its web site, podcast, merchandising, and everything else one can imagine. This is so bad to the point it is almost impossible to read a couple of pages without seeing an advertisement. Last, but not least, I'm not saying that the prescriptions, advice, recommendations, and so on, made by the author don't work. Actually, most of them make perfect sense. My point is the book is not that good. But, if you have enough time and prefer quantity over quality, maybe this books works for you.
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January 31, 2020One third into the book, I decided that it was aimed solely at professional triathletes & decided to put to rest the misery of slogging through the rest. Quite a bit of the tools & techniques discussed herein, especially in the chapter on physical fitness, are what could be best described as "bleeding edge". Amateur athletes or typical FIs & PTs may find some practical pointers or tips here & there, but won't be missing much. To be sure, as I'm only qualified as an FI, my two cents says that serious weekend warriors & gym rats would be better served reading 'Functional Training' by Micheal Boyle. To sum, definitely not a must-buy & likely not so practical unless one's training full-time for an Ironman event.
January 24, 2022
A messianic effort to geek out initially all aspects of endurance sports that then turned out to be a guide to life full of “helpful hints, secrets and all that you will ever need to know”… type commentary. I’m not sure if it was unbridled enthusiasm or spruiking for his businesses, perhaps a little bit of both, but this is definitely a case where less would have been more. The author goes at a break neck speed and often overwhelming over information for getting the most out of one’s body and life. Where this disappointed me was this tried to be a guide and an encyclopaedia of higher level body and life performance and with all the addenda, a course, education model and transformation. Definitely not a traditional “book”.
December 27, 2025
The author challenges conventional endurance training by advocating a holistic model that integrates physiology, nutrition, recovery, mindset, and lifestyle design. Its strength lies in its systems-oriented perspective, pushing readers to see performance and health as inseparable from sleep, stress regulation, metabolic flexibility, and long-term well-being. However, its breadth is also a limitation: the heavy reliance on biohacking techniques, anecdotal evidence, and self-experimentation sometimes outpaces rigorous scientific validation, making parts of the guidance better suited to experienced athletes than general audiences.
October 16, 2018
Reading this as I get my masters in exercise physiology led me to find that this is a very interesting book in the sense that Greenfield dives into more physiology and specific biomarkers, enzymes, and regulators than most other books in the genre. This book is spot on until the nutrition section in which Greenfield absurdly misinterprets research going as far to say that a diet with essentially more than just half of g of BW/lb is deleterious to health. Greenfield then goes much into the pseudoscience and fads of biohacking which has very little substantiated research.
December 3, 2019
I understand where some of the reviewers are coming from. Ben does advertise a lot, and some of his stuff can sound a little woo. But as someone who listens to his podcast, I fully vouch for his intellectual integrity as, if you follow him and read his show notes, he backs up pretty much everything he says with a mountain of published scientific literature. The book is great for those new to fitness. His podcast, assuming you take notes and follow up on sources provided, will take your knowledge of health and fitness to the next level.
October 13, 2018
This book is written for hardcore, dedicated athletes. Regardless, it had valuable information for the casual health nut. The writing format was quite dumbed down and infomercial-like, but these books almost always are. We can thank the publishing houses for that.
Overall, very impressed with the author’s integrity. The rebuttals against mainstream and blog-driven advice were excellent for equipment oneself with the knowledge needed to adapt one’s habits to a healthier standard.
Overall, very impressed with the author’s integrity. The rebuttals against mainstream and blog-driven advice were excellent for equipment oneself with the knowledge needed to adapt one’s habits to a healthier standard.
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