Play On: How to Get Better With Age

by Jeff Bercovici

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Play On by Jeff Bercovici, read by Adam Sims.

Sports are about challenging our physical limits. But the greatest limit of all remains age. We're taught to believe that ageing thwarts effort and grace, talent and grit, outstanding teamwork and individual brilliance.

But a new breed of top professionals - the likes of Roger Federer, Jo Pavey and Tom Brady - are overturning long-held assumptions about the duration of primetime in a sporting career. It's not that aging causes a decline in fitness; rather, a decline in fitness causes aging.

Jeff Bercovici steps inside the lives of such ageless athletes, following them as they train, compete, and recover, to dispel conventional wisdom about longevity. Full of cutting-edge science, technology and practical tips, Play On empowers you to reverse the ageing process, and extend your peak years.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science

Audible Audio

Published May 3, 2018

Reviews

[Luke Owen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I went after this book determined to hear about the latest techniques used by athletes around the world to both extend their careers and maybe make their retirement less painful. I got exactly that from Jeff Bercovici’s book. There are plenty of books I’ve researched with outdated and repetitive biases but Jeff does a great job of showing the pros and cons of each crazy modern or even futuristic solution to modern athletic issues. Yes at the end he gives you what he’s taken from the boom. And Yes you can use that as a manual for what you should do after you turn 30. What’s great is you can also know, going forward, what is to come from sports science and biology professors dedicated to athletic performance and even venture into some of the incredible and exciting offerings today.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book reads like a magazine article. It was interesting and at times inspiring, but it skimmed along the surface of the science, referencing studies and not going deep. Lots of name-dropping and exciting moments in competition, but for a book with the word "science" on the cover, I had hoped for more.

[LAMONT D · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very interesting and fascinating read from the viewpoints of the athletic as well as the scientific worlds. How do some athletes defeat father time (i.e. Tom Brady, LeBron James) and become even more productive with age? His conclusion is if you eat healthy, exercise regularly and intelligently you too can find some tried and true methods to keep your body in shape (I certainly need those tips at my age). He advises being wary of fads that come and go but be open to what is new particularly when it comes to athletes who have an unlimited budget to recover quicker and figure out how to make their bodies perform longer at a high level.

[Dipra Lahiri · Rating 3 out of 5]

While new scientific discoveries about the body and training techniques emerge every day, the very best athletes seem to rely more on their deep knowledge of the game and self awareness in order to keep at their peak for much longer than expected. The bibliography at the end of the book is useful.