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Lift: Fitness Culture, from Naked Greeks and Acrobats to Jazzercise and Ninja Warriors
A fascinating cultural history of fitness, from Greek antiquity to the era of the “big-box gym” and beyond, exploring the ways in which human exercise has changed over time—and what we can learn from our ancestors.
We humans have been conditioning our bodies for more than 2,500 years, yet it’s only recently that treadmills and weight machines have become the gold standard of fitness. For all this new technology, are we really healthier, stronger, and more flexible than our ancestors?
Where Born to Run began with an aching foot, Lift begins with a broken gym system—one founded on high-tech machinery and isolation techniques that aren’t necessarily as productive as we think. Looking to the past for context, Daniel Kunitz crafts an insightful cultural history of the human drive for exercise, concluding that we need to get back to basics to be truly healthy.
Lift takes us on an enlightening tour through time, beginning with the ancient Greeks, who made a cult of the human body—the word gymnasium derives from the Greek word for “naked”—and following Roman legions, medieval knights, Persian pahlevans, and eighteenth-century German gymnasts. Kunitz discovers the seeds of the modern gym in nineteenth-century Paris, where weight lifting machines were first employed, and takes us all the way up to the the feminist movement of the 1960s, which popularized aerobics and calisthenics classes. This ignited the first true global fitness revolution, and Kunitz explores how it brought us to where we are today.
Once a fast-food inhaler and substance abuser, Kunitz reveals his own decade-long journey to becoming ultra-fit using ancient principals of strengthening and conditioning. With Lift, he argues that, as a culture, we are finally returning to this natural ideal—and that it’s to our great benefit to do so.
We humans have been conditioning our bodies for more than 2,500 years, yet it’s only recently that treadmills and weight machines have become the gold standard of fitness. For all this new technology, are we really healthier, stronger, and more flexible than our ancestors?
Where Born to Run began with an aching foot, Lift begins with a broken gym system—one founded on high-tech machinery and isolation techniques that aren’t necessarily as productive as we think. Looking to the past for context, Daniel Kunitz crafts an insightful cultural history of the human drive for exercise, concluding that we need to get back to basics to be truly healthy.
Lift takes us on an enlightening tour through time, beginning with the ancient Greeks, who made a cult of the human body—the word gymnasium derives from the Greek word for “naked”—and following Roman legions, medieval knights, Persian pahlevans, and eighteenth-century German gymnasts. Kunitz discovers the seeds of the modern gym in nineteenth-century Paris, where weight lifting machines were first employed, and takes us all the way up to the the feminist movement of the 1960s, which popularized aerobics and calisthenics classes. This ignited the first true global fitness revolution, and Kunitz explores how it brought us to where we are today.
Once a fast-food inhaler and substance abuser, Kunitz reveals his own decade-long journey to becoming ultra-fit using ancient principals of strengthening and conditioning. With Lift, he argues that, as a culture, we are finally returning to this natural ideal—and that it’s to our great benefit to do so.
322 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 5, 2016
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488 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
September 6, 2016
The basic formula the book follows is:
1: Heres some weird things we used to think about fitness.
2: Heres what we know now.
3: That's why Cross-Fit is the best.
(Repeat)
Some of the history parts were very interesting, but it did get a bit tedious at times.
1: Heres some weird things we used to think about fitness.
2: Heres what we know now.
3: That's why Cross-Fit is the best.
(Repeat)
Some of the history parts were very interesting, but it did get a bit tedious at times.
March 14, 2017
I found this book fascinating and extremely boring all at once. It's an extensive history of fitness culture and Kunitz cites at least 100 references at the back of the book so it's well researched. I did take away a lot of new knowledge and appreciation for fitness and exercise. For instance, strenuous exercise of any kind was advised against BY doctors until as late as the 1970s!
Kunitz made it obvious that he's a huge fan of CrossFit, which has garnered a lot of criticism and totally clouded his credibility for me. If you are super interested in fitness, exercise, and the culture that surrounds it, then I think you’d find aspects of this book worthwhile. Otherwise, skip. This was a 2.5/5 for me. Typically, I'd round the Goodreads rating to a 3, but not for this one.
Full review will be posted on LiteraryQuicksand.com
Kunitz made it obvious that he's a huge fan of CrossFit, which has garnered a lot of criticism and totally clouded his credibility for me. If you are super interested in fitness, exercise, and the culture that surrounds it, then I think you’d find aspects of this book worthwhile. Otherwise, skip. This was a 2.5/5 for me. Typically, I'd round the Goodreads rating to a 3, but not for this one.
Full review will be posted on LiteraryQuicksand.com
February 24, 2020
Reading this was a bit like reading a book about world religion written by a former wastrel who is now a born-again Christian. The book displays the typical derisive attitude of the CrossFitter toward all other fitness pursuits. Get a guy who can’t do anything much except party, put him in a few CrossFit classes, get him to drink the life-changing Kool-Aid, and now he feels he can safely critique every other fitness pursuit. The dead giveaway is how the book puts CrossFit, with its emphasis on quantity over quality, and its attitude of having invented the barbell, above the level of an actual sport. Being hyper fit isn’t a sport.
Having said all this, the book is basically a love letter to a pastime that effectively saved the guy’s life, since from the description of his former life, the author was obviously on the low road to the early, messy death of the classic over educated, overpaid loser. Reading this book has actually given me a new respect and curiosity for CrossFit itself, since anything that can turn around a life of addiction and pretentiousness has something going for it.
It’s a decent history book, with lots of interesting anecdotes about strongmen, gymnastics, gym machines and aerobics. It is also quite eye opening about the rise of fitness as a pastime in the late 20th century. I do personally remember a lot of the fitness crazes that Kunitz relates, some quite regrettable. Leg warmers and treadmills, I’m looking at you.
Having said all this, the book is basically a love letter to a pastime that effectively saved the guy’s life, since from the description of his former life, the author was obviously on the low road to the early, messy death of the classic over educated, overpaid loser. Reading this book has actually given me a new respect and curiosity for CrossFit itself, since anything that can turn around a life of addiction and pretentiousness has something going for it.
It’s a decent history book, with lots of interesting anecdotes about strongmen, gymnastics, gym machines and aerobics. It is also quite eye opening about the rise of fitness as a pastime in the late 20th century. I do personally remember a lot of the fitness crazes that Kunitz relates, some quite regrettable. Leg warmers and treadmills, I’m looking at you.
August 27, 2016
I LOVED this.
I am a crossfitter, though I would say that my kool-aid is a little watered down.
This dude eats buckets of the powder by itself. As much as I love crossfit, it would probably seem a little biased to that to people who are not crossfitters.
Otherwise, it was super interesting, tracking the history of exercise, our preoccupation of people to exercise as a means of changing our bodies and a shift to an emphasis on performance. I also really liked his theories on feminism as it relates to women exercising. Fascinating.
Because exercise has changed SO much in the past 20 years more than any previous 20 years, i wish there was more time spent on talking about what's happened in our lifetimes.
The book was due yesterday to the library and I sat in the parking lot for 45 minutes finishing it before I turned it back in. Definitely one of my favorite nonfiction books in a long time.
I am a crossfitter, though I would say that my kool-aid is a little watered down.
This dude eats buckets of the powder by itself. As much as I love crossfit, it would probably seem a little biased to that to people who are not crossfitters.
Otherwise, it was super interesting, tracking the history of exercise, our preoccupation of people to exercise as a means of changing our bodies and a shift to an emphasis on performance. I also really liked his theories on feminism as it relates to women exercising. Fascinating.
Because exercise has changed SO much in the past 20 years more than any previous 20 years, i wish there was more time spent on talking about what's happened in our lifetimes.
The book was due yesterday to the library and I sat in the parking lot for 45 minutes finishing it before I turned it back in. Definitely one of my favorite nonfiction books in a long time.
July 14, 2016
3.5 Here's what I liked about this book. Kunitz is a former Paris Review Editor so he writes well and includes a great story about George Plimpton and the early days of his quest or non-quest for fitness. I wish there was more personal narrative like that to balance the exhaustive history of fitness. The book is well-researched but tends to get a bit dry in places. This is timely chronicle with the Olympics coming up. The history is interesting and relevant. Kunitz more than shows his mind body connection premise with cross fit, again, best exhibited with personal narrative along with ancient and/or modern history. When he combines the two, the book flows.
Provided by the Publisher and TLC Book Tours
Provided by the Publisher and TLC Book Tours
October 19, 2016
If you've ever wondered what black lagoon that CrossFit crawled out of or who started Muscle Beach or whether the Greeks really did practice sports in the nude, then "Lift" is for you. Kunitz melds personal experience and research into an easy nonfiction read. Although he tends to praise CrossFit perhaps too much, the chapters about antiquity, functional fitness, and bodyweight exercises illuminate facts I--a bit of a fitness freak--had never thought to ask about (such as where the name "jumping jacks" or "gymnasium" come from). Kunitz should also be commended for his feminist slight throughout the novel, and how he praises the contributions women have made throughout the century to what he calls the New Frontier of Fitness.
December 31, 2016
There is a lot of interesting information in this book though it does get dry at times. I particularly liked learning about the intersection of feminism and fitness culture, that was new to me.
May 24, 2021
This book very quickly went from boring to offensive. Going into this book I was expecting a history of fitness culture, or at the very least sport. I was misled, as it is more about the history that led to Cross Fit and New Frontier Fitness, with other sports and activities treated like an afterthought. Despite my own misgivings about Cross Fit (and the author's refusal to acknowledge any of its faults), I tried to like the book.
For the majority of the book, I felt that the book was a solid 2.5/5. Despite the author's virtue signaling and self congratulatory attitude, there was some interesting history that was well researched and informative. However, these interesting bits could have been structured better. At times I wondered how someone who wrote for The Paris Review could have such a sloppily structured book, as some sections were so badly lacking transition, it felt like he thought of a few paragraphs and slapped them on the page, making the relevance of the connection known far too late. Other times, I felt he went on tangents for pages that should have been discussed more in their own right in a separate section, such as the brief history of yoga. These errors didn't ruin the book for me, but could have made the history more readable. At times, the history sections were also just downright boring.
What dropped this book to 1 star for me was his last Chapter. No longer boring, the narrative became downright offensive due to the author's insertions of his own opinions. When the author stated on page 270 that "Glassman's own inclusive and the expansive spirit of the online world that he tapped into drove the democratization of fitness in the New Frontier," I chuckled, as early he had associated Cross Fit and the NFF with a diet like his, all grain-free and pasture-raised. How can that be inclusive to those living in a food desert? To the true middle class? But I thought maybe this was an oversight. Especially since the book made some mention of xenophobia, but no history of race in sport.
But then, the author felt the need to double down on early proclamations that Cross Fit, and he, was feminist. In order to prove this, he makes mention of affirmations like "strong is the new skinny," and "traps not tits." Not realizing that promoting one body type at the expense of another is not feminist, he quotes women whose statements drip with internalized misogyny, like Stacy on page 273/274, who attributes her confidence now to her muscles, and not her athletic accomplishments. Or who at the very least, sees such confidence as incompatible with a body that is petite and dainty. Stacy is not the problem, but these false dichotomies are.
The author's offensively inaccurate view of feminism is demonstrated in full on page 276. He writes:
"For as long as I can remember I was attracted to the extremely thin women splashed across billboards and fashion magazines of the eighties and nineties, women who disappear when they turn sideways. It wouldn't be dishonest to say I moved to New York partially for the hordes of model-skinny women available. But that's all I knew. Women with muscles were virtually nonexistent in my world, and so I associated anyone bigger than a bread stick with slovenly corpulence. It was only after being around high-performance women that their muscles came to stand for vitality, vibrancy, health, and therefore for beauty. Now what passes for conventional female beauty strikes my eyes as vitiated, and the soft flesh so many women displays seems weak and, to quote Ronda Rousey... good for nothing."
The author would do well to learn that evaluating a woman's beauty through the male gaze and his own subjective desires of what a woman should be doing in order to attain such a body is decidedly NOT feminist. Also, as a former Division I athlete who had lots of muscles with little "soft flesh" and suffered from so many lost menstrual cycles that I gave myself pre-osteoporosis by age 22, I think the author is more than misguided in his assertion that it's good for nothing. Quoting a female athlete who inspires many doesn't make his views any less problematic.
Most of the time, I had trouble wanting to pick up this book. But for the last chapter, I had trouble keeping myself from throwing the book across the room. And as a side note, I think the author might benefit from talking to athletes outside of NFF, as he seems to be under the impression that other sports don't incorporate functional movements into their training.
For the majority of the book, I felt that the book was a solid 2.5/5. Despite the author's virtue signaling and self congratulatory attitude, there was some interesting history that was well researched and informative. However, these interesting bits could have been structured better. At times I wondered how someone who wrote for The Paris Review could have such a sloppily structured book, as some sections were so badly lacking transition, it felt like he thought of a few paragraphs and slapped them on the page, making the relevance of the connection known far too late. Other times, I felt he went on tangents for pages that should have been discussed more in their own right in a separate section, such as the brief history of yoga. These errors didn't ruin the book for me, but could have made the history more readable. At times, the history sections were also just downright boring.
What dropped this book to 1 star for me was his last Chapter. No longer boring, the narrative became downright offensive due to the author's insertions of his own opinions. When the author stated on page 270 that "Glassman's own inclusive and the expansive spirit of the online world that he tapped into drove the democratization of fitness in the New Frontier," I chuckled, as early he had associated Cross Fit and the NFF with a diet like his, all grain-free and pasture-raised. How can that be inclusive to those living in a food desert? To the true middle class? But I thought maybe this was an oversight. Especially since the book made some mention of xenophobia, but no history of race in sport.
But then, the author felt the need to double down on early proclamations that Cross Fit, and he, was feminist. In order to prove this, he makes mention of affirmations like "strong is the new skinny," and "traps not tits." Not realizing that promoting one body type at the expense of another is not feminist, he quotes women whose statements drip with internalized misogyny, like Stacy on page 273/274, who attributes her confidence now to her muscles, and not her athletic accomplishments. Or who at the very least, sees such confidence as incompatible with a body that is petite and dainty. Stacy is not the problem, but these false dichotomies are.
The author's offensively inaccurate view of feminism is demonstrated in full on page 276. He writes:
"For as long as I can remember I was attracted to the extremely thin women splashed across billboards and fashion magazines of the eighties and nineties, women who disappear when they turn sideways. It wouldn't be dishonest to say I moved to New York partially for the hordes of model-skinny women available. But that's all I knew. Women with muscles were virtually nonexistent in my world, and so I associated anyone bigger than a bread stick with slovenly corpulence. It was only after being around high-performance women that their muscles came to stand for vitality, vibrancy, health, and therefore for beauty. Now what passes for conventional female beauty strikes my eyes as vitiated, and the soft flesh so many women displays seems weak and, to quote Ronda Rousey... good for nothing."
The author would do well to learn that evaluating a woman's beauty through the male gaze and his own subjective desires of what a woman should be doing in order to attain such a body is decidedly NOT feminist. Also, as a former Division I athlete who had lots of muscles with little "soft flesh" and suffered from so many lost menstrual cycles that I gave myself pre-osteoporosis by age 22, I think the author is more than misguided in his assertion that it's good for nothing. Quoting a female athlete who inspires many doesn't make his views any less problematic.
Most of the time, I had trouble wanting to pick up this book. But for the last chapter, I had trouble keeping myself from throwing the book across the room. And as a side note, I think the author might benefit from talking to athletes outside of NFF, as he seems to be under the impression that other sports don't incorporate functional movements into their training.
February 9, 2023
According to this author unless you are a Crossfitter, your workouts are trash and you should switch to CrossFit. A lot of scatterbrained history at the beginning of the book, followed by what can be assumed a Crossfitters dream, telling thousands of people that he Crossfits.
January 31, 2018
The title of this book probably shouldn't have been "Lift." Rather, it should have been something like:
"New Frontier Fitness: Everyone Should Do CrossFit" or
"New Frontier Fitness: The Historical Culmination of the Human Quest for Greatness."
I thought I was going to read a book on how physical activity and exercise had been approached by various civilizations over the ages - and something like that is definitely present in this book. But there's also an awful lot about how New Frontier Fitness is absolutely freaking amazing, and the best (maybe only) proper way to really get fit, and only namby-pamby average folks who don't have "the impulse to overcome yourself in the pursuit of a better iteration" wouldn't get it (because "the pursuit of a better iteration is never completely normal ... it is an impulse at odds with belonging to the crowd" - fair point, and yet why do I feel like I've just been dissed?).
Don't get me wrong - this was a really good read, well-written, informative. The only reason I didn't give it more stars was the weird combination of emotions it elicited. Inspiration (yahoo exercise!) mixed with lots and lots of annoyance. People often complain how CrossFit enthusiasts sound like cult members post-KoolAid, and that perception just keeps getting affirmed here. The author seems to assume that New Frontier Fitness is Final Frontier Fitness - which kind of ignores the historical mass of shifting ideas around exercise that he himself writes about. And there were plenty of places were the author was dismissive, even condescending, of other forms of exercise or the people who don't get the same joy out of tracking reps/time or have different goals when it comes to fitness.
And that's the problem in a nutshell, and the prime source of my annoyance. The ultimate goal is to get all of of us active, healthy and fit - even the ones among us who have a lot of body fat, who can't walk up stairs without being winded (never mind manage a push-up or pull-up), who were taught to hate physical activity, and the humiliation that goes with it, at an early age. Those are the people who need to be welcomed into the fold of physical fitness and exercise, the ones whose initiation needs to be most carefully considered. And that smug, self-righteous tone of the devout, true believer - no matter how technically correct they may be - just turns away the most needy. What's the point of having the "perfect" fitness routine if you can't get off your high horse long enough to make it welcoming to those that could most benefit from it? Is it really (as the author suggests) about promoting universal fitness - or (given the author's tone) feeling smug about "seeing the light" when the dumb masses haven't?
Anyway, read the book. Be entertained. Learn about historical approaches to exercise. And the message you should be taking away is: No matter your shape, size, gender, age or current level of physical fitness - get inspired, get out there, get active! Because we can all do it, and we're all worth it!
"New Frontier Fitness: Everyone Should Do CrossFit" or
"New Frontier Fitness: The Historical Culmination of the Human Quest for Greatness."
I thought I was going to read a book on how physical activity and exercise had been approached by various civilizations over the ages - and something like that is definitely present in this book. But there's also an awful lot about how New Frontier Fitness is absolutely freaking amazing, and the best (maybe only) proper way to really get fit, and only namby-pamby average folks who don't have "the impulse to overcome yourself in the pursuit of a better iteration" wouldn't get it (because "the pursuit of a better iteration is never completely normal ... it is an impulse at odds with belonging to the crowd" - fair point, and yet why do I feel like I've just been dissed?).
Don't get me wrong - this was a really good read, well-written, informative. The only reason I didn't give it more stars was the weird combination of emotions it elicited. Inspiration (yahoo exercise!) mixed with lots and lots of annoyance. People often complain how CrossFit enthusiasts sound like cult members post-KoolAid, and that perception just keeps getting affirmed here. The author seems to assume that New Frontier Fitness is Final Frontier Fitness - which kind of ignores the historical mass of shifting ideas around exercise that he himself writes about. And there were plenty of places were the author was dismissive, even condescending, of other forms of exercise or the people who don't get the same joy out of tracking reps/time or have different goals when it comes to fitness.
And that's the problem in a nutshell, and the prime source of my annoyance. The ultimate goal is to get all of of us active, healthy and fit - even the ones among us who have a lot of body fat, who can't walk up stairs without being winded (never mind manage a push-up or pull-up), who were taught to hate physical activity, and the humiliation that goes with it, at an early age. Those are the people who need to be welcomed into the fold of physical fitness and exercise, the ones whose initiation needs to be most carefully considered. And that smug, self-righteous tone of the devout, true believer - no matter how technically correct they may be - just turns away the most needy. What's the point of having the "perfect" fitness routine if you can't get off your high horse long enough to make it welcoming to those that could most benefit from it? Is it really (as the author suggests) about promoting universal fitness - or (given the author's tone) feeling smug about "seeing the light" when the dumb masses haven't?
Anyway, read the book. Be entertained. Learn about historical approaches to exercise. And the message you should be taking away is: No matter your shape, size, gender, age or current level of physical fitness - get inspired, get out there, get active! Because we can all do it, and we're all worth it!
August 16, 2017
You know that person at work who can't stop talking about CrossFit? Give them this book, on the condition they never talk about it with you again. I was really looking forward to the history of exercise, but couldn't get past the author's love of CrossFit (it's New Frontier Fitness!) and personal philosophy about exercise. I loved a book about the history of curry and loved it, and couldn't finish this.
October 27, 2016
Spoiler alert: This guy really likes Crossfit! I've never done crossfit and so after this book I'm curious to join in a session or two, but Daniel Kunitz is a Crossfit evangelist through and through. I didn't mind that too much though.
Some really interesting parts about Greek fitness as a part of a ancient arete and workout culture evolving in the US during the 20th century. Fun fact: "Gym" means "naked" in Greek. The Greeks had a sand-filled gymnasium area in the courtyard where Plato studied under Aristotle (Plato was supposed to have been a pretty successful athlete at the Greek competitions). They considered physical fitness as a crucial aspect of overall moral virtue.
I think my biggest take away from reading this book is the idea of developing a sort of Greek 'arete' attitude toward exercising- treating my workouts as a way to inflict something on myself that makes me stronger mentally as well as physically. I've noticed that just reframing my workouts this last week as acts of discipline for the purpose of making me a better man has made me much more motivated to get out of bed to work out before dawn than getting up and working out just for the purpose of becoming a stronger man.
Some really interesting parts about Greek fitness as a part of a ancient arete and workout culture evolving in the US during the 20th century. Fun fact: "Gym" means "naked" in Greek. The Greeks had a sand-filled gymnasium area in the courtyard where Plato studied under Aristotle (Plato was supposed to have been a pretty successful athlete at the Greek competitions). They considered physical fitness as a crucial aspect of overall moral virtue.
I think my biggest take away from reading this book is the idea of developing a sort of Greek 'arete' attitude toward exercising- treating my workouts as a way to inflict something on myself that makes me stronger mentally as well as physically. I've noticed that just reframing my workouts this last week as acts of discipline for the purpose of making me a better man has made me much more motivated to get out of bed to work out before dawn than getting up and working out just for the purpose of becoming a stronger man.
December 16, 2022
Despite the Crossfit proselytizing, this is a really well-written and accessible history of the fitness industry. I loved it.
April 25, 2018
I assumed I was going to get substance and history, but got instead images of this guy's vomiting and pissing himself telling me he's better at life than me because of it while confoundingly substituting philosophy for current medical evidence and contradicting himself right and left (p55 for example).
It's nice to read someone's reasons for doing what they are passionate about. This book is kind of that, in parts. It is at times a sappy sweet self glorifying memoir and for a brief moment it is what it purports to be - a narrative explaining the fitness culture.
I didn't hate two chapters at least. Chapters 6 and 7 are about the history of weightlifting and how gyms made it to the US and moves on into a survey and history of the high bar/calisthenics and Parkour and Ninja Warrior obstacle courses. He does mention names that will be recognized outside the CrossFit/ NFF movement, so I suspect these two chapters are pretty solid. Chapter 9 described a few influential women, Bonnie Prudden, for one (Presidential Council on Fitness) and he role in the history of fitness, but had much more self congratulatory language than mid book. Chapter 10 hits on a history of personal training amidst a final fit of CrossFit love and adoration.
He spends the first chapter justifying with a couple of ancient Greeks why it's ok for him to watch YouTube workout porn of CrossFitters doing fitness tasks for time. In chapter 2, he asks the question 'but is it good for you' and basically says the experts say no but I say OF COURSE! He also justifies use of all kinds of “tools” like massage, PT, saunas and supplements to help his “motor run smoothly” (or as a shoddy apology to his body for all the abuse? Or to mask the damage so he can attend the next competition?). He lightheartedly brushes off fears of injury as literally ancient history- as in gladiators straining their backs and runners freezing to death- and makes no mention of the mountain of evidence of CrossFit injuries that your local physician or orthopedist could give you. He also list a bunch of very old objections to exertion and sweating, like sweating was associated with laborers, so exercise was not in fashion, instead of modern medical knowledge that you can in fact injure joints and ligaments going too hard too fast or too soon.
He doesn't mention race at all in his discussion of the history of fitness, but that's unsurprising really. He does mention feminism quite a bit and describes careers and contributions of a few famous women in the industry. He gets a lot of his analysis wrong and veers off course in feminism as well when he praises the trend toward muscular women being beautiful. He goes into how he used to think any lady other than model thin ones were best, now since he's around more muscular ones, he's ok with that and adores this trend that coincides with his own notion of what a woman should look like. I don't think that's a great definition of feminism or personal growth.
So if you can stomach all the self congratulation, pride, ego, and a litany of humble brag type phrases- he's a freak, his monkish rigor, cheerful drudgery, panting nutter- you might enjoy two chapters of history. I'd pick another book. He wants you to know he really loves CrossFit and at least that comes through loud and clear. I'd go elsewhere for a history of exercise though.
It is possible, the author is fascinated with the sport of weightlifting and how it has evolved and is now practiced by many more people. It's true that a fitness activity that requires skill is great for the body and mind, but I could write the same book about jiu-jitsu - just how it is superior for your mind and body and how training makes you want to eat better, looks are secondary to performance and all of his other points. It's an interesting book, but I disagree with him on many things. The bottom line (not stated quite this way in the CrossFit centric book) is- find physical activities you love to do because you'll be able to keep doing it - it'll be a lifestyle and not a fad, whatever you choose.
It's nice to read someone's reasons for doing what they are passionate about. This book is kind of that, in parts. It is at times a sappy sweet self glorifying memoir and for a brief moment it is what it purports to be - a narrative explaining the fitness culture.
I didn't hate two chapters at least. Chapters 6 and 7 are about the history of weightlifting and how gyms made it to the US and moves on into a survey and history of the high bar/calisthenics and Parkour and Ninja Warrior obstacle courses. He does mention names that will be recognized outside the CrossFit/ NFF movement, so I suspect these two chapters are pretty solid. Chapter 9 described a few influential women, Bonnie Prudden, for one (Presidential Council on Fitness) and he role in the history of fitness, but had much more self congratulatory language than mid book. Chapter 10 hits on a history of personal training amidst a final fit of CrossFit love and adoration.
He spends the first chapter justifying with a couple of ancient Greeks why it's ok for him to watch YouTube workout porn of CrossFitters doing fitness tasks for time. In chapter 2, he asks the question 'but is it good for you' and basically says the experts say no but I say OF COURSE! He also justifies use of all kinds of “tools” like massage, PT, saunas and supplements to help his “motor run smoothly” (or as a shoddy apology to his body for all the abuse? Or to mask the damage so he can attend the next competition?). He lightheartedly brushes off fears of injury as literally ancient history- as in gladiators straining their backs and runners freezing to death- and makes no mention of the mountain of evidence of CrossFit injuries that your local physician or orthopedist could give you. He also list a bunch of very old objections to exertion and sweating, like sweating was associated with laborers, so exercise was not in fashion, instead of modern medical knowledge that you can in fact injure joints and ligaments going too hard too fast or too soon.
He doesn't mention race at all in his discussion of the history of fitness, but that's unsurprising really. He does mention feminism quite a bit and describes careers and contributions of a few famous women in the industry. He gets a lot of his analysis wrong and veers off course in feminism as well when he praises the trend toward muscular women being beautiful. He goes into how he used to think any lady other than model thin ones were best, now since he's around more muscular ones, he's ok with that and adores this trend that coincides with his own notion of what a woman should look like. I don't think that's a great definition of feminism or personal growth.
So if you can stomach all the self congratulation, pride, ego, and a litany of humble brag type phrases- he's a freak, his monkish rigor, cheerful drudgery, panting nutter- you might enjoy two chapters of history. I'd pick another book. He wants you to know he really loves CrossFit and at least that comes through loud and clear. I'd go elsewhere for a history of exercise though.
It is possible, the author is fascinated with the sport of weightlifting and how it has evolved and is now practiced by many more people. It's true that a fitness activity that requires skill is great for the body and mind, but I could write the same book about jiu-jitsu - just how it is superior for your mind and body and how training makes you want to eat better, looks are secondary to performance and all of his other points. It's an interesting book, but I disagree with him on many things. The bottom line (not stated quite this way in the CrossFit centric book) is- find physical activities you love to do because you'll be able to keep doing it - it'll be a lifestyle and not a fad, whatever you choose.
March 25, 2018
Learnt some fun trivia (origin of jumping jacks, the marathon run didn't actually happen), while getting peppered with liberal doses of crossfit kool-aid. Kunitz touches on many trends in fitness, from bodybuilding and muscle beach to aerobics (powered by feminists) and obstacle races. He also takes any opportunity to talk up the benefits of crossfit ._. But those sections are easily skimmed.
___
The state of your body isn't something you either choose to care about or leave be, for your body never just is - it is always either decaying or getting stronger. Not choosing is still a choice.
We are always practicing some sort of fitness regime, be it sitting or gymnastics. Thus athletic practice serves as a pattern for the shaping of our lives, continually.
What occasions the rise in frequency and intensity is an embrace of training as the basis of the practicing life, of seeing life itself as a challenge for which one must train, mentally and emotionally as well as physically.
Addiction is just the repetition of a habit; it's the sameness of the repeated act that mollifies us. The practicing life demands one continually reform and reevaluate one's habits as part of a process of deliberately shaping one's existence.
Quantifying one's existence and progress is another hallmark of New Frontier Fitness (crossfit and assorted similar movements)
The legendary run from Marathon never took place, the longest distance run in ancient Greece was closer to 5K.
Ancient physicians (Seneca) used to see exercise as something to avoid, for it was an unnecessary expenditure of energy, and exertion was seen as something for the labourer class.
Helping others persist through trials is the keystone of team training, a process of emotional development. Accountability and mutual support are implicitly part of military training.
Making things tougher isn't merely a technique, it is a counter-cultural ethos - a rejection of the ideology of ease, the belief that if we can just find the right technology or hack, life will be untroubled, convenient, pain-free.
It is through the breath, with its consciousness-changing, awareness-concentrating power, that fitness regimes connect with spiritual practice.
Fitness is part of everyday life, you have to train more days than you rest to see noticeable increases in physical ability - NFF insight
Perhaps no one social intervention changed what bodies represent - potential - more than the advent of photography, which forever altered how bodies are represented (the mirror with a memory).
The author of Sherlock Holmes, sir Arthur Conan Doyle, was one of the judges of the first bodybuilding contest.
Jumping Jacks are named after Jack LaLanne.
If physical practices can alter something as basic as our notions of beauty and to whom we are attracted, it begs the question what else they might affect.
NFF regimes partake of practice both in the sense of training for and of doing: we temporarily withdraw from the rush of existence in order to rehearse its most fundamental aspects - movement, the interplay of neuron and muscle, the presentness and oblivion of concentration - and, bettered by this training, slip back into the stream of life.
___
The state of your body isn't something you either choose to care about or leave be, for your body never just is - it is always either decaying or getting stronger. Not choosing is still a choice.
We are always practicing some sort of fitness regime, be it sitting or gymnastics. Thus athletic practice serves as a pattern for the shaping of our lives, continually.
What occasions the rise in frequency and intensity is an embrace of training as the basis of the practicing life, of seeing life itself as a challenge for which one must train, mentally and emotionally as well as physically.
Addiction is just the repetition of a habit; it's the sameness of the repeated act that mollifies us. The practicing life demands one continually reform and reevaluate one's habits as part of a process of deliberately shaping one's existence.
Quantifying one's existence and progress is another hallmark of New Frontier Fitness (crossfit and assorted similar movements)
The legendary run from Marathon never took place, the longest distance run in ancient Greece was closer to 5K.
Ancient physicians (Seneca) used to see exercise as something to avoid, for it was an unnecessary expenditure of energy, and exertion was seen as something for the labourer class.
Helping others persist through trials is the keystone of team training, a process of emotional development. Accountability and mutual support are implicitly part of military training.
Making things tougher isn't merely a technique, it is a counter-cultural ethos - a rejection of the ideology of ease, the belief that if we can just find the right technology or hack, life will be untroubled, convenient, pain-free.
It is through the breath, with its consciousness-changing, awareness-concentrating power, that fitness regimes connect with spiritual practice.
Fitness is part of everyday life, you have to train more days than you rest to see noticeable increases in physical ability - NFF insight
Perhaps no one social intervention changed what bodies represent - potential - more than the advent of photography, which forever altered how bodies are represented (the mirror with a memory).
The author of Sherlock Holmes, sir Arthur Conan Doyle, was one of the judges of the first bodybuilding contest.
Jumping Jacks are named after Jack LaLanne.
If physical practices can alter something as basic as our notions of beauty and to whom we are attracted, it begs the question what else they might affect.
NFF regimes partake of practice both in the sense of training for and of doing: we temporarily withdraw from the rush of existence in order to rehearse its most fundamental aspects - movement, the interplay of neuron and muscle, the presentness and oblivion of concentration - and, bettered by this training, slip back into the stream of life.
February 4, 2022
I got a lot of good information from this book about the history of how exercise was viewed. Pretty startling how quickly things change!
The biggest problem with the book is that Kunitz seems to be all in on the goals and philosophy behind Crossfit, so as the book approaches modern times he seems to be saying, "Oh back in the 80s and 90s people though you might want to get fit to look good but now people realize you need to be able to run IronMan Triathlons or whatever." Considering the long view of history, it seems sorta myopic to imagine that we've realized the optimal place for exercise in society.
Still, that aside, it's worth reading just to clear out some surprisingly persistent myths about resistance training (e.g. "it'll stunt your growth if you do it as a child") and the like. Normally I'd round the 3.5 down to a 3, but I think this book has a weirdly low average for its level of quality, so I'm rounding up.
3.5 of 5 stars
The biggest problem with the book is that Kunitz seems to be all in on the goals and philosophy behind Crossfit, so as the book approaches modern times he seems to be saying, "Oh back in the 80s and 90s people though you might want to get fit to look good but now people realize you need to be able to run IronMan Triathlons or whatever." Considering the long view of history, it seems sorta myopic to imagine that we've realized the optimal place for exercise in society.
Still, that aside, it's worth reading just to clear out some surprisingly persistent myths about resistance training (e.g. "it'll stunt your growth if you do it as a child") and the like. Normally I'd round the 3.5 down to a 3, but I think this book has a weirdly low average for its level of quality, so I'm rounding up.
3.5 of 5 stars
September 6, 2024
I did finish this book. And it did provide a few interesting things to think about in terms of the evolution of Western society's relationship with exercise/strength/fitness. But it was only midway through the first chapter when I decided that the book should be retitled "Why I love CrossFit and everyone else should, too." Now, I'm not entirely unconvinced of this fact- after reading Lift, I am (for the first time) somewhat tempted to try out a class, or at least look up a workout online. However, I was disappointed overall in what felt like a very narrow focus on a very big topic. I was also frustrated by what felt like blinders concerning college or professional athletics in discussions of 19th- and 20th-century America, but then a shift towards using professional athletes as the examples when covering recent developments in fitness.
January 8, 2024
I found this very interesting, though I wish I could leave off half a star because parts felt like a big old ad for CrossFit. Beyond that though, it was a great history of weightlifting from ancient days to Ronda Rousey. There were a surprising lot of ups and downs in the interim, with doctors advising against all exercise after age 40, back in the 50s (just have a cigarette instead!) Both Roman Christians & ancient Jews taught against fitness pursuits- basically because the Greeks were so into fitness and believed fitness was next to godliness, literally, so it became sacrilegious in religions that only had one god.
It's an enjoyable history, and lots of stuff you don't usually hear about!
It's an enjoyable history, and lots of stuff you don't usually hear about!
August 5, 2018
This book is fantastic if you are curious about the history of fitness and exercise. I was not very knowledgeable on the subject but now feel confidant in seeking out more in depth books on the specific aspects he touches on. I particularly appreciated Daniel’s interpretation on how feminism plays out in the fitness world. We need more men with his outlook.
The individual chapters were written quite well, but I wished to see a little more connectivity between chapters. I was not expecting him to be such a hard core CrossFit/NFF fan, but despite his numerous references to the fact, it never seemed overbearing. All in all a great read.
The individual chapters were written quite well, but I wished to see a little more connectivity between chapters. I was not expecting him to be such a hard core CrossFit/NFF fan, but despite his numerous references to the fact, it never seemed overbearing. All in all a great read.
December 7, 2019
It was interesting to read the history of exercise and the idea of fitness. It is clearly well-researched (bibliography at the end of the book). The only thing I didn't really like was the author's clear bias of CrossFit, he almost constantly refers back to it. (He even mentions how it's like a cult or religion. Clearly he's addicted). Overall, good for anyone interested in fitness and working out and understanding trends throughout history
August 25, 2025
DNF - author feels uninformed on these topics to write a whole book. Could have done a few articles and let someone else write the book. Their personal story is not pertinent either to the book itself. A few historical claims are made without much proof or evidence, but seem to be simply put to place himself as an advocate for feminism and homosexuality. Again, not pertinent either unless he were to prove it.
There must be better books out there on this subject.
There must be better books out there on this subject.
June 12, 2018
I didn't like this one as much as I'd hoped. Instead of telling a story, it just kept giving me facts that I didn't care about. First the Greeks did this and then they did that, and that's how we got CrossFit.
Sorry. It just left me flat.
Sorry. It just left me flat.
October 29, 2018
a decent account of the early days of the fitness craze and its main proponents. A quality read for those invested in the fitness lifestyle, not as amazing for those who don't find the grind enjoyable.
September 30, 2019
A very intersting,informative and entertaining read about the history of fitness and physical training, basically, interwoven into the social landscape of the times. I would've wished for a more comprehensive structure though.
October 16, 2021
I enjoyed it.
It was well written and provided some interesting insights into the building of fitness culture.
As someone new to the idea of taking my fitness seriously, I appreciated most the authors story of how he came to CrossFit. It very much reflected my own journey to fitness.
It was well written and provided some interesting insights into the building of fitness culture.
As someone new to the idea of taking my fitness seriously, I appreciated most the authors story of how he came to CrossFit. It very much reflected my own journey to fitness.
May 7, 2023
I really enjoyed learning about the history of commercial weightlifting and fitness, especially the political and social intersections. Author is very biased towards Crossfit, which is a bit amusing but totally fine.
June 11, 2017
There's some good stuff here, but an odd structure to the book. I would have preferred a little more linear history, rather than a constant return/comparison to Crossfit.
July 10, 2017
If you have ever wondered what is fitness? Why are Crossfitters crazy? Why do some many people run? This is an excellent book to answer those questions and more.
August 17, 2017
Excellent history of exercise (with a lot of plugs for CrossFit thrown in)
September 4, 2017
5 stars for the historical research and presentation.
1 star for the incessant praise of Crossfit. Also, I'm not a fan of the phrase, "New Frontier Fitness".
Balance it all out at 3 stars.
1 star for the incessant praise of Crossfit. Also, I'm not a fan of the phrase, "New Frontier Fitness".
Balance it all out at 3 stars.
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