March 12, 2018
Thanks to today’s cutting-edge training, professional athletes can continue to improve with age, argues Bercovici in this energetic romp through sports gerontology. The San Francisco bureau chief for Inc. surveys trends in sports medicine and training techniques that are letting NFL quarterbacks like Tom Brady, as well as NHL and NBA stars, soccer and tennis players, runners and even gymnasts persist at championship caliber into their late 30s and even 40s. He spotlights intriguing developments: more restful training programs tailored to individual genetic profiles; pressure bands that build muscle without weight lifting by restricting blood flow; kinesthesiology, the study that teaches players to avoid injury by moving more gracefully; healing by immersions in infrared waves or by drinking red wine; new surgical methods that let athletes get joints rebuilt “like the rest of us get our teeth cleaned.” Bercovici smartly separates science from quackery—avoiding GMO foods won’t help, he argues, but taking creatine will—while offering colorful reportage on sports trainers, physiologists, and gurus, and using his own achy frame to road test their wares, from -286 °F cryotherapy chamber to an exercise/torture device called the Versaclimber. There are no miracles here (except, maybe, transfusing blood from a younger person to an older one), but Bercovici offers stimulating information and practical insights to health-minded readers.
March 15, 2018
An exploration of the "elite athletes...who continue to perform and compete at the very highest levels long after the age most of their peers have faded away."It's a strange thing that many of the letter jacket-clad kids you went to high school with dissolve into uncomfortable lumps by the time the 25th reunion comes around. "There's evidence," writes technology and business journalist Bercovici, "that the later an individual matures, the more likely he or she is to achieve athletic greatness." Peaking after 20 is thus not a bad thing at all, particularly with life spans extending as far as they do now. In Plimpton-esque moments, Bercovici tackles various aspects of the fitness-for-elders movement, including an encounter with a VersaClimber machine that threatened to do him in: "After another 30 seconds, I'm not thinking anything because all the glycogen in my body is rushing to my muscles to replace my zonked-out stores of adenosine triphosphate, leaving none left over to power my frontal cortex." The author examines the changes that occur in the older body, which, perhaps amazingly, can be reversed to some extent with exercise so that the production of hormones and circulation of proteins in the bloodstream in a 60-year-old master athlete is more similar to those of a 30-year-old than to those of a sedentary 60-year-old. Along the way, Bercovici considers various exercise regimes and their effects, the technology of exercise and of sports medicine, and ways of hacking the diet for increased performance, such as eating all the chicken gristle, cartilage, and bone that you can stomach: "Have you ever seen a hyena with bad knees?" It's a good question, if perhaps a little unappealing to the food-squeamish.A solid work of sports journalism and encouraging reading for jocks who are late to the game but committed to the win all the same.
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June 1, 2018
Inc.'s San Francisco bureau chief and former Forbes' senior editor Bercovici attempts to explain why more than ever before, athletes are being more productive at older ages. He begins by visiting a marathon runner training at high altitude and why that benefits athletes, and the reason it took so long for American coaches to accept training at altitude as useful. Science and anatomy are covered, but Bercovici's writing is easy to understand for the nonexpert; for example, he explains anaerobic metabolism and the production of lactic acid in simple terms. Specific athletes who excelled at an older age, such as former football player Donald Driver and former ice hockey player Jaromir Jagr, are examined for their notoriously exhausting workouts. New science, however, shows that being a novice athlete reduces injuries and increases longevity. Kinetic chains, VO2 max, and muscle contractile speed are discussed, as are the benefits of good genes, stretching with resistance, and actually having fun playing the sport over years of dedication. VERDICT Fans of sports science, athletics, and learning how the body works will find this appealing.--Jason L. Steagall, formerly with Gateway Technical Coll. Lib., Elkhorn, WI
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