IGX

Speed read through a relatively new book at Borders this morning, "Total Body Transformation" by this guy "Coach" Steve Ilg. Couldn't bring myself to purchase it, although I might have a few years ago when I made $20K a year more than I make now.

Do you remember "Body For Life"? Even more apt, do you remember that guy "Coach" Davies "Renegade Training"? And do you remember how, if you tried to follow their training schedules to the letter, the volume and stress of it would kill you AND your horse within 8 weeks?

Well, Ilg is like that, only more so. Not only would he have you following a split routine body building set AND riding mountain bikes and cross country running and 1700 situps every day, he wants you to do "High Performance" yoga until you puke and sit in Zazen until you are one with the universe. And you do all this while you follow strict cleansing and vegetarian diets.

Ilg goes on at considerable length about "being a spiritual warrior" and "seeking enlightenment through sweat" and "evolution" and etc. (He does make one good comment about the whole 'stability ball/core training fad - the Ball was originally used for spine stabilization exercise, and that if you want to develop core stability, the Eagle Pose and Standing Bow Pulling will blow any Swiss ball exercise routine away.)

Fucking Shunryu Suzuki, possibly the most modest and enlightened man to live in North America in this century, never did a bench press in his life. And if you want to talk about 'flow', goddamned Stuart Alve Olson, a short and rather rotund 50 year Tai Chi Master, could bounce this guy Ilg like a basketball with one hand tied behind his back.

Everything about Ilg sets off my alarm bells. I fully expect him to attempt to go nationwide in the next couple years, and work his way up to becoming the next Scott Sonnon.

Oh yeah, I didn't like the book. Someone new to exercise could probably dip into here and there and get some things to try.

I'm always leary of somebody that calls themselves "Coach".

Most dispicable and crooked men I ever knew wanted to be called that, so I always stay far, far away.