Monday, April 07, 2008

If I wanted vanity, I would’ve just gone to the makeup department


Ten weeks can be like this, meh?

I kena con liao!*

Yes, my dear readers (a grand total of zero), I was duped. I should’ve known better. The author’s a darn Singaporean, lah!

Okay, okay, settle down. It’s my fault, honestly. I should’ve at least gone through the damn book, from the first page all the way to the last, before purchasing it. But I didn’t, obviously. I just took a cursory glance and that was it, thinking that I got a good deal.

I hate being wrong and poorer-er.

This book shows you how to lose weight and build the perfect body in—yes, you guessed it—10 body torturing, mind screwing, butt hurting weeks. I think. Anyway, the author is a former wushu world champion and as such, is fitter than the trainers in my gym. Combined. Not too mention also that the dude’s vainer (got such word, meh? Spellcheck didn’t show its squiggly red line, so…) than a group of wannabe Chinese girls who think showing non-existent cleavage is a turn-on for us males. It’s existent cleavage that we want to see!

And now back to the review. Ah, yes, probably the most lacking aspect of this book would be the exercises one needs to perform in order to have the body of a Roman warrior with serious shorts. Sure, there are pictorials showing you what and how to do the exercises but the problem is that he doesn’t tell what it’s for. Like, for instance, the bench press. We all know what a bench press is but do we really know its true purpose? He doesn’t provide a breakdown on which exercise works which muscle. It’s a shame, really, since newbies to the world of keeping in shape and wearing tight tights won’t know shit.

This book is half autobiographical and half whatever. At the end of the book, the author goes about telling us why he did that, why he didn’t do that and why fried chicken scares him into unleashing 665 (one more and he’ll have an exorcism) push-ups after consuming a single chicken wing. The language used is straight to the point, no fancy words except the terms used to describe a silly stance. It’s definitely more of a showcase rather than an educational book.

For the casual dude whose idea of working out is to be on the treadmill for 25 minutes and lift 15 pounds, this book and its tips would prove to be immensely difficult—nay, fucking difficult. IMO, this book is for the more advanced gym rat. I’ve been working out for the last 3 months and I still struggle like a cow up a steep slope trying to execute some of the more advanced moves. Must be the tight tights…

I highly recommend getting this book from Kevin Zahri, Fitness 24/7. If you’re Asian and living in food heaven Malaysia (Singapore don’t count, muahaha!), this book is for you. The writing’s a lot better (barring a few grammatical and misspellings here and there), the pictures whilst not as clear with some of them being rather dark are more informative and for almost the same price, it is also a much, much better buy.

Now if you’ll excuse, I’m going to do some push-ups.

* I knea con liao = I got conned, big time!

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