Shape Your Self

Shape Your Self
Martina Navratilova
Rodale Books
ISBN: 1-59486-282-6
Health, Fitness
Reviewed by Qetesh

This book was written by Martina Navratilova to answer the main question that her fans have asked her. Everyone wants to know how she stays in such wonderful shape. This book was designed to help you achieve your best body possible based upon the diet and exercise techniques that Martina has followed consistently over the years. I was really impressed by the first part of the book that deals entirely with developing the right mental attitude. She talks about the importance of developing the mindset of an athlete. She gives excellent tips on how to prepare ahead of time for healthy meals and how to follow through with good food choices, and weekly meal plans. There are wonderful inspirational stories about her friends, and how they deal with the same troubles and trials with diet and exercise just like everyone else. She stresses going organic and truly being careful about the foods that you put in your body. The section in the back has beautifully photographed exercises that will help you reshape and mold your body. The exercises have modifications so that if you don’t have the equipment recommended, you can usually find something common around your home to replace the missing equipment. She has taken the core exercises that you would do at a gym and made them easily adaptable to do in the privacy of your own home using simple equipment such as: dumbbells, medicine balls, jump rope, exercise tubing, stability ball, and Xerdisk. The exercises work the entire body and focus on stretching, sculpting, balance, stability, and strength. She also has a 28-day diet and meal plan with quality recipes. There is so much food listed for each day on this diet, you will never go hungry. There are also exercise plans in the back that give you recommended reps, guidelines, and weekly goals for the very beginner, intermediate, or someone who is at an advanced level of fitness. She proves that no matter what your age you can be healthy, physically fit, and exude an aura of elegance and vitality by staying consistent with your exercise habits and making good food choices. The only change that I would love to see with this book, is that it be designed to be spiral bound so that it could lie flat on the floor or bench easily for reference during exercise. I would also love to see books like this sold as a complete kit, that have a good set of stretch bands, an exercise ball, jump rope, or similar equipment all bundled together. The fact that she gives other modifications in this book to replace equipment you might not own yet, is a huge plus that makes this books usable by just about anyone.