Fitness Fun

Ruth Kennedy was a librarian and fitness instructor in Islington, Ontario.

Lesley Parsonson holds a Bachelor of Education degree with a major in physical education. She owns a health club in Saskatoon, teaches fitness classes, hosts two television programs, and writes columns for two newspapers. With this background the home exerciser would assume that the exercises photographed here would be safe to follow.

All recent fitness leadership courses emphasize the dangers of potentially hazardous exercises; this information is continuously updated as new findings appear. In this book there are pictures of approximately 200 exercises. Thirty of these could damage the back of the knees if done without the supervision of a qualified instructor. As this has been written for people attempting to keep fit at home, there is a very real possibility of injury. Several of the exercises for pregnant women have been discarded for some years — e.g., deep knee bends, touching the toes without bending the knees.

There is an explanation of the method to use in finding the heart rate. For some unknown reason this is in the pregnancy section, but there is no satisfactory explanation of what to do with this important information. Exercising in water is discussed, but Parsonson states that you should be in water to your waist. In a proper aqua-fitness class, the part of the body exercising is to be under water, and participants are usually in water to near the shoulders. The pictures shown are for groups and would be of minor use only. She does encourage the reader to join an aqua class.

On the plus side, she encourages people to find time to become and stay fit on their own, and she shows the benefits of a regular program. She illustrates how to use props in order to vary the exercises (e.g. balls, hoops, towels). The diet included does follow the Canada Food Guide. There is a calories list plus a chart showing calories worked off with various activities.