Recommended Reading

"The Sports Gene: Talent, Practice and the Truth About Success" - David Epstein

In this ground-breaking and entertaining exploration of athletic success, award-winning writer David Epstein gets to the heart of the great nature vs. nurture debate, and explodes myths about how and why humans excel.

"The Diet Delusion" - Gary Taubes

Where mainstream nutritional science has demonised dietary fat for 50 years, hundreds of millions of dollars of research have failed to prove that eating a low-fat diet will help you live longer. Nutrition and obesity scientists have struggled to make sense of the paradox that obesity has become an epidemic, that diabetes rates have soared and the incidence of heart disease has not declined despite the fact that society is more diet and health aware today than generations ago.

The Diet Delusion is an in-depth, scientific, groundbreaking examination of what actually happens in your body as a result of what you eat, rather than what the diet industry might have you believe happens and is essential reading for anyone trying to decide which diet - low-fat or low-carbohydrate - is truly the healthy diet.

"Becoming a Supple Leopard: The Ultimate Guide to Resolving Pain, Preventing Injury, and Optimizing Athletic Performance" - Kelly Starrett

Improve your athletic performance, extend your athletic career, treat body stiffness and achy joints, and rehabilitate injuries all without having to seek out a coach, doctor, chiropractor, physical therapist or masseur. In Becoming a Supple Leopard, Kelly Starrett founder of mobilitywod.com shares his revolutionary approach to mobility and maintenance of the human body and teaches you how to hack your own human movement, allowing you to live a healthy, happier, more fulfilling life.

"Living With Our Genes" - Dean H Hamer, Peter Copeland, Dean Hammer

The nature-nurture controversy has never been more hotly debated. Scientists send shock waves through society whenever their new theories of what is biologically inherited - as opposed to socially learned - confront our old ideas about the self. The author, molecular geneticist Dean Hamer, is one of a group of researchers mapping the human personality. His findings help to explain why one brother becomes a Wall Street trader while his sibling remains content as a librarian.;Molecular biology shows that genes are the most important factor in distinguishing one person from another. Humans come in large part ready-made from the factory, yet genes are not fixed instructions. As the authors point out, it is our very nature to respond to nurture. This text is an investigation of the crucial link between our DNA and our behaviour.

"Periodization: Theory and Methodology of Training" - Tudor O Bompa, G Gregory Haff

Periodization is a method for structuring short and long term training plans, grounded in research in exercise physiology, athletic psychology and training methodology. It varies the intensity and volume of training to optimize the body's ability to recover and rebuild. This results in better performance and less risk of injury. This text describes the underlying principles of effective training; the objectives and components of an effective, long term training programme; proven strategies for optimal peaking; and how to train for better motor ability, working capacity, skill effectiveness and psychological adaptability.

"Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning 3rd Edition" - Thomas Baechle and Roger Earle

Now in its third edition, Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning is the most comprehensive reference available for strength and conditioning professionals. In this text, 30 expert contributors explore the scientific principles, concepts, and theories of strength training and conditioning as well as their applications to athletic performance. Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning is the most-preferred preparation text for the Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) exam. The research-based approach, extensive exercise technique section, and unbeatable accuracy of Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning make it the text readers have come to rely on for CSCS exam preparation. The third edition presents the most current strength training and conditioning research and applications in a logical format designed for increased retention of key concepts.

"Supertraining" - Yuri V Verkhoshansky, Mel C Siff, Michael Yessis (Translator)

The shock method * The development of adaptation process during the long term sport activity * The "compensatory adaptation" * Current Adaptive Reserve of the human organism * The strategy to manage the adaptation in the training process * The specificity of protein synthesis in the adaptation process * The structural reconstructions during the adaptation process and the phenomenon of Supercompensation * Heterochronism of adaptive reconstructions * The function efficiency in a high - adapted organism * The optimal regime of adaptation * The phenomenon of immune defence decrease * The general schema of adaptation process during the sport activity * The practical aspects of the Adaptation Theory * The future developments of the use of Adaptation Theory in sport This book is a must have for any athlete or coach. Every topic is covered in almost 600 pages. * Strength and the muscular system * Philosophy of physical training * The muscle complex * Adaptation and the training effect * Sport specific strength training * Factors influencing strength production * The means of special strength training * The methods of special strength training * Organization of training * Strength training methods * Designing sports specific strength programs * Restoration and stress management * Combination of resistance methods * The use of testing * Overtraining * PNF as a training system * Models for structuring the annual training * Preparedness and the training load * Periodisation as a form of organization

"The Scientific Guide to a Better You: New Scientist: The Collection" - New Scientist

For people interested in self-improvement, the world can be a confusing place. Diet and exercise fads come and go, health advice changes, foods that were good for you last week are suddenly bad for you – and there are hundreds if not thousands of magazines, newspaper articles and self-improvement books all claiming to know the one true path to a better you. 
This issue of New Scientist: The Collection is dedicated to cutting through the myths and getting to the scientific truth about diet, exercise and other forms of self-improvement. If you want a sharper mind, a fitter body, a healthier diet, a better chance of living to 100 and a glimpse at the future technologies that will help you get there, this is the only publication you need.