Lift

June 6, 2016
Kunitz, editor-in-chief of Modern Painters magazine, carries out an inquiry into the evolution of fitness and gym culture in this illuminating compendium. The author traces the cultural processes that led to current ideas about fitness, discovering along the way its impact on politics and technology. Writing in lucid anecdotal prose, Kunitz is a master at creating a compelling narrative. This book is divided into 10 substantial chapters on foundational topics, which include ancient ideals of the human form and the idea of making art out of one’s own body. Also included is a key segment on the women’s movement, which Kunitz credits as “the first mass culture of fitness”; he details the prominent women who revolted against strictures in the 1960s, such as by entering marathons from which they were barred. As we are guided through this timeline, Kunitz includes his own challenges with fitness along the way, making this a book not just for those interested in the roots of fitness, but for anyone who struggles to live healthily. Agent: Edward Orloff, McCormick & Williams Literary Agency.

June 15, 2016

In this time line of physical fitness and body ideals, Kunitz (former editor in chief, Modern Painters) takes us all the way back to the ancient Greeks, who made the gymnasium the focal point of their cities and inspired the modern-day Olympic Games. The author explains how modern exercise evolved into new approaches based on millennia-old concepts of conditioning. For most Americans, keeping and staying fit means hours at the gym (weights, spinning, treadmills), all in an effort to tone and strengthen the body. Kunitz guides readers through the influences of Eastern practices such as yoga, Renaissance art depicting the human form, the advent of new equipment and the bodybuilding culture, and modern-day fitness icons including Jane Fonda and Jack LaLanne. The author's experiences lead him to examine the connection between the life of the body and the life of the mind, ultimately challenging the multibillion-dollar fitness industry. He concludes that the most effective tools are already at hand and successfully shows how classic methods of conditioning can still be effective today. VERDICT More of a history-based exploration than a guide to physical fitness, this book will be of interest to cultural historians and fitness enthusiasts. Appropriate for larger collections.--Janet Davis, Darien P.L., CT

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from June 1, 2016
A wide-ranging history of fitness.In a narrative that touches on many sports but constantly circles back to bodybuilding, Modern Painters editor-in-chief Kunitz, a one-time editor at Paris Review and Details, gives due honor to his athletic predecessors while wondering aloud whether we have "been working out the wrong way for thousands of years and only just, in my lifetime, stumbled onto a better path." It's a meaningful question, one of many in an elegant book that, though full of sweat and pulled muscles and jock itch, also contains many meditations on why so many people put themselves through so much pain in order to create something different of themselves. That's one motivation, but there are more: sex is better in a well-trained body, due to strength and confidence, and there are other improvements to health and the immune system and benefits in slowing aging and fighting depression--as well as trails that lead "beyond these physical benefits to the metaphysical." Those metaphysical interests place his book squarely on the shelf alongside John Jerome's The Elements of Effort (1998), that fine treatise on running, but its literary qualities suggest George Plimpton, Kunitz's one-time boss. The narrative moves nicely among philosophy, memoir, journalism, and history. Especially enthralling is the author's account of how Muscle Beach, on the coast near Los Angeles, got its name and why it matters in athletic history. "Though they mixed easily with the physical culture crowd," writes Kunitz, "the Nature Boys only added to the impression of Muscle Beach as a magnet for weirdoes." The author also looks into the future and a physical culture crowd conditioned by different expectations, including different ideas of what healthy bodies and healthy diets look like and of what activities are best for what goals. An excellent contribution to the literature of athletic performance and of interest to anyone with a penchant for self-improvement--and not just physical.

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