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Fitness Book Review:

LL Cool J - Platinum Workout
by LL Cool J and Dave Honig with Jeff O'Connell
Published by Rodale, December 2006

 
After reading LL Cool J's new fitness book Platinum Workout and re-reading certain sections, now it's time to put into my own words what I think of this book. When I first heard about LL Cool J's new fitness book, I thought that it might be just another one of your average celebrity fitness books. As you know, there are plenty of them out there on the market these days. After reading this book, I found that it contained high quality and very useful fitness and nutritional, health-related information backed up by research studies and results. Let me discuss this point in further detail.

The book is easy to read and is very motivating. He often refers back to his own life, his workouts and what motivates him to exercise. In his book LL Cool J discusses 5 different exercise programs. There are meal plans and which foods you should be eating and why. He also provides many fitness and nutrition tips along with references to research materials done by universities and other professionals. Here's one example of a nutritional tip:

"Drink 2 cups of green tea every day. It gently boosts your metabolism and is loaded with cancer-fighting antioxidants. The most potent among them has demonstrated 100 times the antioxidant power of Vitamin C and 25 times the power of Vitamin E. So drink up"

There's also LL Cool J interviewing many fitness and nutritional experts.

The book is also full of detailed instructions of many exercises for various body parts with corresponding attached high quality and large photos demonstrating the particular exercise. Here is one of the exercises from his book:

Bent-Over Lateral Raise

1. Stand with your feet planted on the floor, and lean forward until your chest is nearly horizontal.
2. Reach down and grab the weights already positioned at your feet. Use an overhand, thumb-less grip. Let the dumbbells hang at arms' length, elbows bent slightly. This is the start position.
3. Raise both dumbbells in a circular motion until both arms are parallel with the floor, keeping your pinkies about your thumbs. Exhale during the ascent. Pause for a one- or two-count at the top.
4. Slowly lower both dumbbells back to the start position. Inhale during the descent.

The photos provided in his book, Platinum Workout, aid in interpreting the text description and in better visualizing how the exercise is to be performed.

Many topics that LL Cool J discusses I agree with and I have incorporated in the past and currently incorporate in my own workouts. There are things that he does differently than I do, but then that's me and everyone is entitled and expected to modify their workouts to what works best for their body. Overall, I feel that this is an excellent fitness book, that should be read at least twice and referred back to in the future.