Core Performance Essentials

In his latest book, Mark Verstegen offers a nutritional program and several 30-minute workouts to improve strength, flexibility and health. With his focus on quality of life (and not just weight loss) Mark has created a program that's innovative, fun, progressive and effective. The nutrition program is simple and the exercises are fun, with new twists on old moves that challenge your strength, balance and stability.

After a brief introduction explaining Mark's philosophy (which focuses on being healthy and strong and not just appearance), he takes you to the first phase of the program which involves changing your mindset. This is all part of creating a game plan for yourself, an important part of making long-term changes. In this chapter, Mark has you figure out some important things like: your definition of success, what drives you and what roles you play on a daily basis. By answering the questions he poses, you'll be able to define your core values. The purpose of this chapter is to:

• Define the roles you play in each part of your life
• Come up with new definitions of success
• Figure out what your core values are
• Learn how to base your success on those core values, and
• Apply this to each of the roles you play in life

This chapter is short and simple, but very powerful in helping you figure out what you really want for yourself and how ready you are to make long-lasting changes in your life. As Mark states, "Think of yourself for a moment as a powerful force for producing change in the lives of family and friends." With that in mind, you'll learn how to build on that power

In the nutrition segment, Mark gets you ready for healthy eating habits with a focus on assessing your current eating habits and planning how you'll create new ones. The key, he says, is planning so that you have the right foods at home and at work. He helps you figure out what you need with a chapter that outlines your best choices for everything from sauces and drinks to pasta and side dishes. His basic recommendations aren't anything new: eat 5-6 meals a day, eat fruits and veggies, choose high-quality protein and carbs, etc. The big standouts in this section are:

• The detailed eating schedule (with suggested meal ideas) for how to eat several meals to maximize your time and workouts
• A grocery list, which makes navigating the overwhelming number of products at the store a cinch.
• A 3-week plan to help you gradually incorporate more meals so you have time to get used to this new way of eating.
• The sections on pre- and post-workout meals and ideas for snacks to keep at the office.
• The tips for eating healthy when you travel.

Overall, the nutrition section covers lots of ground without being too overwhelming. You get a game plan along with some great recipes to make healthy eating easy and tasty.

This is probably my favorite section of the book because it includes some really great workouts. The workouts themselves are 30 minutes long and divided into zones for beginners, intermediate and advanced exercisers. Each zone is broken down into levels so, if you start at level A and are able to complete the exercises in the allotted time, you move on to B, then C and finally D. Each level gets harder, with more reps and circuits and, similarly, each zone includes more difficult exercises.

The workouts themselves are divided into 3 sections, Movement Prep (warming up), Prehab (balance and stability) and Strength. All told, he provides a workout for each level with 4 options within each workout, so there's plenty of variety to keep you interested.

The exercises are innovative and dynamic, designed to challenge your balance and strength in new ways with moves like the Handwalk and a one-legged deadlift. All exercises are shown and described at the end of the book. It may take some time to get used to these types of exercises, but it's worth it. You'll use multi-joint moves that build core stability and strength, which is the best way to lose fat and prevent injuries.

I really enjoyed this chapter because it included another of my favorite things--the foam roller. You don't see much information about this in the mainstream, but foam rollers are excellent tools for self-massage and stretching exercises. Mark includes these exercises here, along with stretching exercises designed to help your body regenerate. He also discusses how important rest is for allowing your body to heal and grow stronger.

This section also includes ideas for making this program work in the framework of your life, giving you ideas for making the most of your time each day. His recommendation is to break down your yearly calendar into manageable chunks of time and set your goals. That way, you'll accomplish something rather than get to the end of the year, wondering where the time went (boy, that sounds familiar).

I've always been impressed with Mark's work and his Core Performance Essentials is no exception. He takes the guesswork out of healthy eating and exercise and provides some excellent workouts full of new and exciting exercises. This is a great addition to your library, whether you've never worked out or are a veteran athlete.