Product Description

Mike Stroud, polar explorer, practising hospital physician and recently adviser to the Ministry of Defence on survival, sets out in this fascinating book the genetics, diet and exercise that enable humans to perform at their peak. Based soundly in medical science, Dr Stroud analyses individual feats of survival and athletic prowess that illustrate the way the body functions at its best. He dissects his own challenging experiences of crossing Antarctica with Ranulph Fiennes, running marathons in the Sahara and participating in gruelling cross-country endurance races in the United States and gives some tips on how to stay fit for life for those of us who find walking the dog and endurance challenge - First published to great acclaim in 1998, this fully updated edition now includes a chapter on the Global 7 Marathons in 7 Days with Sir Ranulph Fiennes.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2265 in Books
• Published on: 2004-07-29
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Mike Stroud, it would seem to most, is a very remarkable man. A qualified doctor, his fascination and involvement in the study of human performance and endurance fitness have obsessed him rather more than the average fitness fanatic. From crossing Antarctica unaided with Sir Ranulph Fiennes, to participating in countless marathons and triathlons traversing deserts and glaciers, Stroud has become his own human guinea pig, testing the limits of human strength and survival in some of the most extreme and inhospitable environments of our planet.

Yet far from simply the journal of one man's extraordinary fitness, Stroud sets out in Survival of the Fittest to tell us that we are all capable of the physical achievements usually left to realm of world class athletes. We are all able to attain such performance levels, Stroud assures us, because we are evolutionary designed to do just this.

At the heart of the book, Stroud claims that human beings have not altered genetically in the last 10,000 years, so physiologically we are identical to our ancestors. The problem is that we now have a markedly different lifestyle to the hunter-gathering times of our Cro-Magnon forefathers-–a lifestyle that simply does not match our evolutionary heritage. This, Stroud believes, is the reason why we are seeing an emergence of modern diseases such as heart disease, obesity and cancer.

Illustrating each chapter with adrenline-inducing accounts of his own expeditions and Adventures--falling through Antarctica ice into minus 40 degree water is just one that springs to mind--Stroud examines the physiological capacities of our bodies to perform and adapt to extreme situations, all the time reminding us that these capabilities are a fundamental part of our evolutionary inheritance.

This is a captivating book, not only a serious comment on the dangers of our modern "civilised" lifestyle, but also a source of remarkable facts on our human design, sure to liven up conversations and office chit-chat (this book certainly gets you talking). Although unlikely to spur you on to organise the next Polar expedition, it will give you the confidence--and quite possibly the inspiration--to become more active and to take up the challenges our genes intend us to do. --Abi Frisby

About the author…
Mike Stroud qualified as a doctor in 1979. He was the doctor on the "In the Footsteps of Scott" expedition in 1985-6, and in 1992 he teamed up with Sir Ranulph Fiennes to cross Antarctica on foot, breaking two world records for the longest unsupported walk in history. His book, Shadows on the Wasteland, is the account of that expedition. In 1993 he was awarded the OBE for Outstanding Achievements and Charity. Mike Stroud continues to practice medicine and to study metabolism and nutrition.

Review
'Illuminating - Mike Stroud, an Arctic explorer, medic and marathon-runner, explains how modern life-styles and diet have made us prone to a new array of diseases unknown until the industrial revolution. Demonstrating why it is essential for us to exercise, he also provides useful guidelines for changing our culturally moulded bad habits", Mail on Sunday .'The ultimate sporting diet documented in mouth-watering detail', The Times

From the Publisher
Definitive exploration into understanding health and peak physical performance, now fully updated to include the Global 7 Marathons in 7 Days with Sir Ranulph Fiennes.

Customer Reviews

An inspiring, extremely enjoyable & highly educational read
Dr. Mike Stroud explores all aspects of human performance from a firm scientific and evolutionary perspective. His book draws on his own education in Medicine and Anthropology and his personal experiences as a medical doctor, a researcher in human performance, polar explorer and an ultra endurance athlete.

He digresses into many areas, (from the physiology of running and explanations for the dominance of black sprinters to the evolution of homo sapiens on the plains of Africa and deep water free divers in Polynesia), and then draws it all back together, to produce a very enjoyable, and ultimately highly educational book.

He explains the necessity of exercise in our lives, and explores the advent of lifestyle diseases in our sedentary lifestyle, from an evolutionary perspective. The overriding message of this book is that the body is built for work, which it does not do in this age of the car, the office and ready made meals, and echoes the sentiments of Hippocrates who, long ago, realised that when the body is not used, it becomes riddled with illness and disease.

This book should serve as an inspiration to us all

Inspirational!
This is a truly excellent book! Not only does Mike Stroud provide accounts of some of his astonishing feats of endurance but he also intersperses them with fascinating scientific details of human performance.

He describes his own endeavours with great openness and explains that evolution has equipped everyone with greater physical performance than most people realise.

This book will inspire you to be more active! And it will probably remove excuses for avoiding exercise. It's also a terrific read and hard to put down. It impressed me so much that I bought two more copies to send to relatives - and I also tracked down a copy of 'Shadows on the Wasteland'. Well done Mike Stroud - and thanks!

So what really is stopping you?
Dr Mike Stroud is a man who understands the two most important aspects of physical fitness better than most. Firstly, he is a medical doctor (Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians since 1995) and, therefore, possesses an appreciation of the therapeutic and material effects of keeping fit and participating in other physically demanding pursuits on the human body. Secondly, his personal achievements include accompanying Ranulph Fiennes in 1992 on the first unsupported crossing of Antarctica in which those two men pulled loaded sledges across the entire length of that continent.

No human being - be they a former Olympic Athlete or one who used to be a supremely fit airborne solder, has a right to stay in shape just because of previous achievements and the high standards of fitness that went with their former situation. Put another way, whilst "time and tide wait for no man," the same is also true of the human body. The dreaded middle age spread will only be avoided by accepting two main principles; Firstly, there is a requirement for self-discipline in one's approach to personal fitness, condition and diet. Secondly, having "finally" decided to so something about your own fitness and health, you need to understand precisely what is required - and that is where this book comes into its own.

The content, however, is not what you might expect to find at all. I was anticipating a blow-by-blow explanation of the best exercise and the most advantageous diets - but not so. Instead, we have a mini personal biography of Stroud's physical adventures and achievements and of the lessons learned during his participation in each. Every one of these lessons provides the reader with a valuable insight into another element of the overall subject for which we should be grateful - if only because we did not have to trudge across Antarctica (and elsewhere!) to learn that lesson.

Please do not misunderstand this review. This is not a book confined to those who still yearn of climbing Everest or pursue some other form of adventurous lifestyle. This is a book for anyone and everyone who cares enough about their own physical and medical well-being to want to learn more about keeping themselves in good shape - both inside and outside.

At the very end is a list of further works where the reader will undoubtedly find something to suit their own precise requirements. Immediately before that, however, the author echoes my own words. I am now 59 and I still go running with a pack on my back (old airborne habits will only die hard if you allow the to do so!). How often have I encountered someone (often much younger than myself) who looks at me and says "I wish I could do that." My reply is always the same; "so what's stopping you?"

In the final chapter, Mike Stroud recounts Ranulph Fiennes' achievement of running seven marathons in seven days on seven continents a short time after he had suffered a heart attack! He concludes with the words; "Following our success, many experts in both the USA and Britain expressed disbelief at what we had achieved, they did not realise that they could have done it too. The difference is only one of perception."

So what really is stopping you?

NM