Timothy Ferriss’ Book, The Four-Hour Body” is an interesting, but inconsistent, read that could be subtitled, “Building an Army of Narcissists.”
Ferriss covers a lot of well-documented ground, in a sprawling book that covers just about everything you need to know about the body, and engages in a healthy amount of outside-the-box thinking; a rarity for health and fitness books these days. The book isn’t perfect, and I don’t agree with much of Ferriss’ exercise program, but “The Four-Hour Body” is a much better read than the vast majority of crap of the “Biggest Loser” and celebrity trainer variety.
I do not provide a lot of details when I review a book that I recommend; Ferriss put a lot of work into producing this book and deserves to make as much money as he can from book sales; I don’t want to give away any info. Hook: Tim Ferriss is going to show us how to “hack the body” and do amazing things to remake the body in the least amount of time. Gimmick: Ferriss’ high-energy style and “I’ve tried it all” approach.
It’s hard not to get enthusiastic about the subject matter thanks to Ferriss’ upbeat and positive tone. He backs up his claims with a fair amount of data, but better yet, he has tried all of the things that he talks about. Even the things that didn’t work. Inconsistency: Ferriss relies way too much on body builders as a source of information regarding supplementation and exercise, and puts way too much emphasis on appearance, rather than performance.
Also, despite taking the position that you don’t need to spend a lot of time working on your body, with “The Ferriss Method” you wind up spending almost all of your time thinking about working on your body. Glaring Omission: None. Ferriss covers all the bases, and while I disagree with him on some points, he hasn’t left out anything major. Annoying Feature: An unhealthy and counter-productive emphasis on appearance, rather than improved performance, is a recurring theme in the book.
While I like what Ferriss has to say, this appearance-based approach detracts from his message and is incredibly annoying. To me. Most Outrageous Claim: There are many. Polyphasic sleep – 6, 20-minute naps. Slow-carb/high-protein diet with a one-day-per-week binge day where you go hog wild and eat anything and everything you can, and lose weight and get lean. Better orgasms. And there are more than these. (FYI, I will be posting a more in-depth discussion of Ferriss’ diet recommendation very soon.)
Say Something Nice: One of the most interesting health and fitness books that I have ever read. Bottom Line: Tim Ferriss has written a book that everyone interested in fitness and health should read. It is not perfect, but it is incredibly provocative and very readable. Buy it.
