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Armchair Exercises for Fitness Phobics: Everyday Maintenance for the Busy, Tired, Elderly, Infirm, and Straightforward Lazy.

by Sue Hooker; Illustrated by Maggie Humphry

87 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); B&W line drawings and text; catalogue #06-2416; ISBN 1-4251-0658-7; US$17.37, C$19.98, EUR14.27, £9.99

Do you have a conscience about 'Exercise'? Do Fitness and Fatness articles jump out from everything you read? Then this entertaining book will amuse and help you get going.

About the Book

Sue Hooker has taken a light hearted approach to a subject many of us feel we ought to address. It is for people of all ages whose conscience bothers them a bit, who worry about their backsides and their paunches. The articles on cellulite, and blood pressure jump out at them from every newspaper and magazine they read.

Armchair Exercises for Fitness Phobics is a mixture of informal explanation and advice for "The Wish They Coulds" and "The Think They Can'ts" as well as the "Fitness Phobics" among us. It is written in a very readable and amusing style illustrated with funny drawings by the Shropshire artist Maggie Humphry. The text is highlighted with quotes by such writers as Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll whose acute observations and philosophies are pertinent and raise a smile.

As well as exercises, movements and contortions that can be done in bed, on the loo, or in the bath — it includes relaxation, massage, and eating. There are exercises for each part of the body and throughout there is a serious and responsible approach which can help those with actual aches and pains as well as the straightforward lazy. It includes sections on gardening, preventing falls and maintaining independence. The final chapter entertains and exercises the mind.

As an experienced physiotherapist, Sue Hooker encourages people to motivate themselves into trying just a bit, and Maggie Humphry's drawings bring light relief throughout the book.

About the Author

Sue Hooker is an experienced physiotherapist and Chinese acupuncturist with an interest in motivating people to look after themselves.

Her two previous publications Caring for Elderly People: Understanding and Practical Help and Recover Quickly; from Injuries and Other Painful Conditions will be republished next year.

Excerpts