Brendan Brazier Knows Fitness

Thrive Fitness is another book Brenden Brazier has written about his prescription for vitality, following Thrive: the Vegan Nutrition Guide. Using a few simple ideas about health and nutrition, Brazier offers a new prescription for stress, optimal wellness, sleep, and nutritional replenishment.  Since Ironman competitions combine a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile cycle, and marathon (26.2 miles of running), the training and physical demands on the athlete are tremendous. Brazier’s own journey is well profiled in this book on fitness. He relates that he was not particularly gifted for speed or endurance, but with persistence and tenacity, he overcame all odds to be the athlete he is today.  He has examined all the ways his training was ineffective, his diet was undernourishing, and his exhaustion was, in part, self-inflicted.   He share the four components of vitality: exercise, nutrition, sleep, and stress reduction.  But these components are not the usual hum-drum variety, but are amped up to the next level.  Exercise should be high-return, nutrition should be high net-gain, sleep should be efficient and limited, and stress should be accepted only when complementary.  I only wish I had discovered this plan when I was doing a lot of competitive road racing, bicycling and swimming. I learned the hard way – with injury – that overtraining does not pay!

Stress and Nutrition

Stress is seen as stemming nutritional deficiencies, improper or inadequate sleep, noncomplementary stressors, overtraining, overworking, overthinking.  While Brazier will help you eliminate the wrong kind of stressors (including some  you probably did not realize you had), do not think this is a laid-back fitness plan. Quite the contrary, he includes how to sharpen your focus, train your weakness, and sustain your health.  Included is an entire section of performance-building exercises, how to maintain Thrive Fitness while traveling, how to use a mobile gym, and becoming efficient at exercising.  This book is tremendously motivating as Brazier’s own stories of failures and lost experiments are revealed in order to save you the time. This is what he has learned, and most people will find some good solid suggestions for an improvement in how they spend their time, how they nourish their body, and how they replenish themselves.  Given the current state of ill health in our nation, it could not come at a better time.

This book can be a great motivator and includes a host of easy exercises and a few nutritionally dense recipes for recovery from training. A few of the ingredients may have to be ordered, and Brazier does promote his own line of drink supplements, Vega (but suggests alternatives if you do not have Vega); however most ingredients are easy to access and available at traditional markets.  There is a section on key nutrients and a synopsis of each, the benefits and the best sources for them.  Most of the nutrition-dense recipes are drinks or snack bars, but there are also a suggested shopping list and menu plan.  At the back of the book is a question and answer section to help you get started.

Thrive Fitness for Vitality

Better still, Brazier offers to take you through a 30-day journey of support following the reading of the book.  Having participated in his videos, I can assure you they are worth the few minutes it takes to watch them. There is even a forum online to help you stay motivated. Brazier learned that the rest and recovery portion of training is a significant part of improving physical health, vitality, stamina and fitness.  It is one aspect that is often overlooked in our peripatetic lifestyles.  I feel grateful to Mr. Brazier for his willingness to share his own journey, for his wonderful example of healthy, vital vegan living, and for his promotion and support of the products of others that have helped him in his quest.  This book will get you in the groove to maintain those New Year’s Resolutions – and keep you coming back for more.