Books we’ve read and recommend

Don’t know about you, but when we find a book we’ve been inspired by, we invariably want to share it with our mates so they can reap the benefits too. So we’ve gathered a few here that have given us inspiration — and if there’s any you think should be on the list, that YOU’d like to share with everyone out there, let us know…

Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor

We all know how to breathe, right? Well… no, actually.

There’s nothing more essential to our health and wellbeing than breathing: take air in, let it out, repeat 25,000 times a day. But somewhere along the way, human beings have lost the ability to breathe correctly, with grave consequences. In his quest to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it, journalist James Nestor has travelled the world, looking at the hidden science behind ancient breathing practices and diving into the latest research.

He found that even making slight adjustments to the way we inhale and exhale can ‘jump-start athletic performance, rejuvenate internal organs, halt snoring, allergies, asthma and autoimmune disease, and even straighten scoliotic spines’ and if that doesn’t get your attention we don’t know what will. Read this fascinating book and you will never breathe the same again.

Click here to find out more about James, his books and podcasts.

Published by Penguin Books Ltd. ISBN: 9780241289129

The 4 Pillar Plan by Dr Rangan Chatterjee

Rangan Chattergee offers advice on how we can Relax, Eat Move and Sleep our way to a longer, healthier life. As outdoorsy types with a general tendency towards health and fitness, we all know how much our lifestyles can affect our health, but sometimes we’re so busy training for that next challenge, or just forgetting our bodies aren’t quite as young as they were, the smaller stuff gets overlooked. And even making just small everyday changes to how we live can keep us healthier and prevent, and even reverse, illness.

Based on cutting edge research and his own experiences as a doctor, this book contains fascinating case studies from real patients. Practical and potentially life-changing.

Click here for more about Dr Chattergee, his books and podcasts.

Published by Penguin Books Ltd. ISBN: 9780241303559

The Stress Solution by Dr Rangan Chattergee

Continuing his 4-step theme, Rangan Chattergee gives us four steps to reset our Body, Mind, Relationships and Purpose. He identifies the key stresses in everyday life, offering ways you can take back control and lead a more fulfilled, calmer life. Once again, packed with personal accounts and patient cases, this book is a potential blueprint on how to live stress-free in the modern world.

Published by Penguin Books Ltd. ISBN: 9780241317945

Yoga for the Inflexible Male

Keeping fit enough for mountain rescue is all very well but all that running, cycling and walking up hills can shorten hamstrings, tighten IT bands and generally exert unwanted pressure and tension in other parts of the body — and if you’re regularly carrying heavy rucksacks or taking your share of the stretcher carry, or crawling face-down through skinny gaps underground, it’s odds-on you’ll be feeling a bit of tension in the neck, back and shoulders too.

And if you’re a bloke, you might think yoga isn’t for you. But give it a whizz and you might just find some of those tensions releasing. It might even make you climb better. Or run faster. Whatever it is that gives you that buzz. This book is aimed at ‘the weekend warrior, the amateur athlete or anyone in need of more flexibility and less stress’ . If that’s you, it’s packed with handy drawings for every pose, full of genuine yoga wisdom to make the ‘yoga bit’ a bit more palatable. Gotta be worth a try?

Published by Random House USA Inc. ISBN: 9781984856944

The Lazarus Strategy by Dr Norman Lazarus

We’re all living longer but there’s no guarantee that those extra years will be quite the gift we’d hoped for. Many of us will find ourselves faced with diseases, dependent on non-curative drug treatments and health carers. Eighty-four-year-old Dr Norman Lazarus guides us through his own research and experience as a medical doctor, living proof that the decision of how we age is in our own hands. It’s aimed at the 50+ age group — an older age that might seem a distant horizon now, but it’s here sooner than you think — and it’s never too early to start making simple lifestyle changes to help us enjoy ‘active, productive, medication-free and independent golden years’. Recommended!

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN: 9781529375206