Brendan Brazier's Thrive Fitness: thoughts or reviews?

[Marcel]

Any on board using Brendan Brazier's "Thrive Fitness"?

I love his first book "Thrive" as it's really changed the way I look at food in relation to my workouts.
However, I have some mixed feelings about his "Thrive Fitness". I've mashed it up with my own evolving routine and have been getting some good results. I like the exercises he's got in there and I really enjoy his differentiation of productive and unproductive stress. I also like his emphasis on hitting deep sleep for faster physical and mental recovery from exercise stress.

While I wouldn't call the book revolutionary, I do enjoy it. On the other hand, I'm not sure about how he's laid out his exercise routines (maybe it's just not what I'm accustomed to) and I'm not satisfied with his explanations about what his chosen exercises are ultimately doing for you.

Anyone have any thoughts on his publications?

BTW, I don't use any of his Vega products. I might if they were available in Japan--but I doubt it.

[MikayP]

i wrote a review for amazon and ill just copy it here

"I love his first book "thrive diet" and live by it daily. So due to this i bought this book as a serious endurance athlete who wishes to learn more.

Now although they can be related, being a vegan is basically about diet in my view. Exercise is another lifestyle. So although I didn't think about it when I bought the book, a "vegan based training program" doesn't really make sense. Should have been labeled something like "a training program with a vegan diet" which is more straightforward saying that they are not the same.

It might have been my fault to assume, but I was thinking/hoping that this book would be how be became a professional triathlete and how he trained the most efficiently as an endurance athlete. My fault to assume, but it's basically how to workout at home with body resistance routines. Which helps as an endurance athlete, but not the most useful to buy a book for.

If you read his first book, the first 1/3 of this book is basically a waste. It's repeating what he said in the first book about "why a plant based diet is better for performance", but in less detail due to him needing to talk about new things in the remaining pages.

Some of the info thats new is helpful. He talks about many different things when it comes to becoming in better fitness shape. The problem with the book however is that each topic is very short and he doesn't go into detail due to his need to talk about many things.

Although I love how his first book really helped me and changed the way I fuel my body, this one is really a waste. Few things are new and minimally useful, but overall none of the diet stuff is really new. All the stuff he talks about in this book is in the first book, but in less detail.

I watched interviews of him before, and every question he tried to spin it into talking about his food line "Vega". Due to this I didn't buy his first book till I asked someone and they said that his recipes, in the first book, gave every ingredient that he used and didn't just say "use Vega + fruit". In this book unfortunately many of his recipes are just vega + a banana smoothie. And whenever he had the chance he seemed to plug his food line. If I knew that this was the case I wouldn't have bought the book at all due to the fact of him trying to sell something else after I spent my money on his book.

Take my advice, buy his first book and get another book that is targeted to the sport of your choice which is more detailed than this. "


ive recently started using vega just out of more ease, but using the recovery smoothies in his first book are just as good

[Marcel]

MikayP--perhaps you'll be pleased to know that I read your review on Amazon a few weeks ago in my search for other folks' views.

Many of the pro-vegan / vegetarian web sites that covered "Thrive Fitness" seem to have nothing but positive reviews with identical talking points. I honestly wonder just how many of the reviewers actually read the book. Similar to your complaint, I'm dissatisfied with the lack of going deep into the subjects that he covers. I find this particularly ironic as he states in the book how important it is to have a thorough understanding of your training exercises.

I don't regret the purchase as I did get a few positive things from the book, but having read it it seems as though he could have tried a little harder in providing more details about the requirements for outstanding endurance training and performance. This book pales in comparison to the game-changing excellence of the original "Thrive" book.

[MikayP]

ya very true. compared to his first book the second was a dud, but had some useful points. i scrim through it from time to time to get some info, but i still use the old one a lot more. i love that he made a detailed index in both...has been very useful.

i wouldnt be surprised if a lot of people who liked the book didnt read the first one. the most popular amazon review sounds like someone from the publishing company

apparently hes writing another book now about environmental issues

glad you, and others read my review. i dont really do book reviews, but thought people should read from another persons opinion.

[Rach]

I got this book the other day. Have tried a few recipes: blueberry pancakes and the walnut burgers. Am a bit wary of the amount of fat- (fry in coconut oil) as have been eating low fat to lose weight. Also thought how is a burger and a salad going to fill me up? (I am pretty greedy!) My pleasant suprise was that one pancake kept me filled for hours and the burger and a green salad also did the job admirably. Too early to say if the programme will help with fat loss but am going to give it a few weeks combined with plenty of activity. The pre and post exercise snacks look promising.

On a related note, realised I had nothing to grind flaxseeds- bought a Delonghi coffee grinder from Argos for £20 and it does a brilliant job.

[Roddy]

I'm following the fitness part of the program in this book, in week 5 now and seem to be making a lot of improvement. My friend who is a trained gymnast was a little warey of some of the excersises that he recomends though.

this is the first time I have ever followed an excersise program so can anyone here tell me if this one is good/bad and ways it could be better?

as for the diet part, I've switched to a lot of raw stuff but still eating 1 hot meal per day if I'm at home

what is different aout the first book, should I get it if I think the second one is good?

[Konstantin]

The Thrive Diet is the one I got, and I like it. The recipies are good and tasty and the logical approach to food makes the nutrition practical and effective. I've improved a bit while following it but this has been due to a variety of factors, I think Thrive played a part.

I don't stick to the diet plan, I use some of the foods. But the pizzas are excellemnt and make a portable readily available, very healthy food for me to take to lunch and use when I'm in a hurry (assuming I made some recently). The pudding made of dates, sunflower seeds and rice is suprisingly good too. I've got both for lunch today.