Never Let Go by Dan John is an account of the life and training philosophies of Dan John, an Olympic weight lifter and discus throw champion. His book is subtitled “A Philosophy of Lifting, Living and Learning.” It is a very appropriate subtitle indeed. Dan John has alot to say and he says it in this book.
He covers a variety of interesting topics. His discussions are all centered around selecting the best training methods for you. There are several things about this book that have stuck in my mind and I discuss those below.
I have always wondered about “cookie cutter” exercise programs. Dan seems to say that you should try different things. Utilize the items around you to do different things. He talks about a guy who wanted to lean up and get stronger, so he took a barbell, 2 45 lb. plates and himself to a track. He set up the barbell and plates on the grass at one end of the track. He then proceeded to do a simple workout that consisted of sprinting a lap, then doing 10 deadlifts. He repeated this 10 times.
Dan then relates how he has done workouts using a hillside and a boulder. He'd roll the boulder up the hill and then let it roll back down. He used this for fat loss.
In this book, Dan makes the case that we should be trying different things to see what works best for our given situation. Everybody is different and they require different stimuli to get the job done. He promotes the exact philosophy I do when I speak about the Experiment of One (thank you, Carlos DeJesus).
I highly recommend that you read this book. It is not a long list of different exercise routines to try. Instead, it is a philosophy of training that you can apply to your own situation in order to achieve fantastic results. This book gets a thumbs up from me!
