Don’t be misled. This book’s satirical title is sorted out in the subtitle: “Untangling Twisted Messages about Health, Fitness, and Happiness.” That’s the task at hand, and Caulfield leaves few myths unassailed.
He predictably takes a hammer to pseudoscience such as homeopathy. As hundreds or maybe thousands of studies have found, it just doesn’t work. But it is heartening to see him also take on stretching, which some still see as a victim of “mixed studies.” In reality, study after study has shown that stretching largely fails at its main goal: injury prevention. Cold stretching before exercise, a staple for sports teams and in physical therapy offices, actually risks injury itself. Caulfield cites a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention review of more than 350 studies on stretching that couldn’t find its elusive benefits.
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