The Maffetone Method: The Holistic, Low-Stress, No-Pain Way to Exceptional Fitness Paperback – August 10, 1999

Lots of low-intensity aerobic exercise is probably more important to your long, healthy, happy, life and Dr. Phil Maffetone will get you there. The book is easy to follow and this book can benefit anyone and everyone, including performance athletes. I first heard above the Maffetone method—MAF—via Kofuzi. While he's a self-described non-elite runner, he still runs quicker than 8-minute miles. So, I picked up the book thinking I would need to adapt a marathon training system for my slow jogging and slow running style. Nope. It's not a running method, it's an aerobic-training method and it has nothing to do with absolute speed, it has to do with putting and keeping your body into your own personal range for as long as you can after you've generously warmed up your body and prepared your heart and before you spend a lot of time cooling down your heart before stopping. So, in a nutshell, let's say I have an hour to go running. With MAF, I would spend my first 20-minutes walking or slow-jogging to give my body some times to warm up, moving my body from resting heartrate to my personal lower end of my MAF range, 105 bpm, and then spend 30-minutes keeping my heartrate between 105-115 bpm, and then, cool down with active recovery and cooldown for another 10-15 minutes. So, like sleeping, which doesn't include the falling asleep and the waking up part in how many hours you've slept: I go to bed at 9 pm and then get up at 7 am but my Fitbit doesn't tell me I slept for 10 hours, it tells me I slept for 7 or 8 hours. Fitbit doesn't include the going to sleep or the getting up at night or the waking up or the halflight of and halfsleep of waking up. So, too, with MAF: I spent an hour out but I really have only run for 30-minutes, at least, though I will take credit for all 60-minutes on Strave. The thing is, there's no stretching just the warming up and the cooling down, to not shock the heart. That's an important reminder for me. I know the 105-115 bpm aerobic range is pretty low but I explain it here" Maffetone is the perfect addition to Slow Jogging. The focus on sustainability, the focus on remaining for as long as possible within my MAF zone, and the focus on warming up and cooling down was a very important learning for me—and it can be mapped and used with any type of athleticism or training or sport or passtime you can imagine, as long as that thing is aerobic: swimming, walking, biking, rowing, erging, running, the treadmill, and the stationary bike. While it does not encourage power-10s or power pieces, it does suggest that it's much better to walk or slow jog or slow run for three hours than it does kill yourself with fartleks and tempo paces for 15-30-minutes. Plus, there's an easy way to test your progress, though only once-a-week. And, like slow jogging and keeping the Niko Niko pace, you'll not always been slow. It's not about remaining slow, it only means that you should never redline your vehicle. As I train at 105-115 bpm, over months and years, my pace and speed—my ability to take load on my frame, on my engine, and on my drivetrain, and on my intake—will improve. So, I might start at an 18-minute-mile pace at first to keep my heartrate below 115 bpm; however, over time, my same 105-115 bpm range will decrease to 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, and maybe even an 8-minute-mile pace, maintaining the same Niko Niko, easy smile, ability to chat or sing to myself, pace. It's brilliant.

I'm someone who has long thought that more is better. And as such I have constantly struggled with plateaus and set backs and feeling like I'm not getting into better shape really -- just grinding myself harder.E.g. I reduced my time on a (hilly) 6.1 mile course from 1:07 to :49. Yes, lost some weight and all, but really felt like I was on the raggedy edge -- stiff and sore and wondering "how many more of these runs do I have in me?"Most of my gains came from just having a better idea of how hard to push and when and just getting better at sucking it up.This book has given me some fresh ideas about how to train in a way that will actually make me healthier and fitter, and not just more of a grinder.The CW always talks about what Maffetone calls the aerobic zone as the "weight loss zone". Well I was never really overweight, so I wasn't too interested in that.Maffetone explains that it is much more than that, it is the zone where your aerobic system can actually improve, thus improving your endurance and work capacity.Having it put in those functional, fitness related terms makes me suddenly willing to work in that zone, and hopefully get the functional gains that I am after.Also, I really had never had anyone articulate the distinction between fit and healthy. I've been that fit/unhealthy person at times, and just couldn't articulate where I was. He expresses the concept very well.The issue I have is that I am a big believer in strength training and want to maintain that part of my training. That will be trick to integrate I think, but the concepts he offers here I think make it possible.So this will obviously require patience to show results. Hopefully I can demonstrate that. The fact that these workouts are not grueling will make that more likely!

I'm 62 and a life long runner. (Ran Boston and 20 other marathons.) I recovered from a very serious illness over a year ago. In November, although I had been working out daily for a year, I still couldn't run more than a few blocks without getting winded. I lost a lot of weight and muscle with my illness. When the weight came back on, even at my normal weight, it was far more fat and much less muscle. So I just pushed harder in my workouts. I didn't improve, didn't lose the fat, didn't feel good and got nowhere.Then I found Phil's book lying around my house. I started reading and it all made so much sense. I SLOWED DOWN although it was so hard for me to run that slow at first. And I changed to a low carb diet for the first time in my life. 3 months later I have leaned up, regained muscle tone and am beginning to be able to increase my pace. I now realize that this illness took a much heavier toll than I imagined and I am being patient and will work my way back in a healthy way. I've bought 3 more copies for my kids. I am very excited about all the new information!