Fit for Eternal Life (Sophia Institute, 2007)

Most any workout book can help you bulk up or slim down, but only here will you find a truly Christian approach to physical fitness. As Catholic psychologist and veteran bodybuilder Kevin Vost (author of Memorize the Faith!) reveals, God’s command to “be perfect” applies not only to our moral life, but also to our bodies. By Him we were “wonderfully made” as creatures corporal and spiritual. The stronger and more enduring we make our bodies, the better we imitate Christ – in whom perfect physical strength, endurance, and beauty were incarnated.

Best of all: it doesn’t take a lot of time, special knowledge, or fancy equipment to do it. Dr. Vost explains the basic principles of strength and endurance training in a way you can understand (even if you haven’t been in a gym for years — or ever), and then helps you assemble an effective, personalized workout program that can be performed in as little as twenty minutes per week, leaving you plenty of time (and energy) to be an active Christian parent, spouse, and disciple.

Fit for Eternal Life also provides:

A revolutionary understanding of fitness as a virtue; how building muscle can build virtue and vice-versa
 

Ways to make your workouts an opportunity to practice prayer, meditation, and meritorious suffering
 

Special guidance for women, older persons, and teens. We’re all called to perfect our bodies!
 

Advice to help you avoid many common fitness pitfalls, from bad form to over-training
 

Fitness wisdom from classical philosophers, athletic popes, and even St. Thomas Aquinas!
 

Sidebars with advanced information and techniques, for when you’re ready to progress beyond the basics

Having a strong and fit physique is not just for a select few. Neither must it be separate from (or worse, opposed to) a life of the spirit. Fit for Eternal Life shows you how to make your Temple healthier, more beautiful, and more zealous in this world, and will help prepare you for everlasting happiness with God in the next.

Memorize the Faith! (Sophia Institute, 2006)

Yes, I know that memorizing the Faith is no substitute for living a holy life, but even devout people can’t live by truths and precepts they don’t remember.

That’s why, over 700 years ago, St. Thomas Aquinas perfected an easy method for his students to memorize most any information, but especially the truths taught by Christ and His Church.

As the years passed, our need for this ancient art of memorization grew, yet somehow our culture largely forgot it . . . which is why today, when you and I try to remember a list of things, we have to repeat their names over and over. Or, to remember to call the dentist, we tie a string on our finger. And we clutch at any means whatsoever to recall our passwords for ATMs, credit cards, and voicemail, our login names for Yahoo, eBay, and Amazon, and the host of other names and numbers that clog our minds and clutter our days.

Now, thanks to the delightful pages of Memorize the Faith!, you can easily keep all these in mind — and learn the Faith! — by tapping into the power of the classical memory system that helped St. Thomas become the Church’s preeminent theologian, and made it easier for him to become one of its greatest saints.

Here, Catholic scholar Kevin Vost makes available again Aquinas’s easy-to-learn method — the method Dr. Vost himself has used for decades to recall names, dates, phone numbers, the first dozen digits of pi (3.141592653589) and even whether, when his wife called him at work today, she asked him to bring home ice cream and toffee . . . or was it truffles and coffee?

Indeed, Dr. Vost will teach you to remember virtually anything, but he devotes most of his book to showing you how to improve your memory of Catholic truths so you can live the Faith better.

By the time you finish this book, you will have memorized dozens of key teachings of the Church, along with hundreds of precepts, traditions, theological terms, Scripture verses, and other elements of the Faith that every good Catholic needs to know by heart.

Memory is the foundation of wisdom. It makes holiness easier. To grow wiser in the Faith . . . and holier . . . turn to Memorize the Faith! today.

Note:

Memorize the Faith! will teach you and your children how to remember anything, but it’s particularly useful to those involved in religious education: catechists and converts, CCD teachers, RCIA members, and homeschoolers of all ages.

Here, Dr. Vost and St. Thomas Aquinas show you easy ways to memorize the following truths and precepts of our Faith, plus many more:

The 9 Beatitudes
 

The 12 Apostles
 

The 7 Virtues
 

The 7 Sacraments
 

The 4 Last Things
 

The 7 Capital Sins
 

The 10 Commandments
 

The 4 Marks of the Church
 

The 14 Stations of the Cross
 

The 5 Precepts of the Church
 

The 7 Gifts of the Holy Spirit
 

The 12 Fruits of the Holy Spirit
 

The 7 Spiritual Works of Mercy
 

The 20 Mysteries of the Rosary
 

The 7 Corporal Works of Mercy
 

The 10 Holy Days of Obligation
 

The 6 Sins Against the Holy Spirit
 

The 5 Proofs for the Existence of God
 

The 27 Books of the New Testament
 

The 46 Books of the Old Testament

And anything else you want to remember, from the 14 items on your grocery list to the birthdays of your 7 nephews and nieces!

FULL RANGE OF MOTIVE (BODYworx, 2001)

 Electronic PDF format only at present.

  Dr. Vost, a psychology professor and competitive strength athlete, explores psychological research and survey material from 15 I.A.R.T. participants, as he discusses training and motivation, adolescent development, physical and mental growth, the peak and beyond, psychological tools for raising weights and growing muscles, self-concept, self-esteem, body image, aging, and more in this PDF format book.

The Influence of Youth on Lifelong Lifting

Full Range of Motive provides a unique perspective in how our perception during youth can influence our motivations to exercise as we get older. The author looks at the issue of role models, from Arnold to Bruce Lee, and how they affect our behaviors and goals. And then there are the myths that prevent people from exercising or admitting they exercise, such as becoming 'muscle-bound' or weak, unathletic, injurious, mindless, narcissistic, or sexually aberrant. But on the other side of the coin is the mistaken belief that so long as you are persistent you can become a champ!

Growing Minds and Bodies

The iron logic of lifting is explored, as the author discusses psychological development, and how a person's intelligence and environmental influences help determine what fitness philosophy one is likely to choose or come to choose. No, not all exercise methodologies are created equal, and neither are our abilities to reason and think rationally, but we all can strive to make the most of the mental and physical potentials we are given.

Life Beyond the Gym

Full Range of Motive speaks on self-concept, self-esteem, self-efficacy, how we perceive ourselves and what all this has to do with our motivations to exercise and our reasons for choosing different methods of exercise. And it is no surprise that those with the greatest work ethics also exercise hard and will do so for decades,  while so many others today continue to drop in and out of a healthy fitness lifestyle. True exercise enthusiasts also have a healthier view of life, work, love and friendship, so that in the end one's aging mind compliments the aging body successfully.

Mind Power

Full Range of Motive provides you several key tools to optimize mental power to achieve larger and stronger muscles. From values to goals to results, learn how and why goals need to be specific, time-limited, difficult, planned, objective, monitored, contextual, and with full commitment.

Full Range of Motive is $25 Canadian, emailed to you directly. No refunds on PDF books. Make certain your email provider can accept this file at 1.1 megs.

(Links for Full ROM  direct you to the IART for ordering.)

 http://www.exercisecertification.com/books/Library/Full-Range-of-Motive.html