A personal, historical, scientific perspective on strength and personal training

Strength Beyond the Horizon

The missing fundamentals of strength training: a personal, historical, scientific and philosophical look at what exercise education has overlooked, and what it takes to build strength that protects your joints for life.

Strength Beyond the Horizon book cover

Inside the book

What has been missing from strength training since the beginning.

Strength Beyond the Horizon portrays the missing fundamentals that exercise academics have ignored since the nineteenth century, written in easy-to-understand language for anyone who exercises in any way.

The book explains the muscular mechanics that bridge the gap between our nerves and bones, and the resistance mechanics that act on them. Without these foundations, fitness rests on misconceptions and hyperbole. It is for anyone who enjoys recreation of any kind, from taking a walk to working out in a gym to competing in sports, and most of all for the leaders and influencers of the health and fitness community who can link customized, unbiased strength to fitness and health.

Grounded in clear physical science, the book reveals the missing internal preparation that protects passive connective tissues like ligaments and cartilage by strengthening their active counterparts, muscle cells and tendons. Readers discover why balancing the tension inside the body with the resistance outside it is essential, so tendons can transmit tension from muscle to bone and create controlled, well-balanced joint mobility. This inside-out organization preserves the natural order of joint forces, a protective safety net for lifelong orthopedic health.

As that foundation develops, strength training moves beyond instinct-driven, simulated displays of effort and becomes a well-coordinated body-brain-mind coalition of muscle fiber and tendon strength. Training becomes intentional, intelligent and responsive, with resistance customized to match each person's momentary ability.

Whether you are new to exercise, returning from a setback, striving for higher performance or guiding others professionally, the book was written to illuminate four things: what has been missing from every kind of strength and conditioning process, including personal training education; the reasons for that disregard; the real meaning of strength; and the education that teaches the otherwise missing tools for increasing strength without the traditional risk of orthopedic harm.

Please note: this is not a how-to book. It is an eye-opener to existing fantasies versus the benefits of recognizing reality.

The author

Meet Eric Alan Glickstein, RTSm®

Eric Alan Glickstein

Eric A. Glickstein

The only nominals after Eric Alan Glickstein's name are RTSm®, mastery-level Resistance Training Specialists®, a lifetime commitment to the study of resistance training. It is the highest level of exercise-related education he knows of, and the lack of familiarity with those letters was the impetus for this book.

A strength-training prodigy, Eric was inventing his own exercises by age eight. He learned from powerlifters at a neighborhood YMCA, from bodybuilding champion Sergio Oliva, and from Dr. Paul Ward of the Health and Tennis Corporation of America. In 1979 he became conditioning coach for the Arizona State University swim team, and he later created what he describes as the first computerized resistance training program, recognized by NASM founder Dr. Robert Goldman.

At NASM he met biomechanics instructor Tom Purvis, founder of Resistance Training Specialists®, who appointed him a hands-on instructor. That path led to his first book, The Sarcomatrix of Exercise (2024, Hawes and Jenkins), and to this one.

Questions about strength training? Eric is always glad to talk. Reach out below.

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$37.00 shipping included  ·  ISBN 979-8-951795-85-4

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