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Lee Ness

Lee Ness

About

Lee Ness writes both fiction and non-fiction books and non-fiction articles. 
He has a historical fiction series set around the Olympics in Ancient Greece circa 440BC and a technological thriller called D.E.M. - Deus Ex Machina.
His first book The Sports Motivation Master Plan passes on the experience of many years coaching athletes in multiple sports.
Lee's articles appear in Athletics Weekly, on speedendurance.com and on stack.com. Lee is head coach at City of Salisbury Athletics and Running Club and was Wiltshire Sport Coach of the Year in 2014.

Learning to Breathe Fire: The Rise of CrossFit and the Primal Future of Fitness

Learning to Breathe Fire: The Rise of CrossFit and the Primal Future of Fitness

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Description

<p><b>The absorbing, definitive account of CrossFit's origins, its explosive grassroots growth, and its emergence as a global phenomenon.</b><br /> <br />One of the most illuminating books ever on a sports subculture, <i>Learning to Breathe Fire </i>combines vivid sports writing with a thoughtful meditation on what it means to be human. In the book, veteran journalist J.C. Herz explains the science of maximum effort, why the modern gym fails an obese society, and the psychic rewards of ending up on the floor feeling as though you're about to die. <br /> <br />The story traces CrossFit’s rise, from a single underground gym in Santa Cruz to its adoption as the workout of choice for elite special forces, firefighters and cops, to its popularity as the go-to fitness routine for regular Joes and Janes. Especially riveting is Herz’s description of The CrossFit Games, which begin as an informal throw-down on a California ranch and evolve into a televised global proving ground for the fittest men and women on Earth, as well as hundreds of thousands of lesser mortals. <br /> <br />In her portrayal of the sport's star athletes, its passionate coaches and its “chief armorer,” Rogue Fitness, Herz powerfully evokes the uniqueness of a fitness culture that  cultivates primal fierceness in average people. And in the shared ordeal of an all-consuming workout, she unearths the ritual intensity that's been with us since humans invented sports, showing us how, on a deep level, we're all tribal hunters and first responders, waiting for the signal to go all-out. </p>

Story Behind The Book

A long time ago, when I first started managing people, our HR Manager pulled me aside and gave me a piece of advice that not only have I never forgotten, but has proven true time and time again. "No good turn goes unpunished" Many years later, when I had finished the first of my Greek novels, I decided to write a short story based on that piece of advice. I wrote the story and ended it with a cliff hanger. The thing was, I engaged with the two characters so well, Rachel the protagonist and D.E.M. the mysterious vigilante, that I wanted to continue. This book came from that. The first chapter is the original short story that I wrote.

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Reviews

<p style="border:0px;font-family:Lato, sans-serif;font-size:16px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(43,43,43);line-height:24px;"><em style="border:0px;font-family:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;">“This is a tremendous hacker novel that is written in terms that the average reader can understand.” – (5 Stars)</em></p> <p style="border:0px;font-family:Lato, sans-serif;font-size:16px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(43,43,43);line-height:24px;"><em style="border:0px;font-family:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;">“More story than that would be difficult to condense into a novel of just over 300 pages” – (5 Stars)</em></p> <p style="border:0px;font-family:Lato, sans-serif;font-size:16px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(43,43,43);line-height:24px;"><em style="border:0px;font-family:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;">“Excellent storyline – can’t wait for the sequel” – (5 Stars)</em></p> <p style="border:0px;font-family:Lato, sans-serif;font-size:16px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(43,43,43);line-height:24px;"><em style="border:0px;font-family:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;">“This book grabs your attention from the first page. Intriguing, well crafted, easy to read and even funny at times!” – (5 Stars)</em></p>