Exercise and Fitness Books
The exercise and fitness book genre contains about 31,000 titles. There is a large crossover of books with the beauty genre, because a person who exercises is likely to look good and a person who is proud of their appearance has no qualms about going to a gym. There are numerous subcategories of exercise and fitness books, the largest of which are:
Injury prevention
Running and jogging
Pilates
Weight training
Yoga
Do not confuse books about exercise and fitness with the sports genre. Sports books inform about a specific sport and often one aspect of that sport, such as a baseball book about a particular team. Sometimes sports books provide instruction, such as how to play a better round of golf, in which case they may cross into the fitness/ exercise category.
While many books in this genre, especially exercise, are written by authors with a medical background or physical fitness training, a large number of authors base their authority on their personal experience and success in a specific area. One of the top-selling books about running and jogging is 50/50: Secrets I Learned Running 50 Marathons in 50 Days — and How You Too Can Achieve Super Endurance! written by Dean Karnazes, who is known as the “Lance Armstrong” of the running world. Like a number of athletes whose writing skills may be lacking, Karnazes authored the book with Matt Fitzgerald, his collaborator.
