Frank Forencich's latest book Exuberant Animal evolved from his previous publication Play as if Your Life Depends on It. Forencich's basic premise is that the conditions of modern society have removed the essential forms of stimulus that our bodies depend upon to grow and develop. In this new book he examines the animal (or physical) side of our human body, and emphasizes the conditions under which the body thrives or deteriorates.

As scientific investigation and medical research continues to evolve, we seem destined to learn more and more about how our bodies work, and what we need to do to sustain our health. While this may be both insightful and helpful, Forencich questions the true value of this new knowledge, and perhaps most importantly how this insatiable investigative approach leads us away from simpler solutions to today's health challenges. One of Forencich's main concerns is that as we strip down the mystery of the body and translate it into figures, graphs, and statistics, we risk forgetting how our bodies evolved in the first place and the rather simple principles essential for sustaining good health.

Forencich begins by noting that, "It's not easy being an exuberant animal in this modern world." As we all know, modern society places few demands on our need to move. Our homes and communities are filled with "conveniences" that remove physical movement from daily life. We no longer need to hunt and gather for our food. In such an environment it should be no surprise to observe the ongoing deterioration of the human condition. Physical inactivity is killing us, and it's only going to get worse. Forencich points out that not too long ago, infectious disease was the most serious threat to our health and life expectancy. Today, this threat has been replaced by lifestyle disease, a disease of our own making. According to Forencich, we aren't going to solve this problem with conventional thinking. Instead he advocates the need to create a new kind of culture and lifestyle, "one that puts the body back into the center of attention where it belongs."

In the Exuberant Anima, Forencich alternately delves back and forth between his own form of scientific analysis, and entertaining, introspective reasoning. As a strong advocate for returning play into our lives, Forencich devotes one entertaining chapter to an interview he conducts with a respected play expert. When it turns out to be an interview with his own dog Mojo, we gain revealing insights into the close connection between play and good health. Dogs, we learn, possess no knowledge of fitness principles, use no special training equipment, don't follow any specific exercise program, don't listen to fitness experts, pretty much eat what they like, and still manage to stay healthy. Mojo sums up his advice by noting, "We're all animals."

Forencich encourages us to look for ways to return to the behaviors that sustain all animals. He encourages us to go outdoors and to get back in touch with our humanness, rather than viewing our bodies as we do our automobiles - something to periodically tune up and service. The Exuberant Animal is an entertaining read. Sometimes the scientific facts can get a bit overwhelming, but each chapter stimulates a new way of thinking about what's happening to our health, and the inevitable long-term consequences of our current passive lifestyles. The Exuberant Animal is a book for anyone puzzled about how we're going to solve today's crisis of inactivity and poor nutrition.

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