Health, fitness, and the optimization of our body have long since taken on cultic dimensions. For some, exercise has even replaced religion. Guido Eckert investigates this obsession with fitness and visits fitness studios across the country, the luxury clubs as well as the muscle factories. In doing so, he not only delivers an unsparing survey with plenty of background details, but also takes a look at all the different types of sportspeople. An entertaining, humorous self-experiment with a cheeky wink that motivates us to stick with our own good resolutions at that.

Guido Eckert is no professional athlete. But for 25 years, he has kept his weaker self at bay. During this long time, he has seen a few trends come and go, has come to know the small, familiar studios as well as the big, shiny temples. And after all this time, he still regards the fitness studio as one of the most fascinating places ever—after all, this is where multiple generations, different walks of life, and all sorts of types meet: from the couch potato and the beauty queen to the fitness guru, from the newbie and the cynic to the obsessed. Guido Eckert describes this microcosm in an entertaining, self-ironic way—and apropos of nothing, he confirms one simple resolution: Stay with it, that’s all it takes.