A conversation with Nigel Holmes about Let’s Get Infografit
As an 83-year-old information graphics designer, why write a book about exercise?!
Designers are generally a rather sedentary lot, sitting at our computers for hours at a time. We get rusty. In my previous book Joyful Infographics, the introductory chapter was a slightly tongue-in-cheek reference to this, entitled “Warming Up.” It was a gentle prod for us to get up and stretch a bit, showing some simple exercises, and I got many comments about this part of the book, so I wondered if a whole book about exercise graphics might work out (pun sort of intended). Over the years I had done lots of diagrams for magazines such as Sports Illustrated, and GQ, and others, so I had a backlog of graphic explanations of stretching, running, cycling, and swimming, which formed a good basis for the main chapter in a book about getting (or staying) fit, at any age.
The book includes a section on nutrition. Are you qualified to write about that?
No! But what you eat—and how much of it—is an important element in the “fit” part of the title, so I interviewed the noted nutritionist Marion Nestle, Public Health Emerita at New York University, and she kindly agreed to check what I wrote about nutrition and food in general. Nor am I qualified to discuss the physical and anatomical aspects of exercise, and the potential injuries, so I interviewed an emergency room doctor, and a trainer from my local gymnasium, and they gave lots of valuable help. The comments of these three experts are dotted throughout text where needed.
What else is in the book?
I had worked on the graphics for an at-home exercise program that the consulting doctor, Phillip Kasofsky, had developed a few years ago. That program is one complete chapter. Other chapters show the history of exercise graphics, from runners drawn on Greek vases, to Victorian exercise manuals (where everyone is ridiculously overdressed), and on up to the present. Then there’s a section on anatomy and muscles; what a group of my fellow designers do for exercise (if any!), illustrated by themselves; what can go wrong if you overdo it; a look at what the future might bring, with Ai and longevity theories. The book ends with a mix of wacky bicycles; how to exercise your tongue; and finally a list of long-lived comedians, indicating that a sense of humor always helps.
The title, Let’s Get Infografit might imply this is just for designers (and possibly just lazy designers!). Who else should read it?
Well, lots of people other than designers sit at desks all day. Or hate the very idea of exercise. Or are shy about being seen at a gym. The book shows different approaches to staying fit for anyone, and hopes that everyone will enjoy doing it—If a book can hope. It’s not an exercise manual (although plenty of different ways to move are included) and the casual, non-academic writing style encourages, rather than commands, readers to get up and move around a bit more than they usually do. You don’t need to take 10,000 steps every day. (I tell you where that number comes from. Hint: it’s not scientific!)
Most people seem to agree that you feel better when you move your body. This book is a good, friendly start!