If you want your book to join the best books in health and fitness you’ve come to the right place. The health and fitness industry is alive and well, and extends from the influencers on TikTok to the credentialed authors whose books sell in the millions.
However, it’s not just books that bring in revenue, but the industry as a whole. In 2022 the market size of the gym, health, and fitness clubs were said to be $30.6 billion.
So what is it that makes the best books in health and fitness? What are some factors you should understand as you seek to write your next book? In this article, I break down each question and provide a list of the top thirteen best books in health and fitness.
Let’s dive into the various aspects you can consider for your own project. While each author should incorporate their own unique voice and perspective to their writing, there are a handful of factors that can aid in your sales and overall impact.
Table of Contents
What Makes The Best Books In Health And Fitness Unique?
Like most books, whether fiction or nonfiction, what makes for the best books in health and fitness is often their ability to articulate not just a need but describe an accessible answer. Let’s discuss this in a bit of further detail.
Health and fitness is an extremely broad category that reaches millions of readers. The trick to writing one of the best books in health and fitness is targeting the one key reader, rather than the broad audience.
Marketers teach the importance of targeting an individual rather than a crowd, and the same is true for health and fitness books. The better you can articulate a key issue (adding muscle tone, losing weight, a change in diet, etc.) and then provide a doable way to combat this struggle, the more likely you are to stand out.
Contributing Factors To Standout In Health And Fitness
If you plan to enter the world of health and fitness, or already maintain an active presence, you likely understand the importance of establishing your credibility.
For instance, when you scroll through social media fitness influencers online or watch their videos, you likely hear them preface their content with something along the lines of, “I am not a (fill in the blank) and these tips are simply what work for me. This video is intended for educational purposes only.”
This leads us into our first contributing factor to stand out among other health and fitness writers.
#1 – Credentialed Author
Your road to publishing a book with the potential to become one of the best books in health and fitness heavily relies on your credibility. Before you say, “I’m not a doctor, I guess I’m not credentialed,” pause.
If you have a unique story of how your personal choices impacted your overall health and fitness, you do have a certain level of credibility. Additionally, if you earned your doctorate in the medical field, include this credential upfront in your book. Many front covers of the best health and fitness books include the author’s credentials right alongside their name.
#2 – Broad View With Detailed Help
On the topic of credentials, you likely desire to help as many individuals as possible, while also creating personalized help for each reader. This is a fantastic goal, but can be difficult to execute.
If you reach 100,000 readers, how do you provide specified help for each one? This is one of the key factors that sets the best books in health and fitness apart. Start broad (for instance, how to gain muscle mass), and then move into various, detailed programs on how to do so.
#3 – Niche Focus
The more you niche down the more likely you are to draw in a specific audience. For example, let’s say you are a medical doctor who specializes in OB-GYN and wants to help mothers stay healthy and strong during pregnancy. This specified focus will help you reach the correct audiences by providing parameters as to who you market to.
Additionally, if you want to write a book on your own journey from an unhealthy individual to a marathon runner, you will target an entirely different audience. Your niche largely determines not just your marketing efforts, but the tone and voice you use to write your book.
List Of 13 Iconic Health And Fitness Books
You now have a brief overview of the importance of credibility and how to target a large audience while also helping individuals. Now it’s time to browse through a list of some of the best books in health and fitness! Please note that this list is intended to help start you on your reading journey, and is by no means exhaustive.
- No Sweat, Michelle Segar
- Thinner Leaner Stronger, Michael Matthews
- The Little Black Book of Workout Motivation, Michael Matthews
- The 1-Minute Workout, Martin Gibala
- Glute Lab, Glen Cordoza
- The Fitness Mindset, Brian Keane
- Academy Of Nutrition And Dietetics, Roberta Larson Duyff
- Built From Broken, Scott Hogan
- Digestive Wellness, Elizabeth Lipski
- The Mind-Gut Connection, Emeran Mayer
- The 5AM Club, Robin Sharma
- Why We Sleep, Matthew Walker
- Keep Sharp, Sanjay Gupta
Whether you are looking for inspiration on digestive wellness (Elizabeth Lipski) or passionate about the role sleep plays in our overall health (Matthew Walker), this list can provide inspiration for your work-in-progress.
Health and fitness cover an extremely broad spectrum. Versing yourself in what’s out there, what the common needs are, and the angles that authors have taken will help you come up with the unique factor you have to offer. Are you writing:
- From personal experience?
- With a medical degree to back you?
- To encourage a healthy dietary lifestyle?
- To speak to the issue of lack of sleep?
Once you can articulate what it is you want to write and why, as well as read what has been written on the topic, you will have equipped yourself to begin your own writing. Great writers read great books, and this list can get you started.
Writing Yours: Next Steps As You Enter The Health And Fitness Genre
There are innumerable books in the health and fitness genre, but this doesn’t mean there isn’t a place for yours. Every writer has the potential of impacting different readers and speaking to needs in a unique way.
- Maybe you suffered an injury that impacts you today, but you found you could still pursue a fitness lifestyle through low impact workouts such as pilates.
- Maybe you worked as a high school science teacher and want to instill the value of proper nutrition in today’s young adults.
- Or maybe you work as a personal trainer and know you could impact so many more people with a book.
Whatever your story is, there is a place for you in health and fitness. You never know, if you commit to writing and publishing your manuscript, you may see your book listed among the best books in health and fitness one day.
For guidance on how to write your book, check out the free resource below, and don’t forget to book a call with a publishing strategist if you’d like personalized help!