This book has everything you need to know to develop a successful weightlifting program without spending $1,000-$3,000 on equipment.
I just got this book in the mail yesterday and even though I got home late, I couldn't put it down. I have been running, cycling and XC skiing for almost a year with the aid of the Covert Bailey books, and I recently brought out my old 80-lb. weight set from Christmas 1985. I was using the manual that came with the weights and a Bowflex training guide from the Internet to develop a workout that reached all of the muscles. I was sure going about it the wrong way.
The book first explains all of the muscles in-depth, even giving examples of motions that show their use. Then comes the equipment section beginning with items you already have in your house (milk jugs) up to thousand-dollar equipment. They help you identify your goals and discuss training plans to achieve them.
The next sections include exercises (beginner, intermediate, advanced) for ALL the muscle groups in your body sorted by equipment type: body-weight only, dumbbells, barbells, and multistation-machines. If you have a combination like me (body weight, dumbbells, barbells investment of $250) there is a chapter on using them together. At the end there are actual charts of exercises for you to use. I am putting together a program for myself and am looking forward to increased effectiveness in my weight training.
This book gets high marks for making explicit what its goal is -home workouts -and then delivering on that. While the focus is on home workouts, it offers enough information to be useful as your primary workout book, regardless of venue. The authors offer divide the exercises into major sections, depending on what kind of equipment you have at your disposal: no weights at all (i.e. use bodyweight only and makeshift weights from things found around the house), dumbbells, barbells, and exercise machine. This is great because it makes it easy to come up with a temporary workout plan for that week you're on vacation and don't have access to your normal equipment. They tell you how to create a workout plan, taking full advantage of periodization. They include tons of exercises for you to pick from when constructing your plan. If you don't feel up to creating your own plan they offer several pre-made ones with different focuses.
It isn't perfect, however, there is certainly room for improvement. When discussing individual exercises I wish they did a better job of showing how the variations affect what parts of the muscle are exercised. For instance, I think that hammer curls are supposed to work your biceps differently than standard curls but there is no mention of that kind of thing in most exercises. That inclusion would make constructing your own work out routines even easier.
The structure of the book leaves a little to be desired as well. It felt that some things -like whether to work to failure -aren't introduced as early as they should be. The result is you really should read (or at least skim) the book from cover to cover before setting out. A little bit tighter structure would make it easier to just skip to the section you care about.
There is also not much mention of supplements although given the somewhat controversial nature of their efficacy and the target of the book (I would guess that people who workout at home are somewhat less hard-core than those who go to a gym) it is understandable.
Overall, though, this is an excellent resource. It has both breadth and depth, making it a great single-volume resource on working out.
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I am not an exercise nut. I am a lawyer and a family person. I just don't have a lot of time to devote to working out, and if I am at my kid's school for lunch, I'll eat the birthday cake and ice cream. I was looking for a practical book that I could use to improve the weights workout I had been doing for several months, but would allow me to spend no more than an hour or so in the gym every day. This book delivered and revolutionized my routine.
When I first got the book 6 months ago, I read through the descriptions of muscle development and the comparative benefits of different types of exercise, ie: Dumbbells, barbells, cable machines and I found the basic information amazingly useful. My lifting routine became much different than the other regulars at the gym and I found that for the first time in a LONG time, I was beginning to notice results. Eventually, I began to notice other lifters drifting away from the machines and towards the dumbbells they began to do routines similar to mine.
Although all of the above made me happy, it was not what prompted me to write this review. Recently, I began to do the exact routines for muscle development that the book recommends. I feel like I have had a shot in the arm. My workouts have suddenly become dramatically more effective. I felt sore in places I had not felt sore in almost a year. My core is intensely stronger and my shoulders, legs and arms are beginning to grow again even at my age and with my busy work and family schedule.
If you are one of those guys who hangs out in the gym talking to your buddies and maybe doing a single set of bench press, this is not the book for you. If you are looking for an intense, full body, healthy workout that builds solid muscle, but is devoid of hype, this is the book for you.
Get ready to move up a shirt size.
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Many exercises described in this book are unique in their efficacy of strengthening and their unfamiliarity to most fitness trainers in the western hemisphere. Examples of these exercises that make this book invaluable are:
1Behind-the-knee deadlift (named as "hack squat").
2Step-up with barbell on an elevated platform.
3Overhead shoulder shrugging and overhead squat.
4Jump squat, Good Morning. Power Clean, and Muscle Snatch.
5Bulgarian split squat on a chair
6One-legged squat without weights.
7Exercising with household objects such as a galloon of water bottle and chairs.
Other positive features in the book are:
1One of the authors demonstrates all the exercises in person, which proves his practical experience, with only few flaws such as rounded lower back during dumbbell-Clean and good morning bending. This guy carries the facial features of Al Gore, with his lack of smile and unwarranted seriousness.
2The exercises are categorized in four major groups that simplify their applicability. These are exercises with own bodyweight, dumbbells' exercises, barbell exercises, and Plyometrics and stretches. Each group contains exercises that emphasize midsection, shoulders and back, arms, and legs.
3The book text is simple and mostly accurate, except in few places such as the author's claim that wrist-wraps solve the wrist pain during front-squat. This is bogus. Also, the muscle anatomy chapter is accurate and simple, showing only the superficial muscles. It omits important muscles such as the Serratus anterior, coracobrachialis, Rhomboideus, and lavatory scapulae. The Serratus muscle in particular is very important to know in bodybuilding since it is often paralyzed with lifting heavy dumbbells without warming up through pinching of the long thoracic nerve.
The major drawbacks of the book are:
1The exercise-sequence is flawed and could cause many physical injures. The author does not warn against indulging in extremely intense exercises without proper local warming up of the relevant muscles. Most of his plans start with abdominal exercises and end up with calve exercises. Abdominal stressing prior to lower back warming up could lead to spinal disc herniation. Also, you do not need to exercise your abdominal muscles in redundancy. If you run for example, then your abdominal muscles are already worked out and there is no need to double the work unless you have specific explanation.
2Many exercises are improperly thrown in a sequence that does not sound practical or efficient. The shoulder Press for example is assigned to separate exercise from the Clean, while both should be combined in a single compound exercise.
3Although the aggregation of the exercises is versatile and thoughtful, the author fails to prioritize them according to the frequency of their application. The Clean, Squat, and Shoulder Press, for example should be practiced on daily basis, while the side lunges are for individual needs and only should be inserted when the collateral ligaments of the knees need be stressed.
4The high level of the author's fitness and occupation with exercise diversity may work against him. He could expose himself and others to injuries by such expansive scope of exercises. School students should not repeat such mistake of distractive exercising, but rather learn how to choose exercises with high yield and complex performance.
5All exercises are described at the "Start" and "Finish" phases without any hints on the relevant anatomical function. For example, the author does not warn against caving in the chest while squatting, pressing the barbell off-vertical while performing overhead pressing, or tightening the lower back during lifting from the floor.
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This is a traditional, intro pumping iron book for men. The only slight twist is, as the title says, it's for men looking to workout at home, not the club. My wife and I have both read it and this is our combined feedback ("" for additional feedback).
Our 3 star rating is actually an average. I give it 3.5 and she gives it 2.5.
To be blunt, in our oppinion the book is targetted at men with little or no weightlifting experience and are interested in doing a "body make-over" to become the chick-magnet they always knew they could be. To us, it's not a health and fitness book but an intro pumping iron book. If you are self-motivated, respond well to setting a goal and working hard to achieve it, this may be the perfect book for you and might rate it higher.
Positive: We like the honesty by the authors, especially regarding the costs involved in acquiring your own fitness equipment. They don't sugar coat it. The compendium of resistence exercises (half the book)is excellent, a good reference, particularly for men. The book is a good valuethere is a lot of informative content, not like some books we've seen that are little more than fluff and pretty pictures between two covers. The book provides about 60 pages of various progress chart templates to get you started and progressing.
Negative: It's not really a "workout bible." Little attention is given to anything but pumping iron. Again, we're not talking long-haul health and fitness so much as building a beef-cake temple. It seems to be written with the assumption the reader has a fair amount of money and time to burn (some people do, most don't). It doesn't provide much help dealing with the real-world challenge of motivation beyond the first two weeks. We're afraid a lot of people will spend a bunch of money on equipment and then watch it collect dust after the first two weeks of euphoria passes. The misses quickly tired of the macho and sexist writing style. But it is from the people of MENS HEALTH magazine, after all! (She's right. They lay it on too thick for my taste as well). The attempts at humor could also be eliminated.
In summary, a useful book for a relatively narrow audience, or one to add to a fitness library for its compendium of resistence exercises.
Hope this feedback helps you in your buying decision!
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I recently had arthroscopic knee surgery and although I had professional therapy afterwards I was looking for a book I could refer to and perhaps learn more about the knee. I had to wait for this book to be published as it was brand new, but well worth the wait. It is clearly written and has loads of information on the knee and ways to protect it and strengthen it. I highly recommend it.
