training

I buy lots of fitness and strength training books, and this one is by far the best I've purchased. The book may look small, but it provides an extensive listing of exercises and includes tips about variations that will change how you work each muscle. This is important for a couple of reasons.

To maximize your gains in the gym, you have to constantly change your program so that your body doesn't hit a plateau. Regularly incorporating new exercises will also keep you from becoming bored with your workout. This book will show you how using a rope attachment with the pulley works a different part of the triceps as opposed to doing bench dips or doing a kickback. Also, the illustrations show you the auxiliary muscles that are recruited during compound movements like presses and deadlifts.

At first I was worried that the book might be too much for me to absorb, but it's not because the author does not get overly-technical with the explanations. The text is concise, yet thorough, and the pictures are highly detailed.

This is a wonderful reference book, and I highly recommend it.

I saw this book on the shelf the other day and just had to add it to my library. It is a wonderful collection of full color anatomical illustrations showing strength training exercises (with variations) that targets each of the major muscle groups. The guide is broken down into the following chapters with the number of exercises in each listed in parenthesis : Arms (21), Shoulders (16), Chest (14), Back (18), Legs (18), Buttocks (9), and Abdomen (15). While each illustration focuses mainly on the muscle group involved in the exercise, it does highlight exactly which of these muscles are deriving the benefit of the action (with supplemental pictures augmenting the main drawing). This is an excellent visual reference no matter what your exercise regimen or level of fitness. A welcome addition to my copy of Arnold's Encyclopedia Of Modern Bodybuilding.

This is a great book. It's not an overall workout guide; rather, it gives detailed information on a wide variety of weight exercises, with beautiful anatomical illustrations that show exactly what parts of what muscles are involved in each one. If you're lifting weights and you want to really know what you're doing, this is an absolutely essential reference.