Average Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
Total Number of Reviews: 111
Editorial Review: Exercise ain't easy. The body is a complicated machine, with 650 muscles and 250 million individual muscle fibers. Some would say taming those fibers and building strong, healthy muscles is not an act of labor. Some would say it's an art. Here's a book worthy of that art. The Men's Health Book of Muscle is the big, lavishly illustrated, full-color coffee table book that only Men's Health could produce-one that doubles as the ultimate guide to building a better body. The goal of The Book of Muscle is simple: create a beautiful, artistic guide to the body that also helps guys build great physiques by showing in detail how muscles work and how that knowledge can be put to use. Inside, you'll find lush anatomical illustrations and photographs of a quality that no other book on fitness can match. You'll also find complex biological information, boiled down to language any guy can understand, and three 6-month workout programs, one each for beginner, intermediate, and advanced lifters. It's big muscles, big benefit, and beautiful all at the same time. It's the book you've always wanted from the guys at Men's Health, the fitness experts you trust.
the book of muscle 4 out of 5
This book is easier to navigat then others that I have checked out. The beginning of the book is a lot of information on the muscles themselves. . .names, types, etc. I read it in an evening and found it interesting enough. There'a a short section on diet, and then a detailed description of the exercises with pictures. This is VERY helpfull when trying new things like the thin stomach. Sounds strange, but believe me, if you try to do ten or twelve, you'll learn to respect it. After that comes the workout schedules in detail. It's quite different from the way I was used to working out. Triceps and biceps on the same day? He advocates working opposing muscles on the same day. Seemed a strange idea, but hey, it works. Also there's the use of tempo, 278. That's lower the weight for three seconds, rest for two, then lift for one (basically as fast as you can. Try a bench press with a 613 tempo for a few reps. I went to the doctor for a yearly physical (the first in a long time), and found out my cholesterol and blood presure were high. I really didn't want to start taking drugs, so decided to get back in shape. To make a long story short, this book has a detailed work out plan that helped me to drop my cholesterol from 230 to 229 in about fourteen weeks. The workouts have to be a part of a generaly healthfull life style. You have to eat right, and get a little cardio in as well. I do find it extreamly helpfull that this book presents a schedule to follow, and changes every three weeks. The workouts are separated into beginner intermidiate and advanced, each lasting about six months with rest weeks recommended at periodic intervals. I started with the intermidiate level and found it challenging but doable. Each workout (three different workouts done once per week) takes me a little over an hour.
Good Book. I believe you won't get disappointed 5 out of 5
I'll try to be as short and direct as possible.
If you are very curious as me and are used to read A LOT about this sport.... still so, I believe, this book is going to be useful for you.
But if you never read anything about it... then this is going to be a very good start for you.
I am still reading it and I am happy with what I am reading till now.
Bye
not a good book 2 out of 5
This book explain you how muscle work and what kind of muscle we got in the body.
Very helpful book for improving your body 5 out of 5
If you follow the methods and workout plans as laid out in this book, remain mindful of your nutrition, and stay the course, you will build the best body you have ever had, period. Unlike the flash, glitz and glimmer of the bodybuilding mags and their steriod-enhanced models and hardcore freaks, this book will allow you to construct a tight, well-defined, athletic physique that will not only improve your physical appearance, but make you much more healthy and confident as a person. It is not about building muscle to impress the world, but simply being good to yourself and living all of the life you can, while you can. Best of luck to you in your quest and pick up this book, it has the potential to literally change your life. As a former highschool football player, I can tell you that this book is solid and based upon true and real-world practices for serious athletics. You need more than a gym membership and a pair of gloves to build muscle, you need to understand the fundamentals of physiology, recovery, form, anatomy, nutrition and of course have a intense amount of determination, drive and dedication. While no book will include a magic carpet that will wisk you away to your training facility, this book will at least make certain that you have the tools in place to succeed when you do arrive.
Finishing the Beginner program in one week and quite happy. 5 out of 5
This review is probably showing under my wife's name. Not that a female can't do these things..just wanted to clear that part up. After numerous attempts to start up weight training (the last being an all time long, 8-week stint in the fall of 2008 which ended due to injury), I got this book purely on the rave reviews plus a sampling of an Ian King routine I had found in one of the Men's Health magazines. Going through this book, the physiology of muscle building, the detailed pictures of the exercises and then finally the workout routines....I was impressed through and through. I've gotten friends to get this book as well and they're loving it.
What I liked about the Beginner program:
1 - It stresses form, form, form over trying to do impressive looking weights. Bad form will get you injured.
2 - It stresses tempo. You'll see a lot of people at the gym doing their reps as fast as they can. There are times where this is fine, but in general it's not. Too fastcan also lead to injury.
3 - At the time, I didn't understand why the first few phases were all single leg, dumbbells, and none of the more common exercises like the bench press, the squat, etc. I came to realize it spends the time developing a solid foundation for your body to build upon once the big, compound exercises come. Without focusing on ironing out weak links or strength imbalances, getting into the compound exercises will likely lead to injury sooner or later.
4 - Pictures and descriptions of the exercises. For the vast majority, it shows and explains the exercises in plenty of detail. There are a couple, where after I've tried it once, I was looking for more detail on, but a simple google search solved those problems.
What I didn't like about the Beginner program:
1 - the early phases took a long time if you did all the circuits it calls for. I was getting to 2 hrs for a workout. What I realized later was .. you do what you can do and they give you ranges to achieve. So, rather than follow it to the dot...adjust when necessary.
...yep ..only complaint I had.
What this book is not:
This book does not advertise itself to be anything more than a strength/muscle building book. In that aspect, it achieves its goal with flying colors. Note this book is not a book on nutrition nor is it a weight loss book. It touches on both topics a little bit, but just enough to point you in the right direction. In 5 months, I lost a net of 5 lbs. But my waist size got smaller (as the need for new jeans indicated) and overall slimmed down. Went from wearing XL shirts to M/L. During this last month, I started The Abs Diet ... just the nutrition/eating part... and stuck with The Book of Muscle for the workouts. I've lost 5lbs in this last month while continuing to gain strength. Next is to incorporate more cardio in the off days.
Conclusions:
I'm 32 years old...my longest weight training stint before was 8 weeks. I started into the compound moves too quickly before my body was ready and I ended up getting injured. During this beginner program, I've yet to get injured and the slower tempo helps you hear what your body is saying. In case anyone cared or was curious...here's kinda of my achievements...and we'll just go with the last 4 months since that's when the big compound exercises started. (these are weights for at least 6 reps)
Bench press - started at 115 ... doing 170 now
Military press - started at 55 ...doing 115 now
Squat - started at 95 ...doing 205 now
Deadlift - started at 135 ...doing 230 now.
Can't wait to see where I'm at after the intermediate program is done!
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