Build Muscle Lose Fat Look Great: Everything You Need to Know to Transform Your Body Reviews

2 Responses to Build Muscle Lose Fat Look Great: Everything You Need to Know to Transform Your Body Reviews

1. Patrick D. Goonan "see profile for URL" says:

   February 18, 2012 at 9:04 pm

   54 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

   
   The title is NOT a lie (review by Physiology Teaching Fellow), September 8, 2007

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   Patrick D. Goonan “see profile for URL” (Livermore, CA) –
   
     
   
     

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   This review is from: Build Muscle Lose Fat Look Great: Everything You Need to Know to Transform Your Body (Paperback)

   Formerly, I was a physiology teaching fellow, a biochemist and have also pursued graduate studies in psychology. I was an all state runner and later developed an interest in weight training. After graduate school, I was a fitness trainer and worked with one athlete who made it to the Olympics along with an exercise physiologist. That establishes the context for my review.

   I was extremely impressed with this book. In one 625 page volume, you get an excellent summary about all aspects of weight training including how to train, basic anatomy, detailed explanations of exercises, how to build a training routine, periodization, etc. It really is one stop shopping and the information on proper form and bulking up is accurate and invaluable. This book also contains many excellent references and backs up what it says.

   Although this book is targeted to people who want to lose weight and build muscle, it is entirely appropriate for any bodybuilder, strength trainee, etc. It covers a lot of ground very thoroughly.

   Overall, this volume is encouraging in tone, easy to understand and gives you the “why” behind the author’s suggestions. Although it is long, it is well-organized with useful diagrams, charts, summaries, photos and descriptions of important exercises. I also have a listmania list on my profile with other suggestions, but this is the one volume I would be certain to own if I could only buy ONE book.

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2. OverTheMoon says:

   February 18, 2012 at 9:22 pm

   45 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

   
   UPDATE of The Insider’s Tell-All Handbook on Weight-Training Technique by Stuart McRobert, March 25, 2007

   By 

   OverTheMoon (overthemoonreview@hotmail.com) –

   This review is from: Build Muscle Lose Fat Look Great: Everything You Need to Know to Transform Your Body (Paperback)

   Build Muscle, Lose Fat, Look Great is the modern update of “The Insider’s Tell-All Handbook on Weight-Training Technique” by Stuart McRobert. It is actually a whole new book, completely revised with so many additional sections that it is like the new Brawn + technical descriptions. Get this book if you can find it. It may be his best book to date and certainly one of the best muscle books around.

   There are trainees out there who are bench pressing 90lbs of iron for twenty reps who praise themselves after doing it, but know in the back of their mind that their right wrist is starting to get a little sore from their workout. When moving onto the barbell curl that wrist just hurts too much to complete a full set. Well “pain is gain” so they drop the set and go back to the dressing room knowing that it will be two weeks before they recover. Try giving the same trainee “Build Muscle, Lose Fat, Look Great” and watch them reduce the bench press from 90lbs to 45lbs for eight reps maximum. “What has gone wrong?” they might ask. “Why have I suddenly gone from brawn to frailty?” The truth is that nothing is wrong. They are just learning to do it right this time… and they will gain more because of it.

   While motivation bodybuilding books like “Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding” by Arnold Schwarzenegger, will certainly show you the vast majority of exercises that are required for a great high volume training (HVT) program, it does not go to great length to show you everything that you need to know about doing the exercises correctly and the pitfalls of doing them incorrectly. Danger workouts include the Vertical Machine Press, Straight-Arm Pullover, Bent-Over Barbell Rows, Bent-Over dumbbell Rows, T-bar rows and the One-Arm Dumbbell Row to name but a few. Although nearly everyone can get away with doing these exercises in small amounts without injury, they are considered high risk exercises and long term applications can prove absolutely disastrous. If the basic low-risk workouts can cause injury when executed without perfect form do you really want to increase the odds of getting an injury by doing high-risk exercises with bad form?

   While “Build Muscle, Lose Fat, Look Great” does not promise an injury free bodybuilding career it will firmly establish conditions that will prevent injury. If you can workout as much as you like as often as you like and do not need to nurse an injury then naturally the result is a gain rather than a loss that could have been avoided.

   Every exercise you learn from a book or a magazine should be cross-referenced with “Build Muscle, Lose Fat, Look Great” to see what it has to say. Even bench pressing professionals who have been at this for years will find that their form is not as good as what this book can prescribe.

   The fact that it covers the big three – Bench Press, Deadlift and Squat is enough to substantiate the price tag. It also includes Back Extension, Calf Raise, Close-Grip Bench Press, Crunch Abdominal Work, Curl, Dumbbell bench press, Decline Bench Press, Dumbbell Row, Finger Extension, Grip Machine Training, Incline Bench Press, Incline Dumbell Bench Press, Leg Press, Lever Bar Work, L-fly, Neck Work, Overhead Lockout, Overhead Press, Parallel Bar Dip, Partial Deadlift, Pinch-grip Lifting, Prone Row, Pulldown, Pullover, Pullup/Chin, Pushdown, Rader Chest Pull, Rotary Torso, Shrug, Side Bend, Squat, Stiff-legged Deadlift, Thick-bar Hold, Timed Holiding and the Wrist Roller Training. I had given up on ever doing a Close-Grip Bench Press.

   I guessed that some exercises are just not for some people. It took me several readings of the Bench Press section to understand that even though I believed I was executing right angle holds I was not, meaning that my hands where too close. When I was told to bring them in closer for the Close-Grip Bench Press I just ended up murdering my wrists and elbows. This book eventually taught me that my Bench Press was more of a Close-Grip Bench Press and my Close-Grip Bench Press something that was just begging for an injury. I can now perform both. Also I am more aware of back arching where I thought there could not possibly be any. All you need to do is to look at the pictures in “Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding” to see that even these professionals had no qualms about using a photograph where there is evidently bad form being used. You can literally see the holes after learning from “Build Muscle, Lose Fat, Look Great”.

   “Build Muscle, Lose Fat, Look Great” is the kind of book that becomes more useful the more you use it. This is by no means a quick-fix booklet but a much needed and much sought after bodybuilding manual. I would certainly read and learn everything in here before I consider any other book outside of it. While the Schwarzenegger bible is a great motivation tool this book is really where you want to focus.

   Forget all the…

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