strength, bodybuilding books

"BobPit" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:1128792148.395299@athnrd02...

Quoted message said:

I am looking for some advanced book in strength and bodybuilding.

I see people recomend the "The Insiders Encyclopedia on How to Build
Muscle & Might [Beyond Brawn]". It is 505 pages!! I browsed through
it. It looks more conventional, I am familiar with the stuff he says.

I also came across Pavel Tsatsouline and his 2 books: "Power To The
People" and "Beyond BodyBuilding". Now from what I understood, he
teaches more radical stuff.

Anybody can tell me if these are worth reading? Especially with
Pavel, I do not want to waste 2-3 months and achieve nothing.

Or maybe you can recommend something better?

I just finished "Designing Resistance Training Programs" by Fleck &
Kraemer. Although scientific, I was not satisfied. He gives no value
to negative, forced reps or drop sets, which is what most bodybuilders
do, so I was confused.

"Power To The People!" contains a couple of very simple programs along
with the basic principles of strength training. As Louie says, Pavel
explains what good lifters do naturally in a way the rest of us can
understand and use. The book is short and you'll read it in a day or
two, but it is not uncommon for experienced lifters who don't know some
of what's in PTP to experience instant gains in their lifts after
applying the techniques Pavel teaches.

"Beyond Bodybuilding" is, OTOH, full of set and rep schemes including
several Russian classics, along with good advice about building up to
some of the harder routines. Also good advice about how, if you're
bodybuilding or otherwise looking for gains in size, you ought to mix up
different programs and not stick with any one approach for too long. If
you're after size and strength, it's a great resource and, unlike many
Pavel books, it's pretty thick, too. If you're after size, period, and
don't care about strength, it's not the book for you.

If you buy either from the publisher, you get an unconditional one-year
money-back guarantee, which you are free to use even if you've had the
books for 11 months and decide at that time you didn't think they were
worth it. I did this with a kettlebell once, a big one that cost more
than $50 to ship each way - I got one with a particularly rough handle,
tried for six months to get used to it and just couldn't. I paid for
return shipping but they paid to ship me the new one and, given that
mine was clearly well used by that point in time and that shipping cost
them another $50, I thought it was pretty generous on their part. I
didn't even ask initially to return it, just for advice about filing
down the handle and repainting, and they told me that I should just send
the thing back if I didn't like it the way I got it.

PTP: http://www.kbnj.com/ptp.htm
Beyond Bodybuilding: http://www.kbnj.com/bb.htm

-S-
http://www.kbnj.com

Steve

The "Power To The People" says that you should never exercise to failure.
So no forced, negative reps and no drop sets, which is what I am doing.

So I want to ask: the [no failure] principle is something that really
weight lifters and powerlifters do in order to gain strength? Or this is
something new? And if it is new, does it work? Do you have experience with
it?

Bob

"BobPit" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:1128796177.790272@athnrd02...

Quoted message said:

Steve

The "Power To The People" says that you should never exercise to
failure. So no forced, negative reps and no drop sets, which is what I
am doing.

So I want to ask: the [no failure] principle is something that really
weight lifters and powerlifters do in order to gain strength? Or this
is something new? And if it is new, does it work? Do you have
experience with it?

Only rarely going to failure has been very good for me, and I don't
think it's anything new. Rather, what's new is that people started
training to failure perhaps in the last 30-40 years and I don't think
the "old time strong men" did it very much.

There are others more qualified than me to answer your question, based
on their experiences, because I have followed only PTP's style of doing
things and not personally experienced the alternatives. I'm also after
strength and not size, although I believe both are achievable without
going to failure except but once in a while when testing one's max.

Beyond Bodybuilding does talk about certain circumstances in which
forced reps can be useful but they're very specific circumstances - I
don't recall what they are. I think Pavel also talked about them in one
of his email newsletters (that you can subscribe to for free at
DragonDoor).

If you could be more specific about what you're trying to accomplish,
that might help me and others comment on what you might enjoy reading
next. Your age, previous lifting and other athletic pursuits, and
whatever else you think might be relevant would add to the discussion as
well, e.g., any injuries you have.

-S-
http://www.kbnj.com

Quoted message said:

If you could be more specific about what you're trying to accomplish, that
might help me and others comment on what you might enjoy reading next.
Your age, previous lifting and other athletic pursuits, and whatever else
you think might be relevant would add to the discussion as well, e.g., any
injuries you have.

OK, I am 39 years old. Last winter I was 85,5 kgr but after a cutting for
the summer, I am now at about 76,5 kgr. About 20% fat. My max bench press
is (was) 110 kgr. I lift seriously for about 1,5 years.

I want to build more mass and then strength.

Thanks
Bob

Thanks for the info. I expect that all these systems are tried and proven,
right?

I do have a problem with squat and leg exercises. (I made a separate post
about it).

Thanks
Bob

hm, how about the "Body for Life" from EAS? Do you know it?

Bob

"BobPit" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:1128854039.120769@athnrd02...

Quoted message said:

Thanks for the info. I expect that all these systems are tried and
proven, right?

Yes, but please be aware that "proven" isn't necessarily meaningful
here - we are all different, and what works well for one person does not
necessarily work well for another. The laws of physics don't change,
but there are still many means to any fitness end, and many good
training programs don't work because of 'other' reasons, e.g., people
ignore the signs of injury and overtraining, they pick a program that's
either too advanced or too easy for them, etc.

In other words, picking a well-respected book doesn't guarantee you
anything. Read eveything you can, pick some specific goals for
yourself, and set about achieving them in the way that seems best to
you.

Quoted message said:

I do have a problem with squat and leg exercises. (I made a separate
post about it).

I saw your other post but I'll respond here. First, you should read up
on joint health. Pavel's "Super Joints", http://www.kbnj.com/sj.htm is
a good place to start. Second, books like PTP will teach you how high
muscle tension can protect your joints - technique matters. Third, the
advice to do "high reps" is basically correct - as Super Joints will
tell you, putting your joints through a _full_ range of motion for high
repetitions and at a fairly brisk speed can be very good for them,
provided, of course, you do the exercises in the right way, e.g., making
very, very sure that your feet and knees track in the same line all the
time. You might try hindu squats and see if they help you.

-S-
http://www.kbnj.com

Quoted message said:

Thanks
Bob

I picked one up the other day entitled STRENGTH TRAINING ANATOMY.

It's basically a picture bok for the most part but for different exercies for one body part, it
shows themuscles that are getting worked. like lat pull downs it shows the muscles that are worked
when bringing the bar in front of you and it shows more muscles being worked when bringing it down
behind your neck. It's a pretty good book and it has helped me refine my workouts to get the most
out of them and to stop doing the 2 different exercises for the same muscle when 1 of those
exercises will do the same thing and freeingup more time to do an isolation move instead.

BobPit' cleverly said:

I am looking for some advanced book in strength and bodybuilding.

I see people recomend the "The Insiders Encyclopedia on How to Build Muscle
& Might [Beyond Brawn]". It is 505 pages!! I browsed through it. It looks
more conventional, I am familiar with the stuff he says.

I also came across Pavel Tsatsouline and his 2 books: "Power To The People"
and "Beyond BodyBuilding". Now from what I understood, he teaches more
radical stuff.

Anybody can tell me if these are worth reading? Especially with Pavel, I do
not want to waste 2-3 months and achieve nothing.

Or maybe you can recommend something better?

I just finished "Designing Resistance Training Programs" by Fleck & Kraemer.
Although scientific, I was not satisfied. He gives no value to negative,
forced reps or drop sets, which is what most bodybuilders do, so I was
confused.

Thanks
Bob