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 enlarge | Author: Arnold Schwarzenegger
Creator: Bill Dobbins
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Category: Book
List Price: $27.00
Buy New: $16.58
You Save: $10.42 (39%)
New (28) Used (27) from $11.95
Rating:  307 reviews
Sales Rank: 1552
Media: Paperback
Edition: Rev Upd
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 800
Shipping Weight (lbs): 5.6
Dimensions (in): 10.8 x 8.5 x 1.8
ISBN: 0684857219
Dewey Decimal Number: 646.75
EAN: 9780684857213
ASIN: 0684857219
Publication Date: November 5, 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Could be much better! October 12, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I have bought many bodybuilding books and this one is not very good. Here is why:
1. It's large and heavy - it's very difficult to keep this book on your lap and read. The only option is to put on the table. If you would like to take this book with you to the gym, or sit comfortably in a chair and read it - forget it, your arm will fall off.
2. Book is filled with photo's - if you enjoy the history of bodybuilding - this could be fine. But I expected photo's just to illustrate the exercises, not the review of American bodybuilding, especially from 20-30 years ago. Better make a dedicated book with photos and instead in this book provide clear examples for exercises.
3. Programs are not easy to adapt if you are starting bodybuilder and there is not enough variety to fit into your needs. I expected clear and simple programs with variations depending on my particular needs. There is a program and it's hard to figure it out how to properly change it for my needs.
4. Nutrition is a very short chapter at the end. I expected more advice and examples which would make it easier for me to understand and adapt. For example program Body for Life offers very easy instructions for meals and protein drinks etc. As far as easy to understand exercises with good and easy to understand photo's I found that Joe Weider's book is much better (and a bit lighter)...
 Excellent book! October 4, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
The most thorough book I've seen. Arnold Schwarzenegger did a remarkable job covering any aspect of bodybuilding. From the different exercises, programs and nutrition to the most subtle topics. I read a few other books and this book is definitely the best one I read so far - VERY RECOMMENDED!
great, comprehensive, in-depth overview of conventional strength-training strategies October 1, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I rate this book 5 stars because Schwarzenegger does a great job of organizing all of the conventional strength-training exercises that have accumulated over the years into one book,and he describes them in greater depth and more detail than most other books do. So this book is of great value to anyone (beginner or advanced) who wants to use conventional training methods to get the body they desire.
With that said however, the exercises in this book will not enable you to obtain "maximum results in minimum time", which I believe is what most people want in the ideal workout plan. After all, if I were to ask you what your 3 greatest assets in life are, what might your answer be? You might very well say your body, your health, and your time. Those are assets that you can't put a price on. Like Emerson once said, "The greatest wealth is health". And as Donald Trump has said, "Your life is like a credit card given to you at birth. But money is not what matters here; it's the time you have on that credit card that counts".
So how does one develop a workout plan that truly enables you to obtain maximum results in minimum time? The answer lies in that powerful little word "intensity". In order to get really maximum results in minimum time, you need to be able to generate "maximum intensity". And to accomplish that, you need the "right definition" for intensity, which is one that works in both theory and can be applied practically.
And that's where this book falls short: it does define intensity, but the definition given is too inadequate and vague for practical application, so it is not the "right" definition. And as result, most of the exercises in this book will not enable you to generate maximum intensity, because they are not centered around the right definition for intensity.
To elucidate further, maximum intensity is vital to obtaining maximum results in minimum time for two reasons:
1) The key to building muscle from any weight-lifing plan lies in subjecting your muscles to a higher level of intensity than what they are currently accustomed to. Your muscles then grow bigger and stronger to adapt to that higher level of intensity.
2) Intensity is inversely proportional to duration. The greater the intensity of a weight-lifting exercise,the shorter it has to be in time duration.
Thus, it turns out that the "most effective" way to build muscle is actually the "least time-consuming" way, IF you know the secrets to maximizing your intensity. And of course to do that, you need the right definition for intensity to begin with. Otherwise, you won't know which strategies work best to generate maximum intensity.
Currently, the best published books that I know of for enabling you to achieve maximum intensity are "Static Contraction Training" (Sisco and Little) and "Max Contraction Training" (John Little. Those books are not without their flaws, but they do contain strategies that will enable you to take your weight-lifting exercises to higher levels of intensity than any conventional workout plan will.
Finally, it's interesting (but not surprising) to note what Arnold attributes his well-developed biceps to: he states in this book that he came to the realization that it was largely due to genetics. He says that whatever exercise he did for his biceps, his biceps just seemed to grow huge naturally. He does not attribute his huge biceps to having had the best workout plan for the biceps. And I can assure you that the plan he has for developing the biceps (put forth in this book) is not the the most effective or time-efficient way to develop the biceps. That doesn't mean that Arnold's approach for developing the biceps won't work; it will work, especially if you've got the right genetics, spend a lot of long, tedious hours working out in the gym, and if you take steroids. It's just not the the best appproach to use in terms of effectiveness and time-efficiency. And that's simply because none of these exercises will enable you to achieve maximum intensity, for the reason explained above.
AMAZING September 28, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I'm not a body builder or looking to get into body building but I do lift regularly. This book is extremely informative and helpful. There are small things that I've tweaked in how I excercise that have made a big difference already. This book is numero uno!
Best Buy Ever September 19, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Buy this book. It is very high quality information from Arnold himself and will teach you everything you need to know about bodybuilding. The nutrition section is also very detailed, which I liked a lot.
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