Starting Strength 2nd edition
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Starting Strength Basic Barbell Training is the new expanded version of the book that has been called the best and most useful of fitness books It picks up where Starting Strength A Simple and Practical Guide for Coaching Beginners leaves off With all new graphics and more than illustrations a more detailed analysis of the five most important exercises in the weight room and a new chapter dealing with the most important assistance exercises Basic Barbell Training offers the most complete examination in print of the most effective way to exercise more info
Fantastic manual
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This training manual is absolute gold dust, the stuff I’ve picked up from it in just 3 months has taught other people I know – who have been lifting for years – a thing or two. Incredibly detailed instructions on the main lifts with loads of photo’s and diagrams (56 pages on the Squat alone), yet not in the least bit dry or boring. Plus lot’s of detailed instructions on a wide range of assistance exercises. Coupled with the recent DVD Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training , and their other book Practical Programming for Strength Training you’ll have a set of references which you return to time and time again. Why both books and the DVD are not available in the UK I’ll never know? Amazon.co.uk put this on your stock list!!!
really enjoyed this book
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I’ve been weight training since I was 14 years old. I’m 53 now. I’ve always worked out alone starting out in my bedroom as a teenager and now I lift in my basement. I’ve made good progress and I am in great shape even though I’ve never had a formal instruction at all. Reading this book and watching the DVD has re-energized my workouts. I found I was doing many things right but I also learned many things I needed to change.
I’m sure I will re-read the book and re-watch the DVD many times, and they will be a continuing source of information as I continue to workout.
Outstanding Resource
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I have found this book to be a fantastic resource as to many of the little things that even experienced lifters don’t think about. He spends an great deal of time on such things as foot placement, hand grip,and where to focus your eyes on all the major lifts. Even if you have been lifting for years I am sure you will pick up something from this book.
Wish I would have had this when I started!!!!!!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Most detailed descriptions of the basic lifts I’ve ever read. Most of this stuff you figure out over the long haul by messing it up and then working on it until you get it right. But why waste years when you can get it right from the start. The basic programming in this book will work for people who think they are a lot more advanced than they are. If you aren’t benching 3, squatting and deadlifting 4 @ least….you should use this program until you get there.
Great Investment/Value
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I initially balked at buying this book given its price and the many workout/exercise books on the market. However, it is a fabulous book offering details about the exercises that ought to be a core of every workout and the safe and correct way to do them. The information already has corrected how I lift weights and every person who lifts weights should read this book — everyone!!! It will avoid a lot if injuries from bad form and technique. Buy it and read it — you will not be disappointed.
Chad Johnson
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
this book is amazing, you think you know so much then you read something like this.
would recommend for anyone, especially someone looking at taking there own training and coaching to the most maximum of levels. could not put this on down.
My crossfit training will benefit a great deal i feel after having a squiz at the book
Really good book
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This book was all I needed to get started. It is very thorough and I feel safe when lifting weights alone. It has the basics that get you started on the excercises, and a lot more in depth when you get more experienced. You can read it again and again and still learn more to finetune your techniques. It is well founded in experience and science.
I admit, it’s probably the best out there…
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
There is a new generation of strength training books such as Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe and The New Rules of Lifting by Lou Schuler based on cutting edge research that will give one more strength and more muscle than the routines contained in “old school” strength training books but MOST important of all, it will help focus newcomers on key concepts of muscle growth that are based on more than circuit training large groups of muscles. Concepts that one will extrapolate and apply to one’s entire view of fitness. There is no question that applying a great amount of effort (or steroids) to a mediocre training routine will produce noticeable results but why not exert the same (or less) effort for better results?
I have been lifting weights since high school which would be 20+ years and over that period I’ve made many subjective observations at the gym which are being born out by recent research and various books such as this one. I have admittedly pretty much been doing the same exercise routine for all these years but these books have actually caused me to alter this long established pattern. I will freely admit that over time I’ve gotten less and less interested in the sort of super cut, super lean look I see paraded around the gym by some guys and more interested in sheer strength and power and yes, by extension the little bit of extra body weight this sometimes necessitates. Pushing 40 now, I keep reading how us guys lose a certain percentage of our muscle mass every year once we are around my age and I would like to avoid this as much as possible. I began to notice that most of the guys who have what I would consider “ideal” male builds tend to focus on free weights and in particular certain core exercises like squats, deadlifts, bench presses, pullups, chinups and less on endless hours of cardio and micro-training every minor muscle.
These two recent books typify this mode of thinking and are both currently listed in the top 5 weight training books on Amazon.com. These books focus on those core exercises which are all derived from natural muscle movements. The entire Crossfit fitness program is also derived from this same model of thinking although it is a less structured and repetitive routine than the one I (or most gymgoers) follow. The idea is that one gains much more strength and muscle by focusing on core exercises and muscle groups than by doing what I call pinkie exercises, microtraining every little body muscle with low or medium weights. They also both acknowledge the hard truth that if you are obsessively focused on “seeing your abs” and maintaining total leanness you will NEVER gain any appreciable amount of muscle as you will always be needing to eat just below your muscle growth demand level. This is why competitive bodybuilders eat ginormous amounts of calories throughout the year, and maybe even get a little pudgy before their harsh, cutting phase where they lose all the body fat possible before competition. Unless you are very new to lifting, you cannot gain appreciable muscle mass and lose appreciable weight at the same time!
The short chapter on nutrition is excellent although the authors suggestion that some guys can drink a gallon of milk a day and that some will actually look better with MORE weight (some muscle of course) on them will be taken as sacrilege by some readers. Although I suppose I’ve noticed this anecdotally for years, one of the nasty little truths of life is that as you lose weight from your body you also lose it from your face and this tends to have an aging effect. Not when you’re a teenager or twentysomething but definitely by the time you are 30 and your face is already naturally losing volume due to the natural aging process (the cosmetic surgeons even have a cute name for this phenomenon, deflation!) I know it’s counterintuitive so take a look at photos of some hardcore marathon runners sometime, the athletes with probably the lowest body fat levels and make note…that gaunt, sunken-in face is the direction that your face is naturally headed if you are hellbent on maintaining a body weight that skirts the lower end of the BMI (body mass index) into mid and later life. One can even see the look on some relatively young people, in particular competitive bodybuilders who are just off their extreme ‘cutting” diet or some “ripped” guys at the gym always dieting to try to get their abs to pop out like the one’s in the movie 300, nevermind that those were in part CGI enhanced. This author is blessedly focused on growing and maintaining muscle mass which will naturally help with reducing excess fat through metabolism changes, and not on obsessively trying to diet down so you can “see your abs”. As I look around at guys my age, what tends to look bad is not a little extra weight but the LACK of muscle tone from not strength training which results in flabby, tone-less, atrophied muscles. Bleh!
Some other books I can recommend are Schwarzenegger’s huge Bodybuilding Encyclopedia, Getting Stronger by Bill Pearl or any of the Men’s Health fitness guides. For a different kind of workout check out The Complete Guide to Navy Seal Fitness by Stewart Smith, a fitness program with DVD based around a military program for Navy Seals that is completely free of any weights and uses only one’s own body weight. It’s a real eye-opener to see that one can have a killer, aesthetically pleasing body like the author (and former Navy Seal) without utilizing traditional weights at all. Best of all is Strength Training Anatomy (2nd edition) by Frederic Delavier which is actually a translation of a French book and has far and away the clearest, most informative descriptions of all the strength training exercises that I’ve ever seen. Couple that will Starting Strength and The New Rules of Lifting and you will have the absolute best resources a strength trainer / bodybuilder could have.
This book will harrow, yes, harrow your very soul
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Forget what you know, forget what you think you know from our oppressive, cabalistic, allied media sources, outlets and fitness industry pundits.
In this book you will find the truth they do not want you to know. The secret that we are stronger than we know.
Buy it and learn how to really train.
Great Book!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This book is awesome for learning to squat, deadlift, press or clean. It will improve your form and provides lots of advice on how to correct your and others problems. Highly recommended. If you are still using the form and technique you learned from your know-nothing high school football coach then get this book and see how Rippentoe tells you to do the lifts. I feel like I finally know what I am doing.