There is an interesting thing happening right now for the newbies entering into the industry. People come online, go to a message board, and say “Hey, I need to gain mass! What should I read?” You can replace that sentence with, “I need to lose fat. What should I read?” too. Depending on who is sending out the most emails, or what is seen as cool at the moment, determines what will be offered up as suggestion. It may not always be the best suggestion. This isn’t necessarily works of supposed shady marketers, people remember what is on the front of their minds. Since I have a voice in the field, I’d like to take my time to highlight and focus on some of the tried and true books that may have fallen behind and lost their “cool.” Expect “Flashback Title” to show itself again.
“Hi, I Am The Basics, Nice To Meet You!”
There are leagues of new trainees walking around understanding the latest fads, but have no clue about the basics. I will do consults with people who know all about metabolic circuits, muscle confusion, and shake weights, but don’t have a clue how to put together a basic mass building program. I am not talking about supersets, metabolic bursts and tabata. I am talking Rep and Sets. You know, percentages of your lifts, rest times, progressive overload, logical mass accumulation goals, strength symmetry, and compound lifts.
It is a lot like the world embracing cybersex, but never once knowing the true touch of the human body. Well, get ready to have hands-on arousal like never before.
Beyond Brawn Is Beyond Basic
This book is fantastic, you know why? It gives the basics and then goes a step beyond, but without being pretentious. It doesn’t give you a lot of complicated terminology or confuse you with conflicting data of latest cherry picked studies. It gets into the meat of what training is all about. It keeps it simple and logical. It debunks a lot of the common myths we are dealing with right now. Why? How could this Nostradamus Stuart McRobert have know about outrageous muscle gain claims or ridiculous body fat estimates? Because there have always been advertisers trying to debunk science and explore the joys of their anecdotal experiences for money gain. We are so late to that party.
What You Get?
Almost 500 pages of information about training, gaining muscle, and everything between.
- What it takes to grow
- How to design a program
- How to perform sets and reps
- How to avoid overtraining
- Exercise techniques and selection tips
More and more.
Best Yet
It’s 20 bucks. Don’t think, just buy. Here is a non-affiliate link.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/9963916368/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=9963616062&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=020P41K15GS3ENHF6F9X
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Great post, Leigh.
I still have the original Brawn book, the first edition of Beyond Brawn, and The Insider’s Tell-All Handbook on Weight-Training Technique (1st ed.). All by Stuart McRobert. I bought Brawn after I had just started weight training.
I wish I had followed those books all along. Just think of how much stronger and more muscular I could be now if I had. Oh well. Hindsight is always 20/20, as they say.
Mike
“It is a lot like the world embracing cybersex, but never once knowing the true touch of the human body. Well, get ready to have hands-on arousal like never before.”
Thank you for that awesome quote.
X2000 @ Mickey’s comment.
Beyond Brawn was an amazing book and will always be a classic. Good pick Leigh!
I read this book years ago, and am re-reading it now as it is such a strength training classic! Thanks for posting this – love it!!!