Scrawny to Brawny: The Complete Guide to Building Muscle the Natural Way | 
 enlarge | Authors: Michael Mejia, John Berardi
Publisher: Rodale Books
Category: Book
List Price: $18.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  131 reviews
Sales Rank: 8030
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 10.8 x 8.4 x 0.7
ISBN: 1594860882
Dewey Decimal Number: 613.713
EAN: 9781594860881
ASIN: 1594860882
Publication Date: April 2, 2005
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Product Description
A state-of-the-art weight-lifting and nutritional blueprint for "skinny" guys who want to pack on muscle
Let's face it, naturally skinny guys are at a distinct genetic disadvantage when it comes to building muscle mass. But with the proper advice, these "hardgainers" definitely can realize their fitness goals. In Scrawny to Brawny, the authors draw on their years of practical experience as private strength and nutrition coaches to provide hardgainers with:
o A progressive, state-of-the-art program that optimizes results with shorter, less frequent workouts that maximize compound exercises
o A unique, action-based perspective on nutrition that shows how to prepare quick muscle-building meals and snacks-and how to take advantage of several critical times in the day when muscle growth can be stimulated by food intake
o Vital information on how to identify and fix any weak links in their physiques that may be precursors to injury
Designed not only for frustrated adult hardgainers but also-with its strong anti-steroid message-a terrific book for the large teen market, Scrawny to Brawny fills a significant gap in the weight-lifting arsenal.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 126 more reviews...
 Didn't work for me too well April 29, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I am of the body type targeted by this program, and I did my best to follow it. I felt their argument for why you must eat so much wasn't terribly compelling unless you are under 25, and my initial doubts were confirmed when my body fat skyrocketed from 15% to 20% in the first three weeks! Making adjustments, my body fat rise leveled off but I wasn't gaining any muscle mass at any high rate either. I kept with the full four months and came out a little stronger, but I didn't look very fit (when I did before), or even like I was someone who actually worked out at all, and I didn't feel very good either. I felt bloated a lot. After giving it a chance my waist was getting wider than my shoulders, no joke, so I immediately had to go to a cutting phase on another program (something of this nature should be included in a book that shows you how to get so fat so fast). I would not recommend this program. There are better ways to gaining weight without having to get so fat doing it. This book is so full of confusing and contradictory statements that it would be difficult for anybody to be successful without their vaunted personal training program (which is ridiculously expensive). The anwers lie elsewhere my friend. Not in this book.
 Very /informative March 10, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I thought this book draws a clear passage to gaining healthy weight. It's straight to the point and very readable.
 Excellent book for anyone who struggles to put on muscle February 28, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book deals more with how to diet in order to gain size rather than dealing with the exercise aspect. It does give some excellent routines, but more importantly it shows just how little you eat, even when you think you eat like a horse. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to put on weight, but struggles to do so.
 They consider 190 pound guys ectomorphs, that guy has 30 pounds on me December 26, 2007
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
I am 6' 1", and I weigh 162 pounds. This is 12 pounds heavier than I weighed about six months ago when I made the decision actually to eat three meals a day, instead of forgetting breakfast and then getting around to lunch sometime around 2:30. I am not anorexic. I just forget to eat.
I decided to join the military about a year ago, at 28 years old, I figured it would be a good idea to get in better shape. I have always been very good at endurance sports, running, cycling, etc. And this book makes a case that my ectomorph body type is ideal for endurance, but that I should subvert something that I am good at, for something that in the end, I probably will not be good at. I am not sure if it is worth making the trade.
Let me first say, that I do find the book very useful, I have always been active, but I never did much with weights, and so I appreciate the well thought out weight programs with good pictures and instructions. The science is well reasoned. But the condescending and hating manner in which some of the information was presented was really annoying. I am looking to gain a few pounds, not 100 so I can finally be attractive to members of the opposite sex, and/or fill some void in my empty and pathetic life. The authors seem to miss no chance to denigrate the target audience for their thinner frame.
As I mentioned earlier the program insist that you limit all cardio workouts. I love running, swimming, biking. Without my 45 minutes on the stair stepper every couple of days, I feel sluggish. I understand the science that if you are looking to gain weight and vanity muscles, you should limit the number of calories you burn, but I would rather keep my sub six minute mile, than have to buy larger shirts.
This book is half about food. They make an excellent case for increasing your calorie intake and give excellent pointers on what to eat and when. My only problem is I have a job, family, and other interests besides eating. I am sure that if I followed this program exactly as outlined, I would gain a lot of weight and muscle. However, I just do not have the time, or the money. I would go bankrupt on grocery bills.
I give the above criticisms, but overall I like the book. I think the authors are condescending gym rats stuck back in time before people like Lance Armstrong made it possible for naturally lean and healthy men keep their chins high when they entered the weight area, but most naturally lean and healthy men don't know what they are doing in the weight area and could use a few pointers. Their suggestion to avoid isolation exercises and machines is brilliant; I have made significant gains by following their weight program, cutting time off my mile and increasing my number of pushups.
In addition, although I find the nutrition section crazy, I have instituted quite a few of their suggestions doubling my calorie intake, but that is still probably half of what they suggest.
I guess I would recommend the book, but take it with a grain of salt. There is no shame in being thin.
Weeks of unfamiliar exercises November 1, 2007
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
This book is divided into two parts: one part suggesting special exercise routines for skinny hard-gainers, the other focusing on nutrition. I felt after reading it that the first part was much too long and explicit. In my opinion, growing as a hard-gainer is 90% about eating right and only 10% about exercising right. It would have made more sense to me to split the contents of the book in those proportions as well.
The book fails to convince me that people of my body type (with unproportionally long arms and legs) need to do exercises in a special way, with special equipment. It suggests that we need "weeks of unfamiliar exercises and seemingly bizarre set and reps schemes" before we are ready to start with exercises that builds our bodies. I admit it's fresh material, and an interesting attempt of tailoring an exercise programme to my body type, but I doubt it's better than common advice such as: stick to compound exercises, put safety first and don't lift more than you can do with good form.
There are better things to say about the nutrition part. I find it more or less complete with information on nutrients, shopping lists, menus, supplements and so on. One of the things I learned from the book is how much is much, when it comes to eating. It also goes into meal planning and some of the psychology around changing habits, which is good. Be aware that it's easier to read than to follow, however. The habit of spending 1-2 hours cooking and cleaning the kitchen every day doesn't come naturally, neither does the apetite needed to eat four times more food. The authors could have suggested ways to make this progress gradually over time.
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