A Practical Approach To Strength Training

In other words, Brzycki is a fitness expert, not necessarily a strength expert. In the field of fitness he probably excels. Otherwise, in my opinion, he often tries to force-fit his fitness theories into strength training principles. Fitness goals and strength training goals are not necessarily the same. Brzycki has far less DIRECT experience training strength athletes than many other authors - Dreschler, Poloquin, Kono, Newton, Zatsiorski, for example. Brzycki shows extreme prejudice against Olympic-style weightlifting, for example, a strength and power sport he has never, to my knowledge, either competed in nor coached. Sour grapes, I suspect. Brzycki apparently reads a lot of scientific journals and must be a fast typist, for he publishes books and articles quite often. Apparently he hasn't read the decades of strength training information and scientific analysis gleaned from the detailed training logs of generations of Communist bloc athletes, which Brzycki dismisses in his first chapter as mere "anecdotal evidence."

That said, if your goal is general fitness with an eye towards increasing strength, then you could do a lot worse than this book. There are many approaches towards strength training that work (and some that don't.) Brzycki's approach will work.