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 enlarge | Authors: Michael Mejia, John Berardi
Publisher: Rodale Books
Category: Book
List Price: $18.95
Buy New: $10.87
You Save: $8.08 (43%)
New (31) Used (12) from $10.87
Avg. Customer Rating:  134 reviews
Sales Rank: 4989
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
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new item. Over 3.5 million customers served. Order now. Selling online since 1995. Few left in stock - order soon. Code: R20080714205314L
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| Customer Reviews:
 They consider 190 pound guys ectomorphs, that guy has 30 pounds on me December 26, 2007
15 out of 17 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.
My experience with this program November 2, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I wonder if most of the glowing reviews you read about this book are by people who ACTUALLY used the book, not just read it. I not only read and re read the book, but I also used it. I completed the program maybe 2 months ago, and here's what I have to say in a sentence: not as impressive as people make it out to be.
First, I agree that some of the exercises - the so called Olympic style ones - are a bit too challenging for skinny guys, especially if they've never trained before. Mejia argues - and that's true - that those exercises have the greatest growth potential. I wonder, however, why he did not include them in his the Better Body Blueprint book; you won't see them there. And keep in mind that other book is NOT designed specifically for skinny guys, but for all guys in general.
Mejia says we should forget about all isolation exercises; that is, no barbell curls, tricep pushdowns, etc. That's what I was doing for nearly 5 months, and I think that was a big mistake. Yes, I agree you should focus on the compound lifts - bench press, squat, and deadlift, but I do NOT think that you should completely overlook, say, the curls. If millions of guys out there are doing curls and they see RESULTS, so why can't we, the skinny guys?? In fact, the guys who do those bad useless "curls" at my gym are much BIGGER than I am! If Mejia should read this, he'd say - what he says in the book - that we should be different...
About the deadlift... I personally was able to do it well up to a certain point. Once I stared upping the weight, however, I felt that I was no longer able to do it properly, and proper technique is cruicial. Also, how often can a skinny guy, especially if he's pretty tall, deadlift? Twice a week? More? I don't think so. Maybe just once a week.. Deadlifts are pretty taxing.
So I have come to the conclusion (and I may not be Mejia, the fitness expert), that doing compound lifts with some isolation stuff (e.g. curls) is ideal. The isolation stuff, in particular, will add some variety to your workouts. For instance, there's so many exercises you can do with the cable station (e.g. curls, tricep pushdowns, crossover, etc).
Right now, I am doing a modified version of Mejia's workouts. So my advice to you, the reader, is do the program as described, see what works for you and what does not, and don't be afraid to come up with your own workout routines in the end!
Another book, filled with exercises, that I highly recommend, and in fact I prefer to S2B, is ANATOMY for STRENGTH and FITNESS TRAINING by Mark Vella. I think that book is so much better, and yes you can read about the explosive, Olympic style, exercises there too!
Now on to the nutrition section of the book.. I have a lot more to say here..Someone else on here said in their review that the meal plans are potentially "dangerous", in other words you will be consuming way too many calories. I agree! First thing you need to do is USE the formulas in the book in calculating your OWN calorie needs. I repeat "your own". Once you do that, come up with your own meal plans. The easy thing to do - and that's what I do - is to modify the meal plans in the book, according to your needs. Don't just follow the given plans in the book. The last plan (phase 3 and 4, I believe) has you eating over 4500 calories
on training days. I'm sorry Dr. Berardi, but I've discussed that with many people (some personal trainers) and they all agree: that's insane. Unless you are a serious athlete or some bodybuilder, I don't think anyone should be consuming that much food. I was doing that for a while and the result is a midsection that's much larger than it was when I started the program! I suppose the recovery drinks are partly to blame for that, because they are heavy on carbs. Speaking of those
recovery drinks, I decided to take just 2 now. I realized that having three was too much carbs, especially when you are trying to lose fat.
More thoughts on the plans...
I found out that 50 grams oats gives you more than 187 kcals
25 grams of cashews is NOT 329 kcals, but around 160
A piece of fruit, depending on what the fruit is and how big it is, will NOT always give you 93 kcals. Check out TheCalorieCounter.com
Large in large garden salad, can be misleading... Did you know that a medium size tomato can give you around 28 kcals? And you need just 65, according to the book.
2 scoops of protein, according to book, should give you 212 kcals. How big are those scoops? How did Berardi come up with that number?
Again, certain modifications are needed..
In conclusion, read the book and see what works for you. My review is based on my own experience. Good luck!
Weeks of unfamiliar exercises November 1, 2007
2 out of 6 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.
 Great Book September 29, 2007
0 out of 7 found this review helpful
well... i got this book fot a week now and i havnt started my program yet...
i was (so far ) taking all my tests for personal plan... and i really cant say i ever read like this before...
i did a lot of things in my life trying to improve my body shape... nothing happend yet..
1 thing i can deffenetly say about this book.
really got me motivated to start all again. this time with a helthier aproach...
they (the book writers) also got a web that u can sing on to if u would like to get more trainning routins
the book is covering a 4 month training program...
i would say that if u feel like a change in your life(even just mental) - BUY IT!
Excellent book! September 23, 2007
1 out of 6 found this review helpful
If you always been the skinny guy who wanted muscles this is the book for you great information easy to read, guidelines are easy to follow to.
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