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 enlarge | Creators: Lou Schuler, Michael Mejia
Publisher: Rodale Books
Category: Book
List Price: $21.95
Buy New: $6.49
You Save: $15.46 (70%)
New (39) Used (33) from $6.24
Avg. Customer Rating:  48 reviews
Sales Rank: 8165
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 434
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.4
Dimensions (in): 10.8 x 8.2 x 0.8
ISBN: 1579546579
Dewey Decimal Number: 613.70449
EAN: 9781579546571
ASIN: 1579546579
Publication Date: November 9, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Worth the money. May 26, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This book is really the Bible of workouts. After applying the exercise with my dumbbells and bench at home, I decided I did not need to pay all that money to the Gym anymore. The text is very descriptive on all exercises. Highly recommend.
 Good for beginers but with flaws May 7, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Well I have some experience with working out and seeing that this book is aimed at beginners , it does not do justice in many ways.
Cons :
1.It does not explain clearly what exercise trains what muscle group
clearly.
2. There is no information on Exhale/Inhale(Very important for exercise).
3. It take for granted that people will know certain postures etc and does not explain in detail as to what Barbells to use.(Ez,Straight,etc)
Pros:
1. Lot of exercises.
2. Good routine to follow.
3. Decent information for beginners.
Well this book has its flaws but it is a lot better than many books out there.
 Informative March 20, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book has a lot of technical expertise in it for sure. However, the format of the book and they way it delivers the routines can be kind of confusing for someone who is just starting out. Otherwise, a great read and definitely helped me make some gains.
SO SO February 23, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
great book, but not if you already have the gym bible. Not really practicable because many of the exercises require equipment that is more gym oriented. It does include some great exercises that I do use, but at the Gym. Probably my fault for thinking this book was for a typical home gym.
Good enough January 25, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
This book is useful, and overall I like it. There are many options for exercises different muscles, depending on how much gear you have/want.
Here's what I recommend for the next time they revise it.
Clean up the charts in the end. For the suggested workouts, there are charts in the back, but it's like the editors/graphics designers got tired and stopped trying when they got to this most critical part of the book. Page numbers for each exercise would help enormously. It took me a lot of time to find the exercise descriptions that they listed, and simple page numbers would help a lot. Also, they reused the same charts without checking to see if they actually made sense, so there are things like "Weight" columns to let you track how much weight is involved in exercises that actually don't require using weights, such as pushups. Or, they tell you to do just one rep for the beginning workout, but then have a "Reps" column for you to track how many reps you did. They don't have an obvious way to track how many pushups you did, just how many reps of 10-15. So, this needs some logical revision.
Also, it would be helpful to have an easy way to make exercise substituttions. For example, if you have dumbells but mostly want to do body weight workouts, you might want to substitute a dumbell curl for a self-resisted bicep curl. There isn't an easy way to make such substitutions, but doing so would be an obvious way to use the book, in accordance with the authors' approach.
Some of the exercises listed in these charts aren't actually listed in the book with the same name. For example, the unilateral calf raise. In the exercise descriptions it's called one-leg calf raise. So, a consistency check needs to be done.
There should be a paragraph somewhere in the book telling you to figure out what an appropriate amount of weight to use is. I have tried starting exercise regimens many times in my 40 years, but have had a recurring problem: two days afterwards, my back goes out and I'm in enormous pain for two weeks, which ends my attempt. I believe the reason is that in my exuberance to change my life, I push myself too hard at the very beginning, and wind up trying too many reps or too much weight. It doesn't hurt at the time, but long run it does. So, some way to help gauge what makes for a sensible effort would be helpful. I'm actually cutting some exercises in their recommended beginner workout in half at first in hopes of avoiding injury. I imagine that's a good strategy....
Also, I'd like just a little more info about cardio, which these authors clearly don't like much. But a description about how to monitor heart rate and how to incorporate cardio into a regular routine would be helpful. Half a page is all I'm asking for.
Generally, I like the author's organized approach and informal, readable style. A few tweaks would inspire a fifth star, and I think these guys have it in them.
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