Customer Reviews

Beyond Brawn: The Insider's Encyclopedia on How to Build Muscle & Might

5 star:		(76)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

At just under 500 pages, BEYOND BRAWN is, bar none, THE most comprehensive book I've ever read on the topic of bodybuilding, and Ičve read several hundred books.

BEYOND BRAWN is written in very non-technical language. With 22 total chapters, no aspect of productive weight-training has been overlooked. Section 1 is entitled "Establishing a secure foundation" and discusses general information of value for those who are embarking upon the goal of adding muscle mass.

Section 2 is the real meat of the book and is entitled "How to train." At almost 200 pages, Stuart has left no topic uncovered with regards to safe and productive training. Topics include setting up a training cycle, exercise intensity, exercise selection and technique, intensity cycling, personalizing your program, overtraining, and others. Only topics of true importance to the average trainee are discussed in this book. Unlike most bodybuilding books, which are no more than simple fluff, BEYOND BRAWN actually accomplishes the goal of providing tons of useful, no-nonsense information for genetically average trainees who want to increase their strength and size. BEYOND BRAWN is not an overly dogmatical tome which espouses a single way of training for everyone. It presents numerous interpretations in terms of set and rep goals, length of a cycle, training intensity, and exercise selection, to accommodate needs of all types of trainees. Ultimately, I guess the best thing I can say about it, repeating from above is this: "BEYOND BRAWN is, without a doubt, THE most comprehensive book ever written on the topic of strength training and bodybuilding for the genetically average individual." And, again, keep in mind that that statement comes from a guy whočs read several hundred books on the topic of strength training in the past ten years. So my endorsement does not come lightly.

This book is not a lone voice in the wilderness of body-building, nor is its advice "new." It is one author's practical guide to the principles of effective body building for people without genetic advantages. Numerous experts and professional trainers in the field who have been buried under the avalanche of muscle magazine hype, supplements, and steroid abuse -- the best-kept non-secret of the bodybuilding world -- share this philosophy. These people are finding a voice on web sites..., but this is one of a precious few books that puts a great deal of that knowledge at your fingertips for easy reference.

If you are someone who doesn't want to do illegal drugs, your genetics DO matter. So does your capacity to recover between intense workouts. Most people can't go to the gym 4-6 days a week and expect muscle-building results that will continue to pile on over months or years. I'm living testament to that, having done typical training methods for three years and getting nowhere after my initial beginner's gains. Tweaking my workouts and nutrition in various ways had little effect if any at all. Then I followed the principles laid out in this book and (so far) have gained 7 pounds in seven weeks that wasn't fat. Sound like a gimmick? It isn't. The gimmicks are in the hyped-up marketing campaigns of the bodybuilding industry. BEYOND BRAWN is about safety, sanity, hard work, getting the most out of the hand you've been dealt, and the fine art of knowing when you are doing too much and thus hindering your progress.

I will agree with the previous reviewers that there is a lot of repetition. It's a small inconvenience to pay for all the valuable information you get, but probably a necessary thing to a reader who has done high-volume training for years and may be tempted to hold on to counter-productive elements of their ingrained training style.

Another earlier review made the bizarre claim that you will get fat using this approach. You do not get fat from adopting an abbreviated, high-intensity weight-training program - you get fat from EATING TOO MUCH. Nutrition and aerobics are covered in the book and specific strategies are discussed for figuring out what your optimal caloric intake should be for adding muscle. If you get fat, you weren't following the directions.

Since everyone's body is different, the author presents a loose enough framework for the reader to figure out what works best for him or her, but if you fail the basics (proper training, nutrition and rest) then you won't see gains and you run a higher risk of injuring yourself.

If you are serious about training, get this book.

I've been following a routine in this book for three and a half weeks. My body weight is up 10 pounds; my arm size increased by an inch; my waist size remains the same.

The weight increases also translated into stregnth increases. My TBDL increased 55 lbs, Dips increased 27 lbs, and chins increased by, well, only 4 reps. But I am repping with 10 extra pounds.

Needless to say, there's a ton of good information in here.

However, I can't give it five stars for the following reasons:

1) The author is too repetitive.

2) The author goes into unnecessary detail sometimes.

3) There's too much sermonizing against 'improper' ways of training. (I personally think this is a turn off.)

Don't get me wrong. This is still a great book. My results speak for themselves. It's just not perfect.

Bottom line. Highly recommended.

One more thing. Contrary to popular opinion, the author does NOT recommend only training twice a week with no aerobics. To be more precise, the author doesn't ONLY recommend training twice a week with no aerobic exercise.

What's so great about this book is its flexibility. It doesn't try to offer one solution to everyone. Depending on time and genetics, the author recommends training anywhere from once a week to three times a week. He also universally favors aerobics, both for fat loss and overall health and wellness.

It was back in the 80's when I first read Stuart McRoberts excellent articles in Perry Rader's Iron Man magazine. Here was a voice in the wilderness warning that overtraining is counter-productive and that much of the advice dispensed by illegal drug using professional bodybuilders in the glitzy magazines is useless, and in fact harmful, for the average, natural trainee.

As a neophyte who had made good initial progress on a basic sensible routine but after a year or so became "stagnant", I tried many of the routines in Muscle and Fitness and other sensational magazines of the day. In them, articles ghost-written for the big name bodybuilders, would detail Herculean, if laborious 6 days per week, 2 to 3 hour bodybuidling sessions with 6 sets of 12 reps for each angle of each individual muscle. Obsessed with becoming the next Arnold, Platz, Haney and Oliva my wife, kids and social activities were often put on hold as I just had to get my workout in. All this compulsive behavior for a somewhat muscular, but not much above average physique.

I was soon attempting Arnold's 6 day per week twice daily "body building" workout - and that is when it all came crashing down. I got very ill and lost much of my previous gains. I had no idea why - after all if Platz could do it why couldn't I?

Here was McRobert, and a few others, writing that a few sets of the multi-joint exercises done, at most, twice weekly would actually promote muscle growth! You see, I was quite naieve in that I didn't even know that steroids existed or that guys like Arnold were actually "cheating" and then telling me how I too, could develop a phsyique just like his! Only one little problem - they never said in those articles which and how much steroids to take. It's really no wonder that my nervous system could not withstand the routines used by the professionals and using illegal steroids, when I finally learned about them, was definitely out of the question for me.

Even still after reading McRobert's articles and corresponding with him, I refused to believe that I could build the type of body I wanted with abbreviated training. I was walking around in a severe state of overtraining for many years - and this led to some serious health repercussions that I won't go into here. Suffice to say I essentially burned out my nervous system from working out too frequently and too heavily with not enough recuperation.

Thanks to McRobert I wound up cutting way back on the amount of sets, reps, and poundages in my workouts I built up to 238 pounds bodyweight and got to lifting some respectable poundages (for a natural trainee) in the big lifts - but had I accepted and put into effect fully McRobert's theory of abbreviated training I would have probably gone much further and not suffered health problems. Alas, it is so often the case that when we are young we have the strength but don't have the knowledge and when we are older we have the knowledge but no longer have the strength. Young lifters, read and heed!

Now in my forties, by necessity, it is strictly abbreviated training for me. I still hope to hoist big poundages and keep improving for a couple more decades using the kind of sensible training outlined in Beyond Brawn.

Young lifters, especially, would do well to read and re-read Beyond Brawn and put into effect McRobert's techniques of "cycling". When I was younger I thought I should lift heavy all the time - I didn't understand that the body can not take that over long periods and cycling poundages is absolutely necessary for progress. All this holds true for the older trainee as well.

Lifting weights and wanting a superpysique can develop into an obession. After awhile senseless workouts where the trainee is just trying to complete a number - reps, sets, etc - becomes non-productive and useless for achieving the original goal: muscle mass and strength. Beyond Brawn is a book that can bring it all back into perspective - explain what reasonable goals can be attained and if you are genetically gifted maybe much more. If you are wandering aimlessly from one workout routine to the next published each month in the latest glossy magazine and you are lifting the same poundages as last year - you can get back to actually gaining again using the advice in Beyond Brawn.

Beyond Brawn is an essential tool for anyone who wants to build muscle and get stronger. Although aimed at the genetically challenged and "average" trainee, others would benefit as well. It can be difficult to accept, but once the trainee understands that without the use of illegal anabolic enhancers he is NOT going to become the next Arnold, Haney, Wheeler, et al, he is going to need good common sense advice on how to achieve his potential - and Beyond Brawn is possibly the best book out there for the natural trainee.

Here is a good book. . "Beyond Brawn" is a book for those who work hard, for those who sweat buckets, and for whom every single fraction of an inch of muscle growth comes hard. "Beyond Brawn" is for those who will NOT give up, and who will accept nothing less than final victory. "Beyond Brawn" injects the much-needed and long absent "something missing" back into bodybuilding That something is nothing less than the original heart and soul of real, body building- for strength, for health, for aesthetic appearance, and most important of all-for longevity, whether in training or in its literal sense.

"Beyond Brawn " is entertaining. It is a good read. Though written to inform, to motivate and to persuade the flavour is of author Stuart McRobert's personal vendetta towards honest and frill-free training and he is not above some shin kicking and bare-knuckling to get the Message across. McRobert-a well published author of many years in the major niche magazines is no friend of the "sell `em another supplement" miracle vendors. And, his stark and realistic standards to which those who want to be strong and sweat blood to become so continue to spur "ordinary, just like you and me" weight trainers on farther than they ever thought possible.

So what commends "Beyond Brawn" over and above the rest of the genre?

There is a chapter on the philosophy of the "hard gainer"; and on expectations on just how big and strong a hard gainer-(someone not

genetically gifted with big bones and easy muscle growth) can become. There are chapters on training cycles that actually work and deliver, and on how to equip a home gym. The book deals with exercise selection-the suggestions guaranteed to annoy some of the conventional wise men of exercise; and there is a particularly interesting chapter on correcting training injuries through trigger point therapy.

The finest summary-the précis of the entire work is told in story form in chapter 3, in which McRobert in his clear style describes how a "wise and uncompromising mentor" would have guided a dedicated, devoted and thoroughly misinformed young man safely and most importantly successfully through years of training, years that in McRobert's words were largely wasted and actually damaging to the body. By following the mentor's lead, the young man might have achieved in a few quick and hard training years a body of impressive size, filled with power and ready and able to train for a lifetime, rather than having taken more than a decade to actually make mistake after mistake and paying the price in injury and pain.

"Beyond Brawn" captures the moment; it expresses and guides the growing thousands of hard gainers who want the power, the muscle- but never knew just how straightforward it was to get it. Every gym has its hundreds who have real desire, true motivation- and have never achieved their goals-because they have bought into the over used, over sold and overly hyped systems and methods that work only for the genetically gifted or chemically enhanced.

Most of are not in the "gifted gene" pool, and most hard gainers will not go the chemical route because it is neither natural nor "right."

If you like hard work, "Beyond Brawn" is for you. If you have a deep desire to gain, this book is for you. If you wish to finally get where you physically thought was never going to happen, read, apply, persist and you will achieve. I did.

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Unfortunately, the most popular books available on weightlifting are the ones with the LEAST usable advice and content, for example Arnold's Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding. While this is an interesting document of Arnold's history and personal weightlifting methods, his long-winded routines and high-volume approach will overtrain almost anybody without his predetermined genetic gifts. The result is and unfortunately will be people who pour excessive time into the gym, doing their body damage but never giving it the proper care for significant growth. Beyond Brawn is not the only book that speaks to ALL weightlifters, but it is probably the best. It gives any man or woman interested in weightlifting all the ammunition they need to create their own training program, and self-adapt it for years to come. It's not a gimmick. It doesn't pretend to be easy. But it's the most honest book on the subject you will find.

This is a great book based around the old school concepts from back when bodybuilding and powerlifting were much closer together. In other words, from back when people didn't just want to look strong, they wanted to actually BE strong.

Stuart has a strong bent towards abbreviated training. In other words, most trainees are lifting way too much. He is also interested in conservative, long term gains. Stuart has had his training stunted by repeated over-training injuries, and urges you look at the iron game from longer term perspective than most. In other words, more gains over the long haul.

Ok, he goes off on the hard-gainer thing a little too much. I get it Stuart, you lost the lucky sperm race. You had no genetic gifts. You had to build everything out of blood, sweat and tears. Got it. Moving on. While it gets a little old at times, it's a welcome voice for folks who are legitimate "hard gainers" and haven't gotten the results they've wanted over the years.

I love that Stuart goes with the old school method of wrapping everything around a serious strength multi-joint move, the deadlift. Seeing as the deadllift works 90% of the muscles in the body, he has a really cool philosophy, similar to Pavel Tsatsouline, of using the deadlift as the framework for all strength training, and then tacking on other exercises as needed (and only if they are needed).

It has been mentioned that the organization and presentation of this book sucks. It does suck. This is what happens when a grisly old iron-tamer writes a book. He really isn't an author, he's a veteran of the iron game who tried to put his knowledge down on paper. In some ways he succeeded, and in some ways he failed. I think it's worth sorting through the pages to find the information.

If you like the "strong as you look" ideology of this book, I strongly recommend Pavel's "Beyond Bodybuilding" as well. It's a mammoth collection of Pavel's articles from Muscle Media, clearly organized.

I started weight training in January of this year. The first
thing I did was to copy the workouts cited in the major muscle media magazines and the beginner's workout in Arnold's Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding. By March my bodyweight was
the same and my measurements were exactly as when I started. Despite eating big and using the top supplements, I was stuck.

I was working out 4-5 days a week like a madman and was worn out. I then found Beyond Brawn and found out what a "hardgainer"
really was. Since Reading This book, studying it, applying
the advice within and patiently persavering, my gains have been
great! since April I have gained 15 lbs of hard muscle and
made 1-2 inch gains on my muscle measurements. I can't believe
it! I now work out 2 times a week and progressively add very small poundage increments to my single joint exercises and about
3-5 pounds a week to my multi-joint exercises(squat and stiff leg deadlift). I have learned more from this book within two weeks of reading it than anything I have ever read on weight training. The advice is straight forward and laughably simple.
Stop killing yourself by following the advice of steroid flooded
bodybuilders! With this book you can build your body and have a life outside the gym too. It is the first system that sounded too good to be true and ended up exceeding my expectations.
All I can say is: BUY THIS BOOK FIRST IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN
BODYBUILDING!

I really wanted to write a nice review of this book, having read BRAWN earlier (by the same author) and being an advocate of the High-Intensity principles (HIT) of weightlifting. What the author argues is essentially correct for your genetically-average weightlifters...doing less, correctly, with INTENSITY (high poundages, high effort) will give you more benefits than endless marathon workouts, 3-5 times a week.

However, having said that, this book, BEYOND BRAWN is so redundant that it distracts from his otherwise well-written principles (as noted in BRAWN originally). I think that he could have compiled both into one definitive book, which would have spoken with more authority.

There are areas where he says the same thing OVER and OVER (not to mention doing that throughout the book). In one particular area--squats--the author seems to be trying to set a world-record with the word "squat" and repeating the same thought over and over as if to kill space, something akin to : "You have to be careful doing squats, for squats can injure you, yet using proper poundage squats will give you more growth than any other exercise. Squats are simply better than anything else at growth. If you do squats, correctly, you will find that squats are a great exercise. "

There are also endless "side-bar" comments (boxed) which appear to be used by the editor to take up space and properly balance the text, but do not exist for the sake of revealing something new not already stated in the book.

Also, while it is nice that the author mentions his own struggles with weights and his own personal quest for size, he remains somewhat of a mystery. You are never really sure how big, or small this "hard-gainer" is.

BRAWN is a good book (and much shorter)...but you probably would do better to simply go to a search engine and type in "HIT" and read everything you can about abbreviated routines, instead of shelling out the bucks for this one.

It's not a bad book, just too lengthy. If you only get one of them, I suggest this one versus the shorter (earlier) BRAWN, as this one CLEARLY encompasses every thought this guy could have. But you could probably skip both.

I like Stuart McRobert in general. His books are well-organized, to the point and contain accurate information without hype. He is also realistic about what can be achieved and not achieved based on your genetics. At the same time, he is enthusiastic and very motivational.

With respect to scope, this book is geared toward how to train, training cycles and related issues and building a good foundation. Although it is well-written, it doesn't have many diagrams and doesn't include detail on exercises. For this, I recommend Build Muscle Lose Fat Look Great: Everything You Need to Know to Transform Your Body and Starting Strength. These are REALLY... the only two books you need.

My background is that I have a graduate education in biochemistry, psychology and physiology. I was a Physiology Teaching Fellow, researcher and a personal trainer at one time. Currently, I am reviewing some of the new books out there and this author is particularly impressive. If you are going to get one of the Stuart McRobert books, I would get Build Muscle Lose Fat.... However, they are complementary and in my opinion, you would be cheating yourself not to get both. Build Muscle Lose Fat focuses more on proper technique, general training guidelines, etc.

One interesting inclusion in this book is a calculation scheme for ideal symmetry. This is great for setting realistic goals and I also like that this author is drug free and favors a natural approach. As a biochemist, I think his nutrition guidelines are very good, but I think he is overly cautious. For example, he doesn't recommend protein powders, but doesn't give a compelling argument why they are not a good idea. While it's true most people could get by with milk, I think protein powders and other supplements can be useful to hard-gainers or people that don't eat right.

If you are a hard gainer, then this book is for you and so is Starting Strength and Build Muscle Lose Fat Look Great: Everything You Need to Know to Transform Your Body.. especially the latter two! From Scrawny to Brawny is also very good, but a distant second as a one point reference. However, it's worth getting for the training tips and tricks for people with long limbs, that are prone to injury in the shoulders, knees, etc.