Body Shaping with Free Weights: Easy Routines for Your Home Workout [Paperback]

Stephenie Karony (Author), Anthony L. Ranken (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1997

Get a magnificent, sculpted physique by working out with barbells, dumbbells, and weight stack equipment. Tighten and tone your body to add inches where you want them, and lose them where you don't. Exercises focus on specific body parts, and offer a variety of approaches: superset, push-pull-superset, pre-exhaust training and more. The book even includes a protocol for sports training; strengthening your immune system; and preventing diseases such as osteoporosis. Comes complete with diet tips, too. 160 pages, 130 b/w illus.,

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

When the fitness movement began to crank up in the late 1960s and early 1970s, it was all about running, and it was also predominantly a guy thing. Aerobics classes in the early '80s gave women an appealing way to get in on the movement. But it wasn't until the '90s, really, that fitness enthusiasts began to see weight training as the best method for changing body composition instead of just something for muscleheads to do to impress each other. Body Shaping with Free Weights draws the distinction between lifting for maximum bulk, as bodybuilders do, and training to create a more shapely appearance. It gives detailed descriptions and photo illustrations of the best exercises for toning muscles, and it issues cautions for each movement, helping people with specific physical problems (bad knees, especially) to avoid the exercises that will aggravate those conditions.

Product Details

• Paperback: 159 pages
• Publisher: Sterling Publishing (September 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0806994266
• ISBN-13: 978-0806994260
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7.8 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #142,836 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

90 of 91 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Should have been titled "Working Out at the Gym", January 24, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Body Shaping with Free Weights: Easy Routines for Your Home Workout (Paperback)

For some reason I thought this was more of a beginners book. All of the photos are of incredibly muscle-bound men and women working out in a fully-equipped gym! They use equipment that I certainly don't have in my home. I'm sure it is a good book for someone who's really into weight lifting, has lots of time to devote to it AND has access to a gym.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A great book, if you own your own gym!, December 11, 2001

By 

"dialmb" (Annapolis, Maryland United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Body Shaping with Free Weights: Easy Routines for Your Home Workout (Paperback)

For those who want easy-to-follow instructions for weight training from beginner to intermediate, this is a fine book. The title is a bit misleading--while there are many exercises that you can do at home, there are some that are only doable at a gym--and with machines instead of free weights.

That said, even a beginner can create a personal weight training routine that is simple but effective. The book includes "training plans" for a variety of levels and schedules, which is a plus. It's also not "over the top" in any way--almost all of the exercises are practical and easy to accomplish; you don't have to be a body builder!

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Weight Traning Manual, February 23, 2001

By 

Bruce Berens (Houston, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Body Shaping with Free Weights: Easy Routines for Your Home Workout (Paperback)

Having a pretty well stocked home gym (formerly belonged to a gym), I found it a good substitute for a personal trainer on weight exercise techniques. It described how to do about 30 weight training exercises, most with dumbells or barbells, but a few with a basic indespensible bench machine. It showed exercise cautions on improper tehnique. It showed barbell vs. dumbell variations on these exercises and different lifting techniques. It has large well illustrated photos, not illustrations. It had a good introductory section on general weight training program advice. The narrative on nutrition and hydration was pretty basic and a bit dated though. Weight training relatred information was non-existant (cardio, etc.). So far, it is a foundation book in my home gym. The subtitle is a bit midleading - it's not for the beginner without any equipment.