Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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!

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.

very basic but very instructional and easy to understand however I rather to "view" color pictures. I am currently using in conjunction with my body sculpting classes and it is very helpful.

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.

If you have big bucks and can join a gymn, then perhaps this book is for you. Plus, as more and more people are considering exercising at home, it would appear that this book would be a must for them, also. After all its subtitle is: EASY ROUTINES FOR YOUR HOME WORKOUT. However, there are no such routines in this publication. Of course, the authors could claim that the home work out buff must be willing to spend the big bucks a gymn spends on highly sophisticated equipement if they really want an authentic home workout experience. But, who can afford such accessories for the home. Consequently, it must be concluded that the subtitle of this book was a calculated fraud intended to snare the unwary exerciser. The book does contain a fairly interesting and practical section nutrition. Unfortunately, with only a single captivating chapter out of ten, the book falls far short of its promise to provide body shaping with free weights through home workout routines that are easy to construct and execute.