Customer Reviews

Brawn: Bodybuilding for the Drug-Free and Genetically Typical

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is aimed for a bodybuilder who has typical genetics, does not use anabolic steroids, and has a life outside the gym. The author does not advocate two-hour long workouts with 15 sets for each bodypart, as seems to be the case with some more conventional books. Still, this is not high intensity training, per se.

The author advocates the basic lifts and training style from the golden era of bodybuilding, when Reg Park and John Grimeg were dominant figures in the field. The emphasis is on squat, deadlift, stiff-legged deadlift, chins, dips and the like. Interestingly, McRobert even uses somewhat archaic names for the excercises, like overhead press for military press, and he advocates paying attention to grip and neck work. These issues are not handled routinely in most modern bodybuilding books.

I was surprised to find out that the author advises to train two, or even three total body workouts every week. I have been used to train each bodypart directly once in ten days, so that was almost a shock to me, especially considering that the author is otherwise against the modern trend of frequent and extensive workouts. However, as I read along, I discovered that actually, the author now advocates dividing the body to two or three parts, and doing the rotation once a week, of even less frequently. The confusion developed because the text from the first edition has not been edited at all, even if the author has changed his opinion towards a given matter. Rather, there is a boxed, "important note for the second edition" to note that now the author has different opinion on the matter. This can be very confusing, as in some matters, the authors' opinion has changed considerably, and the boxed note for second edition sometimes is not located right after the outdated information.

There is not a single picture of graph in the book. At first, that made the book appear to be heavy to read, but actually the text is very easy to read. Perhaps on some occasions a picture or two would have made it easier to understand what the author is saying, but as he can explain the things very well, I believe that I have not missed anything.

And speaking of pictures, there has been some criticism that as the author does not pose in his books, the training system is not believable. I have read dozens of training books, and I believe that there has not been a single picture of the author posing in any of the books, unless the book has been authored (or co-authored) by a professional bodybuilder or the like. Therefore, I don't understand this kind of critic.

This kind of training worked well for all great bodybuilders of the golden era, in a time before steroids, and when even the stars had to work for a living. Therefore, as man has not evolved considerably in past 50 years or so, the same principles work today, for a person who does not use steroids, and works for a living. Even without its' flaws, as the book is crammed with information that relates to typical, drug-free bodybuilder, it is highly recommended.

Brawn is the book most "average" people who weight train have been waiting for for years.Instead of wasting your valuable time,money and most of all EFFORT on following the books and routines by the "champions", buy this book and begin to realize your true potential.Crammed with the most useful information I have read in years, and I have been involved in weight training for 20+ years and have a degree in Physical Education and let me tell you, you'll never do better than this book!Thank you Stuart McRobert, you've done the weight training world a great service, I'm now a huge fan!

This is hands down the most usefull book on weight training there is. Forget all the B.S. in the magazines, this is it. Everyone who wants to get big and strong needs this book. The concepts completely changed the way I train, and man do they work. Do only the big lifts, lift brief and heavy, never train on a set schedule, only train every 4 or 5 days, or even less, whatever it takes to recovery, these concepts will make you big and muscular, gauranteed. Plus, this book has minimal redundant or worthless information, like you may find in most training books.

Want to get big and strong? Want to stop wasting your hard earned cash on fad supplements and tricky training gear? Get this book and it'll change your idea of what weight lifting and strength training are all about! I too began lifting weights at a young age. I never consistently stuck with it because I was discouraged. No matter what I did, I couldn't get the kind of physique I was seeing in all the major magazines. WHY NOT?... I was doing precisely what they were telling me... I was working hard and training like a fool, yet I couldn't get ripped and big and muscular like the guys in the mags. I tried everything short of steroids and nothing but NOTHING worked. That is, until out of sheer frustration (and spending literally thousands of dollars on supplements, training gear, fancy machines and memberships to designer gyms) I decided to order a book I saw advertised in the back of one of the more respectable 'Natural' Muscle building magazines. I read Stuart McRoberts book and it blew my mind. After all the hype, all the crap that is shoved down the throats of weight training enthusiasts... this book spoke the truth. The simplistic, natural, sane truth about bodybuilding. Follow the simple precepts of this book and YOU WILL succeed. McRobert explains in easy to grasp way the amazingly non-complex path to acheive your goals through his credo of "Basics, 'Breviated and Best". Don't get me wrong... McRobert also blows the lid off the weight training myths that anyone can acheive the body of Arnold, Corey Everson, Lee Haney or whomever the latest 'hot' bodybuilding star is, if they just work hard enough and buy a certain magazine and every freakin' bodybuilding product said magazine has to offer. I KNOW this book works. Several months after being on one of the routines from Brawn, I was working out in the local gym with my nephew. We were doing military presses with some impressive weights when one of the local bodybuilding legends walked by... he stopped dead in his tracks. Eyes bulging and jaw dropping he blurted out "What kind of 'juice' are you guys doing!!??" We laughed and shook our heads... that was confirmation enough. My first copy of Brawn is trashed so I'm back to order my next copy. I'll probably end up buying the rest of the series too. Yes! It's that good! WHAT?... you haven't ordered it yet?

I have been working out with weights since the high school football and wrestling bug bit me. Even after my tour in the U.S. Marine Corps and my positions in law enforcement, I have stayed with weight training and cardio. THIS BOOK WORKS! After only a few months, I was squatting all the plates that came with my olympic set (300 lbs.). I was never able to come close to that after almost 15 years of lifting. The best part was that I didn't have to change my lifestyle or eating habits. Just use good technique and stay with it. An awesome buy, an invaluable tool, and one of the best references for anyone wanting to get stronger, bigger, or "buffed".

Most of the mainstream media on bodybuilding peddles advice suitable only for supermen and sets up expectations that the average weight lifter can never achieve. "Brawn" gives common sense advice in a down-to-earth fashion. Even the scrawniest pencil-neck could not help but pack on muscle by following "Brawn's" advice. It won't turn Woody Allen into Arnold Schwarzenegger, but it will work a magnificent transformation in anyone willing to take the book's precepts to heart.

This book contains a wealth of useful information -- if you can make sense of it.

The author is obviously quite intelligent, and writes on bodybuilding from an honest, hype-free perspective rarely discussed. In the world of bodybuilding, the truth is hard to come by, and this guy tells it like it is.

However, Stuart McRobert has much to learn about writing books. I hate to be the first reviewer to not give it 5 stars, but am I the only person who noticed that this is a badly written book? Trying to plow through this reference is like reading somebody's random thought patterns, laid out on paper in a "stream-of-consciousness" format. It's basically a whole hodge-podge of useful tidbits, scattered throughout a sea of words with very little formatting to break up the monotony -- Much like this paragraph! :-) Just pages and pages of humorless words, ideas, and points strung together without structure.

While I respect his reasons for not including photographs, some point-forms, tables, or diagrams would have gone a long way towards making his points clearer.

Speaking of points, his seem to be scattered throughout the book with little in the way of clear, progressive teaching methods. Usually in an instructional reference, the author builds progressively towards an important point. In this book, some important points are just stated, sometimes with no explanation, and sometimes with their explanations elsewhere in the book, under some unlikely chapter heading. Other less important points are stated over and over again ad nauseam. Very uneven. Chapter summaries would have helped. There are some rudimentary chapter intros, but they read rather like those annoying random "Tips of the Day" you get with some computer software.

Also his choice of words and phraseology are slightly more complicated than they need to be, often necessitating reading a phrase more than once to get the correct interpretation. I often find myself wondering, "Is he trying to say that I *should* do this, or is he using this as an example of something I *shouldn't* do?".

In summary, this book is not an easy read. Its writing style is clumsy and highly disorganized, and requires much effort on the part of the reader to organize all of its information into a usable workout program. However, it does contain some nuggets of brilliance that will take you a long way towards building a better body, if you...

- Are good at taking notes
- Are patient and have a high attention span
- Have good reading skills
- Can tolerate some humorless monotony
- Have some prior bodybuilding experience (this book is definitely *not* for beginners)
- Aren't expecting an easy-to-follow program (he provides some sample programs, but mostly leaves it up to you to create your own using the information he's given you)

For a mind that is dominated by the "more is better principle" with regards to weight training,this book will eliminate that mind set with sound and honest advice for the typical trainer. The training methods espoused by some of the "guru's" in the fitness industry,namely, programs thrown together based on high volume training, will not yield any meaningful results for the typical trainer who has a life outside of the gym. McRobert's advice for abbreviated training and cycling alone are already well worth the price, but this book is more. McRobert has a unique motivating style and talks about his training experiences when he was younger.He talks about the desire that everyone who wants a better physique has, and his lack of progress when following routines of the top "champions". He shows that desire is not always synonymous with results. Only desire and training based on rational principles can bring results. This book simply can't be ignored for those who are serious about building the physique they have always wanted. This is the book that you want by your side when you begin training. It will save for you the most precious thing of all: time.

Without a doubt, the best serious book around on bodybuilding. The information is intelligently ordered and precisely delivered. Most bodybuilding books consist of glossy pages with lots of white space and nice big pictures of roid-filled freaks posing; this book is the very opposite. It contains serious detail geared toward the drug-free hardgainer and tons of useful, workable and practical advise on routines, technique and exercise selection.
The author is a very decent guy too. I wrote to him and, a few weeks later, I got a hand-written reply. Such gestures are not commonplace and I never expected it.
This book and the follow up title, is worth every penny: it's about training smart and how to avoid wasting your time and energy on useless exercises. Buy it!

I would start by saying that this book is not the first McRobert book you should buy. I recommend that you head in the direction of his "The Insider's Tell-All Handbook on Weight-Training Technique". That book shows you how to use perfect form in the gym. There is no point in going here unless you get that right first. Learn Squatting, Deadlifts and Bench Presses. Learn these 3 well. Then when you have spent a few months learning them and have experimented with the other exercises, get this book and read it. Brawn is 225 pages of text without any pictures. Unlike other bodybuilding titles this one is very much aimed at the average Hardgainer. What is a Hardgainer? A Hardgainer is simply someone who is not a genetically gifted individual who takes drugs to enhance their already immense build. Who are these drug users? They are ones who are in bodybuilding books, the covers of top bodybuilding magazines and filling most of the pages. Stuart McRobert claims that these individuals are all drug users... and he is right. Some of the genetically gifted people use steroids like it was a dinner. The top competition winning bodybuilders where always gifted. They travel from all parts of the world to congregate together for gym training in the same places because they are gifted. They are not like us. They are called Easygainers and according to McRobert, who has spent 30 years in the gym, they have absolutely no understanding of how to train people who are not gifted like them. To a large degree McRobert is correct. It is impossible for Woody Allen to create a body like Arnold Schwarzenegger even if he did eat right, exercises right, lifts weights right and takes as much steroids as his body could handle, he will never be able to compete with an Arnold who even stopped doing all of the above. However Woody Allen could develop his own potential and be muscled up in his own way. In Brawn, McRobert will talk you down at the start, convincing you that unless you are one of these gifted few you are wasting your life trying to achieve these professional bodybuilding competition sizes that are influenced heavily by drug use. He is right. Then he goes on to tell you that some Hardgainers have progressively gone on to push a single 300lbs/136kg Bench Press, 400lbs/182kg Squat and 500lbs/227kg Deadlift. Anyone who has spent a large amount of time, going to a normal gym (not the ones occupied by the genetically gifted only) will know that these kind of single lifts are well beyond the expectations of even the experienced. Yet Brawn can take you there. How to do just that is what makes Brawn a must read. Although Brawn may tend to say a lot of the same stuff over and over again in the introduction chapters, it soon gets into the meat. Goals are Bench Press 6-8 x 250lbs/112kg, Squats 15-20 x 300lbs/136kg, Deadlift 15-20 x 350lbs/158kg Deadlift. Now here comes the important part. If you find yourself doing any other exercises other than these three then you are doing something wrong, or you are very big and are using conditioning exercises for toning. These three gain muscle and virtually every other exercise out there just tones muscles. So you should be fully focused on these three like they where the only exercises bodybuilders can do. Forget all the rest for now. Start a cycle of each exercise at 70% of what you can do (say 10 reps before failure, start at 70% of this). Then increase by 2.5lbs/0.5kg or 5lbs/1kg max every week to two weeks, only working the exercise two times a week at most, once a week maybe better, or even take once every two weeks, depending on how long you need to recover (when the soreness goes away and you feel like you can give it your all again, an absolute must to gain). As you get towards week 10 you can reduce the reps you do to lift more weight. By week 14 you can go down to 5 reps but not much less. Do this for 12-14 weeks then break for a week or two. Go back to 70% of the top lift and start all over again. This is the progressive method of lifting heavier weights using the 3 important exercises. If you find yourself not lifting more weight every time you do the exercise (and remember not to do them often, like 2 times a week at the very max, 1 time a week to two weeks for most) then you are not resting or you are adding too much weight. Personally I invested in small tiny little weights (all 0.5kg weights, but I would have got 0.25kg if I could get them!) to progress. This is how you build muscle. This is how it is done. No Explosive lifting, 3 seconds up 3 seconds down per rep, Strict Form using "The Insider's Tell-All Handbook on Weight-Training Technique", mind to muscle, imagine it is the last time you will ever do a set, annihilate last set with all the effort you can but keep strict form... or else stop the rep. This is called is called PPP - Progression Performance Persistence. Break for 1-2 weeks every 10-12 weeks. Try and get your cycles of the 3 exercises going like the above. The book then goes on to cover variations of this theme, includes many good routines for those who have really advanced themselves and then hits on specialization for someone who has amassed enough muscle to warrant these exercises. Do not read the nutrition chapter. The advice lets the book down badly. I would get nutrition advice elsewhere. I also believe he tended to think that daily cardio was not possible for someone on the above gaining program. I don't believe this to be the case. I think 30 minutes a day of medium intensity cardio is important as long as you don't push it too hard. Just a nice peddle on a stationary bike makes all the difference. 1 hour (2 x 30 min) for those who have lots of fat. I wouldn't drop the genetically gifted books altogether because they do motivate but less of their advice and more of McRobert is what you need. The book is also unedited and lots of the information does not make much sense because of the way it is presented (like the routine on p. 70) but you get the overall idea of what is being taught and that is what is most important. The idea of sticking with the 3 and not leaving them and working them in cycles progressively using the ideas in the routines makes this book absolutely vital. I can't recommend it enough. It will change your workout for the better and pack on the muscle in ways that make it undeniably eons more valuable that you can possibly imagine. For $20 you are taught things that most professional trainers being paid hundreds of dollars simply have no clue about. Most importantly is the way it explains packing on muscle and how it is done. Other books simply don't teach you this. They just don't.