Build Muscle Lose Fat Look Great: Everything You Need to Know to Transform Your Body [Paperback]

Stuart McRobert (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2007

This definitive guide is for men and women of all ages. And it's for you if you are a beginner or even if you have years of training experience. Follow its proven instruction, transform your body, improve your health. You will learn: how to train - a step-by-step program of just two or three workouts a week; how to master exercise technique - the most complete descriptions on the market; how to avoid new injuries, and heal old injuries - a new approach; how to build a stronger heart from just 30 minutes of cardio work per week; how to eat for training success, and health benefits; and, how to lose bodyfat - an effective, practical, proven method.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A brilliant book! Follow the program developed by Stuart and you'll reach your poential for strength, muscle mass, fitness and health." -- Richard Winett, Ph.D., Professor at Virginia Tech University and Publisher of Master Trainer.

About the Author

Stuart McRobert has over 30 years of training experience, has had over 300 articles published, was the editor of a training magazine for 15 years and is the author of four other books on exercise and physique transformation.

Product Details

• Paperback: 640 pages
• Publisher: Cs Pub USA; 1 edition (September 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9963916309
• ISBN-13: 978-9963916306
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #105,168 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

54 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The title is NOT a lie (review by Physiology Teaching Fellow), September 8, 2007

By 

Patrick D. Goonan "see profile for URL" (Livermore, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Build Muscle Lose Fat Look Great: Everything You Need to Know to Transform Your Body (Paperback)

Formerly, I was a physiology teaching fellow, a biochemist and have also pursued graduate studies in psychology. I was an all state runner and later developed an interest in weight training. After graduate school, I was a fitness trainer and worked with one athlete who made it to the Olympics along with an exercise physiologist. That establishes the context for my review.

I was extremely impressed with this book. In one 625 page volume, you get an excellent summary about all aspects of weight training including how to train, basic anatomy, detailed explanations of exercises, how to build a training routine, periodization, etc. It really is one stop shopping and the information on proper form and bulking up is accurate and invaluable. This book also contains many excellent references and backs up what it says.

Although this book is targeted to people who want to lose weight and build muscle, it is entirely appropriate for any bodybuilder, strength trainee, etc. It covers a lot of ground very thoroughly.

Overall, this volume is encouraging in tone, easy to understand and gives you the "why" behind the author's suggestions. Although it is long, it is well-organized with useful diagrams, charts, summaries, photos and descriptions of important exercises. I also have a listmania list on my profile with other suggestions, but this is the one volume I would be certain to own if I could only buy ONE book.

45 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars UPDATE of The Insider's Tell-All Handbook on Weight-Training Technique by Stuart McRobert, March 25, 2007

By 

OverTheMoon ([e-mail]) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Build Muscle Lose Fat Look Great: Everything You Need to Know to Transform Your Body (Paperback)

Build Muscle, Lose Fat, Look Great is the modern update of "The Insider's Tell-All Handbook on Weight-Training Technique" by Stuart McRobert. It is actually a whole new book, completely revised with so many additional sections that it is like the new Brawn + technical descriptions. Get this book if you can find it. It may be his best book to date and certainly one of the best muscle books around.

There are trainees out there who are bench pressing 90lbs of iron for twenty reps who praise themselves after doing it, but know in the back of their mind that their right wrist is starting to get a little sore from their workout. When moving onto the barbell curl that wrist just hurts too much to complete a full set. Well "pain is gain" so they drop the set and go back to the dressing room knowing that it will be two weeks before they recover. Try giving the same trainee "Build Muscle, Lose Fat, Look Great" and watch them reduce the bench press from 90lbs to 45lbs for eight reps maximum. "What has gone wrong?" they might ask. "Why have I suddenly gone from brawn to frailty?" The truth is that nothing is wrong. They are just learning to do it right this time... and they will gain more because of it.

While motivation bodybuilding books like "Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding" by Arnold Schwarzenegger, will certainly show you the vast majority of exercises that are required for a great high volume training (HVT) program, it does not go to great length to show you everything that you need to know about doing the exercises correctly and the pitfalls of doing them incorrectly. Danger workouts include the Vertical Machine Press, Straight-Arm Pullover, Bent-Over Barbell Rows, Bent-Over dumbbell Rows, T-bar rows and the One-Arm Dumbbell Row to name but a few. Although nearly everyone can get away with doing these exercises in small amounts without injury, they are considered high risk exercises and long term applications can prove absolutely disastrous. If the basic low-risk workouts can cause injury when executed without perfect form do you really want to increase the odds of getting an injury by doing high-risk exercises with bad form?

While "Build Muscle, Lose Fat, Look Great" does not promise an injury free bodybuilding career it will firmly establish conditions that will prevent injury. If you can workout as much as you like as often as you like and do not need to nurse an injury then naturally the result is a gain rather than a loss that could have been avoided.

Every exercise you learn from a book or a magazine should be cross-referenced with "Build Muscle, Lose Fat, Look Great" to see what it has to say. Even bench pressing professionals who have been at this for years will find that their form is not as good as what this book can prescribe.

The fact that it covers the big three - Bench Press, Deadlift and Squat is enough to substantiate the price tag. It also includes Back Extension, Calf Raise, Close-Grip Bench Press, Crunch Abdominal Work, Curl, Dumbbell bench press, Decline Bench Press, Dumbbell Row, Finger Extension, Grip Machine Training, Incline Bench Press, Incline Dumbell Bench Press, Leg Press, Lever Bar Work, L-fly, Neck Work, Overhead Lockout, Overhead Press, Parallel Bar Dip, Partial Deadlift, Pinch-grip Lifting, Prone Row, Pulldown, Pullover, Pullup/Chin, Pushdown, Rader Chest Pull, Rotary Torso, Shrug, Side Bend, Squat, Stiff-legged Deadlift, Thick-bar Hold, Timed Holiding and the Wrist Roller Training. I had given up on ever doing a Close-Grip Bench Press.

I guessed that some exercises are just not for some people. It took me several readings of the Bench Press section to understand that even though I believed I was executing right angle holds I was not, meaning that my hands where too close. When I was told to bring them in closer for the Close-Grip Bench Press I just ended up murdering my wrists and elbows. This book eventually taught me that my Bench Press was more of a Close-Grip Bench Press and my Close-Grip Bench Press something that was just begging for an injury. I can now perform both. Also I am more aware of back arching where I thought there could not possibly be any. All you need to do is to look at the pictures in "Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding" to see that even these professionals had no qualms about using a photograph where there is evidently bad form being used. You can literally see the holes after learning from "Build Muscle, Lose Fat, Look Great".

"Build Muscle, Lose Fat, Look Great" is the kind of book that becomes more useful the more you use it. This is by no means a quick-fix booklet but a much needed and much sought after bodybuilding manual. I would certainly read and learn everything in here before I consider any other book outside of it. While the Schwarzenegger bible is a great motivation tool this book is really where you want to focus.

Forget all the other books about different training methods until you get perfect form right first and then you will be in a much better position to judge other training methods, especially the ones that tend to have an impact on executing perfect form correctly. For some reason other books and bodybuilders keep making reference to slow and controlled exercising to avoid injury. They erroneously call this `perfect form' from time to time. Injury has nothing to do with the speed or control of the exercise. Injury occurs because of bad form. But once you perfect form you should go slowly. If there is any advocate for `one method' in bodybuilding that can improve on gains then that `one method' is learning perfect form. I will update this review as I do more research/practice. Until then...

Astalavista baby!

*Updates*

- His other book "Brawn" teaches doing the big three progressively for the best gains - Squats, Deadlifts and Bench Press, so learn them and do them.

- Read "Brawn" after you read this.

- read "Beyond Brawn" for advanced training material.

- Have someone show you the deadlift before you do any.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you want to get big and strong... Read this book!, September 14, 2007

By 

J. Warden (Osaka, Japan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Build Muscle Lose Fat Look Great: Everything You Need to Know to Transform Your Body (Paperback)

I have followed the program as written and am now in Month 10 of 'The Program'. I am enjoying it thoroughly. Working long hours and weekends, I sometimes train every four or five days instead of twice a week recommended in the book but that is the only change I have made. I took it extremely easy to begin with starting with a 40kg Squat and Deadlift, 30 kg Bench Press, 10 kg Dumbell Press, etc. It got toughish around the middle of month 7 so I changed to the optional split routine. In Month 10 I am following the full body workout training three times every two weeks and am now upto a 100kg squat for 15 reps, 81kg for 2 sets of six on the bench, 125 kg Deadlift and am using 24 kg dumbells in the Overhead Press. I can hold a 100kg barbell for 60 seconds and do 37 dips. I weighed 78 kg when I started and now weigh 82.5 kg at 180 cm tall.

One excellent part of the program is that it uses enough exercises to prevent any muscle imbalance so my shoulders, knees, back and everything else feels fine. People I meet sometime comment on my physique which surprises me because I haven't noticed any change but do feel alot sharper and stronger. If you are able to do a desk job and eat lots, you will do progress alot further than me. I would recommend this book over all the books you can find if you want to get big and strong injury free and don't want to spend all you life in the gym simply getting more and more tired. Of course Stuart's other books are good too but, as this book has a year program from start to finish, it encourages you to stick with it and not switch and mess around with programs too often. Good Stuff!