Customer Reviews

Building Strength and Stamina - 2nd Edition

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The book includes a description of free weight and other exercises, but the primary focus of the discussion of different excercises is Nautilus exercise equipment. Having said that, the book does an excellent job of discussing the theory behind setting up both strength and cardio training programs. It does a particularly good job of explaining and contrasting the various strength training approaches such as circuit training, high intensity training, and slow training. The book is a bargain for the price!

Five years ago, after my first child was born, I discovered this book. I've always worked out and been pretty fit, but as a new mom, I realized I could no longer live at the gym. I needed to make my workout more effective, but do it in less time. By following Dr. Wescott's advise, I was able to cut my workout to 1 hour, 3 times a week (I used to workout 2 hours, 4-5 times a week), and increase my strength and endurance. Within 6 weeks, I noticed a huge difference in my strength (I had previously plateaued). Now that I have 2 kids, I'm in maintenance-mode, but follow the same principles outlined in this book. I cut my workouts down to 2 times a week (1 hour per workout), but am maintaining my physique and physical abilities.

This book definitely is worth getting.

This book is great as a reference for a personal trainer, exercise physiologist, or someone who is taking classes related to Exercise Science, and/or even someone just interested in the subject. The book is clear in it's explainations along with being clear to understand. It has great images for a variety of resistance machines and gives detailed information on what muscles are being used, the joint action, the movement path (i.e. rotary or compound) along with proper technique tips. The book also gives information on the types of exercise such as isokinetic and isotonic. It also explains about your muscles and the benefits of exercise, etc. I think it's a great book to own and I highly recommend buying it!

(Review for 1st edition)

Coming from a hard core overachiever school (-many- state championships), I grew up with a solid work ethic and spent ~20 years with the 3-sets-of-8-to-10-reps dogma drilled into me. Then someone suggested this book to me, and I scoffed. 90% of the gains with a single set? Walk out without feeling dead? I all but laughed, but I'm an engineer so I decided to try it. The exercises were old news, (though many do them wrong,) but the theory was intriguing.

Short and sweet, I cut my workout time in half, blew threw all my plateaus and hit the strongest I've been in my life. The first time I did it, I actually felt guilty for leaving so soon! And even when life doesn't allow for hitting the gym, the fundamental improvements persist.

I believe all hard work will deliver a benefit, but far better to work smarter instead of just harder. And this book really opened the door onto the dynamics of technique versus effort.

Building Strength and Stamina is primarily an "owner's manual" for the Nautilus exercise equipment, with a photograph of each machine and a description of which muscle groups are worked. It's not hard to imagine the "how-to" page for each one of the machines printed on to a large label and stuck onto each machine - the material presented is that straight-forward and relatively spare. Nor is this particularly revelatory information for anyone who has spent some time in the gym using the Nautilus equipment. Similarly, the stamina section lays out some pretty basic principles.

Back in the day when the Nautilus system was first launched, it was ground-breaking. Using cams to create equal resistance across the entire movement, a wide swatch of gyms, schools, hotels, etc. signed on for their all-in-one solution; I can remember the shiny angular octopus of handles, stacks and framework that supplanted the old school weight room that had been the gathering spot for every off-season team in high school. But as training methods have developed and specialized, and free weights have regained favor for providing the core/stabilization training that machines eliminate, ultimately, the book feels like an artifact from a previous generation, strike one, and more of a company-sponsored infomercial (strike two) than a new approach for fitness.