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24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lots of Routines, September 30, 2003
This review is from: Essential Chest and Shoulders: An Intense 6-Week Program (Men's Health Peak Conditioning Guides) (Paperback)
I have read a few body-building books and think this one, along with the other books in the same series (arms, legs, abs, etc), are the best to date. One reason for this is the insistence upon good form. Like a lot of people, I have in the past gotten carried away with adding more weight and not paying attention to form. This is still a temptation but the message on good form presented in this book is finally starting to stick. I especially was impressed by his argument for paying attention to the negative part of the exercise. Another STRONG point of the book is that it provides you with lots of routines. After finishing the books 6 week course,
you are supplied with an additional 4 or 5 good routines for future use. As the author states, it is important to change routines often, so that your muscles do not get too used to a given exercise (and you dont get bored). However,
I am very lazy about putting together routines and tend to stick to one. Thanks to this book this is no longer a problem, because it does it for me; I now have complete sets of routines that I can follow and am beginning to see important gains as a result. The book also does a good job of covering the basics of good nutrition, rest and, for all of you gym rats who would ignore it,
aerobics (ever see those pudgy cro-magnon loking guys in the gym who claim their bloated tummies are muscle)!!!! He doesn't cover supplements though and that is understandable given the controversy and hype surrounding so many of them.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent book for beginners, May 31, 2006
This review is from: Essential Chest and Shoulders: An Intense 6-Week Program (Men's Health Peak Conditioning Guides) (Paperback)
This is the 2nd book on weight lifting I've read. The first one being "Muscle Logic" which was both difficult to grasp as a beginner, and also a very unrealistic program to actually accomplish (read it and you'll see why you couldn't do this unless you owned your own gym).
But essential chest and shoulders is not like that at all. It is written for guys like me who knew virtually nothing regarind weight training. It gives excellent introductory material regarding the muscle groups and strategies and general fitness information.
The program that it gives is a 3-day a week program, 2 focusing on chest and shoulders, and the 3rd day on other muscle groups. The program is easy to follow, starts simple and gets more in depth as the time goes. But not overwhelming for beginners.
The program does focus on chest and shoulders, so if you were interested in lower-body, abs, or arms, you may want to look at another book (which the men's health publisher makes virtually identical books for both arms and abs).
Most of the exercises are performed with dumbells. And the book is designed for someone who is just getting started, and can be performed solo if you don't have a partner (its a lot easier to escape dumbell bech presses at an early level than a bar if you don't have a spotter, but its good to have a spotter).
The plan is again, fairly simple and designed for beginners. Experienced weightlifters will not gain anything from this book. If you're looking for a starting point, this is for you.
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19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good for a beginner, July 16, 2003
This review is from: Essential Chest and Shoulders: An Intense 6-Week Program (Men's Health Peak Conditioning Guides) (Paperback)
This book is simply a program to improve strength in your shoulders and chest. I have followed it for the prescribed 6 weeks with very good results. I can see better defenition in my chest and shoulders and I've increased the amount of weight i can lift considerable. However, this is mainly because i had not lifted in a year. It is very basic and anyone who follows a workout plan already would have most of the excercises given in this book. I would reccomend buying it only if you are a true beginner.
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