Customer Reviews

The Men's Health Big Book of Exercises: Four Weeks to a Leaner, Stronger, More Muscular YOU!

5 star:		(104)
4 star:		(31)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The concept of Men's Health Big Book of Exercises is great: collect hundreds of exercises, group them by muscle group and add some background information and nutritional advice. There you go: the workout manual to make all others obsolete. But despite the lyrical reviews posted here, I found this book disappointing. In short: the collection of exercises is great, but the way they are presented is not optimal. A serious framework to construct your own training plan is absent and the nutritional information is downright silly.

EXERCISES

What I liked about this book is the sheer number of exercises; they are the reason I continue to use this book every now and then. Each exercise comes with at least one clear picture and has some handy little performance tips scattered around. However, this being the main event of the book, there are a number of omissions that I would consider flaws.

First, there is no connection between the discussion of the anatomy in the beginning of each section and the exercises. It's great that you are shown the different muscles that make up the back, but in the 60 or so exercises that follow, there is no way of finding out which muscle or part thereof is targeted by which exercise. Also, if you give 15 variations of one particular exercise, it would have been logical to mark the variations in terms of level of difficulty. No such luck.

Basically, the book first gives some fairly detailed information on an entire muscle group (albeit with some less than great illustrations), but then simply dumps a long list of exercises on you. Though the number of exercises provided is much smaller, the book Strength Training Anatomy by Frederic Delavier is infinitely better. It tells you not just how to perform an exercise but also how an individual exercise targets each specific muscle. I sincerely hope Men's Health takes some cues from Delavier for their next edition of the Big Book.

TRAINING PLANS

The 'exercise plans' in the Big Book are alright, but if you are looking for a good, consistent framework to get maximal results (as opposed to just "doing something in the gym"), I feel the The Body Sculpting Bible for Men is way better. It may not have the same number of exercises, nor nice color photos like the Big Book, but I feel the overall framework of training is much more solid and consistent than the somewhat hap hazardous and confusing approach in Men's Healh Big Book.

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION

Now, if it were for the exercises and plans alone, I would still have given the book three stars, maybe even four; the sheer number of exercises makes it quite unique. Five stars would be out of the question, because the difference in content quality is too far off from some of the other books available. Still, I decided to lower the rating by one more star, because of the nutritional sections which are silly at best.

First let me say that from a magazine (such as Men's Health) I fully accept a somewhat eclectic approach. A new study comes out one month that says coffee is bad for you and the next month another says it's good - all fine. A book, however, I expect to be a bit more authoritative. This book is not.

The Big Book opts for the "high protein, medium fat, low carbs" approach. I think Susan Kleiner in her book Power Eating clearly demonstrated why a high carb, medium protein approach is far superior for building muscle and losing fat. Other than the Big Book, Kleiner backs up her story with sound scientific references. Where the Big Book settles for "A study in Denmark found...", Kleiner takes a truly scientific approach. Her conclusions are very different but much more logical and actionable for anyone who can think beyond the simplistic adage "muscle is built by protein, so the more protein I eat the more muscle I get".

Perhaps for people living in the US the nutritional advice in Men's Health Big Book makes some sense. Unspoken assumptions in the book seem to be a consequence of its orientation on the mainstream US audience. First and foremost, you are assumed to be too fat, or at least struggling with overweight. You also really like to eat a lot of fat and most certainly eat lots of animals. Also, you are not willing or able to change any of these habits.

Even within that context, the advice that comes out is sometimes downright puzzling:

- Beans, peas and corn should be avoided as they contain a lot of starch (p. 442)
- However, whole milk is fine (it's not all that much extra fat anyway), source cream is almost pure fat but hey, serving size is generally small, so go ahead! Other "healthiest" or at least "guilt free" foods: butter, pork chops, full-fat cheese, chicken thighs, coconut (p. 444 - 447). This one I found a particularly funny health advice: vinegar is good for you, so sprinkle some on your caramelized onions (!) or in your mayonnaise (!) before you spread it on your sandwich. Now, maybe I have been gone from the US for too long, but I don't think that I ever saw anyone health conscious eat mayonnaise sandwiches. But according to the Big Book, it's apparently great for your workout diet as long as you add some vinegar to it and stay clear of beans and potatoes. Yeah, right!

If you insist of eating a lot of fat, I can imagine the advice in this book to then at least cut back on carbs makes some sense. But it's obvious that this is no optimal diet advice for anyone serious about exercising. Again, Susan's Kleiner approach (high carb, medium protein and low fat) is far more sensible and much better researched. Sure, if you live in an area where KFC is considered lunch and a white sub sandwich is considered your healthy option, any truly sensible exercise diet may be out of reach. But of course, your results will never be the same as when you opt for a truly effective exercise diet.

In summary:
- Great book if you are a strength trainer and are simply looking to find some more exercise variations. The selection of exercises is unparalleled. Major flaw: the book doesn't tell you why and when you should choose one exercise over another, or which muscles each exercise targets specifically. For more detailed information on anatomy, how to exactly perform exercises and how these exercises relate to your muscles and objectives, a much better option is the classic but recently updated Strength Training Anatomy-3rd Edition (Sports Anatomy)
- If you need some guidance in setting up an exercise plan, opt for The Body Sculpting Bible for Men, Revised Edition: The Way to Physical Perfection instead. While Men's Health Big Book contains lot and lots of information, it gives you little guidance to make sense of it all. The little snippets of information basically have the same value as reading a couple of magazines. If you thought this book tied all the somewhat useful snippets of information from Men's Health archives together in a more consistent framework, you're out of luck.
- If you struggle with overweight and you are absolutely sure you cannot stray too far from the mainstream American diet or let go of eating lots of animals and fatty foods daily, then the nutritional advice in this book may be the best you can achieve. But if you are serious about your body and health and are willing to change to an optimal, goal-oriented diet (i.e. eat like an athlete), make sure to ignore all nutritional sections in this book completely. They are confusing at best, and if you follow a mainstream European or Asian diet, they will actually lead you in the WRONG direction. Instead, order a copy of the very dry, scarcely illustrated but content wise very solid Power Eating, Third Edition by Susan Kleiner.

If I had to pick one word to describe this book, it wouldn't be "big", it would be "complete". It's not just a big book of exercises- its that plus a whole lot of other info as well. Here's some of what I liked the best about it...

-it devotes a chapter to answering questions we all have about lifting, questions such as "how fast should I lift?" or "how many repetitions should I do?"

-the exercises are organized by body part, so you get a bunch of ex's for the chest in Chapter 4, a bunch of exercises for the back in Chapter 5, and so on. Easy to navigate around in this book.

-included is a section on warm-up exercies- which a lot of people forget about doing. Here you'll find a lot of stretches.

-there's a workout plan towards the end of the book for just about every need you might have. For example, you'll find a workout plan for the crowded gym, for fat loss- even for vertical jumping. Neat!

The book ends with a section on cardio, and a section on nutrition. As you can see, while it is a "big" book of exercises (and kinda heavy too), its also a very "complete' book as well. Those who are interested in getting big arms might also be interested in Smokin' Hot Guns!!: How an Average Guy Can Get Big, Muscular Arms In One Workout A Week.

I rate this book 1 star, not because of the book itself (I share the enthusiasm of most reviewers for its educational value and detailed workouts) but because its Kindle formatting makes it all but useless. The note "Optimized for larger screens (...) but can still be viewed on other devices" on the book description screen is misleading: if you own a regular Kindle, you will find that the text accompanying the photographs is tiny, coloured grey, often blurry and, since images in Kindle cannot be enlarged, the text becomes from hard to impossible to read. This is true in the Exercises (chapters 4-11) and in the Best Workouts (chapter 13) which lie at the core of the book. This cannot be spotted from reading the sample, which is text only.

In addition, the exercises in the Workouts are referenced by page number - but the Kindle version does not carry any page numbers, so you are forced to use the Find function in order to find the photograph of a particular exercise, a pretty cumbersome task. With this mind, page numbers have been thoughtfully removed from the Index. Why not remove the Index altogether?

An obvious feature of a training e-book would be a link from the list of exercises in the workouts, to the photograph depicting and describing the exercise. This is used only sparingly - for example, in The Best Workouts for a Crowded Gym - and otherwise absent from the whole book. In those few cases, you are sent to a photo with a text in size 1 font and grey colour anyway.

I am not an expert on gym books, but I can say that this may be one of the best ones I have seen on this: it's complete, smart and motivational, so I can really recommend it. But, if you own a regular Kindle (can't speak for the DX version for which it is supposed to be optimized) make sure you spring for the paper copy + shipping. The Kindle purchase is a big disappointment and a waste of your money.

If found the kindle version of very poor quality. I downloaded it on both my kindle and kindle for pc, and it's still very difficult to use, even though the computer version includes the color. That's not the kind of book you want to get on a kindle... very bad when you need to go from the programs (second half) to the exercises (first half of the book). I'm going to buy the paper version which I should have got in the first place.

There are an incredible number of exercises in the book. The quality of the photography is great and represents how to do the different exercises. The exercises are presented with multiple variations and easy suggestions such as changing the type of grip to vary the exercises. The only thing I would have improved on would have been to add a brief explanation of what effect on the muscles being exercised the variations provide. However, that is only a minor flaw in my opinion considering the vast amount of useful information the book provides. The book is an excellent buy.

This book is excellent.............Profusely illustrated, well written, etc. great book for the beginner and a perfect reference book for advanced trainers............

"The Men's Health Big Book of Exercises..." shows a great number of exercises. According to the back cover of the book, 619 exercises are given. Color photos are outstanding, very clear, crisp, and sharp. If you want a book on a huge number of exercises, this excellent book is it. This book is great for the beginner and the intermediate. It is also an incredible reference tool for the advanced.

Exercises are generally organized into parts of the body. Here is an incomplete breakdown of some of the exercises.

CHEST: For each body part, at least one workout plan is offered at the end of each chapter. So, chest workout plans are listed at the end of this chapter.
Pushup variations (27 pushup variations/exercises are given)
Dip variations (2 dip variations/exercises)
Barbell bench variations (11 variations/exercises)
Dumbbell chest press variations (10)
Swiss ball dumbbell chest press variations (3)
Machine cable chest press (1)
Medicine ball chest press (1)
Fly variations (5)
Chest stretch (1)

BACK
Row variations
Raise variations
Chinup & pullup variations
Scapular retraction
Pulldown variations
Pullover variations
Back stretch

SHOULDERS
Press variations including dumbbells, barbells, etc.
Raise & scaption variations
Shrug variations
External rotation variations
Back stretch

ARMS
Biceps curl variations
Triceps extensions, pressdowns, etc. variations
Forearm, wrist, grip variations
Biceps & triceps stretches

QUADRICEPS & CALVES
Squats, jumps, lunges, variations
Abduction variations
Calf raise variations
Quad & calf stretches

GLUTES & HAMSTRINGS
Raise variations
Deadlift variations
Stepup variations
Abduction & raise variations
Hamstring and glute stretch

CORE
Plank variations
Twist and rotational variations
Situp and crunch variations
Leg raise variations
Rotation stretch

TOTAL BODY: This is a short chapter.
Combination moves variations

WARMUP EXERCISES: This has quite a few exercises and workout plans.
Lower & upper body warmup exercises
Stretches

The end of the book lists workout plans, including quick workouts and cardio workouts.

I like this book because it is full of hundreds of different exercises and variations of exercises. I bought it because I was running out of new exercises to try. I like mixing things up, and this book is perfect for that. Another reason I like it is because most of the exercises are very functional and don't confine you to a machine. Many incorporate exercise balls and other "non-traditional" exercise equipment. The nutrition advice isn't all that sound, but that's not why I got the book.

I've worked out for some time and i've always had a workout partner who knew what the best exercises were to do each day. So when i began working out on my own i was a little lost and kept doing the same things. I ended up buying this book and not only does it give you tons and tons of exercises to do it has awesome workouts included! Its a great buy for anyone looking to improve your workout experience or simply to get back at it!

The Men's Health Big Book of exercises is an encyclopia of bodyweight, dumbbell, barbell, and cable pulley exercises but actually goes above and beyond just being an exercise technique guide. There's training frequency, volume, and rest recommendations. Dietary, dynamic stretching, static stretching, foam rolling and program design sections that are better than the whole of some specialized books on those subjects. The section on dynamic stretching has already been worth the price of the book alone as I have found my range of motion to have greatly increased and really feel prepared for a workout after doing them.
That's not to say that this book is perfect. As big as it is I still felt like some vital exercises were misplaced (squat thrusts / burpees are placed in the dynamic stretching section), or just plain absent (supine planks anyone). I know they are limited for space and I respect that. It's not necessarily a bad thing either. There are some exercises after looking at the photos and instructions I was able to come up with different versions not listed or create a combination move (mountain climber pushups for example). All you really need is your imagination. There is also another section on distance running that felt a little out of place in this book as steady state / long distance cardiovascular training is not ideal for fat loss and muscle gain. In the grand scheme of things though its really no big deal. I guarantee that if you read the book all the way through you will learn something regardless of where your at in your quest for a better body.