Customer Reviews

Optimal Muscle Training: Biomechanics of Lifting for Maximum Growth and Strength with DVD

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is a must for personal trainers. The DVD enclosed with the book goes through assessment procedures that are crucial when prescribing weight training exercises to your clients. For the novice weight trainer, it will definitely clear up any misconceptions you might have about how each weight training exercise should be performed in order to ensure efficiency and safety.

Also recommended for personal trainers:

Muscles: Testing and Function by Florence Kendall
Therapeutic Exercise: Foundations and Techniques by Kisner and Colby

Two quotes every athlete hears from nineth grade till the last day of collage:
"Coach says we need to focus"
"Coach says to lift in the off season"
That second recomenation- to lift weights- seems present in just about every sport. Why is this? Not because weight lifting is fun, but because it conditions the tendons, strenghens the muscles, and soldifies ones' balance to such a degee that many people get results even if they are doing it "wrong". An added bonus is that skeletal muscle, like cardiac muscle, is the stimulator to burn fat. Anerobics is now as highly recommended as aerobics!
Unfortunately we don't all have "bodybuilder" friends or the money to hire a personal trainer. Therefore, I was very pleased to find this book/DVD set. The DVD shows proper form for the most common lifts, and the book shows both the right way AND the wrong way to perform these exersizes. Bravo, Mr. Kinaken.
I also recommend:
"Getting Stronger"--B. Pearl (beginning and advanced weight routines)
And "Fitness is Religion"--R. Kybartas (motivation and inspiration)

THIS WAS JUST WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR. I BOUGHT SOME WEIGHTS AND DIDN'T
KNOW TOO MUCH ABOUT LIFTING BUT THIS BOOK AND DVD GETS RIGHT TO THE POINT
WITH THE PROPER WAY OF WORKING OUT. IT WAS WELL WORTH IT'S PRICE.

This book is excellent in describing muscle dysfunctions that many trainers don't recognize in prescribing weight training to clients. It shows the best way to optimally perform an exercise for max safety and max development.
This is one of the best books Ive read for personal training clients.
This book comes with a great course by the IFPA (google it) called the bodybuilding specialist course. It teaches you a ton of great material!

Ken Kinakin is a certified strength and conditioning specialist, a chiropractor, and a certified personal trainer. He has competed in bodybuilding and powerlifting for more than 20 years. That certainly qualifies him to write a book on optimal muscle training. And he's done an excellent job in this new book.

This is a complete program for optimizing strength, increasing growth, and minimizing injury. And with its multiple menus, the included DVD allows you to customize your experience by quickly accessing what is most relevant to your needs. Overall, the Optimal Muscle Training book and DVD is a powerful training package.

Oh, I must add you'll get your personal password to a very special, private website where you can download lots of great information.

In the book, the author asks, "Have you stopped experiencing increases in strength and mass? Do you equate the bench press with shoulder pain? If so, your body may not be functioning at 100 percent. Optimal Muscle Training is a unique book and DVD package that will show you how to achieve the highest level of function."

Here are some of the things you'll read about in the book:

Chapter 1: The Anatomy of Optimizing Strength
Chapter 2: Assessing Weight-Training Readiness
Chapter 3: Linking Muscles to Exercise Movement
Chapter 4: Analyzing the Risk-Benefit Ratio of Weight-Training Exercises
Chapter 5: Designing Training Programs for Optimal Strength

This book is really about body conditioning. It's a complete program for the person who want to build muscle.

In the preface the author writes, "This book was written to educate trainers, doctors, therapists, and weight-training enthusiasts about optimizing muscle function during weight training. At the heart of this book is a simple process: assessing functional level and then finding out how to use weight training to optimize a person's full potential. Each person's unique biomechanics and functional status affects his or her weight-training program. These issues need to be addressed logically, step by step, to design an optimal weight-training program."

The book is unique in that it shows you how to test each muscle and muscle group for indications of weakness. When found, it's assessed and you learn how to optimally train that muscle or muscle group. This is how you get the greatest benefit from your training.

You'll also learn how to determine whether a certain volume, intensity, and technique will benefit you and at what risk. "Certain techniques offer a large benefit but also carry a large risk, but if the person's expertise is high enough, the trade-off may be worthwhile and can be done safely . . .," we read.

You'll appreciate the photos of each exercise and the bar graphs showing the risk on the left and the benefit on the right. Then you'll read a description of how you can modify the exercise to safely do it with less risk but high benefit.

The last chapter helps you to plan your own personal optimal muscle training workout.

I found this book extremely well done and most helpful. It will guide you in developing a program that is safe but, at the same time, provides optimal results.

Highly recommended.

- Susanna K. Hutcheson

I had to by this book for a class, and it is incredibly helpful! Anyone looking to become a personal trainer should at least check it out, if not by it.

Optimal Muscle Training is a handy referance book to have around when you are training. Also to check with on various exercises on what is optimal range of those exercises. What is optimal about this book is the dvd that comes with it. Not only are the exercises demostrated, it also gives you a format on what check with and/or for if there is injury. I bought the book used with the dvd, so considering the cost it is well worth it.

This book covers some simple yet very helpful topics related to training. From manual muscle assessment, to what typical problems can occur with rotator cuff muscles this book is a great addition to any fitness professionals collection.

PRO: The book and DVD, are professional works, and right on the money.
They are a must for those who exercise and want to avoid injuries. Even better for those experienced weight (resistance)trainers who already burned their fingers and try to escape the pain and slow recovery from injuries. They are seemingly unstoppable happenings of this fitness Optimal Muscle Trainingbusiness. One can understand its own body much better with this source, especially from the DVD, which is a standalone work in itself. By and large the contents are almost above any critics as far as a well learned experienced exerciser can relate it. The cost is a steal for what you get.

CONT: Honest works but unfortunately the remarkable contents are presented in a quite discouraging fashion. The use of the DVD is not explained in the book properly. An other boo-boo is the menu that drives the DVD. One has to figure it out what it does and what it hides. Frequently, submenu items are repeated under different titles. But the real problem is not in the primitive, unexplained control. It is a dry, very, very discouraging presentation. The athletes are honest puppets but their guests do not invite repeat from the public. Additionally, their musculature is less defined than a mediocre bodibuilder on stage, that could serve the purpose of visual reference.

I hope the next edition will serve the purpose much better, but I am not sure it will be cheaper, though.