Customer Reviews

Top Shape: 12 Weeks to Your Ideal Physique

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you are the target for this book just stop looking and get it. I have been promising myself forever that I was going to start excercising but I just never seemed to start. I finally got serious about it but I wanted to do weight training -not just cardio. I did this out of vanity since I wanted to have something to show for my hard work on the outside, not just the inside. Anyway I am a skinny guy and I did a little lifting in HS/college but now that I'm a little older, I have the wisdom to know you just can't wing it. I searched for a book that will break it down as simple as possible: Do ___ step by step. Well this is the book. I have been doing it for 4 months now and there has been a dramatic difference in my upper body. That's the funny thing -in the book Joyce tells you that the initial workout concentrates on the upper body only (since that is what most guys want). She forewarns that as you advance you will probably have to incorporate the leg routine into the workout. Well she's right. Already my legs are looking way to skinny to the muscle I have put on so I have to begin the alternating workout instead of the 3X per week one.

Bottom line is this is the perfect book to put yourself to the test and prove to yourself that you really can change the look of your body with a minimal amount of $ (just a bench and some dumbells are all that's needed). Thanks Joyce (and no I'm not going to send in a before/after picture!) :)

I never really believed that I could work off the flab and fat that I had accumulated over the last 20 years.That was before I came across this book ! Believe me,this book worked.Maybe not in 12 weeks(mine was a pretty serious case !)but certainly over 6 months,it worked wonders on me !And all with some floor exercices and a pair of dumbells ! My stomach is iron-hard,and every part of my body is taut and muscled!

Lady,you sure know how to handle a body !! Great show and THANKS !

I am a fan of Joyce Vedral and have used her other books. When my brother, who lives 900 miles away said he was starting with weights, I told him to get one of Joyce's books. Of course, he didn't. So when I found it here, I had it sent to him. HE LOVES IT! He was so excited about it, he asked me to send a book for his wife to use, so I sent "Definition" to her. He is 56 and LOOKIN GOOD! Joyce makes it easy to get started with easy to follow instructions and pictures. She is what baby-boomers need!

You know, this is really the best and only book I have found that has helped me, with success. I, being very skinny, have gone up in muscle wieght and look great, in only 6 months. Only 3 days a week. And an easy program. I have never been into athletics before, but this has changed me!

I am a 29 year old martial artist who took sabbatical and had to rebuild what I had lost. This book helped much more than Schlossberg's DUMMIES guide or the Schwarzenegger books....plus, unlike most fitness books, this author actually cares to follow up on emails and such. Sure, she is selling dumbells in the back, but that doesnt mean her information is any less valuable. This is her career. Stick with the plan and see the results.

This is an excellent book for anyone wanting to maintain a toned and healthy body. Simple plan with a minimum of workout tools required. A few handweights and a workout bench is all you need to stay tight, toned and muscular without overdoing it. Highly recommended.

This book is a great way to start your weight lifting workout. BUT i have found a few problems with it as i have progressed.

1] The split routine she recommends is WRONG. She recommends biceps, triceps, and then chest, shoulders, and chest [and then a day off]. NO, the back exercises work out your biceps.. and the shoulder and chest exercises will work out your triceps... THUS violating the VERY Important rule of letting a body party have 24 hours off before you work it out again. The REAL split routine should be biceps, back, then chest, shoulders, and triceps. Doing it her way not only hurt my development but also was harmful to my overworked muscles that never really got enough time to heal between workouts.

2] The second and third shoulder exercises she lists are HORRIBLE. I have never seen them in ANY OTHER workout book, that is because you should always lift away from the floor against gravity. Those two exercises have to lifting the weights paralla to the floor, BAD and hard to do. She probably did this because she was hard up for exercises that allow you to always use the same 3 sets of dumbells.

3] Back exercise 3 [upward row] is also works shoulders too. This is bad if again you are using the split routine. Also I have heard from experienced lifters that the upward row is a horrible exercise and should be eliminated all together.

Otherwise an excellent do-it-yourself starting workout. Simple and straight forward. Start with it and see the results, BUT if you stick with it you will need more and better books then this.

ive been exercising for over 10 years now. im 67 yrs old. this is THE book that got me started. simple. very basic weights. easy routines. LOTS of encouragement. i use a much more "sophisticated" workout now. but... this is how i started. cant recommend it enough, especially for "mature" folks just getting started

Joyce Vedral addresses the typical sedentary American who's a novice at working out. This book is targeted at the sort of guy shown in the "before & after" photos; middle-aged men (or men getting close to middle-age) who are out of shape but not TERRIBLY out of shape, have little or no experience with weight lifting, and want to start looking less pudgy and more muscular.

As a gentle introduction to working the upper body using free weights, the program Vedral recommends will start getting you in shape. She emphasizes the upper body because that's what most men are concerned with, but (correctly) points out that you really need to do lower body work as well. She includes plenty of optional leg exercises in her program, but really should recommend them more strongly -- someone who is serious about getting in shape and is willing to work with weights should not consider leg workouts "optional"! The good thing about her program is that it can be done entirely with dumbells and a bench, so if you don't have the time or money to go to a gym, it won't cost too much to buy what you need for a home workout. She does give options for using machines at a gym, although the dumbell workout is superior.

I got started with her program, over a year ago, and it did begin to shape me up. My muscles got bigger, I could feel my chest and arms firming up, and I gradually increased the amount I was lifting.

Now, here's what's wrong with her program and why you won't want to stick with it indefinitely if you intend to continue improving herself:

1. As mentioned above, she doesn't put enough emphasis on the need for working your ENTIRE body. I took her half-hearted plea to work the legs too as "permission" to ignore them. I didn't really start achieving my overall fitness goals until I began working my lower body.

2. She doesn't emphasize nutrition enough, which most bodybuilders will tell you is MORE important than your workout! An inferior workout program with a good diet will gain you some improvement and at least you'll be healthier; a superior workout program with a lousy diet will gain you minimal improvements at best and not much gains in your health. The book does talk about nutrition a little and gives some recommendations for good eating, but her "diet" is austere and won't appeal to someone just getting into fitness.

3. The weight recommendations are TOO LIGHT. It's fine for a beginner who's never done weightlifting before to start with small weights and gradually increase them, but Vedral has you increasing the amount you lift by minute amounts and then tells you that once you get to a certain point, you can stop increasing the weight and continue working out at that level forever! This will never dramatically reshape your body, and frankly, I find it hard to believe that some of her success stories really achieved the shape they are in merely following this program, without some serious extra weight exercises, cardio, and nutritional support. You certainly will not get the dramatic results in those photos just doing the dozen or so sets of upper-body dumbell exercises with the low weights Vedral recommends. Once I got into a more serious weightlifting program, I suddenly found myself regularly lifting FAR more weight than I had been while following the program in this book! If I had not "graduated" and realized this book was inadequate for further progress, I'd still be lifting much smaller weights and thinking I was doing fine.

4. The upper body workout is adequate for a beginner, but it's not good for someone who really wants a stronger, muscular figure. It's important to know which muscle groups you should exercise in what order, and Vedral has you doing exercises in which you'll overwork some muscles without giving them adequate time to recover. This won't be a major factor when you are working those muscles for the first time, but as you progress, it will begin to hinder your progress.

5. Some of her claims are overhyped and inaccurate. Vedral is an English professor, and her credentials as a nutritionist and personal trainer are sketchy. She leads you to believe that you can simultaneously burn fat while building muscle, which any fitness expert or bodybuilder can tell you is not true. You can experience *some* muscle growth while you are losing fat, but you can't gain weight (which is what building muscle requires) and lose weight (which is what burning fat requires) at the same time, nor do both consistently over the long term. You have to focus on one or the other. First burn the fat, then build the muscle. This book will also lead you to believe that weightlifting is a fat-burning activity. You SHOULD lift weights as part of a fat-burning program, for too many reasons to elaborate on here, but lifting weights alone WILL NOT burn fat. If you're fat, and you do weights but no cardio or diet adjustments, you'll be a stronger fat person.

In short, I'd recommend this book for a total beginner who needs a friendly, personable guide and an easy program to get started with, but only with the understanding that after a few months (assuming you follow the program diligently and make good progress), you will need to start reading more serious books and follow a more comprehensive program that works your entire body in a more scientific manner.

In spite of numerous editing errors (careless use of "set" to mean "exercise", pg. 114, for example, among others; careless use of "right knee" to mean "left knee", pg. 106; and disagreement between the text and pictures, pgs. 92, 93, for example, among others), this program has increased my strength and size. The author underestimates the length of time needed for each workout and the number of weeks needed to see results, but this is the only program that has made noticeable change in my body.