Customer Reviews

The Weider System of Bodybuilding

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Contains all of the classic excercises and routines. This is a great back-to-basics source and was the source for most of the excercises I used to become huge 12 years ago. After years of neglect I dug it out and started building my routine again (all-natural, this time). There's no substitute for hard work and this book describes correct form and intensification techniques. Combine it with The Complete Book of Abs and Bikram's Beginning Yoga, for a powerhouse workout trio.

buy this book and be your own trainer
after reading this book you will know more than 95%
of the personal trainers out here

If you want to get big, follow everything what this book says, religiously. This is the best book in bodybuilding I read so far. You may also want to read "Arnold's Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding". Another comprehensive although lengthy book. Only read this if you are serious. But for everyone else, Weider's book is fine and to the point. I have been working out for four years now and I must say the most important things about building muscle is not to overdo it, change it up often to trick the muscles, and mentally, think BIG. I believe these are universal points because as you will find out, many muscle building tips are not and are different for everyone.

Joe Weider destroyed bodybuilding. Prior the rise of the Weider empire, and the drugs and mis-information that are a huge part of it, bodybuilding was a healthy endeavor. Before the early 1960's bodybuilders actually got big and stayed big for deacdes without drugs. Training programs were sensable and healthy. A guy like Grimek or Clancy Ross could compete at a natural 220 lbs., look great for deacades and live to a ripe old age. Weider and the drug culture that he promoted ruined all that. Weider created a system where the only way to win was to get bigger and bigger year after year. Of course this means taking more and more drugs. All the while Weider is raking in the cash while guys like Andreas Munzer and Mohammed Benaziza (sp?) died horrible deaths chasing down that Sandow trophy. Their blood is on Weiders hands. To all the young guns tempted by Weider and the glossy magazines (muscle comics), realize this.....it's all an illusion. You can't have what you see is those ridiculous magazines. There is nothing in those magazines that is going to help you in any way. They exist solely to sell suppliments that you don't even need. There is a better way. Forget Weider and the fantasy he sells. Study the ways of the old timers who got big before drugs were even available. They got big and stayed big. They were as strong as they looked. They were as mentally healthy as they were physically healthy. They didn't wind up killing themselves like DeMayo, or killing others like Bertil Fox or Craig Titus. There was a Golden Age of bodybuilding that existed before you or I were even born. Ironically, this is the only time that Joe Weider, himself, ever had ANY muscle. Back then men got big by using what worked and scrapping what was nonsense. These days no one is getting big. Forget Weider and the unatainable fantasy he sells. Work towards something that you can actually achieve.

The title I'm referring to is 'Joe Weider's Bodybuilding System', which I hope is what this title is also referring to. This is an old book, at least 10-12 years anyway, from when I first bought it. I noticed the results of following the training routines within a month. But I had been diligently following some routines from a set of instructions that came with a set of York barbells and plastic plates. I had started the York-based routines and had been following them for about a year at that time. The cumulative results from all of the York procedures was some 'extraordinary' definition in my upper back and some bruising in the joints between my upper and lower arms that never went away all during the York-based training. That was all.

The results from the Weider system, however, were remarkably more pronounced. However, due to scholastic stress and time contraints I had to discontinue all weight-training after a mere month and a half into the Weider system. However, my chest and upper arms were really starting to pack on the mass. I measured the progress, and my arms had increased by two to three inches. Hopefully I'll be able to re-claim lost progress when I try these routines out again, ten years later.

There was also another side affect: I was helping my Dad move furniture one evening during the Weider training when this stinging, itchy feeling started in my armpits. A day later, there were some purple stretch marks stretching from my armpits up and over along the inner side of my upper arms. It's something to watch out for perhaps; what to really do about it, I truly don't know. But it's more proof that the Weider system really works to some degree--even without 'unnatural' supplements.