Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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82 of 84 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not perfect, but better than most anything else you'll read, December 2, 2000
Most exercise books are a joke. Bodybuilding books are often written by or for steroid users. Aerobics books are afraid to ask the reader to work hard. Fitness books are written by celebrities no real knowledge except how to get an open line of credit with their plastic surgeon. Ab books tout the perfect exercises to reduce the size of your waist. (Sorry, only diet books can help there.) This book is the real deal. Time and again, people in the know, from Olympic weightlifters to elite track athletes, refer to the 20 rep squat program as the best strength and mass building program ever. Strossen's "Super Squat" book is the benchmark book on the subject of 20 rep squats.That said, there are some weak points in the book. While consuming milk may be one of the most simple, effective, and obvious protein supplements around, many trainees and nutrition experts question the wisdom of consuming as much milk as Strossen recommends. Some question the effect on cholesterol levels and many claim the 30 lbs. of weight gain will be a lot of fat gain. Another issue is Strossen's claim that the pullover exercise will increase the size of the rib cage. While the exercise itself is good, this claim is unsubstantiated. The worst flaw is that the book recommends squats - a lot of squats - without delving into the technique of what is essentially a fairly technical lift. Many novice or uncoached lifters perform the squat in a technically unsound and unsafe manner. In weightlifting, poor technique is usually the cause of injury; rarely is injury the direct result of the actual amount of weight lifted. A few diagrams and photos would have been very helpful. The average reader should supplement this book with another reference source on how to actually perform the squat safely.
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89 of 94 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A good read for students of the iron game, April 11, 2001
There's a lot of good stuff in this book, and the fundamental premise -- that single sets of 20 rep squats will pack on a lot of muscle -- is too well documented to seriously dispute. (There is some dispute as to whether it's a good idea anyway, see, e.g., Pavel Tsatsouline's Power to the People.) But remember, this book is 12 years old, and weight lifting theories change all the time.This is not the book to buy to start you off in weight lifting. It's message is pretty darn simple, and can be conveyed in a review. Do single sets of 20 rep squats 2-3 times a week. Take in a boat load of chow and get plenty of rest, add 5 lbs. to the bar every week, and you'll get a lot stronger. Some of the information conflicts with other sources, which seem to me to be more up to date and better reasoned. The best iron game writer around is Stuart McRobert, whose Beyond Brawn and Insider's Tell All Handbook to Weight Training Technique should be the core of your training library. (Strossen won't mind this recommendation, he and McRobert seem to be pretty well acquainted and mutually admiring.) So, bottom line, if you're already well on your way down the training path, Strossen's book is an interesting read, but it's not going to serve as the basis for a comprehensive training program.
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58 of 61 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Super Motivation + Super System = Superman, July 2, 2000
"Super Squats" espouses the revolutionary theory that if you lift huge weights for huge reps, you're going to get huge muscles. No exercise except possibly the deadlift works the body as hard as the squat does. The heart and soul of Strossen's system is the twenty rep breathing squat. Load the bar to a weight you would normally do ten reps with. Do twenty, taking at least three deep breaths between each rep. Next workout increase the weight and do twenty more. Keep the auxiliary exercises to a minimum. Using Strossen as a guide, I devised a three exercise workout: twenty rep squats, bench presses, and bent rows, and it proved a very satisfactory workout indeed. Do those three exercises and do them heavy, and you cannot help but get strong. A word of caution: Squats can be dangerous. If you want to lift heavy on squats, get Stuart McRobert's "The Insider's Tell-All Guide to Weight-Training Technique." The book is a gold mine of information on how to perform weight training exercises properly and without injury.
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