Brawn (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Brawn has no hype, no bull and no commercial messages. It is the real thing and genuinely needed."

Product Description

If you thought Arnold Schwarzenegger put Graz, Austria on the bodybuilding map, how about Stuart McRobert and Nicosia, Cyprus? Imagine, one man, on a Mediterranean island no less, who has the audacity to directly challenge most contemporary bodybuilding advice. Instead of being another me-too bodybuilding book, Brawn is unique: its tone is serious, its manner evangelical, but most importantly, its focus is on things that actually work for the average trainee. "Drugs are evil and the scourge of bodybuilding," says McRobert, in effect "and forget about Mr O-type training -- it just won't work for most people. I'll tell you some things that do work". Brawn has most bodybuilding books beaten hands down in the depth department, but its biggest contribution just might be in breadth: Brawn introduces you to over 90 percent of the factors that will determine your ultimate success in the gym. A very useful book, which can help a lot of people to make tremendous bodybuilding progress.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 232 pages
• Publisher: CS Publishing; 2 edition (September 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9963616089
• ISBN-13: 978-9963616084
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #562,062 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Crammed with information, April 21, 2004

By	Seppo Vesala (Helsinki, - Finland) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is aimed for a bodybuilder who has typical genetics, does not use anabolic steroids, and has a life outside the gym. The author does not advocate two-hour long workouts with 15 sets for each bodypart, as seems to be the case with some more conventional books. Still, this is not high intensity training, per se.

The author advocates the basic lifts and training style from the golden era of bodybuilding, when Reg Park and John Grimeg were dominant figures in the field. The emphasis is on squat, deadlift, stiff-legged deadlift, chins, dips and the like. Interestingly, McRobert even uses somewhat archaic names for the excercises, like overhead press for military press, and he advocates paying attention to grip and neck work. These issues are not handled routinely in most modern bodybuilding books.

I was surprised to find out that the author advises to train two, or even three total body workouts every week. I have been used to train each bodypart directly once in ten days, so that was almost a shock to me, especially considering that the author is otherwise against the modern trend of frequent and extensive workouts. However, as I read along, I discovered that actually, the author now advocates dividing the body to two or three parts, and doing the rotation once a week, of even less frequently. The confusion developed because the text from the first edition has not been edited at all, even if the author has changed his opinion towards a given matter. Rather, there is a boxed, "important note for the second edition" to note that now the author has different opinion on the matter. This can be very confusing, as in some matters, the authors' opinion has changed considerably, and the boxed note for second edition sometimes is not located right after the outdated information.

There is not a single picture of graph in the book. At first, that made the book appear to be heavy to read, but actually the text is very easy to read. Perhaps on some occasions a picture or two would have made it easier to understand what the author is saying, but as he can explain the things very well, I believe that I have not missed anything.

And speaking of pictures, there has been some criticism that as the author does not pose in his books, the training system is not believable. I have read dozens of training books, and I believe that there has not been a single picture of the author posing in any of the books, unless the book has been authored (or co-authored) by a professional bodybuilder or the like. Therefore, I don't understand this kind of critic.

This kind of training worked well for all great bodybuilders of the golden era, in a time before steroids, and when even the stars had to work for a living. Therefore, as man has not evolved considerably in past 50 years or so, the same principles work today, for a person who does not use steroids, and works for a living. Even without its' flaws, as the book is crammed with information that relates to typical, drug-free bodybuilder, it is highly recommended.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally a weight training book for us average guys!, August 13, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Brawn: Bodybuilding for the Drug-Free and Genetically Typical (Paperback)

Brawn is the book most "average" people who weight train have been waiting for for years.Instead of wasting your valuable time,money and most of all EFFORT on following the books and routines by the "champions", buy this book and begin to realize your true potential.Crammed with the most useful information I have read in years, and I have been involved in weight training for 20+ years and have a degree in Physical Education and let me tell you, you'll never do better than this book!Thank you Stuart McRobert, you've done the weight training world a great service, I'm now a huge fan!

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Info., Lousy Writing Style -- A Diamond in the Rough, March 27, 2003

By A Customer

This book contains a wealth of useful information -- if you can make sense of it.

The author is obviously quite intelligent, and writes on bodybuilding from an honest, hype-free perspective rarely discussed. In the world of bodybuilding, the truth is hard to come by, and this guy tells it like it is.

However, Stuart McRobert has much to learn about writing books. I hate to be the first reviewer to not give it 5 stars, but am I the only person who noticed that this is a badly written book? Trying to plow through this reference is like reading somebody's random thought patterns, laid out on paper in a "stream-of-consciousness" format. It's basically a whole hodge-podge of useful tidbits, scattered throughout a sea of words with very little formatting to break up the monotony -- Much like this paragraph! :-) Just pages and pages of humorless words, ideas, and points strung together without structure.

While I respect his reasons for not including photographs, some point-forms, tables, or diagrams would have gone a long way towards making his points clearer.

Speaking of points, his seem to be scattered throughout the book with little in the way of clear, progressive teaching methods. Usually in an instructional reference, the author builds progressively towards an important point. In this book, some important points are just stated, sometimes with no explanation, and sometimes with their explanations elsewhere in the book, under some unlikely chapter heading. Other less important points are stated over and over again ad nauseam. Very uneven. Chapter summaries would have helped. There are some rudimentary chapter intros, but they read rather like those annoying random "Tips of the Day" you get with some computer software.

Also his choice of words and phraseology are slightly more complicated than they need to be, often necessitating reading a phrase more than once to get the correct interpretation. I often find myself wondering, "Is he trying to say that I *should* do this, or is he using this as an example of something I *shouldn't* do?".

In summary, this book is not an easy read. Its writing style is clumsy and highly disorganized, and requires much effort on the part of the reader to organize all of its information into a usable workout program. However, it does contain some nuggets of brilliance that will take you a long way towards building a better body, if you...

- Are good at taking notes
- Are patient and have a high attention span
- Have good reading skills
- Can tolerate some humorless monotony
- Have some prior bodybuilding experience (this book is definitely *not* for beginners)
- Aren't expecting an easy-to-follow program (he provides some sample programs, but mostly leaves it up to you to create your own using the information he's given you)