Rating: 
Summary: Simple training methodology to develop significant strength
Review: If you are new to lifting weights & strength development and you can only buy one book, this is it. While there are many excellent books on the market, Power to the People is the only one that I have found that anyone can put to practical use immediately. It covers key areas of strength development from exercise execution and program design to weight progression and training frequency. The exercises are relatively easy to perform. The section covering the exercises has sufficient photographs of both the correct and incorrect (very important) form of each movement so that one can easily understand how their body is to move when executing the lifts. Nothing is left for the beginner to ponder.Please make note of my initial caveat, this book is geared for beginning lifters. Nonetheless, intermediate and advanced lifters would find this book useful as there are many novel ideas in it and it is a nice book to lend to any friend thinking of stepping up to some iron. Furthermore, this book is not for bodybuilders, as it deals with developing strength without initiating muscle hypertrophy. The only drawback to this book is the price tag. However, considering that to obtain the information contained in this book, one would have to read many books and that there is barely an ounce, if at all, of unwarranted material in it, it is good value for the money.
Rating: 
Summary: An Excellent Program
Review: I have been following the Power to the People program for about 4 months now. I've been seeing great gains in strength (I am 38 and have been lifting for 20 years) with no muscle soreness. I feel better than I have in years. Read the book - follow the program. It works.
Rating: 
Summary: XXX Read this XXX
Review: First of all this book looks like it was written by a little kid for little kids. The way pavel went about writting this book makes me sick. (lame jokes, almost no info,no scientific analysis or something that backs up his statements!! plus his methods given to the reader are nothing but garbage!)
why then the HIGH remarks?? well Pavel does have ONE good point(hence the one star). most people when they go workout they dont know what to do, so they do a little of everything. they are lost souls for sure!! They are going aroung in circles getting bored, not keeping track of anything, and worst of all they really dont put to much effort, or they do too much!!! its the people in between that get the results! Yes it is a fine line brother.
pavel gives you just 2 exercises, keeps it simple so you dont get bored, and of course youre gonna get stronger at those 2 exercises!!! jeezzz. plus this is not a Muscle building book!!
its a GET stronger at the dead lift, and one arm press book and now buy my other books jacka!!
I have given you nothing but the truth. Read anything by bill pearl, or mike mentzer for some good ol fashion hard work backed up by sound scientific results.
This book should be called Strength training for dummies!! Really since all the real meat is in the first dozen pages. you must be one if you believe the hype!
Rating:
Summary: Don't listen to those wusses.This is THE starting point...
Review: This book is IT. Period. After adopting Pavels Routine for 12 weeks, and then adapting the principles to a more diversified workout, My max bench SETS went from 225, to 275x5, Deadlift is over 350, and going up, and my Run times are in the 7.5 min mile range.
(Even though he eschews Cardio, I run 4 or 5 BEFORE lifting). I am 39, and in Incredible Physical Condition, and stronger than 99% of the people I see in the gym. Say goodbye to soreness, and hello to the envy of the rest of the people in the gym.
Thanks Pavel. I will agree, it is definitely not an end point, but this is THE place to start. Then on to Poliquin, De Pasqule, Hatfield et al....
Rating: 
Summary: Poor value, very little explanation of theories
Review: I tried this program and soon became stagnant with no gains, even when using the cycles as suggested. I found out why it didn't work when I read "Serious Stength Training" by Bompa, DiPasquale, et.al. Pavil writes a funny book that proposes programs that may give you short term strength gains, but will eventually stagnate your strength. In addition, this program may not be good for your health as there is not enough conditioning work proposed prior to going through his 3-5 day a week training cycles of only two exercises. Pavil is probably fit and pretty strong, but I gotta wonder, how much weight can this guy lift? He doesn't say in the book at all--maybe for a reason. :-) My recommendation--SAVE YOUR MONEY!!!
Rating:
Summary: Abyssmal
Review: A complete waste of time and money. Deplorable even by the own russian standards. Not worth your consideration.
Rating:
Summary: The bible of strength training
Review: This book is a must have for any strength trainer who doesn't want any over emaculated size.Though Pavel doesn't use an in depth look at the intricacies of his routines I've tried his methods and not only do they work,but I'm amazed at the results. He uses some names of creditable doctors,studies and scientists to support his claims. But often he uses the saying that "the party is always right", and to trust him. This may deter some of you but his methods are effective. He also gives descriptions of the four excercises that can be done for maximum effectiveness though only two of them need be used to adequately gain the desired strength.
Rating:
Summary: The Basics
Review: If you are involved in sports or you are getting into strength training, this lays down the basics that someone should have told you a long time ago. It is a amazing how many ignorant people hang out around the weight rooms across america. I, for one, have spent my fair share of time in weight rooms and this is the first time that work-outs have made sense. I have followed the authors instructions and I have gained 25 lbs in my bench and 40 lbs. in my deadlift in 6 weeks. All this improvement and I would spend only 20 minutes a day in the weight room and not one day was I ever soar. If your are serious about strength, you are not doing everything you can if you don't purchase this book.
Rating:
Summary: I like Pavel's writing style
Review: Pavel is so cool, I love his writing style. This book is an excellent book for someone who wants a condensed version of weightlifting science. Instead of reading "Supertraining" you can just read Pavel's stuff. Its more interesting and his language is more concrete. You dont need a degree in physics or biomechanics to understand Pavel, yet he explains exercise science far better than most University professors. I totally agree with most of what Pavel says, I just wish I had read stuff like Pavel when I was 17-25 when I was reading junk Joe Weider muscle mags and bodybuilding books. This book is both extremely informative...yet entertaining at the same time. I highly recommend it. Eric
Rating: 
Summary: I'd expect more for the price
Review: I bought this shortly after I purchased LACTATE THRESHOLD TRAINING by Peter Janssen. Janssen describes some of the negative aspects of high lactate levels in the muscles (going for the burn): "...After acidosis damage , it may take days before this system recovers sufficiently and regains aerobic capacity...." Having read an article about arm training by Pavel Tsatsouline in an issue of Muscle Media I knew that he recommended stopping sets short of failure; in effect, avoiding high lactate levels. I intend to experiment with Tsatsouline's ideas regarding sets and rest intervals, but with more emphasis on the higher number of sets he recommends for hypertrophy. If the results are good then the book will have been a worthwhile purchase. I suspect that de-emphasizing the "burn" may help by shortening recovery time. Pavel, like many others, has bad things to say about Ken Hutchins 's trademarked SuperSlow(TM) training. I have tried SuperSlow and incorporate slow repetitions frequently with good results. My only criticism of Hutchins is that maybe he has not explored all the possible rep schemes. I find that slow singles and doubles allow much heavier loads than the 3 to 5 rep sets that Hutchins recommends for upper body exercises. In fact, I'd dare say that using SuperSlow reps without going to failure and using mutltiple sets probably would work well. Wayne Westcott has produced studies that indicate that SuperSlow gives more rapid strength gains than faster exercise tempos. Pavel does not cite any studies that show that his tempo is superior to SuperSlow. Pavel's writing style is amusing, but more factual material such as why his method works -- the lack of lactate accumulation, for instance, would have been appreciated. He does say why bodybuilders' muscles are larger than "stronger" powerlifters, but he negelects to say that bodybuilders can lift moderately heavy weights for many more repetitions than powerlifters. I agree too that the deadlift is a much more functional lift than the bench press or squat. Routines with only a few exercises make more sense than ones with eight or more. I'd like to see some studies comparing Tsatsouline's routine with conventional routines.
Tsatsouline recommends the purchase of an Olympic barbell, but does not offer much in the way of purchasing advice.
There are differences in Olympic barbell sets -- thicker, stiffer bars for powerlifting; plates machined to exact poundage cost more; rubber plates are less likely to cause damage; longer bars take up more room, but fit competition benches and power racks whereas 5-foot and 6-foot "Olympic" bars may not, etc. In short, I think I could re-write the book in about a week and add a substantial amount of relevant material without adding any pages. If you've weight trained for a while and think you may want to train without "going for the burn" or if the idea of abbreviated workouts appeals to you, then this book may be for you. If appearance is more important than performance, then more conventional routines might be in order. That does not preclude using Pavel's ideas about sets, reps, and rests between sets though. But, with over 750 bodybuilding and weight training book available it really is difficult to recommned this book widely.
| 
