Rating: 
Summary: Having trained in many gyms. 99.99% of you need this book!
Review: (..) I have read much of his material, and more of others, and have found Charles to be 100% right on with his training principles, parameters, and techniques. I do not like the routines in the book, but he did need to put something in there for the lazy individuals who will read his book, put it on the shelf with their useless Arnold book (don't get me wrong. I think Arnold is awesome, but he didn't know squat about intelligent training), and forget about much of what they read much less why they bought the book in the first place. This book is presented with the right mix of art and most importantly science that is necessary to become big and strong. Anyway, be smart, buy this book and begin to integrate weight training into your daily life and have fun and life smartly. (...)
Rating:
Summary: another great work...
Review: Coach Poliquin teaches body builders the principles of athletic strength...clear, concise, funny, and most helpful for athletes.
Rating: 
Summary: All the ingredients but no formula
Review: I don't recommend this book, and wish I hadn't bought it. It is unstructured and unorganized in it's deliverance of information.
It does not give a complete list of common gym exercises, nor a diagram of the human muscle anatomy for reference and application.
This book leaves many questions unanswered or vaguely answered.
The subject matter jumps around alot, giving tidbits of information as you read through.
The author just didn't carry the ball all the way on this one.
Luckily enough I found a better book that really outlines it all as well as giving a real periodization structure to create my progressive workout routine.
Rating: 
Summary: Buy it, but expect some negative aspects...
Review: I generally think this is a great book, but here is the caveat: I agree with others who wrote that the low quality of the photos, low paper quality, and poor editing are not in line with the high price. I would also like to see more example routines.Having said that, buy this book and carefully sift through it. It does contain a wealth of info that can be incorporated into any type of routine depending on your training goals. Poliquin clearly knows his stuff, but very obviously needed a better editor and a better photographer. This book would benefit from clearer pictures to go along with the explanations, and the author assumes too much previous knowledge regarding exercises. Some that he mentioned were totally unfamiliar to me, yet there weren't photos of many exercises to illustrate just what the heck he's talking about. The real beauty of this book is in the myriad ways to alter your own training regimen, even in small ways, to shake up and improve your training. Hopefully this book's weaknesses will be addressed in his newest book, which I have yet to read.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the best
Review: I have been acquainted with "The Poliquin Principles" for over three years now,and I can attest to their validity and effectiveness.I added a full 50 pounds to my squat after one cycle using the poliquin principles.Charles poliquin is a very intelligent,innovative guy,and his guidelines are all based in science.This is one of my top three weight training books of all time(and I have them ALL!!!)
Rating: 
Summary: Pseudoscience
Review: It is sad that this self-styled "guru" has gained such publicity and credibility, given that his book appears to contain very little in the way of scientifically-based training advice and contains much pseudoscience and outright nonsense, such as swiss ball training. As a sport scientist whose Ph.D. is in the area of motor learning, I would like Poliquin to explain just what additional benefit is derived from performing weight training exercises balancing on a ball. There is absolutely no scientific evidence to support this practice, which, given that balance does not transfer to different activities will only improve your ability to balance on a ball. Not something that many athletes (or anyone else) will find much use! I find it sad that so many people (including elite athletes) are taken in by the likes of Poliquin and Paul Chek, whose description of themselves as "gurus" and "experts" is laughable. If Poliquin is expert at anything (which I doubt), it certainly is not exercise science. The apparent popularity of the book, and similarly pseudoscientific weight training books by the likes of Kraemer, Fleck, Stone and Bompa, proves one thing only: that there's a sucker born every minute, and two to take him.
Rating:
Summary: This guy is for real!
Review: Let's begin with the downside. First of all, the book is not very well written. By that I mean that those who are not familiar with his writings will not understand everything he's talking about such as some exercise selections. Secondly, the price is too high considering the cheap paper he's using. Now for the good part. I've been reading everything I can get my hands on by Poloquin since I first learned about him a little over a year back. Being a certified personal trainer I pretty much thought I had it all tied down. In short, I thought I knew everything I needed to know. I was wrong. Poliquin is a very knowledgable person regarding bodybuilding/strength training. His training ideas are unique and although he's being criticized for using information that are old and "out of date" then who cares as long as they do the job. He's bringing a world of new knowledge into training. I advise everybody who wants to learn more about training to read everything they can by this guy as well as his good friend, Paul Chek.
Rating:
Summary: too much money for what you get.
Review: THE BOOK IT TOO MUCH MONEY FOR WHAT YOU GET! LOOK ELSE WHERE!!!
It would be an great 30$ or 40$ soft cover, but I believe the rarity & reputation is what a person is really paying for when he/she buys this book. Since price is the most important issue I gave a low score.
If I were to rate solely on the books contents "4".
PRO
-will help you add variety to your work out
-will help you understand difference between strength gain, strength/mass gain, and mass gain.
- has lots of information on different muscle types and the best way to train them.
-the exercise that are explained have detailed form information.
- I like the line art pictorials, simple and informative.
CON
-If you are unfamiliar with exercise names you may need to do research just to find out what exercise the guy is refering to. This doesn't apply to ones that are explained.
-an index would have been nice.
-less pictures of bodybuilding stars, and more of proper exercise form.
Rating:
Summary: too much money for what you get.
Review: THE BOOK IT TOO MUCH MONEY FOR WHAT YOU GET! LOOK ELSE WHERE!!!
It would be an great 30$ or 40$ soft cover, but I believe the rarity & reputation is what a person is really paying for when he/she buys this book. Since price is the most important issue I gave a low score.
If I were to rate solely on the books contents "4".
PRO
-will help you add variety to your work out
-will help you understand difference between strength gain, strength/mass gain, and mass gain.
- has lots of information on different muscle types and the best way to train them.
-the exercise that are explained have detailed form information.
- I like the line art pictorials, simple and informative.
CON
-If you are unfamiliar with exercise names you may need to do research just to find out what exercise the guy is refering to. This doesn't apply to ones that are explained.
-an index would have been nice.
-less pictures of bodybuilding stars, and more of proper exercise form.
Rating:
Summary: Not the best training book after-all
Review: The good: Poliquin is extremely knowledgable in strength training. The book has brought up some things I haven't considered in my training. He clearly explains why such weakpoints occur and how to effectively train these areas. Poliquin introduces effective periodization and how to manipulate training variables to maximize results. A good plus is that I am familiar with 2 of his trainees mentioned in his book, Andre Charrette and Mike Payette. Both of these men are huge. The bad: Poliquin maybe a good strength coath but as far as bodybuilding is concerned he's not the greatest expert. Some of his training ideas are out of date in the bodybuilding world. I wonder if he still lives in the 80s. There's a reason why intensity training has been the vogue! His routines are riduculous with a lot of funny isolation exercises and way too many supersets. I plan to use his ideas and make up my own routines just as payette and charrette do. The pictures are old and very out of! date. The book is printed on cheap paper which doesn't compliment it's price tag. I noticed many printing mistakes in the book. My point? I think poliquin should spend a full year or two on nothing but pure bodybuilding just to see if he still keeps his ideas on training for muscle growth!
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