Rating: Summary: Great info - and yet... and yet... Review: The information on the muscles is incredibly useful, and the drawings really are very well done. And yet' the male models are so grotesquely unlike human beings that the entire document serves as an indictment of body building. The pictures demonstrate that the real focus of this book is not strength training, but body building - two pursuits that use related exercises, but have different goals. The male models didn't have to look like people who have no life outside the gym. They didn't have to look like the products of anabolic steroid abuse. We know that because the images of women are of people who are very strong, but still attractive within the limits of ordinary appearance. Using male models who are body builders, rather than just guys who lift seriously does nothing to make the exercises clearer - it just serves as a bad example to folks who are susceptible to the self-serving advertising of unhealthy freaks. This book would have been an awful lot better for study and demonstration if it had not carried along with the useful information an enormous load of misinformation about human bodies that contributes to unrealistic ideas about appearance, possibility, and health.mhh
Rating: Summary: This is a wonderful reference. Buy this book. Review: This book is great because it tells you what muscles you are working when you use various machines at the gym. This can be used as a reference for any healthcare provider or personal trainer. This is because it can help when a patient or client asks what exercises she can do to excercise a certain muscle. I also would recommend the following for personal trainers or anyone who wants to further their expertise into anatomy which is also sold on amazon.com: Anatomy and Physiology Study Guide: Key Review Questions and Answers with Explanations (Vol 1 ISBN: 0971999619) (Vol 2 ISBN: 0971999627) Spinal Anatomy Study Guide:Key Review Questions and Answers (ISBN: 0971999600) As a personal trainer, I used these four books as references and it helped me expand my anatomy knowledge. In this way, I could choose a better workout for my clients.
Rating: Summary: Wonderful Book !!! Review: I'm a Physical Therapist and this book serves as a great reference for me. When my patients ask me which exercise is best for certain muscle groups, I can show them quickly and clearly with this book. I can also show them in color which muscle groups they are targeting. Great Buy !!
Rating: Summary: Fitness Junkie Addicted Review: I am a female who loves the gym, and more specifically, lifting weights, focusing on good form. I saw this book and had to buy it after reading a few reviews. I haven't been disappointed yet, until I saw the 'Women's Strength Training Anatomy' book that is available. But after reading those reviews, I was happy with my choice for this book instead. I have a couple of male workout partners who are just as into lifting weights and form as I am, and after they saw my book, they too had to have a copy of it. You can't go wrong! Pick up your copy today!
Rating: Summary: Great Book - Review: 1st of all my father who is a doctor and having a good grasp of anatomy bought this book. Why? 1) The muscle are color coded. 2) EXERCISES SHOW WHICH MUSCLES ARE BEING STRESSED (EXERCISED) BY THE EXERCISE BY THE COLOR CODE. 3) eTC. I HAVE BOUGHT SEVERAL EXERCISE BOOKS OVER THE YEARS I LIKE THIS ONE BECAUSE IT SHOWS MUSCLE ANATOMY EASILY AND HELPS ME CHOOSE WHICH EXERCISE I SHOULD DO TO WORK ON THE AREA/ AREA'S I WANT AND WHAT OTHER AREA'S MIGHT BE STRESSED BY THAT EXERCISE.
Rating: Summary: Not very useful Review: Propably the first thing you notice when you open the book is quality. The paper is thick and glossy and the quality of printing is good. The pictures are beautiful, and it's easy to find exercises for a certain muscle group. Then the bad news: While the pictures look great, on many occasions they are too detailed, to the point of being unclear. Every exercise is given a full page (two pages on some occasions). But the majority of a page is filled with large drawing of the exercise, with the stressed muscle groups shown. The performance of a given exercise is given far less detail, on some occasions only a few lines of text. I think it would be far more benefical to give more detailed explanation of correct performance and/or common mistakes, and print the picture a bit smaller. The exercises in the book are divided on seven sections, based on which muscle group they mainly stress. This is OK, but the division of muscle groups is a bit odd. There is a separate section covering exercises for buttocs, but at the same time all other muscle groups in the leg are combined as "legs". It would be more reasonable to combine buttocs with quads, or thights, and give calves a separate section. There are about 110 different exercises, and variations on some exercises. The selection of exercises is a bit odd in my opinion. For example, there is a page on seated calf raise (on a machine), and the author advises that as a variation you can do the exercise without a machine, using a barbell across your legs. Then, on the next page that very same exercise is presented as a separate exercise! And there are some basic exercises missing, like toe presses on leg press machine, for example. Perhaps the main problem of the book is that it doesn't expalain the muslce mechanics at all. It would be great if the kinesiology of given muscle group would be explained at the beginning of each chapter, but there is no explanations at all about what a given muscle does, and how it affects the whole body. For example, the book says that seated calf raise targets the soleus, but there is no explanation what this means in practice. And there is no explanation which exercise I sould use if I wanted to emphasize the outer calf, for example. As a conclusion, I would say that in certain circumstances this book can be a valuable asset, but you can't use it by itself. You need to have some books on kinesiology, and some books which describe the correct performance of each exercise in detail.
Rating: Summary: Great book Review: If you want to understand which muscles are involved in various common weight exercises this book gives right-on explanations in text and drawings. It helps you to be aware of the muscle groups you are concentrating on, or can be used to select exercises or vary your routine. For many exercises, the effect of variations is also mentioned. E.g., what muscles are involved if I widen the grip, or increase the range of motion, etc.? ...
Rating: Summary: Written specifically for the non-specialist general reader Review: Strength Training Anatomy: Your Illustrated Guide To Muscles At Work by human anatomy expert Frederic Delavier is a detailed and extensively illustrated guide to how muscles work and the best exercise to strength train those muscles for optimum health and well-being. Written specifically for the non-specialist general reader, Strength Training Anatomy assumes no prior medical, anatomical, or weight room experience, and explicitly describes its variety of exercises and how to get the most out of a good workout. Strength Training Anatomy is highly recommended for personal, professional, and academic Physical Education and Body Building reference collections. If you are contemplating or involved with a strength building program of physical exercise and weight training, then give Frederic Delavier's Strength Training Anatomy a careful and considered reading.
Rating: Summary: Better than I anticipated Review: The illustrations are wonderful! I wasn't sure if I was going to like it, but it really is a cool book! The descriptions of the exercises come along with which muscle groups are being worked. I don't think you'll be disappointed if you get this book.
Rating: Summary: Excellent book Review: I found this to be an excellent book. It has great descriptions of the exercises and has great diagrams showing which muscles are worked by the exercises. There is really not much more to be said. You simply can't go too far wrong getting this book. My only complaint is that the book could have been improved by adding some information on designing routines that utilize the exercises but this is a minor quibble and was not the goal of the book. It would have been great however if the diagrams were integrated into a book of the same nature as Bill Pearl's Getting Stronger or even Arnold's bodybuilding encyclopedia. One more thing just to be clear: the book contains detailed descriptions on how to perform the exercises. This and Arnold's book are where I go for technique.
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