Rating: 
Summary: A Must Have Text
Review: An excellent book, covering all aspects of conditioning - strength, flexibility, cardiovascular, speed, agility, periodization - it's all there. Up to date, well documented. One to have if you're a personal trainer or strength coach; essential if you're studying for the CSCS exam with the NSCA.
Rating:
Summary: A Must Have Text
Review: An excellent book, covering all aspects of conditioning - strength, flexibility, cardiovascular, speed, agility, periodization - it's all there. Up to date, well documented. One to have if you're a personal trainer or strength coach; essential if you're studying for the CSCS exam with the NSCA.
Rating:
Summary: The best strength training text written
Review: As a Track and field coach with regional responabilities in the United Kingdom I am constantly scouring literature to gain a better understanding of the theories of strength training and conditioning in general. I have found, without doubt, the best single reference for strength training in this book.The contributors to the book are all clearly not only academicly qualified to speak upon the subject but also have many years of practical experience to add weight to their thoughts. The book covers all aspects of conditioning from physiology through training aspects including weight lifting, spotting techniques, plyometrics, planning and nutrition amongst many others. My only criticism of the text would be that those not versed in physiology to a quite high level may find the text quite difficult. It is also easier for some concepts to be understood if you have a degree of practical experience. But these are minor complaints. I would reccomend this book to any coach or strength professional who wishes to increase their knowledge. In fact any athletic professional that wishes to provide the best service to their charges should purchase and read this outstanding text.
Rating:
Summary: Good book to start for scientifically inclined people
Review: First what this book is NOT:
If you are in a big hurry to start exercise or if you do not like the thorough scientific approach to bodybuilding, go for other books. Also this book does not give the exercises (just very few basic ones). Finally what this book is for:
The book is intended for training schools; it gives only the scientifically proven facts, and gives these facts clearly and is very well organized. I give it 5 stars because it is exactly what it says it is (very honest approach). The good thing is that bodybuilding world is full of dirt (wrong or suspicious information is everywhere), so this book would clear the mess in the non-educated person's mind and give the most precious information - the PROVEN ESSENTIAL information. And by proven I do not mean proven by Joe Amateur who tried that on himself only - as usually is the case, but SCIENTIFICALY proven. That is the biggest advantage of this book. Unfortunately, this book cannot guard you from all frauds in the field of bodybuilding because the field is too complex and no book can cover everything. If you start with this book, then if you buy some books on exercising, then exercise regularly as your (new) way of living, than think a lot about your training, and maybe some other things...., you will enjoy the most benefits of good health and strong body. A lot of ifs, I know, but every knowledge is hard to grasp.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Overall View of Weight Training
Review: I have read several weight training books over the past few months and this is the best one I have seen so far. It is rough going in spots because of the techinical language used by the authors; however, the explanations are wonderful and the pictures are nothing less than outstanding. Numerous charts and graphs help the reader understand the text. So much of what is written about bodybuilding and weight training is fluff, not backed up by true research. In this publication the authors are careful to use only the best research findings and they are excellent at saying when something is thought to be proven verses actually proven. I highly recomend this text to anyone interested in weight training. I read it from cover to cover and was not bored. It is excellent as a reference tool as well.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Overall View of Weight Training
Review: I have read several weight training books over the past few months and this is the best one I have seen so far. It is rough going in spots because of the techinical language used by the authors; however, the explanations are wonderful and the pictures are nothing less than outstanding. Numerous charts and graphs help the reader understand the text. So much of what is written about bodybuilding and weight training is fluff, not backed up by true research. In this publication the authors are careful to use only the best research findings and they are excellent at saying when something is thought to be proven verses actually proven. I highly recomend this text to anyone interested in weight training. I read it from cover to cover and was not bored. It is excellent as a reference tool as well.
Rating:
Summary: Quality and quantity
Review: I just received this new edition in the mail and I am thoroughy enjoying it. Very detailed, yet pretty easy to read. I would recommend this book to anyone that is training athletes or is interested in strenght training (for any reason). This book is a great resource of knowledge even for people with advanced knowledge in strength training.
Rating: 
Summary: Tricked by five star reviews
Review: I purchased this book mainly because of the positive remarks I read here on Amazon. The reviews are helpful in guiding my purchase most of the time but this time I got burned. There are some very important things that I have to clear up. 1. This book is NOT organized well. Similar pieces of information that would make more sense in the same section or chapter are many chapters apart. I spend a great deal of time flipping between chapters linking one fact to another trying to piece together underlying principles or purposes behind similar functionality, AND angrily wondering why so many similar sections were haphazardly scattered throughout the text.
2. The writing is DRY. I am a scientist, and I hate having to plow through technical, monotonous, fact-driven, unispired lectures. Scientific writing does not have to cause headaches or blurry vision. I'm not looking for a text that romances me with an ambiance of literary magic. I just want something worded in a way that is lucid, meaningful, and to the point ("Understanding Nutrition" is an excellent example of intelligent scientific writing that is also very readable). This text in sharp contrast is choppy, cumbersome, and aggravating.
3. "However" I am so sick of seeing this word thanks to this text. However shows up in the strangest places. Over and over again. It is very distracting to have to constantly stumble across this word while trying to make sense of the rest of the drivel surrounding it. I am sure this book is a wealth of valuable information. It is just not worth it for me to spend the extra time and energy mining the text for that information. There are other books that cover the same material just in a logical order and worded in a more conversational -- less clinical -- way. My last piece of advice is to do what I didnt do: check out the example pages. They wont convey the weak organization because the Table of Contents actually looks kinda organized but its deceptive. They will at least clue you in to writing style, but keep in mind that it only gets worse as the book goes along.
Compare it to the style in the example pages for a very similar book "Physiology of Sport and Exercise".
Rating: 
Summary: Expensive, but worth it
Review: I wish I had this book ten years ago; I could have avoided all kinds of painful mistakes and misconceptions in my own training.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: If you are studing for the CSCS exam this is your book. And I should stress this is the ONLY review material that you need, the other "review" materials are a waste of time and money. This book does an excelent job preparing you for the test--read the chapters take the tests at the end of the chapters and you should pass with flying colors. As a side note, yes this book is rather dry, however there is NO other book that covers the entire relm of strength training as well as this book--yes, there are better speciality books than this one and yes there are books that are easier to understand--but as far as covering all the bases, this is the best I've found. It also has good color pictures--as opposed to Designing Resistance Training Programs.
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