Rating: 
Summary: Austrian Oak Reveals All.........
Review: Not only is this book a GREAT training aid, It inspires you into working harder and better at the gym. Whenever I hit a low patch I find Arnold's beautifully arrogant writing style just re-ignites my fire and im off down the gym with a renewed passion. It instructs clearly on exercise form, and workout routines from the very beginning of your training right up to competetion routines. It is very simple and easy to understand, yet, it goes into so much detail should you need it, for example, there is a section advising on shape of Posing trunks.... :-\ Without a doubt Arnold was the greatest bodybuilder of his time, and is still even now the most famous and respected man in the business. Buy this book and learn from the greatest.
Rating:
Summary: Governor of Bodybuilding (oh yeah, California too)
Review: I've been training for over 10 years, through sports (middle, high school and college football) and to win two titles (Mr. USC 2002 bodybuilding competition overall winner and the USC 2001 Bench Press meet Heavy Weight winner. Even with this much experienc behind me, I still read through the Arnold Schwarzenegger Encycolpedia regularly to pick up new tips. It's laid out so well that someone who's never seen a gym could understand the basic by reading the first few chapters of this book. Also, the book goes in-depth enough that a seasoned lifter like myself can learn from it. I keep this and the original Arnold Encyclopedia (the yellow paper back version) around my personal training gym for quick motivation flipping through the awesome pictures or to re-study advanced techniques for stubborn bodyparts. Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent and, um, inaccurate
Review: Let me first say that no one should follow the programs recommended in this book unless they're on drugs. You will get overtrained. Now that that's out of the way, I totally recommend this book. Here's why: 1. It's absolutely FULL of awesome and inspirational photos! I'm not even kidding. 2. Good history of physical culture and how it evolved into bodybuilding. 3. This is the main reason: this book has the largest collection of exercises in it, and, unlike so many other books, has MANY PHOTOS and DETAILED INSTRUCTION for each one. In this regard, even tho the diet and exercise regimen sections are basically worthless, that this book shines, and is well worth the price. Another popular exercise book, "The Art of Expressing the Human Body," by Bruce Lee, has a bunch of exercises but has NO PICTURES for them. It only has a little description. Terrible! As I said before, this book is definately worth the price (for the softcover edition, anyway), because of it's exhaustive list of exercises and their accompanying detailed photos and descriptions. But yeah, ignore the diet and training parts.
Rating:
Summary: Literally the Bible of bodybuilding...
Review: I loved this book. I'm 17, and in bodybuilding right now, and I have learned so much from this book. I recommend it to anyone, it's a great buy!
Rating: 
Summary: Slightly Dated
Review: I thought the new and revised version of the encyclopedia would have different training, diet and supplementation recommendations with up to date information on the science behind some of the newer techniques and ideas. However, the only thing new in the revised edition is the inclusion of a new preface. All in all, the book is pretty good for a beginner. Arnold's training routines are pretty outrageous and not for the average person. Some of the supplement recommendations I disagree with also. I think you could easily find most of this information online for free, but it does have some good information on the history of bodybuilding, as well as lots of good pictures and descriptions of specific excercises.
Rating:
Summary: An EXCELLENT insight into Bodybuilding...
Review: This is an excellent book for anyone, of any age, wishing to get into the sport of bodybuilding. There are tons of pictures, and information for each exercise. This book is worth reading, even for folks like myself who have been lifting for a few years.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't use it as training advice!
Review: This is a beautifully made book with tons of high quality pictures. It contains
a lot of information on the bodybuilding world and its history and it is a
monument to the dedication and success of Arnold Schwarzenegger.
You can use this book for motivation or for a glimpse inside the world of
competitive bodybuilding, but don't use it as training advice! The training
programs in this book are very unlikely to work for anyone who is not a
genetic phenonemon like Arnold. (You might be, but don't count on it!)
I do not regret ordering this book, but as a book on training I would
recommend to everyone the great "Beyond Brawn" by Stuart McRobert.
Rating:
Summary: Recommended for all beginners
Review: I bought two books: "Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding" by Gerard Thorne and Phil Embleton (made from magazine Musclemag's articles), and "The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding" by Arnold Schwartzenegger. I read both books very thoroughly. They are both very informative and good for bodybuilding practicioner. I guess it would be interesting to compare these two. The books are full of pictures and poses, far more than necessary. Arnold's book seems to be the honest opinion of generally the most famous living bodybuilder in the world nowadays. In the book all exercises are explained; photographs are not put just for Arnold's fame but also they exactly explain what the author said, much better then Musclemag's photographs; the book is more of narrow scope when compared to Musclemag's; it has less scientific approach than Musclemag's but is more practical; it lacks the completeness of Musclemag's in food and other compartments, but is not boring. Actualy Arnold says the same things as Muslcemag's book. Musclemag's book is more like real encyclopedia, with a lot of diverse articles covering every possible aspect of bodybuilding; If you would like to read about everything in bodybuilding this is the book for you; the book lacks some consistency because it is compiled from different articles published through a long time period; in that book you will find some exercises explained and some which are not explained at all, what makes the book much more suitable for advanced bodybuilder than for a beginner; the strongest aspect of the book is the bodybuilding practice of the greatest bodybuilders in the world, explaining their principles and routines which is invaluable for advanced bodybuilders but can be interesting (or missleading) for beginners; the photographs are mostly boring because there are too many of them which do not illustrate too well what the author said. I think this would really help you to choose between the two books. Wish you all fun in your training and life!
solair.eunet.yu/~slavne
Rating:
Summary: The Bedrock of Bodybuilding Books
Review: The sport of bodybuilding is explained, and then Arnold then launches into an intelligent, effective how-to guide. Using clear, well-written prose (like many expert authors, Schwarzenegger uses a writer) the book includes detailed and effective workouts for beginner, intermediate and advanced-level bodybuilders as well as detailed descriptions of virtually every known gym/weights/iron exercise. You can see why Schwarzenegger has been a champion - his book reflects fierce ambition and (despite what you may think about him) the disarming frankness of a fundamentally decent human being. In a paragraph that is classic Arnold, he exhorts the novice to overcome scheduling obstacles by describing how he worked out at 5:30 a.m. while undergoing full-time military training. The book is marred by the discussion on steroids, which being illegal, are perhaps impossible to write about honestly. As arguably the world's highest-profile heavy and chronic (former) steroid user, Schwarzenegger's assertion that "of all the great bodybuilders I have known, I don't know of one who used steroids as anything more than a last-minute, finishing touch..." is patently absurd. Nevertheless, this book is a seriously good choice for the novice and experienced male bodybuilder alike, whether you intend to use steroids or not. (This review refers to an older edition of this book.)
Rating:
Summary: A great start for the novice.
Review: This book is an excellent reference manuel. The lifts are described in detail and illustrated. The book shows a variety of lifts for the same muscle group so that a person will have a variety of options. THis book is for bodybuilding though, it is not a reference book football programs, powerlifting programs or anything of the sort. This book is simply a great research tool to help vary your lifting program and outlines a variety of programs.
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