Rating: 
Summary: All that you need to know
Review: This book is not a lone voice in the wilderness of body-building, nor is its advice "new." It is one author's practical guide to the principles of effective body building for people without genetic advantages. Numerous experts and professional trainers in the field who have been buried under the avalanche of muscle magazine hype, supplements, and steroid abuse -- the best-kept non-secret of the bodybuilding world -- share this philosophy. These people are finding a voice on web sites..., but this is one of a precious few books that puts a great deal of that knowledge at your fingertips for easy reference.If you are someone who doesn't want to do illegal drugs, your genetics DO matter. So does your capacity to recover between intense workouts. Most people can't go to the gym 4-6 days a week and expect muscle-building results that will continue to pile on over months or years. I'm living testament to that, having done typical training methods for three years and getting nowhere after my initial beginner's gains. Tweaking my workouts and nutrition in various ways had little effect if any at all. Then I followed the principles laid out in this book and (so far) have gained 7 pounds in seven weeks that wasn't fat. Sound like a gimmick? It isn't. The gimmicks are in the hyped-up marketing campaigns of the bodybuilding industry. BEYOND BRAWN is about safety, sanity, hard work, getting the most out of the hand you've been dealt, and the fine art of knowing when you are doing too much and thus hindering your progress. I will agree with the previous reviewers that there is a lot of repetition. It's a small inconvenience to pay for all the valuable information you get, but probably a necessary thing to a reader who has done high-volume training for years and may be tempted to hold on to counter-productive elements of their ingrained training style. Another earlier review made the bizarre claim that you will get fat using this approach. You do not get fat from adopting an abbreviated, high-intensity weight-training program - you get fat from EATING TOO MUCH. Nutrition and aerobics are covered in the book and specific strategies are discussed for figuring out what your optimal caloric intake should be for adding muscle. If you get fat, you weren't following the directions. Since everyone's body is different, the author presents a loose enough framework for the reader to figure out what works best for him or her, but if you fail the basics (proper training, nutrition and rest) then you won't see gains and you run a higher risk of injuring yourself. If you are serious about training, get this book.
Rating:
Summary: Stuart McRobert - Beyond Brawn is Beyond Typical Books
Review: It was back in the 80's when I first read Stuart McRoberts excellent articles in Perry Rader's Iron Man magazine. Here was a voice in the wilderness warning that overtraining is counter-productive and that much of the advice dispensed by illegal drug using professional bodybuilders in the glitzy magazines is useless, and in fact harmful, for the average, natural trainee.
As a neophyte who had made good initial progress on a basic sensible routine but after a year or so became "stagnant", I tried many of the routines in Muscle and Fitness and other sensational magazines of the day. In them, articles ghost-written for the big name bodybuilders, would detail Herculean, if laborious 6 days per week, 2 to 3 hour bodybuidling sessions with 6 sets of 12 reps for each angle of each individual muscle. Obsessed with becoming the next Arnold, Platz, Haney and Oliva my wife, kids and social activities were often put on hold as I just had to get my workout in. All this compulsive behavior for a somewhat muscular, but not much above average physique.
I was soon attempting Arnold's 6 day per week twice daily "body building" workout - and that is when it all came crashing down. I got very ill and lost much of my previous gains. I had no idea why - after all if Platz could do it why couldn't I?
Here was McRobert, and a few others, writing that a few sets of the multi-joint exercises done, at most, twice weekly would actually promote muscle growth! You see, I was quite naieve in that I didn't even know that steroids existed or that guys like Arnold were actually "cheating" and then telling me how I too, could develop a phsyique just like his! Only one little problem - they never said in those articles which and how much steroids to take. It's really no wonder that my nervous system could not withstand the routines used by the professionals and using illegal steroids, when I finally learned about them, was definitely out of the question for me.
Even still after reading McRobert's articles and corresponding with him, I refused to believe that I could build the type of body I wanted with abbreviated training. I was walking around in a severe state of overtraining for many years - and this led to some serious health repercussions that I won't go into here. Suffice to say I essentially burned out my nervous system from working out too frequently and too heavily with not enough recuperation.
Thanks to McRobert I wound up cutting way back on the amount of sets, reps, and poundages in my workouts I built up to 238 pounds bodyweight and got to lifting some respectable poundages (for a natural trainee) in the big lifts - but had I accepted and put into effect fully McRobert's theory of abbreviated training I would have probably gone much further and not suffered health problems. Alas, it is so often the case that when we are young we have the strength but don't have the knowledge and when we are older we have the knowledge but no longer have the strength. Young lifters, read and heed!
Now in my forties, by necessity, it is strictly abbreviated training for me. I still hope to hoist big poundages and keep improving for a couple more decades using the kind of sensible training outlined in Beyond Brawn.
Young lifters, especially, would do well to read and re-read Beyond Brawn and put into effect McRobert's techniques of "cycling". When I was younger I thought I should lift heavy all the time - I didn't understand that the body can not take that over long periods and cycling poundages is absolutely necessary for progress. All this holds true for the older trainee as well.
Lifting weights and wanting a superpysique can develop into an obession. After awhile senseless workouts where the trainee is just trying to complete a number - reps, sets, etc - becomes non-productive and useless for achieving the original goal: muscle mass and strength. Beyond Brawn is a book that can bring it all back into perspective - explain what reasonable goals can be attained and if you are genetically gifted maybe much more. If you are wandering aimlessly from one workout routine to the next published each month in the latest glossy magazine and you are lifting the same poundages as last year - you can get back to actually gaining again using the advice in Beyond Brawn.
Beyond Brawn is an essential tool for anyone who wants to build muscle and get stronger. Although aimed at the genetically challenged and "average" trainee, others would benefit as well. It can be difficult to accept, but once the trainee understands that without the use of illegal anabolic enhancers he is NOT going to become the next Arnold, Haney, Wheeler, et al, he is going to need good common sense advice on how to achieve his potential - and Beyond Brawn is possibly the best book out there for the natural trainee.
Rating: 
Summary: More Brawn than Bite
Review: If you want to talk about abbreviating something, start with this book. I will not tell you that it does not offer some useful information in regards to weight training. But what I will tell you is that it is incredibly exhausting trying to extract the useful information from the excessively redundant emphasis Mr. McRobert's places on "non-typical" and "drug using" trainees and the unrealistic results that they achieve. Mr. McRobert's denounces any form of training other than bare bones, abbreviated traing with progressive poundage. I got this much from his book. What I don't understand is why he felt it necessary to over-emphasize his disdain for non-typical, genetically above average and/or steroid using bodybuilders. He does so to such an extent that you feel as though he has some unresolved issues of inadequacy and "muscle envy" with these people. Make your point and then continue with useful information the reader can use. Every time I felt I was starting to really get in the groove of this book it was completely disrupted by yet another dissertation into this repetitive babble. This book could have been much shorter. The editors really did a sub-standard job as well. Save yourself the time and aggravation and buy his other two books that focus on what you really want to know, exercise form and training frequency. I would recommend buying "The Insider's Tell-All Handbook On Weight Training Technique" and "The Muscle And Might Training Tracker".
Rating: 
Summary: good info. somewhat disorganized.
Review: Make no mistake, the book has a lot of very good
information which can be useful for all weight lifters
(regardless of experience).
However, the information is put out in a shotgun
approach. The organization and writing style
take a little getting used to. And Finally, there
are endless diatribes about the bodybuilding industry.
Note that the book has no pictures and really does
not discuss specific form on exercises. The author
has another book detailing the various exercises.
Rating:
Summary: In responce to M.Swierczek's review.
Review: I didn't think I would write a review for this book as there were already so many excellent ones. So, why decide to write one anyways? It was M.Swierczek's review that changed my mind. In his review he makes the wild claim that Beyond Brawn could have been made 50 pages or less.
It is true that Stuart repeats the most important points of lifting and everything that goes with it, but he certainly doesn't do this to the point of ad nausea, au contraire, I always felt that his repeating himself served the purpose of driving home very important points that he was trying to make. Never have I felt in anyway that his repetition was over the top, unjustified. Also, even if the repetition were to be edited then this would not reduce the book by more then 15 pages.
So, don't be mislead by M.Swierczek's review!! In truth, this book is a goldmine of valuable knowledge that no one in the Iron Game can afford to miss. It is knowledge that is presented in a well-structured and formulated way that should serve as an example to other writers. Hence the 5 stars.
Rating:
Summary: Really good motivator!
Review: I start training... gained muscle...now i can not even grow a half an inch bigger...This book introduces a set of valid points, esp about overtraining. I was in the gym for hours doing massive tons of exercises/sets. I was frustrated that I can not get any bigger. This book made a valid point: If your routine did not give you any progress in past few months, why do you think it will give any positive results in the next few. So i completely change my work out(split, # of sets, rest period) and I would say I am MUCH happier when I come to the gym, and it seems to me i started to move forward again. The reason I can not give this book 5 stars is that there are way too many references to his other books and he keeps repeating himself. I feel if you cut out the repetiveness and references to his other books, you can compact the book in solid 200 pages.
Rating:
Summary: Probably the only book on weight lifting worth reading
Review: This and McRoberts other book, "Weight Training Technique". I gotta tell you, I've read alot of books on weight lifting, both published hard bound books and ebooks, including a number of famous body building bibles. Those books were CRAP. I was getting nowhere fast with those techniques for reasons McRoberts exposes in his book. Those techniques were all developed by steroid users. They absolutely will not work unless you take steroids as I can tell you from many years of direct experience. Contrast that with McRobert's techniques which were developed for the 95-99% of the normal, non-steroid using population (he calls us hard-gainers). Totally different training paradigm, particularly which exercises are important. It works, and it works well. I'm finally getting somewhere with my training now that McRoberts has put me on the right path. If you are a weight lifter, do yourself a favor and get this book. Do yourself an even bigger favor and throw out all that other crap and DO WHAT MCROBERT'S TELLS YOU TO. This is probably the best advice you will ever get from another weight lifter. You will be extremely pleased with the results.
Rating: 
Summary: Good book, but takes far too long to say too little
Review: I bought this book six months ago and have been using it with the excellent companion volume, "The Insiders Tell-All Handbook On Weight-Training Technique" to good effect. The problem I have with this book is not the information contained within, but with how long the author takes to put it across. The book is 500 pages long and could easily be one fifth that. Don't get me wrong, the information here is GOOD, but it should have been the first hundred pages of the "companion volume" and not a separate text. But then the author wouldn't have as many books to sell... Worth it, but be prepared to slog through lots of unnecessary verbal padding to find the useful stuff.
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