Rating: 
Summary: A Bible for Weightlifting Exercises
Review: A very thorough book that addresses many different areas: nutrition, exercise regimens for various sports and general weight lifting, discussions on weightlifting for youngsters, women, and men, even a little bit of historical facts, and more. The hundreds of illustrations depicting the different types of exercises for the body parts are excellent. I won't say much more other that I consider it to be like a bible for those interested in all the different types of weight training exercises.
Rating:
Summary: The Pocket Encyclopedia of Resistance Training
Review: As a personal trainer I use this book as my bible. It includes nearly every imaginable way to work every major muscle group. It is well organized and easy to understand. Exercises are grouped by body part and cross indexed for specific sports and recreational activities. The proper form and breathing are described for each exercise. The only exercises that not are not included are functional training exercises such as Pilates and stability balls.
Rating:
Summary: The Pocket Encyclopedia of Resistance Training
Review: As a personal trainer I use this book as my bible. It includes nearly every imaginable way to work every major muscle group. It is well organized and easy to understand. Exercises are grouped by body part and cross indexed for specific sports and recreational activities. The proper form and breathing are described for each exercise. The only exercises that not are not included are functional training exercises such as Pilates and stability balls.
Rating:
Summary: Getting Stronger
Review: Best weight training book I've seen. It has changed my life...
Rating:
Summary: Hardcore, no-nonsense, very frank.
Review: Bill Pearl (who beat out Sean Connery for a bodybuilding prize in their youths) delivers the goods in this more-than-most-will-ever-need manual. While the bulk of the book is devoted to hundreds of actual depictions of various exercises, Mr. Pearl still manages to cover in the remaining pages: the history of weight lifting, competing in tournaments (he's had many victories), the use of steroids (he did, briefly), diet (he's a vegan!), various philosophies of training (failure, power sets, circuit training, etc.) and even a description of what his day, as a weight-lifter, is like.Make no mistake: this book is a manual on how to be a hardcore bodybuilder and Mr. Pearl is a true believer. I could manage to do two hours a day, six days a week for no more than a month or two, before I would decide there were other more important things to do with my life. Eventually, my vanity would get the better of me and I'd try again.
Ultimately, I've found happiness with Bill Phillips' "Body For Life" program, which only requires about a half-an-hour a day and gets me even better results than I got trying the hardcore route. But this book (many years older) gave me a background that I used to understand the program that Phillips ultimately created. And Phillips' book is light on actual exercise descriptions, makinig this one a good book to fall back on should I get bored.
In summary, this is a guide to a hardcore bodybuilding philosophy which only a few people will ever really be willing or able to subscribe to, =but= the rest of us can still use it as an invaluable reference for exercises and background information.
Rating:
Summary: None Better!
Review: Bill Pearl retired from professional bodybuilding after winning the Mr. Universe Contest for the fourth time in 1971 at 41 years of age. The weight training wisdom in this book is timeless. Although the illustrations are basic line drawings in black and white I found them to be more helpful and easier to follow than any other book on weight training. This book is well organized and quite complete at nearly 500 large (8.5" x 11") pages.
The book is roughly broken down into these chapters:
Table of Contents & Author's Introduction - Bill Pearl writes a short autobiography brimming with his experiences and love for sport of bodybuilding.
General Conditioning - This section explains a basic general conditioning program (3 examples are given), how to get started, and special considerations for women athletes. It includes a story of Gary Moran, who tried to skip his rest day between weight training days, and the weightlifting experiences of track and field champion, Mary Peters.
Bodybuilding - Programs for bodybuilders form beginning to competitive are explained here. Most of the programs are three-days a week. The competitive program is a rotates through all muscle groups in three days, repeats this three days and suggests a day of rest for the remaining day. Bill Pearl shares his own training program and closes with a series of cautions and stories.
Strength Training for Sports - This chapter begins with a very good explanation of sports training principles followed by cardiovascular training. Also included are weight training exercise programs for 22 different sports.
Exercises for Free Weights - This section includes over 100 pages of the most helpful weight training drawings of any book on the market broken down by muscle group. The book is worth its price based on this section alone.
Nautilus Machines
Electronic Gym
Stretching - This is a short chapter. I have found myself using Anderson's Stretching as complement to this book.
Fit for Work
Fit for Life - Bill and co-author Gary Moran, PhD. explore issues of childhood and old age in regard to weightlifting. It includes a special program for weightlifters over 50 years old.
Hardware - This chapter gives helpful hints for choosing a gym. He also compares free weights and various exercise machines.
Muscles
Injuries
Nutrition - This chapter deals with the macronutrients (protein, carbs, and fats) as well as other good advice on nutrition. Bill Pearl became a vegetarian at age 39, although he is not dogmatic about this to others. His insights into life as a vegetarian bodybuilder are quite good.
Drugs - Bill and Gary take a stand against steroids.
History - This section is a brief 18 page history from ancient times until the present (although mostly pre-1960).
Rating:
Summary: A must-have in any fitness and strenght-training library.
Review: Bill Pearl's book is an excellent reference tool for anyone interested in strenght training. Thoroughly comprehensive, it includes sketches of just about any weight-training exercise you could ever need, as well as explanations for each. To round it up, it includes a large variety of sample programs, focused on particular sports, bodybuilding or just general fitness. On the minus side, the nutrition advise is somewhat skimpy; the major drawback been little information on modern diet and supplementation.
Rating: 
Summary: Strength Training Overview
Review: Bill Pearl, a former bodybuilding star, undertakes to explore the whole field of weight training, giving the reader a good basic understanding of how to craft a personalized weight training program. Pearl's book stands in stark contrast to much modern bodybuilding literature, which is written by authors more interested in building their bank accounts than building your muscles.
Pearl explores the whole field of weight training with brief chapters on almost any weight training subject you'd ever want to know about. He leavens his study with sound, safe, common sense advice. In addition to model bodybuilding regimens, he gives suggested training programs for numerous sports, from "all around athlete" to "wrestler". He also includes comprehensive descriptions of myriads of exercises. Pearl concludes his work with some observations on drug use and a brief history of bodybuilding.
A few years ago I became disgusted with most of what passes for weight training and bodybuilding literature and got rid of my considerable library on those subjects. "Getting Stronger" was one of the few books I kept.
Rating: 
Summary: Mediocre writing; beginnings will do better elsewhere
Review: Compared to several other weight training guides, this one is skimpy on explanatory details, rigid in not providing a choice of exercises within a given category of training, and, like "Stretching...", by Bill Anderson, another Shelter publication, far from elegant and efficient in it's design and use of space. It's also produced on cheap paper and too large to easily carry around.
IMO, a much better choice is "Weight Training for Dummies," not the less well-written "Idiot's Guide" to same, BTW, and, for beautiful and detailed drawings of the anatomical side of all of the exercises you are likely to do, "Strength Training Anatomy," by Frederic Delavier. Also, you could do far worse than pick up "The Complete Guide to Strength Training," by Anita Bean. All three of these guides cover their topic much more coherently than "Getting Stronger" does.
