Rating: 
Summary: AbSolution takes Body for Life to the next level
Review: AbSolution does a lot more than just pick up where Body for Life (BFL) left off, it takes it to the next level. For making a true lifestyle change, there is no better way to begin than BFL; for taking that change and momemtum and creating a sculpted midsection and overall definition, AbSolution is the perfect choice. Written in a clear style, and post BFL common sense, Shawn Phillips conveys his 20 plus years of fitness expertise and gives you everything you need to know to build your best abs. The nutrition, while simple, is right on the money and the excercise plan is one of the easiest to follow, and most effective formats that I have seen. While mostly in line with Body for Life principles, make no mistake, this is not a simple rehash of younger brother Bill's work. Shawn knows his stuff and does not mind differing with some of BFL's concepts. Also, look for a lot less rah rah, and a lot more getting straight to the heart of things. You don't get a bunch of charts and graphs, but what you do get is a lot of solid information and effective tools that come direct from Shawn's life.
Rating:
Summary: Abs-o-Rama
Review: I had the opportunity to meet Shawn and Bill and I must say they are the most sincere, committed people you could ever meet. They REALLY know how to develop a physique and Shawn's abs are arguable some of the best on the planet, so he's who I want to write about them. They are also not willing to dish out hype to make you feel good or just to sell you a gimmick, they tell it like it is - how it REALLY works. I value that immensely from both of them. They tell the truth and trust that it will bring them business, I give them my business and endorsement for that very reason.
Rating: 
Summary: The next step in creating My Body For Life
Review: Ever since reading the Body For Life and completing it on more than one occasion, i have been looking for ways how to advance my training a litttle further. What can you say about Shawn Phillips Physique, it is incredible and one that i certainly aspire to . The exercise plan in Absolution is easy to follow and understand and i find his daily nutrition plans a big help. It takes me one step further in my quest for a better physique. i look forward to seeing my results. This is another winner from the Phillips brothers
Rating:
Summary: The next step in creating My Body For Life
Review: Ever since reading the Body For Life and completing it on more than one occasion, i have been looking for ways how to advance my training a little further. What can you say about Shawn Phillips Physique, it is incredible and one that I certainly aspire to . The exercise plan in Absolution is easy to follow and understand and I find his daily nutrition plans a big help. It takes me one step further in my quest for a better physique. I look forward to seeing my results. This is another winner from the Phillips brothers
Rating: 
Summary: Reiteration of Common Knowledge
Review: I admit it. The target audience for this book eludes me. For any beginner, the advice is too general to put together a meaningful exercise and nutritional program. Intermediate and advanced readers will find its content to simply be a commonplace rehash of what nutritionists and exercise physiologists have been advocating for decades. Basically, this book is 1/3 motivational fluff, followed by 1/3 over-generalized diet and exercise common sense, then rounded off with everyday exercises found in many fitness books. Its underlying theme has been widely accepted for quite some time, namely: physical fitness and health is most likely to have lasting success through balanced nutrition, consistent aerobic/anaerobic exercise, and rational supplementation. Nothing new or original here.Save your money on this one. Do not let the title lure you in - only 18 of the 130 pages are specifically dedicated to strength training your abdominal area. If you are new to the fitness and health arena, look for a book that actually outlines a more complete and detailed physical fitness and nutritional program, such as the "Body for Life" plan. For those who have been training for a while, ABSolution offers nothing new or insightful. When looking for up-to-date information, I recommend sticking to your favorite monthly fitness magazine, the Internet, or books that actually cover their intended topic in substantive detail. Live well and good luck
Rating: 
Summary: Too many unnecessary photos, poor on substance
Review: In this 130-page book, there are 23 full-page photographs of the author, posing on mountains, streets, in front of his home front door, on lakes, under the shower, with and without glasses, you name it. Before you get to chapter 6, which contains 10 pages, the first 5 chapters range in length from 2 to 5 pages. Whether it is relevant or not, the author scatters his personal photos everywhere in the book.
If you think that an eloquent author could make a 2-page chapter so informative, you are up for disappointment. Shawn admits that his college education is in computer science but he bases his knowledge on his experience. Indeed, he proves to do very well in building large muscle mass. Yet, he acts like a biochemist with Ph.D. in nutrition when he prescribes his daily intake of 16 capsules of "lean-system 7", antioxidant fuel, multivitamins, and "z-mass pm". Like his brother Bill, he does not strive to learn the systemic basis of human anatomy or physiology before tackling fitness training. Here are the mistakes that should have not been made in a well searched book:
1) The rectus abdominis muscle does not have two regions as chapter 7 suggests. There are no upper or lower activating exercises to the rectus abdominis. The author's poor understanding of anatomy made him confuse the relationship between the origin, insertion, and the direction of action of that muscle.
2) Chapter 7, "My Absolute Favorites", displays fifteen abdominal exercises, starting from basic crunches and ending with abs vacuum. Then the author recommends in chapter 11, performing abdominal exercises in the morning. If the back erectors are not strengthened in proportion to abdominal muscles then serious muscular imbalance follows. This author does not believe in any strengthening of the back erectors. All the exercises of chapter 9, "the best of the rest", deal with peripheral muscles. As you can tell, the author is only obsessed with the muscles that he could visualize in a front-view mirror. The back erectors are out of sight and out of the author's mind.
3) The "standing dumbbell press", chapter 9, shows how the author had incurred serious shoulder stiffness and loss of shoulder range of motion by his inability to erect his arms vertically overhead. All the exercises he describes in chapter 9, do nothing but shortening and bulking muscles without balancing their antagonists. Chapter 9 starts with "dumbbell bench press", then "inclined dumbbell flyes", and ends with "barbell squat". There is no single word about whole body motion such as Clean from the floor, Deadlift, overhead squat, or good morning. The routine described in the book builds massive peripheral muscles that induce trauma to the spine, because of lack of spinal strengthening.
This book, like many others on strength training, proves that there are many well-accomplished self-motivated bodybuilders despite their mediocre understanding of the science of fitness or of nutrition. The main drawback with these self-centered, poorly educated fitness trainers is the long term errors that cause serious health issues such as weakening the spine by building massive arms and legs without proportionally developing the spinal muscles. Bill Phillips' approach of reversing long accrued pathological changes with his 12-week training program is an example of such irrational and inexperience approach to fitness. It does not recognize the chronic ill-effects of obesity and overweight on health and the great difficulty (if not impossibility) of reversing such chronic effects in a matter of weeks or even months.
Rating:
Summary: A useful addition to my fitness library
Review: I think that this is a very good book. I do not agree with the reviewers who have trashed the book and the author. The text is concise and simple. It does not claim to be Arnold's Encyclopedia but it gives a good program in a straightforward and easy to understand format. I do agree that the hardback is too expensive. I was lucky and found a discounted paperback. I am glad that I purchased it and consider it a useful addition to my fitness library.
Rating:
Summary: Reiteration of Common Knowledge
Review: I admit it. The target audience for this book eludes me. For any beginner, the advice is too general to put together a meaningful exercise and nutritional program. Intermediate and advanced readers will find its content to simply be a commonplace rehash of what nutritionists and exercise physiologists have been advocating for decades. Basically, this book is 1/3 motivational fluff, followed by 1/3 over-generalized diet and exercise common sense, then rounded off with everyday exercises found in many fitness books. Its underlying theme has been widely accepted for quite some time, namely: physical fitness and health is most likely to have lasting success through balanced nutrition, consistent aerobic/anaerobic exercise, and rational supplementation. Nothing new or original here. Save your money on this one. Do not let the title lure you in - only 18 of the 130 pages are specifically dedicated to strength training your abdominal area. If you are new to the fitness and health arena, look for a book that actually outlines a more complete and detailed physical fitness and nutritional program, such as the "Body for Life" plan. For those who have been training for a while, ABSolution offers nothing new or insightful. When looking for up-to-date information, I recommend sticking to your favorite monthly fitness magazine, the Internet, or books that actually cover their intended topic in substantive detail. Live well and good luck
Rating:
Summary: This book gets it done
Review: While I agree with the review of some people here, I think that most are missing the point. What Phillips is trying to show is that you don't achieve a great physique by sitting on your behind complaining, but by HARD WORK. Even if Phillips is using steroids or diruetics, etc., he is showing a practical way of working out and eating correctly in order to maximize fat loss and increase performance. Really, how hard is it for someone to work out with the weights, 3 days per week and do 3 HIIT cardio sessions per week. You people spend more time in front of the TV eating. And for those that don't understand how he can just do two exercises per week, can you even read. His workouts are set up as follows: Workout 1, Chest, Shoulders and Triceps and Workout 2, Back, Biceps and Legs, each for two exercises per body part up to 7 or 8 sets per body part per workout, on a rotating split. That means one week you do C,S,T twice and B,B,L once and the next week you reverse the order, but it's not once every seven days. Don't look at it from a weekly perspective, look at it from a rotating split perspective. That means you are doing each bodypart every 3 or 4 days. So for legs, your doing anywhere from 14 to 16 sets every 6 or 7 days, how is that just two exercises per week, somebody explain that to me. Add in the HIIT workouts including, running or sprinting and your legs will be toast, but judging by the way most of you people workout, I can understand how you don't feel your getting enough stimulation.
Rating:
Summary: Alot of Anticipation, Huge Disappointment
Review: After reading Body-For-Life several times over, I was very excited upon hearing that Shawn Phillips was releasing ABSolution. Body-For-Life is by far one of the best motivational tools that I own. I am a personal trainer and group exercise instructor (part-time), and BFL is very accurate in its description of exercise protocol and techniques. Overall, the fitness and nutrition program it recommends are good, especially for those new to exercise or simply trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle. I had the same expectations for ABSolution. I waited for many months for the book to be released, hoping that the book would inspire me much as BFL has. However, upon receiving the book in June 2002 and immediately reading it, I can honestly say that I wish I hadn't wasted my money. I acknowledge the time and dedication it takes to write a book, but it lacks so much in terms of detail, and it offers very little new material. To be quite honest, this book seemed like a tool for Shawn Phillips and an unnamed female model to take beautiful pictures together. The book has an air of arrogance and conceit conveyed by the author. I definitely would not recommend this book to others, unless you are a collector of fitness photography.
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