Rating: 
Summary: save your money and buy "weightlifting for dummies"
Review: the book rarely contained any original thoughts by the author. every page had numerous sightings of other people's work. the book was also not presented in an organized manner
Rating: 
Summary: Good book for a simple understanding of muscle training
Review: The first couple of chapters that pertain to the subject matter are great and an easy read. My 3 star rating is because of the chapter on nutrition. He says that the FDA's recommendation is sufficient enough for any athlete or anyone involved in strenous excersize. He goes on to put down just about every supplement there is. Granted some companies make claims that are false but Bryzcki seems to be on an agenda to eradicate it completely. I've read his short biography at the end of the book it seems he was in the Marines for 4 years. I guess those years of being in the employ of the U.S. goverment seems to have eliminated his ability to question the recommendations of the FDA. He also doesnt mention anything about warming up. For those of you who have already read the book I know Brzycki favors the one set approach with enough weight to muscle fatigue. Personally that is a method I prefer, but he doesnt mention anything about getting the heart rate up even slightly. He does talk about building up the cardiovascular in a chapter closer to the middle of the book but nothing refering to warming up before he goes into the photo section of the different excersizes. I dont know if I would recommend this book to anyone because the usefull information that is here is only about 1/2 of the book. For people who have an understanding of muscle memory and the technical aspects of those sort of things this would be a waste of money. For those that dont he explains really simplelike but if you can get it used do that instead of buying it new. One last note it seems this book was meant to be a workbook of some kind. There is a Q/A section, combine that with Bryzcki's lack of will power to questions the FDA's nutritional recommendation (which by the way the FDA itself has stated that it is MERELY a recommendation for SEDENTARY people) it reminds me of my high school text books. It was blatantly obvious that those books were edited 'for content'.
Rating: 
Summary: A Practical Approach, Like the title says.
Review: This book has been used as a text for Strength and Conditioning courses at the College level and as a CEU course for satisfying Trainers Qualifications. It is also one of the best books out for anyone interested in learning about High Intensity Training. The fact that Mr. Brzycki was a competitive Power Lifter shows he has plenty of experience in more that one way of training, unlike some of the reviewers. In my 47 years of training, competing and Coaching this book for me is a "Practical Approach to Strength Training." If you are interested in Olympic Lifting my advice would be to buy a book that is more geared to the Olympic Lifter.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely the best!
Review: This book helped me sort through the enourmous mass of B.S. in the fitness industry. I have made exceptional progess, avoided injury and learned a great deal about what's behind the whole physiology of strength training. The fact that it is not the opionions of one person, but a collection of many contributors and the results a great deal of quality research, increases this books value tremedously. I could not recommend it more highly! I vote 6 STARS on this one!
Rating:
Summary: outstanding
Review: This book is really a terrific guide for anyone who lifts, unless you're a competitive powerlifter. Good common sense advice on high intensity training, nutrition and supplements. It debunks a lot of myths, like higher volume training is better, free weights are better than machines, supplements are good for you, super high protein diets are important if you want to gain muscle etc. I've lifted for 23 years, and I wish a book like this was around when I started. Since I've lifted in this manner, I progress faster, spend less time having to work out, don't overtrain, don't feel as beat up and don't look upon my weight lifting sessions as hard unpleasant work. They're plenty hard, but maintaining focus for 30 minutes is much easier than for 1 1/2 hours. I differ regarding several exercises he discusses. I think squats are fine if done properly and if you have the right body type. He show pull downs and presses behind the head which I think are quite bad for your rotator cuffs. He says leg presses and deadlifts are safer than squats, when both are at least as bad. They're all fine if done slowly with good form, and you increase the weight only a little bit from week to week. All in all a great book, which you should listen to. Don't listen to steroid abusing muscle mag readers who erroneously believe high intensity training is inferior. This is the way to go.
Rating:
Summary: Common sense stuff; great for beginners.
Review: This is an excellent, MUST HAVE book for beginners. The sad part was, though, I knew most of what the author was touting. Personally, I consider his program to be too high volume. The information is presented in a nice, easy-to-read manner. Bottom line, If you're familiar with HIT style training, this book is completely unneccessary--unless you want a nice reference guide. If not, this book may be essential. It's easy to get into and understand--definetely a lot less intimidating than Hutchkins' work.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent reference source for all levels of lifters.
Review: This is one of the best resources out there for all types of lifters-from beginners to gym-rats. It is written in a very straight-forward manner without the commercial sales-hype that is found in a lot of other publications covering this topic. Pictures are a little on the rudimentary, but the captions provide excellent instruction. There is also a very interesting chapter on manual resistance exercises which are quite unique.
Rating:
Summary: Practical, common sense, intelligent, and well documented.
Review: This is possibly the most intelligent and practical book on the subject of strength development that I have ever seen. If you can only buy one book about weight lifting and strength training, buy this one.Mr. Bryzcki begins by explaining the modern theory of strength development and contrasting it with some of the traditional approaches still in use today. In so doing, he explains how muscles work, how they get stronger, and how they can be injured. If you understand these things, you will understand why you should, or should not, train in a certain way. His explanation is rigorous but easy to understand, neither tedious nor trivial. Having laid a firm groundwork, he goes on to explain how a conditioning program should be designed and structured for maximum benefit, and the various adaptations and permutations that can be made. He gives a sample program that most people could use straight from the book. Then he proceeds to descriptions of how each exercise should be done with free weights, Nautilus, and Universal Gym machinery. He also covers a technique that uses a partner to supply resistance instead of a weight or mechanical device. This latter method is particularly useful to those who may have a physical condition that prohibits stress to specific joints, since it allows near complete isolation of the muscles being worked. The muscles affected by each exercise are given, as well as hazards involved in a specific exercise. Cautions concerning certain physical conditions are often given, but are not always sufficient, in my opinion. However, this is a book on strength training, not orthopedic medicine, and adding them in detail would have ruined the utility of the book! People with specific injuries should have the sense to consult a medical authority about their limitations. Some readers may be discouraged to learn that maximum potential strength is apparently inherited. They should not be. One point that the author perhaps does not make sufficiently is that only the most dedicated professional athletes ever attain or maintain their full strength potential. You can be much stronger than you believe, and you can learn to use your strength efficiently. This latter point he does make quite thoroughly. The book has only one minor flaw: There are sometimes so many reference citations given in the text that the flow of the sentences is unnecessarily disrupted, distracting the reader. Footnoted references would have been better. Readers accustomed to academic literature will not find this a difficulty, and the book is otherwise so well written, clear, and focused that this flaw is only a minor nuisance. Once again, a "must read," (and absorb, digest, and assimilate) for anyone interested in strength training or physical conditioning.
Rating:
Summary: a fantastic workout rescource
Review: This is the best workout book I've seen. It is excellent for those more interested in building a physique for athletics than bodybuilding (a real rarity in the weightlifting book field). Bryzcki cuts through much of the hype and myth associated around weight-lifting and points out many of the differences between an athletic and a bodybuilding program. He teaches you how to build more overall muscle using only two to three one hour sessions a week and get equal or better results than those spending 4x that amount of time in the gym. I've used his system for 2 years and have seen dramatic results in the weight room and I've been lifting for over 14 years
Rating:
Summary: Okay, but full of bias and errors
Review: To begin, Brzycki is not what I'd call "the strength and conditioning coach" at Princeton. His function at Princeton for many years has apparently been primarily in fitness administration and teaching some fitness classes, not the strength and conditioning of athletes. According to one interview, Brzycki hasn't trained athletes on a regular basis for quite some time. According to another interview, Brzycki did not apply his own "practical approach" to his own workouts until after well his days as a competitive powerlifter were over. In other words, Brzycki is a fitness expert, not necessarily a strength expert. In the field of fitness he probably excels. Otherwise, in my opinion, he often tries to force-fit his fitness theories into strength training principles. Fitness goals and strength training goals are not necessarily the same. Brzycki has far less DIRECT experience training strength athletes than many other authors - Dreschler, Poloquin, Kono, Newton, Zatsiorski, for example. Brzycki shows extreme prejudice against Olympic-style weightlifting, for example, a strength and power sport he has never, to my knowledge, either competed in nor coached. Sour grapes, I suspect. Brzycki apparently reads a lot of scientific journals and must be a fast typist, for he publishes books and articles quite often. Apparently he hasn't read the decades of strength training information and scientific analysis gleaned from the detailed training logs of generations of Communist bloc athletes, which Brzycki dismisses in his first chapter as mere "anecdotal evidence." That said, if your goal is general fitness with an eye towards increasing strength, then you could do a lot worse than this book. There are many approaches towards strength training that work (and some that don't.) Brzycki's approach will work.
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