Product Description

Exercise ain't easy. The body is a complicated machine, with 650 muscles and 250 million individual muscle fibers. Some would say taming those fibers and building strong, healthy muscles is not an act of labor. Some would say it's an art. Here's a book worthy of that art. The Men's Health Book of Muscle is the big, lavishly illustrated, full-color coffee table book that only Men's Health could produce-one that doubles as the ultimate guide to building a better body. The goal of The Book of Muscle is simple: create a beautiful, artistic guide to the body that also helps guys build great physiques by showing in detail how muscles work and how that knowledge can be put to use. Inside, you'll find lush anatomical illustrations and photographs of a quality that no other book on fitness can match. You'll also find complex biological information, boiled down to language any guy can understand, and three 6-month workout programs, one each for beginner, intermediate, and advanced lifters. It's big muscles, big benefit, and beautiful all at the same time. It's the book you've always wanted from the guys at Men's Health, the fitness experts you trust.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3581 in Books
• Published on: 2003-10-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 364 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781579547691
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Amazon.com Review
You might think that the subtitle, "The World's Most Authoritative Guide to Building Your Body," is hyperbole, but The Book of Muscle from Men's Health delivers as promised. Australian strength coach and former powerlifting champion Ian King and Men's Health fitness director Lou Schuler cover everything you want to know about your muscles and what makes them grow, complete with dietary recommendations, exercises for every muscle group, and exercise routines. Each muscle group is illustrated and discussed, with 149 pages of clearly described, well-photographed exercises using a variety of equipment. A section on workout routines helps you put together your own program, from beginner to advanced.

Schuler's guy-talk style makes the book enjoyable to read, even on days when you have no intention of going to the gym. The artistic drawings of muscle groups, full-color photographs of beginning and ending positions of every exercise, and stunning close-ups of buffed body parts make The Book of Muscle is as beautiful as it is practical and motivating, an exceptional gift for the fitness guy in your life, and well worth the price. Highly recommended for men wanting to get in shape or stay there. --Joan Price

From the Inside Flap
The World's Most AUTHORITATIVE Guide to Building Your Body

You probably know a lot about building muscle. You know which curl is the best for your biceps, you do every possible exercise for your abdominals, and your 20-set bench-press routine is the envy of everyone in the gym. So why haven't you gotten the results you want?

This book has the answer. In fact, it probably answers every question you've ever asked about how your muscles work: What makes them grow? What makes them show? Why didn't that champion bodybuilder's routine work for you?

But The Book of Muscle does more than just explain how your muscles work. It also gives you comprehensive muscle-building programs from a world-class trainer.

Ian King has spent 2 decades as strength coach to world-champion and Olympic athletes. He is in wide demand as a lecturer on athletic preparation and physique development, and he is a popular contributor to Men's Health magazine and T-mag.com, the most popular bodybuilding Web site on the planet. Now, for the first time, he brings his extraordinary knowledge and unique muscle-building systems to a book meant for regular guys who like to work out and want to see better results than they've gotten from conventional programs.

Here's what you get from The Book of Muscle that you can't get from any other book:

Three complete 6-month, progressive workout programs created by Ian King to optimize muscle growth by juxtaposing opposing muscle actions

Ian King's revolutionary training-age system to help you determine which program is right for you

Complete abdominal training that ensures you'll not only get that coveted six-pack but also develop the muscles that prevent injuries and produce better performance on the field--any field

Vital advice on warming up, stretching, and recovering between workouts

The latest and best information on how you need to eat to make your muscles grow

If you've never before bought a workout book, this should be your first. And if you've tried all the others, this is the one that finally delivers everything you have ever wanted to know but couldn't find in one place.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Ian King is an Australian strength coach and former powerlifting champion who has trained world-class athletes on four continents. A certified strength-and-conditioning specialist, he has a bachelor's degree in movement science and a postgraduate diploma in education from the University of Queensland in Brisbane. He lives in Brisbane with his wife and two children.

Lou Schuler is fitness director of Men's Health magazine and a certified strength-and-conditioning specialist. He is coauthor of The Testosterone Advantage Plan and The Men's Health Home Workout Bible. He lives in Allentown, Pennsylvania, with his wife and three children.

From the Back Cover
BUILDING MUSCLE is both a science and an art. The science allows you to understand how 650 muscles and more than a quarter-billion individual muscle fibers conspire to set a human body in motion. The art is the magnificence of movement itself as well as the result of that movement--strong, lean, healthy, energetic muscles, the very image of the ancient gods and warriors.

This book is the first to combine the science of muscle building with the art of muscles themselves. Inside, you'll find:

Three total-body muscle-building programs, one each for beginner, intermediate, and advanced exercisers-- a total of 18 months' worth of workouts

Complete descriptions of more than 100 exercises

The most detailed and innovative exercise photography ever contained in a workout book

Customer Reviews

Great Workouts Make Great Gains
I have had this book for about 9 months now. I recently completed the intermediate program and made great gains. I followed the nutritional advice given in the book and gained 20 pounds. 20 Pounds may not sound like much, but it is a total body transformation when you go from 169 to 190...and it is all muscle.

The workouts are designed in such a way that you stress your muscles very hard and then have ample recovery time to get bigger and stronger.

I ran a marathon and a week after finishing it I started this book. So I basically started from scratch.

Starting I could bench press 40 pound dumbbells for a max 8 reps. After the six month intermediate workout I lifted 80s for 8 reps.
Shoulder press went from 65lbs barbell press for 5 reps to 120lbs for 5 reps.
Squat was the biggest improvement. Started at 65 for 10 reps. Finished at 185 for 10 reps.
The best exercise there is in my opinion I never knew about before this book. It is the DEADLIFT. The deadlift made me bigger and stronger overall than anyother exercise. And it focuses on a common weakness for most people, the LOWER BACK.
Deadlift start was 65 for 5 reps. Finish at 225 for 5 reps.

The key to this book is that it takes you through a cycling approach. By taking you through stages with varying sets, reps, and exercises, you muscles are always in a state of shock and always responsive to the workouts.

I am doing the intermediate workout again. After I complete it a second time I will advance to the advanced workout. You will never need another book for fitness. This is the best book I have EVER read and APPLIED for an extended period of time. The authors have done a wonderful job with writing. Again, the workouts are great and because of the cycling approach the author takes with the workouts, you can continure to do them and never have to switch to another program.

I got very good results from following this book exactly as the authors prescribed. I am continuing to make gains in strength and size by following this book. Ian King and Lou Schuler have put out what I consider the best book ever on the topic of getting strong and gaining size. The bottom line is that you WILL get injury-free results if you follow this book.

Too much of a good thing
On the plus side, this is probably the best book I've ever read on the subject of weight training. On the down side, boy, there is so much to each work out that it is overwhelming.

I've been weight training for over 5 years and have used Body for Life and a number of the Men's Health training books. This volume, far and away, has the greatest number of new exercises to be used each week. In the intermediate program, e.g., there are 3 separate workouts to be alternated. Perhaps if someone has a half an hour a day to review the exercises, another 40 minutes to do them (and to tote the handsome volume to the gym), these are reasonable....but for someone who has other responsibilities, kids, job, home, this is a fairly time and concentration intensive program.

That being said, I would certainly endorse this book for anyone who wants a genuinely serious, long term program. Too often, the Men's Health "Bibles" are limited programs, leaving the lifter who is committed with wondering "what next". This book provides enough variety and different routines to make it a great long term investment.

Book of Muscle Rocks
Book of Muscle is one of the best books of it's kind that I have read and I have seen them all. It takes you on a tour of your body and gives you a road map to keeping it in the best shape possible. The text by Lou Schuler is clear and concise with a no nonsense approach that is refreshing in this world of "flavor of the month" workout and fitness books. You learn about muscles and how to maintain them for life.

The workouts, by noneother than Ian King, provide over a year of quality, well planned routines that will keep you challenged and growing. And Ian definitely follows the less is more principle by keeping the workouts under an hour. I have been doing the Intermediate program for 12 weeks now and I am getting stronger and growing in body, mind and spirit. King also manages to keep things lively with changes in routines and innovative exercises and combinations that beat the hell out of those monotonous 3 sets, 10 reps workouts you find in the magazines.

Get Book of Muscle. It's the best bang for the buck for the novice and the seasoned lifter.