- ISBN13: 9781579547691
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Groundbreaking New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product DescriptionExercise ain’t simple. 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 huge, 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: make a gorgeous, artistic guide to the body that also helps guys build fantastic physiques by showing in detail how muscles work and how that knowledge can be place 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 know, and three 6-month workout programs, one each for beginner, intermediate, and advanced lifters. It’s huge muscles, huge benefit, and gorgeous 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. Amazon. com ReviewYou might reckon 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 place 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 gorgeous 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
Men’s Health: The Book of Muscle–The World’s Most Authoritative Guide to Building Your Body
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I was unimpressed by every aspect of this book. The writing’s sloppy, the information is basic and (where it stretches) suspect, the photography is so so ’70s, the design non-existent. Buy a set of dumbbells instead of this book. It’s an infinitely better investment.
Rating: 1 / 5
I started weight lifting 6 months ago. In the midst I read this book and found many facts I didn’t know. It is very thorough and has brilliant photography which is highly motivating!
The routines look fantastic and it gets the job done. My hope is for more and more people in America to body build and stay in fantastic shape! There is nothing more reachably incredible than watching your human body become sculpted. So go start lifting and make it last a lifetime.
Rating: 5 / 5
This book has lots of pretty pictures and info, but if you are looking for a workout plot, look somewhere else. The “beginner” workouts take at least 2 hours to complete. This is not realistic for most people.
Rating: 2 / 5
ONE title.
TWO editions.
ONE binding.
Title:
“Book of Muscle:
the world’s most authoritative guide to building your body”,
a. k. a.
“Men’s health the book of muscle:
the world’s most authoritative guide to building your body”.
Binding:
“trade cloth” (hardcover/hardbound).
There is none (to date) in “trade paper” (softcover/paperback).
Two editions:
ISBN: 1579547680 (1-57954-768-0) “direct marketing hardcover”;
ISBN: 1579547699 (1-57954-769-9) “hardcover” (trade cloth).
Looks to be the Same Difference.
The 768 version MIGHT be issued by MensHealth. com;
the 769 version MIGHT be issued by Rodale. com.
Go for whichever one is
- available
- affordable
- presentable
The 768 descriptive page doesn’t let you Search Inside;
the 769 descriptive page allows you to “Search Inside”.
Even should you opt to order the 1579547680 one (used),
you can get a crack at the CONTENTS over at 1579547699.
No, I didn’t give you a clue about whether the book is
any excellent or what you should be studying/doing additionally;
nevertheless, since these two editions aren’t cross-refrenced,
you’re “hearing” about the existence of BOTH versions here.
Rating: 4 / 5
Like the dreams of adolescence, the book is jammed with photographs of men’s muscles, taken from various angles, with no reasonable goal in mind other than filling the pages. The authors undertook the daunting task of redrawing anatomical diagrams of muscles also for the sake of decorating the pages of the book. Many of the diagrams contain errors such as placing the transversus abdominis muscle in the incorrect location, or showing the gluteus medius muscle in a front view of the body.
Viewing muscle diagrams and poses of the various phases of an exercise does not serve the reader in performing efficient function. Enhancing functional anatomy during performance requires understanding of which group of muscles should be tightened most, which group should be kept loose until its time comes to kick into action, and which skeletal curve should be exaggerated in order to maintain balance.
The author painstakingly labored to dissect the mechanics of various exercises such as the deadlift, shoulder press, dumbbell flyes, etc, in many photographic views yet without any sound understanding of the laws of mechanics. The hard labor of the authors is greatly undermined with their lack of experience in performing the exercises. There is no single logical plot that takes you along a safe path to do any of their exercises. Their obsession with graphics and show could not remedy their lack of substance and poor exercise strategy.
Graphics alone would not accomplish that internal mental recognition. The seated shoulder press, for example, requires above all well erected low back, spread out shoulder plates, and upright chest cage, even before any pressing takes place. The deadlift is another vivid example of such mental recognition of spreading the shoulder plates, tightening the low back, and thrusting the chest prior to initiation of lifting.
The list of terrible foods is ridiculous. Each one terrible type of food is opposed by tens of excellent ones. That adds more confusion and lacks any focus to the basics of nutrition. It suggests to the reader that the name, not the content of the food item, that renders it terrible or excellent. One type of nuts is condemned as terrible, while others as excellent. Yet, all nuts are rich in oil, whether unsaturated or not, which hinders weight loss for people with chronic obesity. Then, there are plenty of colored tables of exercises that lack any logical theme.
Among all the photos of men’s muscles, skeletal deformities are random. The authors are oblivious to the need for sound bone formation and posture and more distracted with the bulky and defined flesh. The cover photo depicts the C-shaped, kyphotic torso with poorly defined six-packed rectus, concealing the lower body and the face. The latter two are crucial in understanding the mechanical balance of the whole body, in the form of proportionate leg musculature to upper body musculature, in addition to the state of mind of the athlete expressed through his general outlook.
Mohamed F. El-Hewie
Author of
Essentials of Weightlifting and Strength Training
Rating: 4 / 5