The Complete Idiot's Guide to Weight Training

After many years of doing very little exercise, I returned to the gym about a year ago. I purchased this book 3 months later and read it cover to cover, an enjoyable read. I continue to use the book as a reference to add additional and change exercises on a regular basis. Having followed some of the sample routines they provide, I can attest to a significant increase in strength and in general well-being. There are enough details and variations to satisfy someone just starting or getting more serious about lifting. I recommend this book - and thank the authors.

This is the best book that I have found on weight training. I needed a thorough book to get started and this was it. Other than my very lackluster lifting durig high school I have never seriously lifted, so I am far from an expert on lifting. I must add however that after having looked at many books on weight training I feel like a bit of an expert on the literature. What I found was that most books are geared to those that already know the subject. These books assumed many techniques I did not know, implied that I needed to work out about 3 hours at a time for 8 days a week and rambled on and on and on. The Idiot's Guide to Weight Training thoroughly introduced me to everything that I needed to get started. After reading this book, I walked into a fitness store, bought the starter equipment I needed and started to lift. As I write this I am bit sore from the first few lifting sesions, but I am excited and looking forward to the future weeks and months. This book helps with equipment, clothing, eating, stretching, excercise instructions, routines and safety. The authors have provided a very thorough, readable and motivating book. In my estimation this book is an extremely valuable addition to the topic, and is indeed as far as I can tell the best book available to the beginner.

When I first read this book, I thought it was too broad in scope. A re-read has changed my mind. Here's what I think threw me the first time through: This book is written by athletes who have other sports as their prime activity. One is a cyclist, the other is a kayaker, and the third is a power-lifter/physical therapist. They're not bodybuilders, per se. They "weight train" to build strength for their other activities. They acknowledge the aesthetics and general fitness that weight training brings, but they keep coming back to their roots.   The reason I'm making a 180 on a recommendation for this book is because the advice is sound. All of it. That is SO hard to find in bodybuilding/weight lifting books. If you haven't discovered it yet, you'll find that bodybuilding is full of hype. This book is not like that.   Your motivation is your own, so use this book as a tool to attain either increased strength, better overall fitness, bodybuilding, or whatever. It's valuable as an adjunct to whatever else you're doing.

I have been lifting for a couple years on and off, predominantly by myself and with minimal instruction. After finishing the book, gaps in my weight lifting knowledge that I had not known existed had been filled in. The authors came across as humble, self-effacing, genuinely helpful, and very human. The expressed human element helped to convey that weight lifting can be beneficial for everyone. Looking through the table of contents, a prospective buyer might be surprised that the specific weight lifting exercises are covered in the last half of the book. However, the first half is well worth the price of the book by itself, in my opinion, as it explains the ins and outs of proper nutrition, stretching, gym and gym equipment selection, and gym culture. The authors goals of instilling good habits, good technique, and proper mindfulness in weight lifting is well served.

Having lifted for years, I was looking for a book to inspire my mother-in-law who has expressed an interested in weight training but seems intimidated by the "foreign-ness" of the gym scene. When I stumbled on this informative and surprisingly amusing book, I knew I'd found what I was looking for. While this book is clearly written for beginners -- picking a gym, basic technique, etc. -- it offers some good routines for experienced lifters and debunks various myths that you constantly hear in the gym like "I don't want to lift heavy weights because it will make me 'too big'." The illustrations are helpful and the prose easy to follow. If you've thought, "I've got to get back to the gym" or know someone who feels the same, check this book out.