Muscles in Minutes: The Insiders' Guide to Body Building with Negative Training

I think the strongest aspect of this book are all the excellent explanations of incorrect and unsafe form. Photographic examples are provided with many of the explanations. There is also some nice information regarding all the different types of reps and sets that can be done. The writing is always clear and direct. However, be aware that many of these techniques require a trusted spotter. That is a limitation for me since I tend to do the bulk of my training solo. Overall this book is worth a look if you are struggling with your form.

The training methods offered in this book are safe, correct and extremely effective. I have been weight training for 5 years and have used most of the training methods and style offered in this book recently for about 8 months and have seen excellent results in terms of muscle gain. I have to say Steve takes a straight-forward, honest and non-biased approach in his instructions given and i have high respect for him. Having used his style of training i no more experience wrist and shoulder pain during training and also avoided many injuries. However, i have to say that the training in this book is not easy to understand and the pictures posted can sometimes seem confusing especially for novice lifters. Also, i don't totally agree with the ways that some of the exercises are performed. For example he tells you to do the "Monkey Shoulder Shrug" by lifting your forearms and bending at your elbows. But that seems to divert the muscle contraction away from your shoulder and upper back. Also, he tells you to do the side lateral raise with your elbows bend at 90 degree. Well that certainly takes some pressure and stress away from the shoulders but that will in return put a lot of pressure on your forearm and wrist. So you can only preform it that way light weight. He also doesn't mention that you can do the same with your elbow slightly bent if you have stronger shoulders and that you can vary it by doing the one-arm lateral raise. Lastly he mention that you can rest as long as you are able to exert your maximal force again between sets. Well that seems to be beneficial for absolute strength gain but in terms of muscle growth that doesn't prove helpful. I have tried resting bewteen sets using this approach for 2 months and i see only minimal growth in my muscles. But after reverting to the 1 to 2 minutes resting interval i have seen much more noticeable gains. Well apart from the above i will say this is a very good book on training and i will recommend it. But do remember this is a TRAINING BOOK ONLY and if you want to know about supplement and nutrition then you gotta go somewhere else.