The Men's Health Hard-Body Plan: The Ultimate 12-Week Program for Burning Fat and Building Muscle: Featuring the Hard-Body Diet and the Revolutionary

I love this book. It truly is a complete reference to fat lost and getting in shape in a Healthy way. It has sound theory on strength training and smart eating, and a good selection of exercises for muscle building. I lost more than 200 lbs about six years ago, during a period of about eight months, and went from pants 44 to 32. Prior to star changing my eating and exercise habits I bought "Men's Health Hardbody Plan" which I give most of the credit for my success. Two years later I bought "The Testosterone Advantage Plan", another excellent, easy to read, comprehensive and complete reference and I found the advices in this book most useful to keep the weight off through an easy to follow eating plan, and used its advices for the gym. With both books I have been able to keep the weight off for more than six years. This is a really good book. I love it. If it worked for me I am sure it can work for you. You just have to be constant and focus in the result you want to achieve. Another tools you may want to consider, to complement this book and your strategies for boosting your metabolism, loosing weight, and even more important keeping that weight off are: - A Body Fat Monitor or Scale. This will help you monitor your progress, to assure that the weight you are loosing is fat (fat lost = increased metabolism) and not muscle, water or bone mass (decreased metabolism). - "Ultrametabolism: The Simple Plan for Automatic Weight Loss", which is another very practical, readable and insightful book, focused on how to boost your metabolism. - "The Abs Diet: The Six-Week Plan to Flatten Your Stomach and Keep You Lean for Life". - A Heart Rate Monitor Wrist Watch. This is an excellent tool that will help you monitor and control your Heart Rate in order to keep yourself in a burning fat state (increased metabolism). - "The Hard Body Guide". Excellent strategies, programs and workouts, aimed to increase your muscle mass. If you are focused only on your diet, the first three may be worth considering. If you exercise, or want to start doing it right, the last two are for you. If you do both, all the four recommended options can improve your results.

This book essentially tells you how to work out and eat healthy. Proper technique is illustrated for a wide variety of exercises, along with simple advice about how not to injure yourself, how much weight you should lift, how often you should workout, and some recommendations about which parts of your body you should focus on (for instance if you want to be more intimidating, shoulders and chest; if you want to have better sex, thighs and abs).The information on stretching and cardio routines is simple and straightforward.As far as I can tell, the diet information presented here is controversial only because there are so many diet fads and supplements and so on. People make a lot of money pushing this and that, but I don't think any of them have Men's Health in their pockets. It seems reliable, and I followed it for about three weeks, and it worked quite well.Hey, after two months I can see a difference, and I think the ladies can too. Money well spent.

This book changed my life. Having started as a complete novice, Iam now 4 months into the training program and have never felt or looked better. This book is complete in itself - no other reference is necessary. And this is not only about putting on bulk - it's about mental well being as well. However, let me warn other readers not to expect huge changes in 12 weeks. Body building is a long process that requires patience and tons of dedication. However, once you're into this program it's difficult to quit. It's like drug addiction!!

I get bored with my routine often and am always looking for variety. But i never seem to be able to think of a new workout. With this guide handy i can sit down and easily see a list of workouts for each muscle group and choice of work out arena, either free weights, machines or no weights. It's a must have!

What I like best is that, as in a magazine article, the author quotes various professionals, including trainers, physiologists, and dieticians. The recommendations seem based on the latest research. That's refreshing for a subject that seems to have so many myths, tricks, and old wives' tales. Example: To build muscle, you should eat a huge amount of protein, right? Not really. This book explains why.At the same time, the book doesn't have a science fetish; it doesn't lecture or pontificate. Instead it's practical and concise. An easy read with just enough humor.