With over 450,000 copies sold, this book is arguably the best book of its kind. What's it useful for? Mainly to help the reader (from the weekend athlete to the athletic trainer to the professional bodybuilder) figure out what exercises work what muscles.
It's neatly divided up into sections (arms, shoulders, chest, back, etc.), so all you really have to do is flip to one of these sections and it will have detailed pictures of various exercises and exactly which muscles are involved.
A great reference to keep have around, I give it five stars easy. Readers who lift weights regularly might also be interested Treat Your Own Rotator Cuff to avoid shoulder problems a lot of lifters eventually get. Strength Training Anatomy-3rd Edition
Great book, very detailed. If you are looking to find new exercises to freshen up a stale workout, this is the book. It shows the exact muscle groups impacted by an exercise so you can focus on shaping and increasing that muscle group.
I bought the 2nd edition of this book well over a year ago when I was on a working out kick. Unfortunately life got in the way and I stopped going to the gym for several months, and even when I started back I only dabbled with cardio workouts. About 4 months ago I started back on weights and dug out this book. Prior to that I hadn't opened it. The book as it turns out had serious printing issues, making much of it unusable. It was long past the time frame in which I could have returned it to Amazon so I contacted the publisher, Human Kinetics, instead. Their customer service was excellent! They were aware of a small number of mis-prints that fit my description and were more than happy to replace it. The CS person asked if it would be ok if the replacement was delayed a few weeks until the 3rd edition was available which greatly pleased me. I received the new book about a week ago and it was in perfect condition. Many thanks to the HK folks for their fine customer service!
For those that don't already know what's in this book let me explain in detail. Everyone has seen the anatomy posters on the gym walls. The individual caricatures on the posters display a cut-away model of the human body sans skin. It highlights a muscle or group of muscles and then shows you an exercise that you can use to work that specific muscle. There usually isn't much more detail than that. Text is minimal. This book is at it basics a book version of those posters. However this book goes much, much further. The caricatures for individual muscles and muscle groups in this book usually have multiple exercise options. Text in this book explains in detail how to properly perform the exercise. It also provides useful tips on how to slightly alter the exercise to accommodate common injuries (ie, turn your wrists this way to not engage a torn wrist flexor). There are several pages of guides and background information on how to avoid certain injuries such as not fully extending your arms when doing curls to avoid tendinitis down the road. As another example the book goes into detail on how and why crunches should ALWAYS be performed with an inward curving spine (ie, fetal curve). This is to minimize the usage of the Psoas Major & Minor hip flexors and avoid the back injury they can cause. There are several excellent section of pure information in this book. The caricatures in this book are truly excellent. The artist did a fantastic job positioning and drawing the body to emphasize exactly what the reader needs to see and understand. The 3rd Edition also adds text on proper stretching among other things.
I highly recommend this book to every single person lifting weights at all levels. I've shown the book to friends, coworkers and people at the gym. I've even sung its praises to complete strangers in checkout lines and restaurants. I can't say enough good things about it. The only negative thing I can think of (more of a wishful thinking thing) is that it's only available in paperback. I wish it was also available as a hardback. Taking this to the gym with you will wear it out eventually. Of course for its low price replacing it is inexpensive. It's an excellent resource.
This book is an excellent reference for any athlete, fitness professional or physio-therapist. It provides the reader with easy to use guide book to muscle-specific conditioning exercises with well-defined explanations and superbly detailed diagrams explaining their proper execution. The book is organised into sections covering arms, shoulders, chest back, abdomenals, legs, etc. There are full body muscle and skeleton diagrams at the end of the book. The author also included numerous, highlighted, well-written pages explaining proper stretching of certain muscle groups or joints, the physiology involved in specific exercises, and cautionary, injury preventing, notes to help the reader.
This book is a must-have - underline "must-have", volume for anyone who is serious about fitness, physical conditioning or strength training.
This is a wonderful book which really gives great insight to muscle recruitment during exercise, as a important I must make clear that it isn't a workout regiment book but rather a book explaining physiology of exercise. Until I bought this I had no idea of how influential doing a dead lift was, it really helped me to better understand how to work my entire body and admitedly facilitated my choices of workouts to improve my regiment.
Excellent information and drawings! Having suffered a herniated disc (C-7) and years later (L-4/5), it is refreshing to find a sports trainer who takes these issues into consideration and provides guidance on how you can still work out without endangering already existing problem areas.
Clear drawings of muscle groups, how they attach to which bones, and what outcomes you can expect from targeting specific areas.
Very pleased with info. Wish more trainers would think like this when teaching athletics.
Recommend highly if you really want to understand your body!'
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