Men's Health Natural Bodybuilding Bible: A Complete 24-Week Program For Sculpting Muscles That Show

SUMMARYThis is an overall very good book with a misleading title. It however contains some major flaws that you should, in my opinion, be aware of before buying it.CONTEXT(or "skip it if you're in a hurry")While I was training for years with bodyweight movements and routines, recent family events called for huge personal organization changes. That's why I decided to hit the gym and give barbells and dumbbells a real try. Whereas I've always trained for health and performance first, I've also considered experimenting a more aesthetic-oriented program without sacrificing the two other goals.At this point, a "bodybuilding bible" appeared like a good starting place, especially since this one is aimed at ordinary and drug-free people. In effect, a lot of trainers and magazines are paid by or financially dependent upon supplements/equipments companies. Consequently, many bodybuilding programs are a waste of time, energy, and sometimes even health and muscle (because of over-training and its consequences) when you're not a steroid user or blessed by genetic. Indeed, I only listen to authors that acknowledge such a fact and Tyler English seems to be one of them since he emphasizes "natural bodybuilding".ON THE BRIGHT SIDE(or "everything I liked about the book")1) The first thing that struck me was the layout. I found it beautiful, clear and well thought, and I think it really helps the reader to get into reading the book.2) Along the same lines, I found M. English recommendations to be extremely precise, clear, and straight to the point. This is very refreshing because too many training authors fall into both "I've got the truth" and "too much bro-talk" traps, which I personally find very annoying.3) The nutrition part is especially good. The author helps us determining how many macronutrients of each type we do need depending on multiple factors like body type and lean body mass. Then he describes the best sources of each one of them, along with interesting advices and nutritional theories. M. English is a firm advocate of whole food which, from both health and financial perspectives, seems to me like the very best choice. Finally come the advanced strategies, and here we learn about hormones, meal planing, dieting phases... Everything is clearly explained and well summarized. All things considered, the nutrition part isn't that long, but it's really comprehensive and I will personally use it often as a diet quick reference.4) Regarding the workout part, I really liked the flexibility of the proposed plans: we get to choose between 3, 4 and 5 days splits, and the author explains the advantages and disadvantages of each one. This allows us to go with what's best for us and our schedule. Moreover, the program is 6-months long, which seems like a perfect length to me: long enough to make tremendous progress, short and varied enough to prevent boredom. I'm really eager to try the program in a few months after the completion of my current one.5) Coming from a bodyweight and martial arts-oriented training background, I'm always thinking "functional strength" when exercising. Well, the good news is that free weights have not only proven useful for that, but also for sculpting great physiques. And since the book's exercises are all about free and even body weights, I'm a happy man.6) I don't fall into the "bodybuilding competitor" category, but it seems to me that there are very valuable pages for them in the book: bodybuilding history, tanning and posing recommendations, etc.7) M. English is also the model illustrating the book. While being a good athlete doesn't, by any means, imply being a good trainer, it still gives the author a certain credibility.8) For those of you who have ordered or will order the book from Amazon, there are free bonuses to grab from the author's blog (see his post of June 4, 2013). The most noticeable, in my opinion, are the videos of all the book exercises, an additional 8-weeks of bodybuilding programs, and a cardio program. I really thank M. English for such a giveaway: it's not vital, but it reinforces the overall impression of great professionalism conveyed by the book.ON THE DARK SIDE(or "what I found really annoying about the book")1) You have to be warned: this book is all about the "cutting" (or dieting for fat loss and muscle preservation) phase of bodybuilding. There isn't a single word about its necessary counterpart: "bulking" (or mass building). I can't emphasize that enough because that was a huge disappointment for me. I just really don't get that a so-called "bodybuilding bible" doesn't include a chapter or at the very least some recommendations about gaining muscle. I don't even know if the given training program can serve that purpose (assuming relevant changes to diet). This is a major turn-off for someone like me who has always struggled to gain muscle, not to lose fat. And nothing about the book, neither its cover nor its summary, implies this...2) Another main concern was the cardio part: M. English does a great job at giving us a cardio prescription per body type, describing the specifics of each cardio form, and... Well, that's all folks! Seriously? How could you start so well and then leave us wondering what on earth the printer did with the missing pages? To put things in perspective, the book contains less pages about cardio training than about tanning! Again, I strongly feel that a "bible" (and any serious bodybuilding book for that matter) needs way more developments regarding this topic, such as advices, sample workouts, strategies... The cardio bonus kind of fixes the sample part by offering HIIT and High Intensity Aerobic Intervals layouts , but it's still not enough in my opinion.3) My third main concern is the target of the book: while you would expect a "bible" (I know I pick at this title a lot, but I find it way too misleading) to offer adapted content for all levels, I think that this book might leave beginners frustrated (regarding the workout part at least). The author seems to assume that his readers are already experienced since you won't find any basic yet vital knowledge about training. Here are a few subjects that, in my opinion, should have been addressed: choosing the right weight, how to prevent injuries, reps tempo, flexibility, cooling down, mental focus during training, muscle tension during reps... Furthermore, exercises might have been described in greater details, as there is a real risk of injury when working with weights. For any lifter who wants to learn proper exercise form, I would recommend these two books:  Starting Strength, 3rd edition  and  The Insider's Tell-All On Weight-Training Technique, Revised 3rd Edition .The following comments do not describe major flaws, but rather potential improvements:4) I would have liked more concrete advices on advanced nutrition strategies. While the theory is well explained, I don't feel like I can put most of it to immediate practice. For example, the importance of pre- and post-workout nutrition is highlighted, but there isn't any indication about how much of each macronutrient we're supposed to eat. Precise instructions have to be added to this part, just like what was done for the other nutrition chapters.5) While M. English's recommendations are clearly backed up by science, I would have liked to find a bibliography in order to know his resources and inspirations.6) I find difficult to locate a particular exercise. I always end up using the index which, because exercises are listed under the main bodypart they're working, is not exactly the best tool for that. The exercises description part can really use a specific table of content, and a great addition to the workout plans would be to give the page reference of each exercise.7) Finally, I just want to point out that while offering free videos of the exercises execution is great, the fact that they're performed for only one rep unfortunately makes them quite useless. Extending videos to 6-10 reps would make this collection the great tool it's supposed to be.CONCLUSIONIt was hard to decide whether I should rate this book 3 or 4 stars. I was surprised by its flaws (especially given the dedication that has clearly been put in it), but I truly liked it because of M. English's professionalism, clarity and expertise. Moreover, I'm pretty confident that the author will try to improve his book for another edition, and I would then give it 5 stars without hesitation if the mentioned issues are corrected.Still, I don't think it deserves to be called a "bible", as in "the only resource you will ever need on the subject". Beginner beware: this may not be the best book for you if you're totally new to lifting.SIDE NOTEI apologize for all the language mistakes I must have made since English is not my mother language. Thank you for your patience and understanding! Starting Strength, 3rd editionThe Insider's Tell-All On Weight-Training Technique, Revised 3rd Edition

This was bought as a gift for a grandson - he likes it

This book changed my life! After sitting behind a computer for most of my life in an engineering career I made the decision to lose weight and get fit. My weight loss was going awesome for the first 15 pounds but then I could not lose any more weight! I started studying to figure out what the problem was and I started to buy books. After reading so many books and receiving so much conflicting information I came across this book and all of the answers were before me! My biggest problem is that in the process of trying to lose weight I lost much of my muscle and kept too much fat. From this book I learned that diet is 90% of the battle and exercise makes up the rest. I learned that anyone wanting to get fit and loose fat, not muscle, must become basically a body builder. I reached my weight loss goal two months ago and have since been working on trying to get my body fat percentage down to 12%. I am almost there! Approaching 50, I now have the body I should have had 30 years ago. I have been logging everything from exercises to meals to the point I decided to publish my journal format for others to be able to use. Without this book I am sure I would be heading towards my first heart attack rather than heading to the beach! Thanks for sharing this most awesome book.

I applied the workouts in this book for six months while in prison. With inadequate nutrition from prison food, I was still showing very obvious results. I was popping in places I've never popped before. I've tried many other workout books and this one works

I recently completed Martin Rooney's TFW book, and loved it. After taking some off time, I switched to Tyler English's program. I love Tyler's no-nonsense approach to body building. His program is amazingly robust and flexible, and he doesn't place himself or his program on a pedestal. All of the exercises are simple, and the workouts he has within are deceptively simple. While I'm still very much an amatuer gym rat, I looked at the first workout (a leg-centric on the 4 day split routine) and thought, "that doesn't look too bad." An hour later I would have put my foot in my mouth if my legs felt anything more than jelly. These workouts are intense, and if I didn't have a decent base I certainly would have to scale back the weight or reps. I've completed two weeks so far, and have already made a decent gain in size while getting rid of some pesky body fat. This book is the real deal. Get it.