training

This book explains the basics of weight training in enough depth to be useful, without assuming that everyone who starts lifting weights wants to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger. The book goes into good detail about an assortment of excercises for different parts of the body, as well as things to watch out for with each excersize, and has a good chapter on designing your own program. The pictures are of real people, not bulked up steroid cases, and the writing style is fun to read.

If you are starting out, this book will give you the basics (as the name implies); the excercises are very well explained and the fundamental facts of weight training are here. However, if your goal is to obtain body mass and really define your body, and I'm NOT talking about going overboard or looking to win a body building contest or anything of that sort but simply looking good, then I would look elsewhere. This book is for the VERY beginners or for people who want to excercise without really "building", and just want to be fit and have a light but useful workout.

I learned a lot from this book and enjoyed the tone of it (although "Idiots' guide to..." would have been too much for me. I can recommend this book to somebody who is just starting out. I think this is perfect for somebody who is working out with a multi-gym machine or with no machines at home. Actually the parts I enjoyed most were not the Exercise sections. I chose "Teach Yourself Visually Weight Training" over this initially because that one shows and explains exercises precisely for more machines that are in my gym. I found it helpful to know common mistakes and appreciate resources on books, videos and Internet sites. I generally like Dummies series and I intend to buy "Fit over 40" one next.