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If you are a keen gym goer, you want to gain muscular weight and/or lose body fat, but you are not sure what (and who) you should learn from, then I highly recommend these five books.
They have all helped me a great deal to improve my body (and overall health). Why?
Let me give you a brief overview of each book in the order of importance. (Health and the basics of weight training always comes before the more technical, fancier stuff.)
How To Eat, Move and Be Healthy by Paul Chek (See his website)
This book will give you the foundations upon which to build good health. It covers how to truly eat right for you (Metabolic Typing), stretching, water, postural considerations, sleep, stress, digestion, working-in and much more.
Only when your body is healthy enough, can you build muscle and lose body fat naturally.
The Metabolic Typing Diet by William Wolcott (See his website)
This book is the only and original book on what Metabolic Typing is all about. Written by the man who came up with the term Metabolic Typing, it’s a must read if you want to understand the importance (and science) of eating right for you, and not following a dogmatic eating philosophy.
The only reason they put diet in the title of the book, is to help it sell. Very few people would buy the book if it was just called Metabolic Typing. There’s no particular type of diet that is always going to suit anyone, just what works for you at the present moment.
Brawn by Stuart McRobert (See his website)
This book will ground you in the basics of weight training. It will get you to focus on the basic lifts that will help you to gain muscle, strength and/or lose body fat. So many teenage boys get sucked in – like I did – to the hype and rubbish of what’s written in all commercial body building magazines. This book will stop you from getting sucked into the smoke and mirrors of weight training.
Modern Trends in Strength Training by Charles Poliquin (See his website)
This book will give you a better understanding of the acute exercise variables. This includes reps, sets, loads, tempos and exercise selection. This is very important if you want to build the best body possible. If you keep using the same exercises, reps and sets you can’t develop muscles fully, therefore, you will build a more “incomplete” body.
Winning the Arms Race by Charles Poliquin (See his website)
This book (which has now been updated) is a six month training plan geared around building bigger, stronger arms. But this book will also teach you the importance of using accumulation training (higher reps/lighter loads), and intensification training (lower reps/heavier loads). Again, this is really important if you want to build a fully developed body, unlike 90-95% of people who train in the gym.
Lastly, I would highly recommend that you track your training most of the time. This way you can see what works, and what doesn’t. And it will keep you more focused.
If you slowly apply the information from these five books, you will give yourself the best chance possible of building a naturally stronger, bigger, leaner, and most importantly, HEALTHIER body.