ivorygorgon
Cathlete
Cathe: Do you have any recommendations for books on fitness? I am very interested in recommendations for excellent books on fitness and/or weight training. I want to read and learn all that I possibly can. Thanks!
Cathe: Please recommend reading material
- Thread starter ivorygorgon
- Start date
Cathe Friedrich
Administrator
Hi IvoryGorgon!
Depending on where you are with your reading materials (ie: first book ever purchased vs another to add to your collection), I would start with "The Dummies" collections. There is Fitness for Dummies, and Weight Training for Dummies. They will go over your basics.
After that you may want to try "Effective Strength Training" by Douglas Brooks. This will cover a little more of the "how and why".
If you are just looking for workout exercise ideas with brief write ups, you can try Mens Health publications (they have several out there ranging from magazines, to paperback books, the hard cover bibles). Beware though, sometimes they have some questionable exercises that I just dismiss. I would not recommend their books to beginners.
Another book that I LOVE, more for visual than for exercise ideas is "Women's Strength Training Anatomy" by Frederic Delavier. I just find this book visually fascinating. It shows a female physique doing each exercise while giving you a transluscent view through this females body down to her muscular structure. The way you would imagine a bony skeleton doing squats is the way you would imagine a person stripped down to their muscle layer doing a squat. It color codes each targeted muscle and demonstrates how it is called upon during the exercise. I definitely would not recommend this book to beginners. It is a reference when you want to know exactly what muscles are being used during specific exercises.
Hope this helps!
Depending on where you are with your reading materials (ie: first book ever purchased vs another to add to your collection), I would start with "The Dummies" collections. There is Fitness for Dummies, and Weight Training for Dummies. They will go over your basics.
After that you may want to try "Effective Strength Training" by Douglas Brooks. This will cover a little more of the "how and why".
If you are just looking for workout exercise ideas with brief write ups, you can try Mens Health publications (they have several out there ranging from magazines, to paperback books, the hard cover bibles). Beware though, sometimes they have some questionable exercises that I just dismiss. I would not recommend their books to beginners.
Another book that I LOVE, more for visual than for exercise ideas is "Women's Strength Training Anatomy" by Frederic Delavier. I just find this book visually fascinating. It shows a female physique doing each exercise while giving you a transluscent view through this females body down to her muscular structure. The way you would imagine a bony skeleton doing squats is the way you would imagine a person stripped down to their muscle layer doing a squat. It color codes each targeted muscle and demonstrates how it is called upon during the exercise. I definitely would not recommend this book to beginners. It is a reference when you want to know exactly what muscles are being used during specific exercises.
Hope this helps!
honeybunch1
Cathlete
Yeah, Cathe! Love those Men's Health books! I just got one called "The Body You Want in the Time You Have."
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