Bodybuilding: From Heavy Duty to SuperSlow: Evolutionary Strategies for Building Maximum Muscle

The impressively muscular and fit Craig Cecil has long been devoted to the art of bodybuilding, from high school athletics to collegiate activities in NCAA Track & Field, to his rather extraordinary contributions to weightlifting and bodybuilding pursuits over the past 20 years. He is a member of the National Strength & Conditioning Association and holds an MBA from Loyola University of Maryland. He knows his subject thoroughly and has taken the time and research to present this book on the history of fitness and bodybuilding all the way back to the infamous Greek bodybuilder Milo. He has written tow other successful books prior to this one, SUPERMEN: Building Maximum Muscle for a Lifetime, and THE COMPLETE SMITH MACHINE: Exercises and Workouts. He not only has trained numerous clients but he also knows hoe to teach, and that includes his skill in writing. As he states in the early pages of this book, `This book takes you through a historical tour, explaining the evolution and details of the most popular weight training systems developed over the past century, so you can make your own decision regarding which work best for you. Along the way, you'll gain the basic knowledge and understanding of each in order to try them yourself. It's extremely important to find the optimal workout methodology for your body, since the higher the quality of muscular work you can generate, the greater the effect on your body and the faster you will progress toward your goals. So, don't be a lemming simply following the hordes in the gym-- discover your options and chart your own course.'What Craig Cecil provides in this rather definitive bodybuilding book is a careful history of modern bodybuilding pioneers and the techniques they supported, names and pays homage to the important men of field, and then by decade outlines the evolution of bodybuilding. The 1930s - General Principles of Exercise, The 1950s - Volume Training, The 1960s - PHA (Peripheral Heart Action) Training, High Intensity Training (HIT), Periodization, The 1970s - The Bulgarian Method, Pre-Exhaustion, Heavy Duty, The 1980s - The Weider System, The Hardgainer Method, SuperSlow, Holistic Training, Power Factor Training, The 1990s - Positions of Flexion (POF), Static Contraction Training. Each of these weight training systems can be classified by two factors-- volume (how many) and intensity (how much).From this point Cecil takes us through the various techniques, listing the exercises, how they are correctly performed, how to select which mode you feel is best suited to you goals, and then encourages you to stay with it. His presentation includes a sly sense of humor (`The body will overcompensate from stress on the muscles by growing bigger and stronger muscles. It really does boil down to this simplicity.'), remarks about the big names we all know (Charles Atlas, Joe Weider, and even Arnold Schwarzenneger), and a vast amount of realistic, fact based information that will serve everyone interested in bodybuilding on every level. He closes with the following: `By now, you should have a good understanding of various ideologies and methods for lifting weights to maximize your muscular growth. It's eye opening to witness the vast array of philosophies, techniques and methods that can be applied to barbells and dumbbells. Well known strength coach Dan John has repeatedly said, "anything works for 3-4 weeks, but nothing works forever". If you try any of the weight training systems in this book for the first time, they are bound to work. The real key is to find which one or combination of them works best for you. Your body presents an inner universe that only you can discover and master. That takes hard work, consistency and time, but the knowledge you gain will last a lifetime. Your goal is to keep adapting and the overall lesson here is that change is good.' And it is this communicative discourse that makes this book more than a `how to' book: this is the basic to the advanced information on Bodybuilding. Grady Harp, April 14

I've only recently gotten into lifting weights. Perusing some books on getting bigger/stronger, one thing that's clear is that people develop powerful attachments to one school of thought despite having only cursory familiarity with the alternatives. How many sets? How fast? How much weight? How many reps? You can find hundreds of books, with hundreds of different answers, but few will dispassionately argue why they settled on that regimen versus the numerous alternatives.If you read this book, you'll actually know pretty much all the major animating theories: high volume, high intensity, fast, slow -- all are covered in various permutations, with a quick look at typical workouts for each school of thought.It's fantastic to read a book about the theory and practice of weight lifting that ISN'T trying to sell you on the author's One True Way, and which acknowledges that different people (who, of course, have different bodies, different goals, and different tools at their disposal) might benefit from different programs. On the other hand, I wish the author had been a little more forthcoming about his criticisms of high-volume training. He seems to believe (and I believe this is correct) that putting in a bunch of volume just leads to exhaustion, but he doesn't come right out and say it. He should either have come right out and said it, or been more completely even-handed in his treatment of the different systems.The only other complaint I have is that this book is very much a whirlwind tour, and some of the material could have sustained a much deeper exploration -- the weirdest stretch being a rapid-fire look at all of the Weider system's 'principles' with hardly any meaningful analysis of any of them. Again, I kind of think the author was a bit reticent to say that he just didn't take the Weider system seriously, but if that's the case, he could have just *listed* the principles and moved on.Still, in a field where everybody and his brother want to tell you exactly what you ought to do, but are pretty short on why, this book is a very refreshing change. Definitely recommended.

Craig Cecil has succeeded in utilizing part of the real value of an eBook over a print book. First, his Table of Contents organizes his bodybuilding topics first by era and then by intensity level. Second, throughout the material he provides links to bodybuilders, doctors, and other people who have contributed to the history of bodybuilding that will take the reader outside the material to sources such as Wikipedia or within the material to a relevant topic. Cecil uses this same innovative approach in not only presenting the material, but in the material itself. We have come a long way in bodybuilding from the days of ad in the back of the magazine touting how a 98-pound weakling used somebody's program to become powerful enough to take on the bully who kicked sand in his face. I remember those ads when I was a kid. The science in Cecil's methods stem from the basic principals of the 1930's into present-day techniques derived from highly-evolved kinesiology. I have gone to the gym quite a bit over the years, but never with a great deal of success. I'm in decent shape, but hardly someone that others would look at and say, "Oh, there goes a bodybuilder." Cecil's book is the first time, though, that I've seen clarification of several different systems along with lifting guidelines for purposely elevating the heart rate. I am stoked to see that by using this book along with a trainer, I can get the definition and mass that I've always wanted to have. Time to get busy!

This is an excellent training resource, it gives an overview, description, explanation and examples of how to use different training protocols such as high intensity, heavy duty, weider principles, german volume training. This is a gem of a book in that if your training has become stale , whip out this book and within its pages are alternative strategies and training methods to help you periodize your training to help prevent burnout, overtraining, boredom and to keep progressing . The information if brief and to the point, every bodybuilder shud have this book in their library

I haven't read the entire book yet but from where I am I can see that this book does exactly what it promises, namely gives you the outline of each of the major workouts in use today (and some not so common) and gives you the basics for how to put them into use. A great addition to any library, if you only want a small collection then I recommend this book along with Mind Pump, Arnold Shwarzeggers's book of modern bodybuilding, the supplement guide and strength training anatomy, these will cover everything you need to work out with fresh perspectives and routines for years to come.

Thorough listing of the different strategies available but readers need a comparative assessment of all these.....e.g. which ones have been found to be most effective, which have now been discredited, which ones would help me reach my goals, and so on.Reading it was a bit like going into a travel agency to get some ideas for your holiday only to find that the travel agent simply wants to recite a list of all the countries he has ever heard of!

Im loving this bodybuilding book from Craig Cecil, it's well written and easy to follow. Packed with so much useful information, methods, history and techniques its everything you could ever want to know and so much you need to know!. This guy really knows his stuff!

found it more to the suit of pro body builders, did pick up useful knowledge but as for helping me to construct a work out I found it out of my league, only been training a year. otherwise it was very informative.