Wednesday 17 October 2012

Body By Science Review


Body By Science is a different exercise book. Rather than prescribing as many exercises and movements as you can fit into a week it has you doing the minimum work needed to achieve a growth stimulus. How much exercise? The baseline program is called "The Big 5" - 1 set each on 5 different machines, which covers the full body. Where other exercise programs have you doing set after set after set, Body By Science has you doing only 1 set - to muscular failure. This might sound a bit scary to the uninitiated, but it is what is required to tell your body that it must adapt. You then just have to let it do just that - by not lifting any more weights for another week. The result is a highly time efficient program (around 12 minutes per week) which is sustainable for life. Those 12 minutes are hard, but the results are worth it.

What I really loved about this book is that it doesn't just give you a list of exercises to do then fill up the rest of the space with drivel. It actually goes into the science of why it works, which really helps get your head around doing so little work. If you didn't understand the basic concepts then it would be easy to throw in some extra exercises. But with the knowledge you learn from Doug McGuff & John Little you will understand that 5 sets (or even less) is all your body needs to adapt and grow stronger and bigger.

A somewhat controversial point, but one which I enjoyed, was that by the definition of health, aerobic activities like jogging are actually unhealthy! After reading this section you'll start seeing joggers in a different light!

I previously mentioned the base-line program of The Big 5. The book also gives you a free weight variation if you don't have access to exercise machines. The book also explains how to change the program as you get stronger and progress starts to slow. Without going into too much detail this means reducing the 5 down to 3 exercises per week - making the program even more time efficient! There are also plenty of exercise intensifiers described - helping you milk the program dry even when you are becoming more advanced in your training and your body.

There is also a chapter on how to tweak the program if you are an athlete, with examples for football, hockey & golf.

Seniors are also a subject for another chapter, explaining the benefits of resistance exercise then prescribing the program which will work best for them.

To sum it all up, Body By Science by Doug McGuff & John Little really helps you understand the science of exercise and why so many people are doing it so wrong. It is more like medicine than people realise. You want to do the exact amount of exercise required, not punishing your body with as much as you can fit into your week. It really helps develop the High Intensity Training ideas which Mike Mentzer helped to create. Both men and women will benefit from this book, getting people into exercise for the first time, as well as freeing up more time for people who already exercise.

Click here to view the first 12 pages of the book for free at Amazon.

Body By Science - Kindle Edition is also available at this link.

Tuesday 16 October 2012

BodyByScience.pdf

BodyByScience.pdf

Unfortunately Body By Science by Doug McGuff is not available as a pdf file. Not to worry however, as Amazon sell the book in their Kindle format. What's even better is that it is also a bit cheaper than the paper version, which is always nice to see these days.

When purchased it is delivered to your Kindle-compatible device including the Kindle iPhone & iPad apps almost instantly - you no longer have to wait days to get stuck in to a great book.

Body By Science Kindle Edition is available from Amazon here.

Monday 15 October 2012

The Body By Science Question and Answer Book



Here the 2 authors take time to answer the common questions from Body By Science readers in 260 pages, broken down as follows:

Health & Fitness:
How strength training helps total health and fitness of the human body. Topics include breaks from training, VO2 Max testing and cardiovascular health.

BodyBuilding:
What is really required to make a human body bigger and stronger? The issue of genetics is also tackled here.

Special Needs:
How to deal with everything from a common cold through to pregnancy to dealing with injuries.

Training:
All training related questions are dealt with here, such as muscle soreness after workouts to shaking limbs during a workout.

Nutrition:
What really is a "healthy diet" for humans? Insulin is also discussed at depth here.

Athletics:
How to make the most of your athletic training and also dispels some coaching myths.

Safety:
How to keep your training safe over the long term. Amongst the many topics covered include gripping  recovery and breathing during exercise.

As you can see it really covers any questions you could have about training, staying injury free and staying healthy throughout life in general.