The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding : The Bible of Bodybuilding, Fully Updated and Revised

I have this book in both paper and electronic form. The paper one I got more than a decade ago and its size is just unwieldy for bringing to the gym, plus finding just what you need quickly can be challenging. The Kindle version is perfect for that since it allows easy bookmarking and highlighting, and it is my gym companion these days. The book is very well written, easy to read, and very comprehensive. Arnold leaves no stone unturned when it comes to bodybuilding. Weight lifting exercises, nutrition, programs for beginners, intermediates and competition-grade experts. There are also plenty of photos of his glory days and interesting and funny anecdotes. The tone is very approachable and conversational. After trying a couple of exercise fads lately, I am back to basics, and who could be a better teacher than Arnold? He covers a lot of ground and the exercises are illustrated and explained well. The book is not without shortcomings: Arnold assumes that you would spend hours in the gym 6 days a week. Even the beginner series can easily take 2 hours a day (in my experience, at least, especially since I am new to some of these routines). After consulting other books, I decided to stick to his 6 days program and prune out some of the exercises which did not cover major muscle groups or were somewhat redundant to bring the duration of each workout down while still building strength. Lastly, this is not a general fitness or even weightlifting book: it is a bodybuilding book; Arnold assumes that your goal is to look like him and that photos of top bodybuilders would be motivating. While my goals are different, this book is still one of the best resources on strength training and associated nutrition. Highly recommended in electronic format.

This book completely changed the methods and exercises I use for lifting. I have a much better physique because of this book. It was really insightful.

Arnolds' encyclopedia, his first one from 1985 was my first really good bodybuilding/weight training book I bought this year and it changed my life for the good by teaching me some weightlifting basics I had been overlooking through the years of basic weight lifting a few times a week casually, and motivated me to do more serious lifting, and liked it enough that I decided to buy this new updated version, and it is a good addition to my weight training/bodybuilding library. A weight lifter or someone looking for personal fitness needs the good information in this book, but I advise purchasing several major weight lifting encyclopedias for your personal library, even if you have to buy some used and cheaply priced, my recommendations are defitinely get the Bill Pearl "Keys to the Inner Universe" and "Getting Stronger", Weider "Ultimate Bodybuilding", and one other bodybuilding encyclopedia I bought for reference is the Robert Kennedy "Bodybuilding, the complete A-Z book on musclebuilding", and a couple of other minor smaller books for variety of information given, though for Arnold, I am limiting my purchases to the encyclopedia for right now. My favorite sections are the double split systems mentioned, not that alot of my other books don't have those listed as well, and the good pictures from the good old days of bodybuilding and its sheer size really. Funny, the old book had bold lettering stating it was an encyclopedia, with Arnold's name in smaller print, now the newer version has his name in rather large bold print, and in smaller print the encyclopedia words, wow, what a difference almost a quarter century made, you will find in the new updated version more pics of Arnold in his various movie roles. And of course, there is no reason lifters need any dangerous banned substances like anabolics to cheat their way up the success ladder, most of these encyclopedias warn and talk of the dangers associated with this sport and activity associated with "juicers" and "getting juiced", and Arnolds encyclopedia has an ample section pertaining to the dangers of, etc. AND, I want to make it clear this book was updated with alot of newer information circa 1999, the latest medical knowledge, latest nutrition advice, along with changing out pictures of bodybuilders as examples that were current for the late 90's(though the color photo section of the 1985 book was changed to black and white photos this time), and I really do not believe there have been any real extra breakthroughs since 1999 in the last eleven years, so I believe this book is pretty much "current" in my opinion, and I can't imagine getting into serious weight training without having this book with others as reference. It's also fifty more pages than the older version.

I can't say that there isn't a better work available out there. I CAN say that in years past I've purchased a couple of books such as "The Weider System of Bodybuilding" and "Bodybuilding: The Weider Approach." And this "New Encyclopedia" is so much better than these it isn't even close. This book is marketed as one that is equally necessary for both the novice and amateur bodybuilder as well as the champion Mr. Olympia. I kind of find that a silly approach and since I'm NOT a "Mr. Olympia" and very definitely won't be becoming one any time soon, how great it is for champion bodybuilders is unimportant to me. I'm reviewing this book according to my own need: an encyclopedia of weight training exercises; the muscles that each exercise works; photographs to demonstrate each exercise; and suggested workouts to help a bodybuilder put the exercises into his or her own workout. And to that end, the book simply is excellent. For the record, I didn't see a single picture of a female bodybuilder (apart from when they happened to be standing next to the men). So "designed for women bodybuilders" hardly fits. But I submit that a woman could look over the exercises and put together a training routine just about as well as a man. Many (but not most) of the 800 pages are devoted to aspects of bodybuilding that I simply don't care about, such as posing and being photographed in such a way to make your muscles look their best. I'll let other people discuss how good those sections are and just stick to what I bought the book for. All I wanted was an encyclopedia of bodybuilding exercises. The pictures are all black and white, but there are a LOT of them. It's a great work for the photographs alone. The thing that I will say is that, having looked at the exercises and the description on how to do them and the muscles that are involved (for instance, what workout would you do to maximize the impact of your INNER chest?), I believe that this book will get regular use in my library. And if there's a better book out there to this end, I'll buy it too and still be glad I got this one.

I had purchased 1 or 2 workout books previously. They were somewhat adequate , but each author had differing opinions as to technique of weight lifting and omitted a lot of detail. I had my doubts that there could be any published book on fitness that would detail all aspects of weightlifting until I found Arnolds' "Encyclopedia". It could be compared to the bible, but for weightlifting. 800 plus!! pages of Arnolds' decades with lifting in one massive book. There is no detail left out. Every facet . Every learned movement on lifting has been noted and included. I found the format and layout of each chapter simple and easy to follow. Starting with the very early history of body builders in the early 19th century and ending with details for dieting and training for competition, Arnolds' book is a very interesting read. I found the chapters on "Body Types" and how genetics control muscle development extremely informative. The chapters on working out each part of the body and the exercise to stimulate muscle growth included dozens of movements for each. Accompanying all chapters are photo's for each instruction and movement. Arnold is a firm believer in not allowing the body to become complacent. This happens when the muscle group is conditioned for a repetitive routine from doing the same exercise all the time. Arnold states that the muscles must be confused and "shocked" with alternating routines. I found several of his routines new and interesting. I'm enjoying this book immensely. If you would like more information on how to exercise I whole-heartedly recommend this book. It is more than worth the present cost of $12 for a new book here on Amazon.

I read all the one star reviews before purchasing this book as a gift for my brother and one for myself. Anybody that thinks that you need to take steroids to do the workouts included in this is CRAZY!!!!!! Obviously if you weigh 100lbs soaking wet and couldn't put on muscle if you worked out for 1000000000 years no book will ever help you. Granted if you are not into body building that much working out six days a week is to much for most people, including me. Saying this the book is pretty good, I have lifted weights on and off since high school and I had already done most of these exercises at one time or another during my workouts. This book reconfirmed many things I had learned on my own. Great info on the exercises and how they will shape your body! This is why I wanted this book mainly and it was exactly what I wanted in an easy format to look up. If you have ever been to a gym and seen people who look ridiculous they need this book. If you know what your doing but just want a good read and some new ideas its great. I never got into bodybuilding but if I do, I would use this book as a template to my training. The other book suggestions that people say are 'better' on the 1 star posts are meant for people just trying to get into shape not bodybuilders. DUH!!!!! All the steroid comments, COME ON!!!! He took them and we all know it. To everybody saying you need to be juiced for this book to work: Get real people even with steroids you wouldn't be able to do these workouts. Don't fool yourselves. Any comments let me know!

What an amazing book! The foundation of bodybuilding from the GOAT himself!

Very cool book. Lots of info on just about everything to do with weightlifting and exercise in general. I'm not a bodybuilder per se but there is so much here, I have already learned a lot just looking up random exercises. Arnold is my hero.

My go to for weight training exercises, with well illustrated instructions. Recommend for beginners and experienced people looking to take weight training seriously.

Este livro, produzido pelo rei internacional do fisioculturismo, Arnold Schwarzenegger, é o livro mais completo sobre o tema disponível no mercado. O livro (parece até errado chamar de livro, quero chamá-lo de uma "bíblia") começa com alguns capítulos sobre assuntos gerais como: o que é o fisioculturismo, quais são os biotipos de corpo diferentes, como encontrar a motivação para treinar e como montar e organizar um treino, etc. Após esta parte inicial, o livro dedica capítulos inteiros para cada grupo muscular do corpo - entrando num nível de detalhe incrível sobre quais exercícios estimulam quais músculos específicos e como os estimulam. Mostra como realizar os exercícios da melhor forma e quais são os melhores exercícios para atingir hipertrofia para cada músulo. O livro é um manual de academia - mas poderia ser apostilha de faculdade de medicina (sem o grego, o latim e a complexidade da faculdade de medicina). É um livro essencial na biblioteca pessoal de qualquer pessoa que leva a sério a vida de maromba!

Gran libro. Más de 800 páginas dedicadas a este deporte donde Arnold nos cuenta sus entrenos, sus dietas, su vision particular de esta disciplina, trucos para ganar... Imprescindible para amantes del culturismo aunque hubiese preferido la edición antigua donde habia más fotos de culturistas de los 70, el grueso de fotos de esta edición es de esa epoca pero añaden fotos de Ronnie Coleman y Jay Cutler por ejemplo. La entrega fue rapidísima. Lo pedí la tarde de un viernes y llego la mañana del sabado.

Arnold Schwarzenegger hat hier mit Bill Dobbins das ausführlichste und beste Bodybuilding-Buch geschrieben, das es überhaupt auf dem Markt gibt. Es ist einfach alles enthalten: Die Geschichte des Bodybuilding, die Grundlagen, die Trainingsprinzipien, Intensitätstechniken, Trainingsprogramme, Übungen für die einzelnen Muskelgruppen, Wettkampfvorbereitung, Posing, Wertungskriterien der Punktrichter, Motivation & Psychologie, Ernährung, Nahrungsergänzungen, Steroide, Verletzungen u.v.m. - Völlig zu Recht heißt dieses Buch Enzyklopädie, denn etwas Umfassenderes zum Thema gibt es nicht. Das Buch ist bebildert mit zahlreichen Abbildungen und Fotos, leider alle nur in schwarz-weiß. In Farbe wäre das Buch noch viel schöner. Einziger Wermutstropfen ist für die deutschsprachigen Leser, dass man selbst mit guten Englischkenntnissen viele Wörter nachschlagen muss und die Texte nicht am Stück runterlesen kann, dafür sind sie einfach zu anspruchsvoll. Wer aber bereit ist, sich durch die weit über 700 Seiten mit einem Wörterbuch durchzukämpfen, wird einen erheblichen Gewinn an Kenntnissen erlangen und von vielen Erfahrungen des Ausnahmeathleten Schwarzenegger profitieren. Aus meiner Sicht ist es unschädlich, dass das Buch schon etwas älter ist. Im Bodybuilding ist in den letzten 20 Jahren das Rad nicht neu erfunden worden. Eine Autobiographie ist dieses Buch übrigens nicht, es geht alleine um Bodybuilding. Wer etwas über Arnold als Schauspieler oder Gouverneur lesen will, muss auf andere Werke zurückgreifen. Für Leser mit guten Englischkenntnissen eine klare Kaufempfehlung. Wer nur einfaches Schulenglisch kann, möge mit Vorsicht herangehen.

Some