The Body Sculpting Bible for Men

"I've been using the methods in this book since january 2008 (my new year's resolution) and have since gone from a doughy 193lbs, 18% body fat and 35" waist down to 182lbs, 11% body fat and 32" waist. I'm also seeing abs for the first time since high school. I've also gained 2" on my arms, an inch on my chest, and I haven't measured my lats but they seem to have nearly doubled in size.

I understand that people have different body types/metabolisms so here's a little info on myself.

I'm 5'11" and in highschool I weighed between 145 and 150lbs regardless of how much I ate. In college I started rowing for the crew team and ended my career at 192lbs with a body fat percentage of about 10%. After college I got a desk job and spend roughly 7 hours seated in front of a computer screen. After 3 years my weight remained the same but I lost muscle and my body fat nearly doubled to 18%. I blame this on being mainly sedentary and having developed poor eating habits.

This book offers meal plans, has a myriad of different exercises targeting all muscles and muscle groups, and also has several workout routines ranging from break-in routines to mass building. The great thing is that the author provides alternatives to using expensive gym equipment. My workouts rarely exceed 60 minutes and I do 80% of my workouts with a pull-up bar, adjustable bench, and dumbells."
~ Written on 2008-06-09

"I bought this book as a beginner's guide to getting into weight training on the recommendation of a co-worker. I think that despite its poor editing, it does do some things well:

- it covers a basic nutritional plan
- it gives you exercises that you can accomplish with a minimum of fancy equipment or space.
- it delivers plenty of enthusiasm which (let's face it) is very important to someone trying to get the energy to get off the couch and get into shape.
- basic mechanics of form with each exercise are laid out so that you can visualize the proper form.

That said, it proves disappointing to me in several areas. None of these are things that would make the book/program unusable for me but they do take a potentially great book and make it fairly average.

1) As stated before, there are many physiologic claims that could use referencing. There are a lot of claims about how hormones work on musculature, etc that simply seem like a sales pitch. Being a doctor, this is somewhat of a turnoff for me.

2)The nutritional plans are useful for someone without knowledge of carbs, proteins and fats but there are numerous vague areas in the text. For instance, they give calculations on how to determine your protein and fat needs in the diet but they don't do the same for carbs in the basic plan. They describe several forms of protein powders (Meal Replacement Powders, Protein Powders) but when it comes to the section where they share recipes, it's not clear if any of these powders will do or if the recipe requires one or the other. There is a basic diet and then a more advanced one where you cycle carbs. As in other areas of the book, the mixture of the basic program with the advanced is very troubling because it confuses things.

3)The photos accompanying each exercise are basically a starting position and a final position. It would be nice to show a sequence (at least on some of them). There are some exercises that can be done either with dumbells or barbells. In the "Ballet Squat" for instance, it doesn't mention where to put your hands (holding the weights) if you're using just dumbells. The photos are of a guy using the barbells...so you're out of luck.

4)When they lay out how many sets you should do of each exercise, it's a bit vague on what to do when you are using paired limbs. For instance, if you do a lunge...is 10 reps equal to five with the left leg and five with the right or is it 20 lunges with 10 left and 10 right?

I think it should also be mentioned that this book is about getting into shape but some parts of it are meant for a different audience that wants to "get ripped". That's okay but the goals are different. I will admit that six days a week of workouts is tough but realize that two of those days are really just abdominal work that consists of three sets of crunches and three sets of leg raises that would really take about 15-20 minutes. I do mine on Saturday morning and I don't need to leave the house.

I would still recommend this book to someone just starting out who wants acheivable exercises. I think that the more advanced individual will not find what they're looking for."
~ Written on 2008-03-16

"There's a lot of good information in this book, but too much of it relies on posession of or access to specific (sometimes obscure) types of gym equipment and exercise machines. If you're looking to bulk up your Ren Hoek physique in the comfort of your own home, or as in my case the comfort of the cheap hotels your employer books you into, this probably isn't the book for you.

Also not for you if you're at all disturbed by closeups of men in extremely tight striped shorts."
~ Written on 2007-09-11

"This book is very interesting and has the possiblilities of working IF you stick to the everyday work-out recommended and within the steps required. "
~ Written on 2007-05-29

"Yet I only look a little like the guy on the cover. I did some of the exercises like twice now, so I don't know what I'm doing wrong."
~ Written on 2007-05-04