Good Lifting Books/Articles

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1

I’m mostly looking for a good lifting book or a few good articles on lifting, including stretching and cardio/GPP. I don’t particularly want to wade through the hundreds of articles here on T-Nation, but I might have to do that.

It would be sweet if it was printed, as I like to read books more than online.

To give you an idea of what I’m looking for, I’m kind of looking for something like JB’s new Precision Nutrition, except for lifting (It doesn’t have to be as long or detailed tho, I can get the info from a few different places).

Thanks!

2

Depends whether you are looking for light or heavy reading and whether you are looking for hands on or academic works?

These are in no particular order:

High Performance Sports Conditioning - Bill Foran (Editor) Good Entry Level Book. Easy read.

Supertraining - Mel Siff. The opposite of the above.

Strength and Power in Sport - P.V Komi (Editor) Excellent reference book covering just what it says on the cover.

(Just realised that it probably isn’t my place to be critiquing these books…but if you have any questions about any of them or want to be more specific about what you are after feel free to let me know?)

Essentials of Strength Training And Conditioning - Tom Baechle

Science and Practice of Strength Training - Zatsiorsky

Athletic Body in Balance - Gray Cook

Programming and Organisation of Training - Verkoshanksy

Fundamentals of Special Strength Training in Sport - Verkoshansky

Funtional Training for Sports - Michael Boyle.

Designing Resistance Training Programs - Kraemer and Fleck

How to Write Strength Training Programs - Ian King

Theory and Methodology of Training - Tudor Bompa

Periodization of Strength - Tudor Bompa

This is just a beginning and given more time I could make an even more comprehensive list…perhaps somebody should make a post regarding ‘What books would you consider only worthy of wiping your arse with?’ or ‘Which books did you find infinitely dissapointing?’…I have just as big a list of them.

Good luck with the reading.

3

Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe. Great for learning lifting technique for beginners or for teaching as a coach.

4

Wow, thanks for that long list…

I’m wondering, I’m not going to buy all those books (at least right now), if you could choose two or three for all around traning, which would they be?

Feel free to crique them more…

Thanks!

5

Maybe I’ll get blasted for this… but back in the days of the T-Jack reviews, the “Men’s Health Book of Muscle” by strength coach Ian King came highly recommended.

I use the book and enjoy it. It is fairly basic, but it gives a great overview. It starts with the basics of anatomy and how muscles work, goes on into nutrition, then has an in depth section with a huge variety of exercises. At the end, there are Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced workouts. I skipped the Beginner routine, and am in the Intermediate routine currently. I like it overall. Sometimes I tweak the routines a bit, but they give a good starting point and include an interesting variety of exercises.

You can find this book on Amazon.com.

Good luck and happy lifting bro.