Beyond Brawn: The Insider's Encyclopedia on How to Build Muscle & Might Paperback – January 1, 2012

If you want to get in shape, lose a few pounds, and/or even try to lift weights, you need to read this book first! The author, Stuart McRobert, not only gives you a plan but explains the "Why" behind his method. There are no shortcuts, but detailed instruction on everything you should do. And his instruction is all drug-free. This book is helpful to everyone: beginner, experienced, professional, both for Man or Woman. After I read this book twice, I ordered all of Mr. McRobert's books and it's the best money I have spent in a long time!!! These books have stood the test of time and are considered by many as the best in the field. An added benefit is that Mr. McRobert is a first class writer!!!

It is very detailed review how to compose exercise plans and put them into micro, macro cycles. Additionally the whole chapters about problems and healing methods are very valuable to extend own knowledge.

The overall core points delivered by this book are invaluable: ABBREVIATED PROGRESSIVE TRAINING.My criticism is the slightly sleezy vibe the author gives off. He is constantly referencing his other books, in fact, convincing the reader that the information in those books are necessary (yet will not be provided in this book). He could certainly make room for all this "essential" info (training technique, nutrition, ...) if he trimmed down the repetition in this book. Not only are many chapters essentially repeated, but he goes back on his core message of abbreviated SIMPLE training by providing these later chapters with trivial ways to intensify your training once youve made it through your hardgaining phase. In essence, he starts giving the exact trivia techniques that you can read about on the internet and the weightlifting mags (eg drop sets) that his entire book is geared against.Also, he says that this new edition is "better organized" when in reality hes just filled each page with one side of text and the other side is numbering the rows for "Easy reference".Yeah sorry Im really not trying to bag this book, its great, but the second half was a waste of time, I had to start skimming paragraphs because every time i checked to see if i was missing anything, it absolutely was a repeated detail 9/10 times. Let us as the reader decide how many times we need to read something until we get it.

I have always been drawn to the HIT type of training as it became obvious to me early on in my training years that the magazine routines of the pros were more for show than to be put into actual practice by regular steroid-free people. A lot of people on the Internet are now advocating more abbreviated training with the basic compound movements, which is great, but Stuart McRobert is the ultimate and original guide for regular people seeking ways to achieve extraordinary results from weight training. I originally read Brawn when I was much younger in the 1990's and recently read Beyond Brawn. I was not disappointed. I haven't had it that long and it's already full of highlighted sections that I frequently revisit. Once you read this book you will be spending less time in the gym and getting much better results. Not only that, you will understand how to put together a workout routine that works for you, rather than simply pulling a cookie cutter workout from a magazine and hoping it works out.If you decide to get this book you may want to go ahead and order his other book. "Build Muscle, Lose Fat, Look Great", as it is referenced throughout Beyond Brawn when discussing exercise technique. The bottom line is, skip the Schwarzenegger workout book and buy this one if you actually want results. As a note, Stuart has recently updated his website, [...], and it's worth checking out.

Stuart has and is now still encouraging weightlifters to abbreviated training. Let’s be real, we are not all genetic superiors, a lot of us are average on the bell curve and this is for the majority under the curve. If you know you are genetically lean and build size quickly, this can help. If you are the rest of us under the bell curve and tail to the left, consider this. Try it, good solid couple of months and decide .A good read

Fantastic book. Definitely repetitive as others have mentioned, but the information is all critical. I’d been doing more popular/conventional programs for years without making much progress and wish I’d come across this book quite a while ago. Excellent advice and lots of freedom to build a highly custom program.

I would say this is one of two books you'll ever need to read on weight training. The other book is one of Stuart's books with actual training techniques. I feel this book is for people who have already researched typical fitness routines and have some sort of foundation in place; even if that foundation is misinformation on overtraining. This book essentially destroys the modern myths on weight lifting proving less is more. I have made more progress in seven weeks following this books advice than I did in the past year following common routines (lift weights 3-5 times per week). Two days per week focusing on the Big 5 is all you'll ever need. Truly a must read.

Okay, so I rarely write reviews, but this is the best book for natural body building that I've ever read. Well, okay. 1 out of 2. This book is as far from a narcissistic gloatfest that I have ever seen. The author does not talk about how he’s the best that’s ever been. In fact, there isn’t a single photo of him in the book. How do you learn what to do without photos? Because this book is about what to do, not how to do it. There are lots of videos that you can watch for technique, but this book is about the simplicity of the process. For the first time, this is not about preacher curls being the best ever bicep exercise or shaping the muscle you have. This is about building the muscle that you will eventually be able to shape. You can’t take a pound of clay and turn it into a live-sized Michelangelo's David. First you need a big enough rock. Quit wasting your time on finesse exercises when you don’t have mass to begin with. Simple explanations and calculations regarding your potential relative to your body’s basic structure, light, intermediate, or heavyweight, with considerations of gender and age included. Quit trying to be a natural that can compete with the juicers. You can’t. On the other hand, you can really see results while retaining your health. Buy it. Don’t go for the fancy picture books. Find the philosophy here that has built natural bodybuilders for over a hundred years. Book number two that competes with this? A perfect book to jumpstart you while waiting for this paper book to arrive; Martin Berkhan’s ‘The Leangains Method’. These two books are changing my life. Martin’s book is available for kindle on Amazon. You can’t go wrong. Watch out for the other Leangains poser on Amazon. It’s not the same program. Leangains is also a website, but buy both BOOKS for sure. Lift hard, lift harder, lift... less often? PERFECTION!!!

I think this book is the Hardgainer's Bible. It, along with McRobert's BUILD MUSCLE, LOSE FAT, LOOK GREAT, are two of the best books for hardgainers I have ever read.For me in the past, higher-intensity and lower-volume training definitely led to greater gains than high volume at a lower intensity. I wish I'd read this book earlier and then kept applying abbreviated training thereafter.

This is exactly what you needed to read if you’re in to muscle building. No nonsense, zero bs approach. Very realistic.

I initially purchased this book in hard copy format years and years ago. Unfortunately as a result of moving, I lost it. I purchased the updated edition last week and it has single handedly reignited my passion for training (and I've been weightlifting for over 22 years now). This book (and Stuart) just confirms for me what I have known for a long long time: natural athletes can rarely get the kind of results they are after by following the routines of men (and women) who take performance enhancers. If you want a realistic and truthful account of what it takes to build a respectable physique (and strength), then this book is a must have. Well done, Stu:

Das klingt wie Polemik, ist aber nicht weit von dem entfernt, was in dem Buch auf den wissbegierigen Neuling wartet. Es arbeitet sich Schritt für Schritt durch nahezu alle Bereiche des Resistenztrainings und das in verdaubaren Häppchen. Wie Proklamationen ist jeder Wissensfetzen in einen eigenen Absatz verpackt, der für sich alleine stehen könnte, sodass der Autor selbst dazu rät, dieses Buch auch als Referenzwerk immer und immer wieder zu verwenden.Inhaltlich arbeitet sich das Werk durch die Übungen, Intervalle, Ernährung, Equipment und viele andere Bereiche um besonders dem Neuling (aber selbstverständlich nicht nur dem) den Einstieg in die Welt des Krafttrainings leichter zu machen. Der Ton is dabei stets zugänglich, erfordert aber gute Englischkenntnisse. Natürlich ist auch Stuart McRobert nicht allwissend und so sind seine Trainingsintervalle oft als konservativ eingestuft worden. Dem kann ich durchaus beipflichten, aber als Einstieg sind seine Vorschläge durchaus passend, wer sich dann tiefer in die Thematik arbeitet, wird seinen Horizont ohnehin über dieses Buch hinaus erweitern.