Brawn

by Stuart McRobert

This is a 512-page encyclopaedia on how to build a terrific physique. This encyclopaedia offers the key to your training success. By acknowledging your individuality, this book teaches you precisely how to train yourself. Become your own expert personal trainer! Whether you're male or female, a beginner or very advanced, young or not-so-young, want to train at home or in a public gym, this book is for you. Apply what you learn and success will follow! The 'how-to' guidance includes: why conventional training is fundamentally wrong and must be bypassed; how to overhaul your training philosophy so that you're destined for big gains; your ultimate size and strength potential, and the organisation to take you there; how to design and personalise your own training programs, step-by-step; how to conquer over training, maximise results, and never let age hold you back; how to eat in order to maximise your gains and improve your health; how to set up your own low-cost but super-productive home gym; and a real-life, step-by-step training cycle for you to learn from.

Genres: Health, Fitness, Sports, Nonfiction

244 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 11, 2009

About the author

Stuart has had around 1,000 articles published in print magazines. He wrote a monthly column for the UK’s leading bodybuilding magazine for 22 consecutive years. He also authored several acclaimed books including BEYOND BRAWN and BUILD MUSCLE LOSE FAT LOOK GREAT, and published his own magazine for 15 years. But his success as a writer was born out of his efforts to survive the profound struggles he had because of his psychological challenges, which resulted in suffocating distress.

Reviews

[Art · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hated the first 30 pages, but greatly enjoyed the rest of the book. The first 30 pages are filled with bitterness and frustration over the bodybuilding advice given by professional bodybuilders and bodybuilding magazines. Why? When it comes to building large muscles, professional bodybuilders normally have superior genetics. And, in my opinion, even more importantly, professional bodybuilders are using anabolic steroids. The steroids make it possible for them to do marathon workouts, recover quickly, and build muscles larger than a man not using steroids. Many of these men are also taking other illegal drugs to combat some of the negative side effects of taking steroids. In the long run, it's not a very healthy lifestyle. Without repeating myself, and without bitterness, I just explained the first 30 pages of the book. The rest of the book is quite good. Natural bodybuilding requires years of effort, exercise, rest, and proper diet. The author explains the best way to go about building a naturally muscular physique. You will not get as big as a gorilla. But, you may be able to build a physique that looks similar to the statues of ancient Greek warriors and athletes. Because each person is different, he encourages experimentation with work-out routines, intensity levels, and nutrition. He puts a great deal of emphasis on making the squat a central part of one's workout routine. Squats are a great muscle building exercise. Squats naturally increase testosterone production. This exercise will help a man pack on muscle all over his body. Want to increase your bench press or build bigger arms? Well, in addition to upper-body work, make sure you are going all out on the squat! An excellent book!

[Keith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have a personal philosophy about bodybuilding that I have followed since I read this book while in the Marines, shortly after my combat deployment. It revolves around the the principles of Intensity, Recovery, and Consistency. I was subconsciously following that mantra while in Iraq when I lifted weights in my spare time, and slept like a baby afterward, pounding high protein, high calorie, high vitamin MRE rations in between and drinking an oil barrel worth of water a month in the scorching, unforgiving, inhospitable desert sun.

While that experience transformed my body from 155 lbs. of wiry calisthenics strength to 180 lbs. of lean muscle in only five months, I still hadn’t mentally internalized the theory of bodybuilding. Which, at this point is proven science: Building muscle through weightlifting and bodybuilding exercises requires three non-negotiable actions by the athlete. The factors can be named, simply speaking:

1) Intensity. This is how hard you lift and for how long - how much weight, how many repetitions, how many sets you have in a workout and how close you are to achieving total muscular failure. Exercise selection is a variable, as in what routine you follow, but effort is the prime factor of training Intensity. Muscles must be worked hard enough to cause damage to the individual fibers. The book teaches a philosophy that it is better to add weight very gradually over time (even with tiny 1 lb. increments per workout) than to max out each session, which is how many people burn out and abandon lifting altogether. “No pain, no gain” is true to an extent, but “all pain, all the time” is a recipe for injury and disaster. If you’re on steroids AND are genetically blessed, this can be mitigated to an extent, but this book is written for the genetically typical, not the guy who can deadlift a Volkswagen at age fifteen.

2) Recovery. This is how well one recovers from the intense workouts. Above all this means quality of nutrition and sleep, while having a lifestyle that is conducive to thieve periods of muscle building. Muscle grows while the body is at rest, after it is damaged by the intensity of applied efforts. So if you have a 12 hour a day job, or are a single parent of small children, have a stressful lifestyle, etc., give even more time and attention to your sleep and nutrition than typical before training again. This is even more important if you are not genetically blessed with mesomorphic qualities.

3) Consistency. This means repeating #1 and #2 not just for a month to “look good for the beach” or “fit in my wedding dress” but training Intense and allowing for Recovery over, and over, and OVER again for weeks, to months, seasons, years, decades, and your whole lifetime. Rome and Greece wasn’t built in a day and neither were her statues of the Gods, which you’re only going to look like when you are old if you keep this up consistently as a lifestyle, not a trend.

I hope this helps understand, broadly speaking, the key principles of this classic book. It certainly changed my life and I hope it will for you, too.

[Jaroslav Tuček · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've actually picked this book up only after reading Beyond Brawn - there is quite a bit of redundancy between the two books and if you are going to read just one, then you're probably better off choosing Beyond Brawn. However, I'd still recommend reading both (and other McRobert's books besides) - this is first-rate advice for natural strength-training athletes and pretty much guaranteed to help you in realizing your potential.

[Flexembig]

The best book in the Stuart McRobert series....under this book, I went from 120 to 230 in 17 years. Great book....the one I have is dogeared from constant reading.

[Shane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Taught me most of what I know about weight lifting.

[Branden · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book back in 1994, and it has formed the foundation for 20 years of lifting. If you are a genetic hardgainer (like I am), I consider it a must-read.

[Antonio · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Best

Simply the best source of natural bodybuilding advice out there! This is the book I wish I had as a teenager

[Stan Blackburn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is written for natural trainees looking to get bigger and stronger without steriods. Unfortunately, the online fitness space is dominated by "enhanced" athletes promoting workouts that do not apply to natural lifters, thus resulting in frustration and discouragement. McRobert was on to this 32 years ago when he penned the first version of 'Brawn.' The book I read is the revised version written in 2000. It is a solid text with advice that opposes the norm -- train less frequently, train with intensity, and use less volume. It is not, however, Mike Mentzer/Arthur Jones HIT/Heavy Duty training. Abbreviated training is similar but different; it is more effective and practical in its structure and concepts. I am, therefore, taking the principles of McRobert's text and applying them to a progressive overload program I use. There are a few ideas that he covers in the text that, although not horrible, are outdated and lack refection on current scientific data. But current exercise science can be biased and the parameters/results skewed. Sometimes the best science is personal experience informed by the current literature. I recommend this book for natural lifters interested in the abbreviated training model.

[Jesse Bradstreet · Rating 3 out of 5]

6/10

Despite the 2011 update, Stuart McRobert's classic text on bodybuilding reads very much like the 90s book it is and has a lot of outdated information; also like other books I've read on the subject, the author has as much science in here as he does personal opinion, and is in some ways stuck in his ways. Not to mention it's pretty repetitive. Despite all this, it had some interesting ways to look at things and provides a good introduction to the more bodybuilding side of strength training.

[Guven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Author makes it clear from the start that his intention is to address drug free average joes (or so called hard-gainers) and he talks mostly out of self experience and gives clear dos and don'ts on exercises, cycling, intensity variation. It's a great read for beginners

[Tom Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book, I just wish the author had been more detailed in the nutrition section of the book

[Biblioworm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Очень нудное начало, в котором автор 100500 раз повторил про использование элитными спортсменами анаболиков, а также что у них куча времени на тренировки и куча денег на хорошее питание. Далее в книги также продолжает звучать этот лейтмотив, причем только в одном месте он упоминает о том, что анаболики вредны для здоровья. В итоге выглядит как реклама анаболиков, и что данная книга нужна только тем нищенствующим элементам, у кого недостаточно денег на полноценный тренинг и стероиды.

Если же отбросить это, то книга отличная.
Книге вроде бы не хватает научной обоснованности - автор вообще не ссылается ни на какие источники, пишет исключительно с точки зрения личного опыта. Что, конечно, выглядит неубедительно - все люди разные. Но практически все изложенное в книге, потом было подтверждено и исследованиями (книге почти 25 лет).

Основные мысли автора, очень многословно и много раз повторенные
- Нарастите массу, массивные мышцы, и только потом работайте над нюансами. Глупо пытаться нарастить бицепс, пока у вас впалая грудь.
- Для наращивания массы ничего лучше трех базовых упражнение (жим, становая, приседы) не придумано
- Разнообразьте тренировки, мышцы перестают откликаться при однообразии тренировок.
Делайте циклы (годовой и вложенные одно-трех месячные, с откатом от достигнутого на 15%-20% и как бы проскакиванием с ускорением к очередному достижению).
Меняйте число повторов (но никогда не делайте менее 3-5 повторов, очень велик риск травмы с таким весом). Меняйте скорость движений, интервалы отдыха, технику выполнения - что угодно.
- Отдых не менее важен, чем работа в зале - без периода отдыха мышцы не растут.
- Считайте калории, следите за своими объемами и весом, регулируйте на основании этого диету. Нудно, но без этого не обойтись, пока не научитесь в уме это оценивать.
- Пищевые добавки и питательные смеси полезны, но натуральная пища еще полезнее.
- Реально оценивайте свои цели - четко поймите, что вы не профессионал, установите достижимые цели.

В книге также достаточно толково описаны базовые упражнения, но в том экземпляре, что я читал, не было картинок, и это делает почти невозможным восприятие ряда советов.

[BeerDiablo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Obsessed with being skinny since youth, I realized that the muscle-bound hulks of this world are drug dependent.

This book gives you a lot to go by but remember - you are damned by your genetics.

Get detail oriented and disciplined and you can achieve SOME results.

[Mycroft Webb · Rating 4 out of 5]

No nonsense information and routines on drug-free weight training. Gives ordinary people good guides on how to get the most out of your genetic lot.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

a little dated, but a good read!

[A Jolly]

Suggested to me by Skyler Tanner @con

[Brett's Books · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great introduction to achievable body building and strength training. Have read and read it.

[Fred · Rating 5 out of 5]

First Rate.