Frédéric Delavier is a gifted artist with an exceptional knowledge of human anatomy. He studied morphology and anatomy for five years at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and studied dissection for three years at the Paris Faculté de Médecine.
The former editor in chief of the French magazine PowerMag, Delavier is currently a journalist for the French magazine Le Monde du Muscle and a contributor to several other muscle publications, including Men's Health Germany. He is the author of the best-selling Strength Training Anatomy and Women’s Strength Training Anatomy.
Delavier won the French powerlifting title in 1988 and makes annual presentations on the sport applications of biomechanics at conferences in Switzerland. His teaching efforts have earned him the Grand Prix de Techniques et de Pédagogie Sportive. Delavier lives in Paris, France.
Absolutely brilliant. These are the best training guides for beginners through to professionals. The information is simple, thourogh and relevant. I have been doing strength training for 15 years. I still refer back to this book regularly and always make significant gains when I put the information specific to me into practice. After a two year break from the gym, I started back with these books and after twelve months of training I am already benching freeweight of 20 kilo (50 pound) MORE than my bodyweight without any structural issues. And I'm a girl!
This is a major addition to the original Strength Training Anatomy book. This book is split into three parts. Part 1 is a pretty short part devoted to advanced techniques, while Part 2 is all about the exercises and the physiology behind the exercises. This is not a how to book, but it does a very good job of illustrating the exercises and the major muscle groups being trained through fantastic color photographs and detailed drawings of the muscles affected in cut away views etc. Part 3 is a short section on how to strengthen weak areas.
The book is very much concentrated on the musclehead kind of exercises, i.e. it does not really address anything that has anything to do with working out muscle groups in conjunction with one another. The emphasis is on building up individual muscles and obtaining the lean body builder look and mass. Definition is the key.
I wish that the authors would go into detail for the Olympic weight exercises, and show how the various muscle groups work in conjunctions and where one muscle group takes over from another and where the chain of muscular transfer happens. But that was never the intent of the series. It was to show how each large muscle group works, how to build them up and give the reader an idea as to how it all works.
This is an admirable book, it must have taken an immense effort to represent all the exercises and muscles in pictorial form. The book is incredibly thorough and quite informative for those who wants to understanding what they are doing without going headlong into the complete physiological and bio-mechanical studies.
Interesting, informative, good illustrations, I don't agree with a lot of the variations they offer, as they tend to put the body in a compromised position. Would not recommend for anyone with an injury, but for anyone with healthy joints and muscles it's a fantastic reference.
A pet peeve of mine is when exercise books don't cite their sources or connect their information to actual research. This book is one of the few that actually does. There's so much research out there I don't see why it isn't used more in popular press books.