It had to be a holy book I thought. I remember being probably 7 or 8 (I really can’t remember but young) staring at this giant hardcover tome in my dad’s closet. He never really read and the only other big sized book we had around was a Bible hence my 8 (or whatever) year old’s logic. I remember looking through it at the giant’s contained within and wondering what I had to do to acquire such power. I remember my dad had an entire rack complete with cables and everything set up downstairs in the basement and me asking probably once a week when I could start training with him.
He’d go down and workout every day after unloading railroad cars all day at work and I’d hang out in there with him in that freezing cold basement, some great memories. But anyways he’s always say not until I hit puberty. So I’d go and look through the book read some passages I didn’t understand and stare at awe at the muscles of the men in the book, eager to be able to build some of my own. I remember kids from the neighborhood who were older would come over and test their strength and I was jealous knowing that with the secrets contained in the book I could soon beat them all. Hence my introduction To Arnold’s New Encyclopedia Of Modern Bodybuilding.
The Bible Of Aesthetics
The New Encyclopedia Of Modern Bodybuilding is to looking studly what starting strength is to basic movement patterns and what 5/3/1 is to strength. This book is thick and filled to the brim with old school muscle building knowledge. To be frank it’s still the best resources out there on developing an aesthetic good looking physique that men admire and women lust after while also developing strength and overall athletic ability at the same time. The book covers everything from the history of bodybuilding (up to the time of publishing), the basics of bodybuilding, muscle hypertrophy, fat loss, and the like, as well as mental tips, picking the right gym, and a whole hell of a lot more.
Like the title says it’s an encyclopedia and it earns that name. The encyclopedia is divided into 5 books (or sections). They are as follows book one – introduction to bodybuilding. Book two – training programs. Book three – body part exercises. Book four – competition. Book five – health, nutrition, and diet. The book itself comes in at 791 pages not including the index. Of course it’s filled with plenty of illustrations. This is one of the few books of this type that I’ve actually read cover to cover. Of course getting a head start when you’re 8 doesn’t hurt either.
Bodybuilding Knowledge
While the books/sections on the history of bodybuilding as well as competition bodybuilding are certainly interesting they are not the reason that I love this book so much and am writing a review on it. It’s the actual training and diet advice that is so great. Much better than you’ll get paying some overpriced internet guru or trainer to give you and much more effective as well. Arnold lays out everything from beginner to advanced training and diets to accompany each stage. He talks about how much protein you need (more than most get), why carbohydrates are essential (if you actually want to build appreciable muscle), and some good fats to have (just about the only part that’s slightly outdated).
Upon adopting this diet (with modification to the fats) I was able to put on a good 30 lbs of muscle from my starting point (at which I was already lifting and playing sports and had built up some appreciable muscle already). Of course the diet wasn’t the only thing that mattered the training had just as much of an effect. I went from 3/4 day a week strength training to 6 day a week volume workouts. Had lots of people tell me I was going to “overtrain” but unless over training means adding muscle week to week it never happened. I used the templates from this book and have come back to them time and time again. And frankly there’s still stuff in this book I have yet to get to but am looking forward to.
Getting The Most Out Of Your Muscles
Most people have a simplistic idea that simply getting stronger will get them bigger muscles and while there is something to this, that’s not the best way to train for aesthetics. This book teaches you all the ins and outs of using different angles, going for the dreaded “pump” and why to do so, as well as the importance of using high volume or going to failure to get the muscle to respond. Simply getting stronger (especially when it’s neural gains from doing the same movement pattern over and over again) isn’t the end all be all (or even the most effective method) to getting the physique that you want.
Yes, strength plays a role, especially in the beginning. But there are things like volume, failure, and diet that matter far more for an aesthetic physique. Arnold also covers hitting the muscle from multiple angles and how to get the most out of every exercise and every muscle fiber. He talks about critical things like the mind muscle connection and feeling the muscles work with each and every rep. Just about every exercise you can think about is demonstrated in the book and shown how to do properly. Counting right now there is 40 exercises for the upper arms alone (and I may have missed one or two). There are also specialized programs for every body part.
The New Encyclopedia Of Modern Bodybuilding
As I’ve talked about more and more I think aesthetics are more important than having “gym strength”. I think you’re much better off weight training and eating for aesthetics and then doing combat training for applicable strength and body movement. This book provides you all you need to know about the former. If you want to walk down the street breaking the girl’s necks then this is the book for you. As a side note it also works great for chicks so if you have a wife/serious girlfriend/sub you can get her on the program as well and y’all can get aesthetic together. God knows there are enough ugly inferior people in this world. Like I stated above this is the bible of aesthetics.
