Arnold's Bodybuilding for Men [Paperback]

Great place to start. Also get the Encyclopedia by Arnold and Education of a Bodybuilder. It's a really scientific sport so you'll spend lots on books if you're serious.

Arnold and Franco Columbu don't make it abundantly clear but their training is essentially passed on pyramiding (for barbells)/running the rack (for dumbbells) (see the book Designing Resistance Training Programs for an indepth explanation) and drop sets/pump sets, something Arnold called the "add-weight training principle" in Education of a bodybuilder and I've found that doing a full pyramid with as little as 2.5kg add ons per set to be the best intensifier - better than forced reps, negative reps you name it! Read the bench press page of the book "Winning bodybuilding" by Franco too. Arnold favoured a 12,10,8,8,6,6 pyramid, although personally I do a 20,15,12,10,8,6,5,4,3,2,1 then drop set back to 15 ending up with no weight on the bar. Read the page in Mr Olympia's Muscle Mastery on rep schemes which explains why. 12-15 reps builds muscle endurance, 8-10 reps builds muscle mass and 1-6 reps (i.e. heavy weights) builds strength. I can't remember who did the original science experiement on this, maybe DeLorme and Watkins. Therefore if you pyramid you build endurance, muscle size AND strength and you will get a superior "pump" and the accompanying "runner's high".

As this is a starter book, may I suggest some additional reading: Mike Mentzer (anything he's written), Stuart McRobert (especially Brawn and Beyond Brawn), Designing Progressive Resistance Training (I'd particularly stress getting this one), Nautilus Body Building Handbook, Three more reps (all three books), Mr Olympia's Muscle Mastery, Muscles: Testing and Function, Keys to the Inner Universe, Totalee Awesome, Scrawny to Brawny, One More Rep!, Ronnie Coleman Hardcore and anything by Franco Columbo (e.g. Winning Bodybuilding/Coming on Strong), Dorian Yates Warrior Story.

That should pretty much take you up to intermediate/advanced in terms of knowledge.

A drawback of the book in this review however, is that it doesn't descriminate between routines. Be of particular caution, some routines are by far more valuable than others. See Stuart McRobert in Brawn for an explanation of this. You can't have lunges at an equal value to squats, the barbell curl at an equal value to the bench press or the dip to an equal value to deadlifts or bent over rows, or laterals at an equal value to shrugs, so be particularly careful when designing an exercise routine that you favour compound over isolation exercises.

Also Arnold was on steroids and he favours a Mon-Thurs, Tues-Fri split (i.e. four days a week) which is far TOO MUCH training volume to anyone not on steroids. Your muscles will still be far too sore to train this much (see Brawn and Beyond Brawn for more on this - when you get in the gym you will agree with this conclusion). Only some muscles can be trained more often like shoulders/biceps/calfs.

Furthermore no info is really supplied on diet. Read the chapter on diet in Brawn by McRobert on the importance of eggs, rice, fish, and milk as the building blocks of any resistance training diet.

Lastly it doesn't make it abundently clear of the importance of small weights (0.25kg. 0.5kg, 1.25kg and 2.5kg weights). This is something you should get hold of in order to add small amounts of weight to the bar to break through sticking points and in order to pyramid more effectively.

I've used the method in this book for several years, starting at age 47, I'm now 52, and it changed my life, made me stronger, healthier and more sucessful. Highly, highly recommended. There's a lot to learn but when you do it completely for awhile, and then you see others coming into the gym doing their routines, you really see the superiority of this method. It is totally thought out and very beneficial for both men and women. I have started my daughter using it, and she has seen the same great results. Kudos to the master. I could lose his movies, but NOT this book!

If you've always wanted to have a physique to die for, who better to help you along the way than the original action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger?!?!?!?! This book succeeds where so many others have failed. Rather than having an unkown instructor offering his pearls of wisdom on the hobby of body building you can be safe in the knowledge that you are using tried and tested workouts from the legend himself. This book is a must read for any amateur bodybuilders or die hard Arnie fans. Quite honestly this book is fantastic, it's about as close as you can get having Arnie right there by your side as your personal trainer. Buy NOW!!!