Bigger, Stronger Arms - the Poliquin Way Paperback – January 1, 2010

I have purchased two copies of this book -- one as a gift the expensive way through Amazon and a much cheaper way from Charles Poliquin's website: [...] ---$12.95 plus shipping.That said, I have three books that I consider 5-star when it comes to learning what their is to know about building arms with weight training. The first is TARGET BODYBUILDING by Per Tesch. There are three muscles in the upper arm -- the Biceps brachii, the Brachialis, and the Triceps brachii. The Biceps has two heads and the Triceps has three heads. There are several popular exercises for each muscle, but not every exercise taxes all the heads equally. Several exercises have little efffect on one or more of the heads. TARGET BODYBUILDING uses MRI's to identify how much each head is affected by each exercise. In this way one can select exercises that will ensure complete development as well as reducing the number of redundant exercises. TARGET BODYBUILDING is no longer in print, but ,thanks to Amazon, used copies can be acquired at bargain prices.Here are some terms used in titles of the 57 sections which Poliquin uses to describe the 57 methods:goals, technique, loading parameters,methods, nutrition, support, dumbbell work, agonist/antagonist, most effective exercises first, speed of Biceps brachii exercises, seated vs. standing exercises, cocking your wrist, thick bar training, place for unilateral training, Brachialis training, feeling an exercise, "most bang for yor buck exercises", body position, speed of contraction, tempo of eccentric contractions, last slow rep trick, cluster training, rest intervals, back-off set, modifeid Hepburn method, strength building, chin-ups, 100-rep method, pre-exhaustion, post-exhaustion, twice a day, lateral head of triceps, triceps mass routine, Jachere arm training, functional isometrics, post tetanic facilitation [ AKA Post Activation Potentiation or PAP], F/I supersets, one day cure, isometric stops, uni-angular tri-set variation, pre-workout stack, BCAA's, Yin stack, post workout recovery, verify neck alignment, verify soft-tissue alignment, trap development, a quick way to monitor overtraining, how to train your grip, role of Olympic lifting, forearm training, OTC compound for quicker recovery, partial range training. I have shortened, paraphrased, and in other ways altered some of the titles of the section headings so as not to give too much away, but you can see Poliquin covers a lot of ground -- enough to provide a lot of variety for several months/years of arm training. The book itself is printed on high quality glossy paper and there is an abundance of color photos that illustrate how to perform the exercises, some of the special equipment he mentions, and so on.Be warned that much of this is book is suitable for advanced trainees. Most beginners would be ill-advised not to jump into many of the advanced techniques although certainly topics such as exercise tempo are applicable to all trainees.Not everyone agrees with Charles Poliquin, I came across a commentary/response to Poliquin by Bret Contreras on youtube. My advice in the matters of disagreement between gurus is to be as amused as possible and if you can come away with what you think is a more informed point of view, that's blessing.One thing I always look for in weight training manuals are precautions to avoid injury and the possibility of being injured or killed by advice within the book. I wish that Poliquin had given more advice on avoiding exercises that conflict with one's individual anatomy. Many people are simply not constructed for doing parallel bar dips and parallel bar dips can stretch the shoulder capsule into what my kinesiology professor called "the red zone" -- red meaning danger.For precautions on arm exercises I like better DELAVIER'S ANATOMY FOR BIGGER, STRONGER ARMS by Frederic Delavier. The three books I have mentioned comprise a good library for anyone interested in weight training with the goal of getting bigger arms. Tesch's book would be the one I would consider a "must have".Oh, and me -- I'm a geezer for sure, but I have done one-arm chin-ups and six parallel bar dips with 140 LBS of added weight. I just have not done them lately is all.

After over 40 years of significant training and size, I was able to implement the techniques Charles discusses in his book, and I can already see results! Some new ideas, some I knew about but was not implementing to the fullest, and now with Charles insights I am. I recommend this book to any one who seriously wants to build bigger/stronger arms effectively!