The Poliquin Principles: Successful Methods for Strength and Mass Development

Clearly aimed at the serious bodybuilder, with information that would also be valuable to serious weight trainers and trainees, this book is not suitable as introductory material for someone who hasn't been weight training (and reading about training) for a while.The focus of the book is on how to plan training programs more than on particular exercises or presenting set plans.For an experienced bodybuilder who wants to better scientifically optimize his or her training program, there is a great deal of good information here summarized in a very accessible and readable form. I give it five stars because I think it is great for this audience -- it might just be the most accessible of the most scientific.I think Poliquin's credentials as a strength coach give him authority. In trying to base everything on science, it would have been nice to have more in-depth discussion of the studies his conclutions are based on, or at least to provide citations. By not doing so, he opens himself to the same kind of ridicule he lays out in this book on less scientifically-based programs and experts.

I generally think this is a great book, but here is the caveat: I agree with others who wrote that the low quality of the photos, low paper quality, and poor editing are not in line with the high price. I would also like to see more example routines.Having said that, buy this book and carefully sift through it. It does contain a wealth of info that can be incorporated into any type of routine depending on your training goals. Poliquin clearly knows his stuff, but very obviously needed a better editor and a better photographer. This book would benefit from clearer pictures to go along with the explanations, and the author assumes too much previous knowledge regarding exercises. Some that he mentioned were totally unfamiliar to me, yet there weren't photos of many exercises to illustrate just what the heck he's talking about.The real beauty of this book is in the myriad ways to alter your own training regimen, even in small ways, to shake up and improve your training.Hopefully this book's weaknesses will be addressed in his newest book, which I have yet to read.

There's so much insights in this book. I found myself highlighting almost the entire book because there's so much useful information that can be readily applied. One example is when Mr. Poliquin talks about the benefits of tempo in a lift and how it can produce different results depending on how long it takes to complete the two.He gives endless examples of workouts. That by itself is enough.

A very good book, well written with a lot of knowledge. I would have given it 5 stars but he wasn't very specific about nutrition, more interested in plugging his product's. All in all a good value for any bodybuilder from novice on up.

This is a Bible in the world of strength training and fitness. If you are lucky enough to purchase this book, rare as it is, congratulations. You are going to learn training principles that'll last and endure through fitness fad after fitness fad. Mr. Poliquin is a master.

I've weight trained most of my life, and this book was a game changer for me. Charles is the foremost expert on strength training, and this book delivers concise instructions for lifters of all levels. I've bought many other books, and the detailed information makes this book stand head and shoulders above the others

Where have you been my whole training life? This book gave me a ridiculous amount of helpful information that I was able to apply to my routine and I saw crazy fast results!

This book is priceless and a must have for the bodybuilder. Some of the editing is bad, such as pull ups and chinsare described two different ways in text and diagrams. Poliquin has helped me build a better body.

I've heard some negative things about Poliquin, recently, making outrageous claims and so forth. I can't speak to that but I can say that he was definitely in his right mind at the time this was published. It's a great book, heavily grounded in science and has dated rather well because the concepts were cutting edge at the time. I don't agree with everything he says, however. For example, for advanced trainees he recommends extremely heavy, low rep training for the abs(for multiple sets to provide the necessary volume for hypertrophy)- his reasoning being that they are predominantly fast twitch. Based on what I've read, this is true but only by a SLIGHT margin. Therefore, why not just cycle rep ranges between moderately heavy and light to ensure fatigue of both the fast twitch and slow twitch motor units? Even if a trainee stuck to light ranges for the abs, compound movements such as squats would force them into use as stabilizers under heavy loads. History shows us this combination works for strong, well-developed abs: Look at classic bodybuilders.I also don't particularly care for his personal attacks on Joe Weider, Arthur Jones and Mike Mentzer. In the case of Jones and Mentzer, I'm not a big believer in the HIT style of bodybuilding(nor am I a big believer in extremely high volume- middle of the road is best) so I don't mind Poliquin attacking the science behind it. He takes it beyond, however, into the personal domain and that's not cool. As far as Weider is concerned, Poliquin seems to believe Joe claimed to invent every Weider training principle. No!!! He credited himself for cataloguing the methods, which he did, under 'The Weider System'.In spite of his opinions of other gurus, this book deserves no less than 5 stars for the overall content.