Bodyweight Strength Training Anatomy

Preface:Goes over the inspiration behind writing the book and a brief layout of the book, with exercise difficulty ratings. Acknowledgments: Chapter 1: This section goes over the difference between pulling exercises and pushing exercises as well as more on the inspiration behind the book. This includes a section on Safety. Chapter 2: Goes over arms, it illustrates the muscles in the arms as well as includes a written section the muscles and what each one is used for. This section includes 5 main exercises and 4 variations. Chapter 3:Neck: has 3 exercises, 2 main and 1 variation. There are 5 shoulder exercises and 1 variation. Chapter 4:Chest, include 8main exercises and 9 variations Chapter 5:Core. includes 16 main exercises and 17 variations Chapter 6: Back 7 main exercises and 8 variations Chapter 7:Thighs 18 main exercises and 24 variations Chapter 8: Glutes, 6 main exercises with 8 variations Chapter 9:Calfs 3 main exercise with 2 variations Chapter 10: Goes over Metabolic training, HIIT, Metabolic Resistance Training and Whole-Body Exercises.10 main exercises are given with 2 variations. Chapter 11: Is all about your training regimen. It goes over, using personal feedback on your program as well as body awareness. How to have a healthy balance between muscles worked for a good regimen. It includes a table with the exercise page number and what kind of exercise it is labelled as, so you can make sure you are getting a balanced workout. Then the program goes into training goals. Next comes definitions of the workout world. Split, Frequency, Volume, Intensity, Intensiveness, Density, Tempo and periodization. At the end there are sample routines and a section on training for fat loss. About the author Each chapter includes written section on how to execute the movement. Muscles involved. Exercise notes. Which help you perform the exercise with excellent posture and variations. The beginning section in each chapter has a written section explaining what particular muscles help make up the body part, the functions the muscles serve, how they are used in everyday life (How they benefit us) and how they work in tandem with nearby muscles. Which is great because if you are not using your muscles correctly you can over exert another area resulting in injury. This book lets you know which ones should be used and allows you to strengthen them and prevent overuse. Hands down this is one of my favorite books on my Calisthenics journey. Everything was well explained and concise. The only thing I had been focused on was knee's. I think too many books leave this vital component of body building out and it is very important to have healthy knees. Other than that no complaint. The illustrations are well done, I can clearly see how the exercise is to be performed. I understand the muscles utilized and I have variations to progress too. You get a section on planning your workout that focuses on training goals, sample workout regimens, and overall how to create a workout. This book is definitely a must have book for those new to calisthenics of body weight training.

I own Bodyweight Strength Training Anatomy by Bret Contreras, You are Your Own Gym by Mark Lauren, and Your Body is Your Barbell by BJ Gaddour. This review refers to the Kindle versions of each book. I would recommend buying either the Contreras or Gaddour book; however, I feel the Lauren book is not worth buying unless you are collecting books on the subject. I would actually recommend buying both the Contreras and Gaddour books as they complement each other well. Neither book is perfect, but together they cover the topic very thoroughly. This review covers the following elements: Exercises: Number and variety of exercises. Programming: The sample routines given in the book as well as basic templates for building your own programs. Progressions: Making a particular exercise easier or more difficult so a person of any level can benefit from the exercise as well as allowing progression in strength and ability. Educational value: How well the book teaches the reader to understand how the body works and how the exercises work each part of your body. User friendliness: How easy it is to use the Kindle book. Exercises: All three books provide a large variety of exercises, however Contreras is the best here. My problem with the Lauren book is that it is not much more than an encyclopedia of exercises and doesn't do a good job of explaining why you should be doing any particular exercise. Also, he gives many of the exercises goofy, unwieldy names that sometimes don't help you understand what the move actually is. Gaddour only provides major compound movements and skips the core and isolation exercises. On the other hand, Contreras covers exercises for the arms, core, glutes and even the neck. Gaddour and Contreras both cover metabolic training and full-body exercises. Gaddour gets extra credit for an excellent chapter devoted to burpee variations, culminating in the Rolling Pistol Squat (a backward, one-leg burpee). In my opinion, this chapter is worth the price of the book (yes, I like burpees). Programming: The Contreras book is the best in terms of programming. He gives you workout templates and suggestions for what exercises to use. The explanations of each exercise in the book will help you decide what exercises to select. He also provides sample “metabolic” (HIIT and MRT) workouts. The Gaddour and Lauren books only give you set routines to follow without much flexibility. However, the Gaddour book is better because he presents you with various styles of routines, such as for maximum fat loss, maximum strength, and so on. The Lauren book has little variety in the routines. Progressions: Gaddour is definitely the big winner here. In fact, I think this is the biggest strength of his book. He gives you eight basic types of exercises. With each exercise, he gives you five levels of difficulty. Within each level he provides three “microregressions” and three “microprogressions” that allow you to fine tune the exercise as appropriate for your skill level. Anyone who's ever engaged in strength training knows how helpful it is to progress in small increments. Contreras also gives examples of progressions and regressions, but not with the detail found in the Gaddour book. Lauren is weakest here. To be fair, he does give ideas on how to make an exercise more difficult, just not as well as the other two. Educational value: The only area where the Contreras book is lacking in educational value compared to the others is regarding nutrition. Lauren and Gaddour both cover nutrition to some extent, whereas Contreras doesn't mention it. The Gaddour and Lauren books both have chapters devoted to exercise nutrition, the former written by a PhD from Pennsylvania State University. Contreras' muscle diagrams are outstanding and they really allow the reader to understand how the body works and how the muscles are being used. He breaks it down by primary and secondary muscles worked. I was surprised to learn how many upper-body movements involve the trapezius, for example. Contreras also does a good job explaining training variables such as intensity, density, and periodization. Lauren discusses these topics to a lesser extent. User friendliness: Lauren is last is this category. The book is laid out poorly. Although the exercises are organized by body part, the Kindle book does not provide links to the separate sections, as in the Gaddour and Contreras books. Lauren has an alphabetic index at the end but, particularly with the odd names he gives the exercises, it's difficult to find exercises for specific body parts. For example, if you want to find three exercises to work your thighs, you will have to go to the non-indexed Exercises section and flip through the pages until you get to what you want. This is a major headache on a Kindle. Contreras and Gaddour both provide extensive hyperlinking to get to where you need to go in the book. Contreras provides links organized by body part and specific exercises – he does the best job here. Contreras strengths: Muscle diagrams Isolation exercises (especially glutes) Customizable routines Most user-friendly Kindle version Contreras weaknesses: No discussion of nutrition Gaddour strengths: Progressions Burpees chapter Nutrition chapter Gaddour weaknesses: No specific core exercises No isolation exercises Lauren strengths: Chapter on using household items to workout can be useful Lauren weaknesses: Poor Kindle formatting No full-body or metabolic training exercises No discussion of body mechanics If I had to recommend only one of these books, Contreras would win by a nose, with Gaddour a close second. This was a tough choice as they are both excellent books, but going by the “teach a man to fish” concept I think Contreras does a better job of explaining things such that you can design your own workout programs rather than merely following what someone else has shown you. That said, I highly recommend buying both of these books as each complements the other quite well. Combined, they're nearly perfect. 03-09-16 Update: I would like to add that if you already own the print edition of the book Amazon will sell you the Kindle version for only $2.99.

This is a review of 3 bodyweight exercise books (paperback editions): "Your Body Is Your Barbell" by BJ Gaddour, "You Are Your Own Gym" by Mark Lauren and "Bodyweight Strength Training Anatomy" by Bret Contreras. These reviews are coming from my perspective of a 44 year old man who decided I needed to lose some weight and just get in a little bit better overall shape. After doing my research I decided to focus on bodyweight exercises for their simplicity, efficiency and effectiveness. Bodyweight exercises require minimal equipment, allow you to work many muscles at once (compound exercises), and use motions that are natural body movements unlike a lot of gym machines. All 3 of these books contain basic information on exercises, exercise plans and how to make each exercise easier or more difficult. The ability to change the difficulty level of each exercise (progressions or regressions) will fine tune an exercise to your current particular ability and allow you to keep challenging your body. Examples of bodyweight exercises can also be found on YouTube for further clarification. Of these 3 books I think that "Your Body Is Your Barbell" by BJ Gaddour (let's refer to it as 'Barbell' for short) is the clear standout. If you are brand new to exercising or just want a solid foundation of the basics this is the book to get. 'Barbell' is a complete *program* clearly organized and aimed at raw beginners but contains enough to still challenge intermediate athletes. The superior organization and explanations are no doubt due to the resources of Men's Health magazine which has been writing about these types of exercises for quite a while. Its purpose is not to overwhelm the reader with all the different bodyweight exercises you can do, but to only focus on the minimum exercises that give the best overall results in the shortest amount of time. It explains the benefits of bodyweight training in a very clear and convincing manner, has a short easy-to-understand section on simple nutrition, and gives good clear information about general fitness. It has excellent photographs of exercises, a readable format and precise guidelines and instructions for what a beginner needs to do and focuses on only 8 basic bodyweight exercises to learn (you ultimately only need to choose 4). The 8 exercises are broken down into 4 movement categories (2 exercises per category that you can pick from). The 4 movement categories are upper body (pushing or pulling) and lower body (hip dominant or knee dominant). The 2 upper body *pushing* exercises are the pushup and handstand pushup, the 2 upper body *pulling* exercises are the row and the pullup. The 2 lower body hip dominant exercises are the hip hinge and the hip thrust, the 2 lower body knee dominant exercises are the deep squat and the single-leg squat. Each of the 8 exercises has its own chapter with 5 different difficulty levels, each with additional progressions and regressions to suit your current ability. The different levels of exercises start with complete beginners, who may be considerably overweight and never exercised a day in their life, to more difficult levels that in some cases might only be completed by Olympic athletes. Clearly the emphasis of the book is on complete beginners to intermediates who want maximum benefits with the shortest amount of time invested. The next book is "You Are Your Own Gym" by Mark Lauren (let's call it 'Gym' for short). The book begins with some background on the author's military training and his success in restructuring military exercise training routines that produced better results in much less time than traditional methods. He has an interesting section on the superiority of strength training to cardiovascular training and the nutrition chapter is very well written. There is some other good general information on strength training before introducing the exercise portion of the book. The exercises are organized by regions of the body and include descriptions, photos and variations (progressions and regressions) to suit your current physical conditioning. There are several exercise plans included based on your general level of fitness, from very basic to elite athletes. There are only a few photos of each exercise by necessity and the exercise plans require beginners to learn multiple different exercises instead of mastering a few and working in small progressions to increase difficulty. Unfortunately there is little guidance as to which exercises you should learn first and which will give you the most benefit for your time and effort. The third book is "Bodyweight Strength Training Anatomy" by Bret Contreras (let's call it 'Anatomy' for short). This book is a collection of bodyweight exercises organized by muscle region (arms, chest, back, glutes, etc.). Each exercise is beautifully illustrated to show the specific muscles involved. The muscles of each exercise are colored differently to indicate whether they are used primarily or secondarily in the exercise. The book includes muscle regions that the other two books leave out, such as the neck, and does a decent job of indicating many different exercises for a particular region, with variations that are easier or harder. Notes on the particular exercises are helpful as is the general descriptions of each muscle region. The book includes some brief general information aimed at beginners but this book is really for intermediate and advanced users. It seems to be more about bodybuilding than overall general fitness. 'Anatomy' has the same problem as the previous book 'Gym' in that it offers too many options and the suggested workout routines do not focus on general compound exercises but rather require mastering a wide variety of movements. This book is still a useful reference for people that already have a basic knowledge of bodyweight training and are perhaps looking for new techniques or specific information about what exercises target which exact muscles. In my opinion, beginners need a clear, simple path to follow and "Your Body Is Your Barbell" by BJ Gaddour offers exactly what I needed and nothing which I didn’t to get in the best overall physical shape with a minimum investment of time and money.

Bret Contreras has produced an amazing addition to the rapidly growing body of literature on body weight strength and athletic training. Bret has included data on muscles involved in each of the exercises he describes. This is data I have not seen in anywhere close to this detail and accuracy elsewhere. Scattered throughout the book are golden nuggets of wisdom on body weight training, and training in general. These are all of the most common sense and readily applicable nature. Warnings as to over use and over training are gently inserted, not to scare, but to keep the user of this book on the right path. There is a brief section on nutrition that makes sense (eat natural foods, leaning protein heavy, but include vegetables and fruits, balancing with a few carbs. That's it). Bret does not push Paleo, either the original or Rob Wolff's version, but clearly approaches that concept. First Bret introduces us to the concept of bodyweight training. Then he takes the parts of the body and details several exercises in each. In each of these sections, the exercise is rated as to difficulty, well described with diagrams depicting the muscles and bones and postures involved in most of them, , and then discussed in terms of the motions and sports that utilize that activity. The body sections Bret discusses are very inclusive: Arms, Neck and Shoulders, Chest, Core, Back, Thighs, Glutes, Calves. Mention is made of the grip in appropriate places. Then a chapter on whole body exercises is included. Bret finishes with a chapter called "Planning your Program" discussing Individualization, Autoregulation, Strength Balance, Training Goals, Training Variables, Putting it all Together, and Training for Fat Loss. Each chapter is clearly and simply written. Necessary words are defined right in the text. If one masters all the words Bret defines and uses, one would have a good understanding of basic anatomy of the human body. Bret has pruned the details of human anatomy down to the essentials and makes the essentials clear. There is not fluff in this book. Bret Contreras has both a Masters degree and the CSCS certification. He has owned a strength gym in Scottsdale AZ. Bret is, according to his bio in the book, a sought after speaker. He is a peer-reviewd author and contributor to many industry publications. Currently, he is in New Zealand studying biomechanics, pursuing a PhD in sport science. In spite of all this, this book is not pedantic, but well and clearly written. Bret has chosen an excellent menu of exercises in each anatomic area. But to keep the size of the book manageable, he has left many good exercises out. The user of this book would benefit from just doing the Exercises Bret includes. But I would recommend augmenting the lists with the encyclopedic texts "Men's Health Big Book of Exercises" and "Men's Health Power Training" by Robert dos Remedios. This book is a reference book that should be on the shelves of every bodyweight enthusiast, and trainer. I initially bought the Kindle Version. But once, I realized the importance and uniqueness if this book, I ordered the paperback version for my library.

(revised review) As I mentioned in old review, it is NOT a good book to learn each exercise. However, it is an EXCELLENT book to see the big picture of body weight training. While most books are highly biased toward pushing motion only, this book is very good balance between pushing and pulling motion. It teaches how to make a structured workout plan, like horizontal pull/push, vertical pull/push, and knee/hip exercises. NOTE that the true gem of the book is compressed into the few pages at the very-beginning and very-end of the book, so you need to read thoroughly cover to cover. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (old review) TITLE: Nice visual, but lacks some info RATING: 3 stars It is an excellent book if you need visual aid to see what muscles are involved for each exercise. Also, it give creative ideas on how to use home furniture to perform pull ups or inverted row. However, the book would be much better if it doesn't have 3 shortcomings. 1. The verbal explanation is NOT really useful. It says "this is an excellent exercise" for every single exercise, so it create confusion which exercise to start. Also, it gives a list of muscles involved, but doesn't tell which muscle takes the major/minor part. (EDIT: in fact, it tells major/minor targeting muscle) 2. I personally think the chapter is NOT organized well. For example, ...Chin-up is in "arm" chapter, while pull-up is in "back" chapter. ...Narrow push-up is in "arm" chapter, while standard push-up is in "chest" chapter. ...Superman is in "core" chapter, back extension is in "thighs" chapter, and hip thrust is in "glutes" chapter. I think this kind of organization is better for weight training books, but not for calisthenics books. 3. not many core exercise. It has a chapter for core exercise, but it is actually abs, not core. While the book shows nearly 20 different variations of abs exercise, there only 1 or 2 oblique/lower back exercise in the book. The book is an excellent visual aid to understand the muscles. However, it doesn't have some essential information.

I can't say enough great things about this book. It's quickly changing my life for the better. I'm definitely a novice that's never really been interesting in working out, and especially put-off by gyms and what I consider to be a culture of vanity. I'm also a father with little time to spare. But I've been motivated to take better care of myself, physically and mentally, and correct the muscle imbalances I'm starting to notice in myself. This book gives lots of creative exercises, separated by body part, with great visuals, instructions, and difficulty ratings. Some have complained about the lack of specific directives on how long to hold positions. There are some examples of work-outs in the back of the back, and templates for different ways of working out. But I love the creativity of creating my own work-outs, and focusing on areas that need more improvement. The instructions are clear, and no equipment is needed. I did end up buying a pull-up bar (well worth it), because using a door was too uncomfortable on my hands. Compared to other similar books I've seen at the store, this appears to have the best visuals, and best instructions without directives. The only complaint I have is that I was mildly bothered by some of the contrasting statements between genders, at times seemingly implying that women work out more to be seen by others. But this may be influenced by my own aversion to vanity.

While Brett has compiled a large variety of exercises, they are difficult to utilize for a number of reasons: 1. For quite a few of them, it is difficult to understand the exact motions needed, due to insufficient illustration. 2. While the importance of pairing opposite muscles in training programs is emphasized, these are not done in the book, except in a few sample workouts. 3. Often, the workouts do not give an intermediate difficulty option. 4. Not enough detail is given on how to create a training program. What I do like, are the comments that Brett gives on common mistakes, and on how to do the exercises properly. These will probably be my main take-away from this book.

This book has illustrations that show exactly which muscles are being worked during each exercise, both primarily and secondarily. It also shows the level of difficulty for each exercise, from level 1 to level 4. This book has been a great companion to the other Bret C. book I have titled "Strong Curves." While following the Strong Curves program, I found it difficult to do some of the exercises recommended on the 5 day plan because they were either too difficult, or I didn't have the proper equipment for them. This book has been a great supplement in that it has shown me other options for working the same muscles that do not require any equipment (other than say a table, a chair, or something like that) and it has also shown me how to pick exercises that are more appropriate for my current fitness level, so that I am not struggling through an exercise thinking that it is a "beginner" when it is actually more advanced. I highly recommend these 2 books together, especially if you are a woman interested in health and fitness, and getting your body- with emphasis on your lower body (in "Strong Curves")- into better shape with strength training.

Very good Informational book about body weight strength training anatomy and is awesome . It helped me a lot

È un libro fantastico. È scritto con semplicità, ma fornisce assolutamente tutti gli strumenti necessari per un allenamento completo. Dritto, colpisce nel segno senza fronzoli. Contreras è una garanzia! Lo consiglio vivamente!

Manual utilíssimo para aqueles que desejam elaborar e/ou seguir um programa calistênico, dada a variedade de exercícios disponíveis no livro.

Le livre présente une liste complète des exercices poids du corps présentés de façon claire et concise avec de belles illustrations. L’intérêt majeur est le dernier chapitre sur la classification des exercices et l'élaboration de programme.

This is a great book teaching to do the basic exercises properly. The illustrations are great about which exercise work which muscles. The exercises range from basic to advance. There is a meter at the top saying what lever the exercise is supposed to be set for. One of the misconceptions I want to clear up. Yes we can all do press up, however as the author states there are dozens of variations of press up, a change as slight as changing from normal to knuckle press ups work different muscles. In this book Brent does give different variations (not every variant) ranging from popular to challenging. He does give a breakdown of how to work your way up to the Handstand press up by doing less challenging variants to strengthen muscles needed to pull the Handstand press up off. There are a lot of great tips like this to make body weight training more challenging either through repetitions, intensity, or by stringing different excises together. He does give his advice into creating a personal training program, what to look for and what to try to avoid. Then he talks about exercises he recommends that work well together or complement each other; especially in the total body workout section. The largest section of the book is devoted to legs which does make sense as they are the biggest, and a core muscle groups; also in keeping with his reputation as the "Glutes guy". He does talk about the whole leg including the calf muscles, to the Glutes and everything in between. He does mention about joint safety and personal differences in body types and genetics. He talk about safety being first, but he does also recommend many exercises where people pull ups under tables or door frames. Maybe there are studier tables in America, but these exercise do not really appeal to me personally. I would recommend getting a pull up bar rather than this. I fairness he do say this as well if you are not happy with the sturdiness for the equipment you are using. This book is great for anyone looking to train from home, if you are a specialised athlete and looking for a book improve you particular discipline this is probably not the best book, except learning through the illustrations to target specific muscles groups you might want to improve on. Having said that a number of gyms I have been in recent have been setting aside larger areas for functional or bodyweight training, so the information in this is useful. I would mainly recommend this book for people like me who do not have as much time as we used to get to the gym and want to train from home, or people who want to improve their personal and functional fitness.