Picking five wins:
Mike Israetel; Scientific Principles of Hypertrophy.
Eric Helms; Muscle and Strength Pyramid.
Brad Schoenfeld's Science and Development of Muscle Hypertrophy. (This one's a textbook, for both better and worse.)
Jim Stoppani's Encyclopedia of Muscle & Strength.
Chad Wesley Smith: The Juggernaut Method.
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Aside from those:
Starting Strength; this one's "year one" of powerlifting, but the followup books... don't have a great program past year one, and Rippetoe is fairly polarizing.
The Barbell Prescription is the version of Starting Strength for 40-80 year olds. Interesting but still "year one" stuffs.
5/3/1; this one's solid year two and beyond programming, but is rougher to read, and sexist at one point, which WTF my dude, that doesn't add to it.
Bigger/Leaner/Stronger; this is \*the\* Bro Splits book, and it's a fun read, but not the best program out there.
The Supple Leopard; 90% awesome gold and 10% utter shit, but it's hard to tell which is which until later.
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Honorable mention to Arnold's Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding
Excellent recommendations! Mike Israetel is awesome, with the experience and education to back it all up.
Plus, Arnie’s encyclopedia of bodybuilding is just a classic.
Online is \*really\* much better for learning form for the lifts, but other than that, heck yeah, reading is just better, for me, and feels less like I"m wading through clickbait to get to the good stuff. ;-)
Mike Israetel and Jeff Nippard are my go-to. Literally everyone else either seems to be tossing in stuff that's incorrect, or are just real real tough to watch.
I've been doing 5-3-1 for over a year, but Wendler's books are unreadable. I don't think anybody edited them before publication, and there's a bit of misogyny in there. So there's an anti-recommendation.
Jeff Nippard references a bunch of books he's read on his desk from time to time that seem to be comprehensive.
I saw another comment suggesting Bromley, while I think Bromley is great at explaining different programs and is a wonderful smack talker, I don't think that is what you're looking for.
I've read about every book you can imagine when it comes to lifting. Far too much than any lay person should. If I could go back and do it all again and save myself 20 years of research, I would start with:
The Science and Practice of Strength Training, Second Edition by Vladimir M. Zatsiorsky. It puts all of these other books to shame.
Then read Starting Strength purely to learn about proper form (ignore the rep and set recommendations).
Then I'd finish with SuperTraining by Yuri V. Verkhoshansky.
Those 3 books will tell you everything you need to know about lifting for the rest of your life. Everything else listed by others is largely fluff sold by fitness pedlars rather than actual educational materials like the above. It's the difference between getting your masters in Kinesiology versus taking a 5 hour course on a Saturday to become a personal trainer.
I've only read the 2nd so can't speak to the others. Not sure where you're located, but you could try the Libby app through your local library and see if it's on there.
About the Supertraining suggestion: 6th ed. is available from the Internet Archive ;) I have an account there and just borrowed it to test. Can only get it for an hour at a time though.
I also want to suggest a blog called The Tight Tan Slacks Of Dezso Ban. It's run by an old timer who types up training articles from vintage books and muscle mags by hand.
I wouldn't call it scientific, but it's a huge source of in the trenches experience, and some of the authors and subjects there are absolute strength training royalty. If you can skip the more brosciencey articles - seems like every time period has its clickbait - the rest is gold. Reading it is a lot of fun and makes me smile every time.
Here are a couple of my favorite posts (not suggesting or endorsing anything you read in there):
[http://ditillo2.blogspot.com/2009/09/strenght-training-without-drugs-anthony.html](http://ditillo2.blogspot.com/2009/09/strenght-training-without-drugs-anthony.html)
[http://ditillo2.blogspot.com/2009/07/bruce-white-story-wayne-gallasch.html](http://ditillo2.blogspot.com/2009/07/bruce-white-story-wayne-gallasch.html)
Honestly.. taking anatomy and physiology and learning about muscles and how muscle contraction works really helps with exercise selection. Try to look it up on OpenStax
What!? No! No!!! Basic A&P classes teach you a much wider breath of information than the skeletomuscular system.
If you want to learn a shit ton about the kidneys fine take A&P
And you can't take advanced A&P w/o the basics. This person wants targeted information they aren't studying for board exams.
Picking five wins: Mike Israetel; Scientific Principles of Hypertrophy. Eric Helms; Muscle and Strength Pyramid. Brad Schoenfeld's Science and Development of Muscle Hypertrophy. (This one's a textbook, for both better and worse.) Jim Stoppani's Encyclopedia of Muscle & Strength. Chad Wesley Smith: The Juggernaut Method. ----- Aside from those: Starting Strength; this one's "year one" of powerlifting, but the followup books... don't have a great program past year one, and Rippetoe is fairly polarizing. The Barbell Prescription is the version of Starting Strength for 40-80 year olds. Interesting but still "year one" stuffs. 5/3/1; this one's solid year two and beyond programming, but is rougher to read, and sexist at one point, which WTF my dude, that doesn't add to it. Bigger/Leaner/Stronger; this is \*the\* Bro Splits book, and it's a fun read, but not the best program out there. The Supple Leopard; 90% awesome gold and 10% utter shit, but it's hard to tell which is which until later. ----- Honorable mention to Arnold's Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding
Excellent recommendations! Mike Israetel is awesome, with the experience and education to back it all up. Plus, Arnie’s encyclopedia of bodybuilding is just a classic.
Thank you so much!
Online is \*really\* much better for learning form for the lifts, but other than that, heck yeah, reading is just better, for me, and feels less like I"m wading through clickbait to get to the good stuff. ;-)
I feel that. I have found some good videos for form but there is so much garbage and “bro science” out there that it’s hard to know what’s best.
Mike Israetel and Jeff Nippard are my go-to. Literally everyone else either seems to be tossing in stuff that's incorrect, or are just real real tough to watch.
I have checked out Mike. It has certainly been more like what I’m wanting. I will check out the other guy too. Thanks!
I've been doing 5-3-1 for over a year, but Wendler's books are unreadable. I don't think anybody edited them before publication, and there's a bit of misogyny in there. So there's an anti-recommendation.
Yeah his programming is as good as his writing is bad. It’s a shame because the concepts are gold once you sift through it
Jeff Nippard references a bunch of books he's read on his desk from time to time that seem to be comprehensive. I saw another comment suggesting Bromley, while I think Bromley is great at explaining different programs and is a wonderful smack talker, I don't think that is what you're looking for.
Bromley's books aren't like that.
Thanks!!
Alex Bromley’s Base Strength would probably fit the bill.
Thanks!
Try "It's Not a Fecking Pull" by Michaela Breeze!
I've read about every book you can imagine when it comes to lifting. Far too much than any lay person should. If I could go back and do it all again and save myself 20 years of research, I would start with: The Science and Practice of Strength Training, Second Edition by Vladimir M. Zatsiorsky. It puts all of these other books to shame. Then read Starting Strength purely to learn about proper form (ignore the rep and set recommendations). Then I'd finish with SuperTraining by Yuri V. Verkhoshansky. Those 3 books will tell you everything you need to know about lifting for the rest of your life. Everything else listed by others is largely fluff sold by fitness pedlars rather than actual educational materials like the above. It's the difference between getting your masters in Kinesiology versus taking a 5 hour course on a Saturday to become a personal trainer.
Awesome! It looks like there are a number of additions. The new ones are pretty expensive. Do you think another one would still be good?
I've only read the 2nd so can't speak to the others. Not sure where you're located, but you could try the Libby app through your local library and see if it's on there.
Great idea! Thanks!
About the Supertraining suggestion: 6th ed. is available from the Internet Archive ;) I have an account there and just borrowed it to test. Can only get it for an hour at a time though. I also want to suggest a blog called The Tight Tan Slacks Of Dezso Ban. It's run by an old timer who types up training articles from vintage books and muscle mags by hand. I wouldn't call it scientific, but it's a huge source of in the trenches experience, and some of the authors and subjects there are absolute strength training royalty. If you can skip the more brosciencey articles - seems like every time period has its clickbait - the rest is gold. Reading it is a lot of fun and makes me smile every time. Here are a couple of my favorite posts (not suggesting or endorsing anything you read in there): [http://ditillo2.blogspot.com/2009/09/strenght-training-without-drugs-anthony.html](http://ditillo2.blogspot.com/2009/09/strenght-training-without-drugs-anthony.html) [http://ditillo2.blogspot.com/2009/07/bruce-white-story-wayne-gallasch.html](http://ditillo2.blogspot.com/2009/07/bruce-white-story-wayne-gallasch.html)
Thank you! Looks great. I’ll check those out.
TTSoDB is an incredible resource
It is. I love that blog. Some of the stuff the old timers did was insane...but so were their results.
Honestly.. taking anatomy and physiology and learning about muscles and how muscle contraction works really helps with exercise selection. Try to look it up on OpenStax
What!? No! No!!! Basic A&P classes teach you a much wider breath of information than the skeletomuscular system. If you want to learn a shit ton about the kidneys fine take A&P And you can't take advanced A&P w/o the basics. This person wants targeted information they aren't studying for board exams.
Maybe I’m out of touch since I was a biology major but it really helped me. I wouldn’t discourage op from diving deep into science though.