From Scrawny to Brawny | Michael Mejia, John Berardi

From Scrawny to Brawny | Michael Mejia, John Berardi | G McDowall

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From Scrawny to Br...

	From Scrawny to Brawny Michael Mejia, John Berardi Rodale International Ltd, 2005 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 8 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Great Info

Great info, JB and Mike found a way to provide usable info to beginner, intermediate, and the advanced trainees.

I'm a trainer/strength coach/fitness writer myself, and was extremely pleased with the amount of applicable info in this book. I've taken away quite a bit that I can apply immediately with my clients (JB always reminds me that I don't know everything...)

The title is somewhat limiting in regards to the content; even if you're not a typical skinny fella trying to stack on muscle, there's great info on nutrition and training for anyone interested in fitness.

If you're just getting into working out, or even if you're already extremely knowledgable, I highly recommend this...you WILL learn from it.

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G McDowall

Well written so all can understand, like all of John Berardi's work. Finally a book that takes you from the beginning, even if you have some challenges that won't allow you to do all the exercises from day 1, through a complete program, to the atainment of the goals you set and beyond. This book outlines workout programs and gives all the tools to create your own. The meal plans that are outlined are complete with real food, suggested supliments, and timing for both. The book goes on to provide the information needed so I can create my own meals and meal plans while sticking to the program. The nutrition program gives a straight forward logical way to track your progress towards your goals and instructions for alterations to the original plan and planning for future goals.
Thank you John Berardi for the most complete body transformation program I have ever used.

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Great ideas crammed amiss due to unrestrained and sleazy work.

Had the authors just shut up and laid down their exercise photos, with few captions under them, they might have accomplished some decent publication. Yet, the book presents fallacious and misleading information that could have been averted with slight restraint on the part of the authors. Many false promises taint the authors' intention. In many locations, you read that they will teach you how to solve certain problems completely such as the difficulty with front squat.

A great part of the book is squandered on body types, with irrelevant and flawed diagrams of body proportions that have no bearing on exercise planning. The authors claim that some body types have faster metabolism than others and some ratios of muscle-to-tendon length could be predicted from certain body types. The former is bogus and the latter offers no help to exercisers. The dumbest measurement they recommend is how to calculate the ratio of slow to fast muscle fibers by counting the repetitions of 85% of 1RM on different exercises. They even have an improvised equation on how to do such foolish mathematical physiology.

The sleazy language and title of the book limit it market longevity (it is black and white on cheap paper, anyway). Yet, the good aspect of the book, which is totally squandered by the authors' paranoia, is the rich cocktail of exercises. Many of their exercises are very essential to strengthening. They combine axial exercises (such as the deadlift, snatch, and clean) with isolation exercises (such as one-hand dumbbell strengthening), in addition to stretching exercises on full range of motion, in multiple planes.

Another drawback of the book is the poor or lack of reasonable order of exercises. Sometimes you see the front squat followed by inclined bench then leg lunges. Although a full chapter is devoted to the big three (squat, deadlift, and bench), the rest of exercises seem to have no assigned order in an integrated or efficient workout. For example, if you attempt to find out how the front squat, back squat, box squat, or leg press should be inserted in a monthly cycle of training sessions, then this is not the book that will render real answer.

Definitely, the book is deficient of clear philosophy on simple and efficient exercise planning, yet rich in scope of complex and serious exercises. The authors' obsession with alignment and posture is productive in some instance, yet extreme in others. For example, squatting with knee pointing outside or inside is not as disastrous as they claim. If the medial meniscus of your knees is worn, torn, or symptomatic, you could benefit from pointing the knees internally. That shifts the load on the lateral menisci. Also, the deadlift start-position is not very informative, unless the sequence of dynamics of lifting is illustrated. Just sitting on the barbell in perfect position does not make the deadlift perfect. There must be a chain of joint motions illustrated to show how the deadlift is initiated, sustained, and reversed.

Nutrition in this book is totally misleading and useless. The best athletes in human history (farmers) used no supplements, eat simple meals, and refrain from tampering with their body. The thermogenesis effect of food is also improvised in flawed manner. Good exercise makeup coupled by the poor science is not new in the field of physical fitness. Most athletes are more physical than mental and this book embodies this observation. The authors live in the dark ages disregarding scientific reasoning. My advice is that the reader should follow their exercise trips and forego most of their nonsense self-improvised science.

Mohamed F. El-Hewie
Author of
Essentials of Weightlifting and Strength Training

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