This past summer T-Nation (oops, now it is T Muscle) made some radical claims about creating the most amazing muscle-building strategy ever. They called it “I, Bodybuilder“. When I saw it, I just shook my head. It was beyond embarrassing. Fifteen years ago, I may have been suckered into believing that they had stumbled onto the secrets to muscle building. The reality is there are no secrets, just a bunch of dishonest people hoping to make lots of cash by convincing you they know something nobody else does.
Me telling you that there are no secrets or superior plans is just me relaying my personal experience of 15 years lifting weights and observing the muscle media. Matthew Perryman went past the muscle media and dug deep into the medical literature. He didn’t just read the abstracts. He compiled everything relevant into the book Maximum Muscle – The Science of Intelligent Physique Development. Maximum Muscle is the antidote to all the dishonesty being peddled in the muscle building industry.
This book is not an easy read. Chapter 2 will require a pot of coffee to get through, but in the end, it is all worth it. This is the book I wish I would have had at age 24 when I still naive about designing an effective weight training strategy. I am recommending this book to anyone that is passionate about weight lifting. You don’t even need to read Chapter 2. Trust that the author is a smart fellow and move on to Chapter 3.
The highlights in the book for me were:
- A greater understanding of TUT (time under tension).
- I’ve stated before that I believe in low-rep training more than Al Gore believes in global warming. I still am a big fan of low-rep, as is the author, but I now will experiment with higher reps for secondary muscle groups.
- This book made me realize that I wasn’t directly training for explosive strength. I was dividing my time between volume and powerlifting.
Unlike the hucksters that sell their 100 pages (triple spaced) e-Books for $39.99, the Maximum Muscle book is free. It is available only on Bit Torrent. I am not sure why the author didn’t use Google Docs or Scribd.com to distribute his book. Not everyone uses BitTorrent, but everyone uses a browser. Details on the book download and how to donate to the author are on the Amped Training website. I donated $10 to the author via PayPal.