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Beyond Brawn The Insiders Encyclopedia on How to Build Muscle and Might

This is the fully updated second edition of the sequel to Brawn, the book that created a bodybuilding revolution. This encyclopedia offers the key to training success. By acknowledging each person’s individuality, this book teaches people precisely how to become their own expert personal trainers. Whether readers are male or female, beginners or very advanced, young or not-so-young, want to train at home or in a public gym, this book offers outstanding guidance.

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Very good!
First an apology for my previous review. I love the book, I read it 6 times. I wrote that I lost muscle size before, but that was due to regular seasonal patterns – I found that in Oct-Nov I gain the most, while in Apr-May I lose some. Many other people living in the Northern Hemisphere do the same my cat too! I live in South Africa since 1996 but the pattern didn’t change. I have not noticed this in my friends here. I am starting again the system, after 6 months change.

5 Stars The best out there
I wish I had this book when I started lifting. It would have saved me years of frustration because it tells it like it is, nothing gimmicky or faddish here. It would have allowed me to bypass all the pitfalls that most lifters fall into because of too much enthusiasm and gullibility and too little wisdom, not to mention too much misinformation coming from the magazine publishers whose only real goal seems to be to promote their advertisers’ products. Yes, McRobert is a bit on the conservative side, but for a long, healthy life of lifting most people need to be.

Two other books I highly recommend are McRobert’s book on exercise technique and form, and Clarence Bass’ book Challenge Yourself.

Happy lifting!

5 Stars Exactly As the Title Reads…. Bigger, More Expansive & Better
BRAWN was truly the shot in the arm that strength training for average men and women needed…. BEYOND BRAWN delves into it much more finely and with more precise theory laid out. ANOTHER AWESOME BOOK !!!!

5 Stars Timeless classic
I bought this book back in 2002 and now 6 years later I have made some incredible progress due to its simple, practical and real world advice. You just cannot go wrong with this book. Buy it and thoroughly read and aplly its contents and your success is guarantee. I’m a strength and conditioning coach with over 12 years experience and a national powerlifing champion as well. I have read over a 100 books on the subject and i have to say that this is about as good as it gets.

5 Stars Top notch writer, no nosense accurate advice (review former Physiology Teaching Fellow)
I like Stuart McRobert in general. His books are well-organized, to the point and contain accurate information without hype. He is also realistic about what can be achieved and not achieved based on your genetics. At the same time, he is enthusiastic and very motivational.

With respect to scope, this book is geared toward how to train, training cycles and related issues and building a good foundation. Although it is well-written, it doesn’t have many diagrams and doesn’t include detail on exercises. For this, I recommend Build Muscle Lose Fat Look Great: Everything You Need to Know to Transform Your Body and Starting Strength. These are REALLY… the only two books you need.

My background is that I have a graduate education in biochemistry, psychology and physiology. I was a Physiology Teaching Fellow, researcher and a personal trainer at one time. Currently, I am reviewing some of the new books out there and this author is particularly impressive. If you are going to get one of the Stuart McRobert books, I would get Build Muscle Lose Fat…. However, they are complementary and in my opinion, you would be cheating yourself not to get both. Build Muscle Lose Fat focuses more on proper technique, general training guidelines, etc.

One interesting inclusion in this book is a calculation scheme for ideal symmetry. This is great for setting realistic goals and I also like that this author is drug free and favors a natural approach. As a biochemist, I think his nutrition guidelines are very good, but I think he is overly cautious. For example, he doesn’t recommend protein powders, but doesn’t give a compelling argument why they are not a good idea. While it’s true most people could get by with milk, I think protein powders and other supplements can be useful to hard-gainers or people that don’t eat right.

If you are a hard gainer, then this book is for you and so is Starting Strength and Build Muscle Lose Fat Look Great: Everything You Need to Know to Transform Your Body.. especially the latter two! From Scrawny to Brawny is also very good, but a distant second as a one point reference. However, it’s worth getting for the training tips and tricks for people with long limbs, that are prone to injury in the shoulders, knees, etc.

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