Strength Training Anatomy, 3rd Edition Author: Visit Amazon's Frederic Delavier Page | Language: English | ISBN:
0736092269 | Format: PDF
Strength Training Anatomy, 3rd Edition Description
About the Author
Frédéric Delavier is a gifted artist with an exceptional knowledge of human anatomy. He studied morphology and anatomy for five years at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and studied dissection for three years at the Paris Faculté de Médecine.
The former editor in chief of the French magazine PowerMag, Delavier is currently a journalist for the French magazine Le Monde du Muscle and a contributor to several other muscle publications, including Men's Health Germany.
Delavier won the French powerlifting title in 1988 and makes annual presentations on the sport applications of biomechanics at conferences in Switzerland. His teaching efforts have earned him the Grand Prix de Techniques et de Pédagogie Sportive. Delavier lives in Paris, France.
- Paperback: 192 pages
- Publisher: Human Kinetics; 3 edition (March 9, 2010)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0736092269
- ISBN-13: 978-0736092265
- Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.7 x 0.5 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
I bought the 2nd edition of this book well over a year ago when I was on a working out kick. Unfortunately life got in the way and I stopped going to the gym for several months, and even when I started back I only dabbled with cardio workouts. About 4 months ago I started back on weights and dug out this book. Prior to that I hadn't opened it. The book as it turns out had serious printing issues, making much of it unusable. It was long past the time frame in which I could have returned it to Amazon so I contacted the publisher, Human Kinetics, instead. Their customer service was excellent! They were aware of a small number of mis-prints that fit my description and were more than happy to replace it. The CS person asked if it would be ok if the replacement was delayed a few weeks until the 3rd edition was available which greatly pleased me. I received the new book about a week ago and it was in perfect condition. Many thanks to the HK folks for their fine customer service!
For those that don't already know what's in this book let me explain in detail. Everyone has seen the anatomy posters on the gym walls. The individual caricatures on the posters display a cut-away model of the human body sans skin. It highlights a muscle or group of muscles and then shows you an exercise that you can use to work that specific muscle. There usually isn't much more detail than that. Text is minimal. This book is at it basics a book version of those posters. However this book goes much, much further. The caricatures for individual muscles and muscle groups in this book usually have multiple exercise options. Text in this book explains in detail how to properly perform the exercise.
So much has been said about the strengths of this fantastic book so I will point out what it doesn't contain or could do better. First, this is not a book that you can use to directly create a workout plan. For each body part featured, there are descriptions of the muscle in the group and how they work together, the major variations between body types and how that affects one's ability to do certain exercises, and brief coverage on injury prevention and recovery. There are several exercises described and illustrated for each muscle group.
The reader does not come away with a plan to do certain exercises in a certain order, on certain days or in combination with certain other body parts. Thus a novice will not be told (for example) to start his chest workout with dumbbell presses and then move to barbell and machines as the chest muscles are exhausted. Nor will you be instructed to exercise triceps after chest so that the triceps muscles are not depleted prior to doing chest. Finally, this is not a book that discusses diet, sleep, nutrition or supplements, all of which are critical factors to achieving your strength training goals.
This book is an outstanding linkage between human anatomy and exercise physiology. It describes what mechanical difference and muscular impact of doing different exercises (say, squats vs. leg presses) so that the reader can understand how a given exercise works the muscles. It is up to the reader to infer based on this understanding how an exercise routine should be constructed or how to overcome or compensate for limitations in the reader's existing training regiment or personal physical characteristics.
As for what could be better, with each exercise, there is a color legend to explain which muscle groups are engaged.
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