The Lost Secret To A Great Body

If you are at all interested in the content of the courses you can find on websites like "Sandow Plus", etc., you owe it to yourself to invest the $10 for this Kindle book. It may make all the difference. The author explains how the modern approach to weightlifting differs from what these guys did, why the old time strongmen did what they did, how you can make their approach work for you, and what kind of results you can hope to achieve. There's also historical background and context on the method and its originators, along with amusing anecdotes and telling details that help humanize these old-time fitness "celebrities"; it helps you see them as people, not just circus freaks and showmen. The author is refreshingly modest, has a nice, appropriate sense of humor, and his explanations of both the exercises and the method are clear, written in plain language, and easily understood. There are enough photographs in the tutorial portion of the book to make the instructions easily understood. Also appreciated: the author is very candid about the cosmetic and functional results you can hope to achieve with diligent application of the method. He includes some "posed" (but not retouched or professionally lit) photographs of his own physique, which is proof of the method: he looks good! Not body-builder good, or power-lifter good, but aesthetically pleasing, well shaped and sinewy. Worth your time and attention. Update: I read the critical review by EL, and felt compelled to respond. Not that he isn't entitled to his opinion, but it seems he missed the whole point of the book: this is a great resource for people who can't (or don't) want to pursue conventional bodybuilding or powerlifting methods. Its primary application is for health-maintenance and keeping your vitality in the face of modern living conditions. EL criticizes Bolton for not looking like Sandow after pursuing the method for three years, and for not looking like a weight lifter; but that was never Bolton's stated goal. Bolton wanted something that would keep him in decent shape with a minimal investment of time, and something that would supplement his internal martial arts studies. And IMO - he looks good. Do I think this system should be the ONLY thing you do? No. But it would make a valuable supplement for people who are primarily interested in other active pursuits (yoga, soccer, golf, karate, etc.) And if it WAS the only thing you did (outside of a reasonable amount of walking), you'd still look and feel better than 75% of the population (especially the older population) who don't exercise.

Great book, good results from training so far (2 and a half months in, could begin to see results after 1 month). Not a training for weightloss, but great for strength. Ok, now to the more detailed review. I've played capoeira for nearly 15 years now and I'm 43 years old, and I have a very detailed physique, 170cm tall, 64kg when I started 2 and a half months ago, 62kg. I've been lucky so far with no major injuries, only a bit of an ache in my hips, which if I avoid certain specific kicks I can keep to tolerable levels. But I am getting older and slower and the airy style of capo that I have is getting winded. I came to the realisation that I needed more physical strength if I want to keep playing in a roda when I'm 90. I've tried different stuff, like calisthenics, but the wide variety of exercises and programs out there gave me indecision paralysis, there were just too many options. And weghtlifting was out of the question. I've seen quite a few capoeiristas go that route, and they do get big, athletic physiques, but they get noticeably slower. Now speed is definitely not everything in Capoeira, timing is, but I don't want to sacrifice something I'm definitely not going to get more of in the long run. Besides, almost everybody I know who weightlifts has had an injury of some kind. Injuries are stackable and compounded with age. I want to avoid that. I stumbled upon a review of this book on YouTube and decided to give it a try with some great results. Around the same time I started with this training, I began to do intermittent fasting, take virgin olive oil shots a couple of times a day (apparently it mimics the effects of Resveratrol , or the other way around), and take guarana supplements. I started doing all of this around the same time, so I don't know if it has had a synergistic effect. I took measurements of my biceps at the beginning, and I want to stress this point: I don't care about size, I care about strength and my ability to stay healthy for longer, and not become a sentient vegetable by age 75. The bicep measurements were just a metric to see if I was wasting my time or not. I went from 28cm and 29cm in my dominant arm to 32.5cm and 33cm in 2 and a half months. That is a rather big gain and I would love it if I knew a sports physiologist who could explain to me how this is possible. AND IM ONLY USING 1KG DUMBBELLS. I do this training 3-4-5 days in a row, depending on how much energy I have and take 1 day or 2 days off and start again. I have a very physical job, and the days I do Capoeira I don't do this training. If I have an important Capoeira event I take 2 days off before the event to be fresh. It takes me some 35-40min to complete a session, and apart from the squeeze I've found that the cadence is very important. In the beginning, to squeeze the right muscles and relax the ones you are not using takes a lot of concentration. I still find it hard to tense the quads in the full range of motion, not just at the top. So this makes you do the exercises at a slower pace without you realizing it. When I found out and sped up just a tad to the recommended cadence in the book while maintaining the tension, that's when it really exploded. But take your time learning the movements and pacing with 1kg before you move on to heavier weights, it pays off. I've never been a big guy, and I'll never be by today's standards, but my physique is slowly changing, and I do get why the book hints to this training, or a similar one being used in old Greece. I mean, if you see the movie 300 and compare it to old Greek statues, you see a marked difference in body types. Classic statuary doesn't have the overblown pectoral muscles we idealize nowadays, which are a given with modern day training. Almost all of them have a specific body type, as of someone being shaped by a specific set of exercises. Think swimmers, waterpolo players, long distance marathon runners. Anyways, Saturday morning and lying in bed, tired from a week of work, too little sleep and too many thoughts in my head. Peregrino signing off

A well written examination of a forgotten way to train. The author does a great job of bringing to light what the old timer strong men did, and why. He makes a compelling case for how they trained, using the written records that many of them left behind As far as the actual system, I am not using the entire catalog of exercises prescribed but have chosen several to hit areas where I have injuries, and it's almost like magic how quickly old aches have eased and I feel a sense of strength there. It's more about the mind body connection than it is grinding out reps , and to use modern weightlifting terms I get a great pump with no joint pain. I'm currently using three poind weights with Fat Gripz on them to help me focus on gripping them tightly. If you can open open your mind and try this type of training I think you will find a lot of benefits to it.

Good Book very interesting. But I'm not sure that is possible to look same a Bodybuilder only with small weights But have a good physique yes. And the method is good for learn to have a god muscle feeling and better result with classical weights. Everybody should start with this.

Möglicherweise das beste Buch zum Thema "Light Dumbbell Routine Training". Hab zwar auch die Orginale von Sandow und co gelesen aber erst dieses Buch hat mir wirklich die Augen geöffnet. Dieses Buch ist die ca 10€ definitiv wert. Selten habe ich beim lesen eines Trainigsbuches so viel Neues gelernt, und das will was heißen :-) Das Coverfoto zeigt übrigens tatsächlich den Autor (mit ca 44 Jahren) nach seinem Selbstexperiment mit besagter Methode (steht zumindest so im Buch. Aber er macht einen sehr bodenständigen und glaubwürdigen Eindruck) Kann es nur weiterempfehlen, selbst für Leute die glauben sie kennen schon alles :-)

Es una joya arqueologíca.

I would recommend this book to anyone who like me, has been through phases of blitzing the gym for a sustained period, following all the conventional advice only to find that after two months of lesser activity you're back to square one. It's probably relevant to give a very brief background of my previous training so you can put this review in context. I've never been hugely built, but have gone through phases of being relatively in-shape and more bulked, and then periods where my physique was ok, but not what I wanted it to be. I started doing weights in my bedroom as a teenager and then progressed to going to the gym a few years later. However, like I'm sure a lot of people reading this will have done, I have had periods of really going for it, juxtaposed with periods where I've eased off a bit, then become demoralised and stopped when I saw how rapidly what had been achieved diminished. I eat reasonably healthy, but have never done a really specialist diet to build muscle and frankly, it isn't something I think is realistic for me to do in the future or certainly long term. So what I was looking for was an easy work out I could do at home without significant cost (such as a home gym) but one which would develop long lasting strength, with a physique that would be easily sustainable. In short, I'm more interested in my long term health and fitness, achieving a build that looks lean, muscular and strong rather than cosmetic fitness. I was drawn to this book by the fact that it seemed to tap into some principles of the past that have long since been forgotten. Over the years I've come to appreciate that with our approach to modern living, a lot of brilliant ideas of the past get tossed aside simply because they are old and therefore assumed to be outdated. That said I was still quite sceptical that anything other than the conventional wisdom (heavy weight with sets of 8-10 reps, rest days and all of that) could do anything to develop strength and a good physique. So when the book refers to strong men of the past developing the physiques pictured using 3 - 5 pound dumbbells my eyebrows were certainly raised. However, I would urge anyone experiencing that same feeling to set aside what you have been told to believe and read with an open mind. The author has clearly researched his subject in depth, and leaves little doubt that these are techniques he has utilised and fine tuned as his own regime. His writing comes across as very sincere and the fact that these principles fly in the face of conventional wisdom to the extent that they do I think is something to really take notice of. After all, if you were going to try and sell a book on fitness that wasn't based upon your own tried and tested experience, there would be a lot of less controversial things you could write about. But my main reason for urging you to put any scepticism aside is my experience of the workout so far. It is early days yet but every time I have done the workout, my muscles have felt deeply worked in way that genuinely differs from any other gym activity. It has comprehensively worked my whole body and the ache of the subsequent days has been different from anything I've felt before. (NB - the workout is daily but after the first session I didn't get a chance to train for a few days and was surprised how much this affected my body). It is really difficult to put into words but it is I guess somewhere between the feeling of lifting heavy weights and from having been for a very long run, topped off with a real `glowing' feeling. It is also more rounded feeling if that makes sense as every muscle fibre truly feels worked. Each exercise is clearly detailed in depth but it only took a few sessions for me to remember everything and now I am able to complete the whole routine in 20-30 minutes. Don't be concerned if the first few times it takes a bit longer while you read the exact instructions - you will soon pick it up. I would strongly advise giving this book a go, making sure you read the whole book with an open mind. Even what I have benefitted from so far and what I have learned about physiology have made it good value.

I really enjoyed the research made by the author. Great work thank you.