Hardcore Bodybuilding: A Scientific Approach

Great book Dr. Squat

The book is very well written and gives very good recommendations for bodybuilding. I use it for almost two years and those recommendations surely helped me build better muscles.

This one was more obvious ('hardcore'), so I should not have bought it. However, I was interested because it is based on what appears to be good observations about trainees by Dr. Hatfield with some statistics, ranges, and such that appear to have more basis than, 'Crush those pecs, bro (after taking some of my Xyzpdq Powder)'.Online sources can have some really good ideas, but I always wonder if a particular article is just kind of loosely composed and presented as 'the best new thing for X'...when the ads are right *in* the article, not just next to or below it..The concept about *how* to work out, based upon quantitative exercise measurements, is worth the price. It is based on Hatfield's personal observations and is not just the % max tables you can get online. Instead, finally, someone with a PhD in exercise science, who has lifted incredibly heavy weights (at age 45!) and also been a bodybuilder and a gymnast, who is not seeking sales of other products, shares how they decide which trainees should do what kind of workout. I simply modified it to a work capacity I can actually do.However, the techniques of the hardest workouts, as written, I just do not see how a beginner or intermediate could do them. Sure, those routines alternate with less demanding routines in a form of periodization, but even those lesser routines are pretty tough. For most lifters they would not be much of a rest at all.'Enhanced' or advanced could likely do it, and probably should, but I was looking at it in puzzlement. Here is a formula for who needs more and more frequent, or less and less frequent, overall training but everyone is assigned a total volume / intensity--given the specialized intensity techniques--that would just blow away recovery for less gifted or non-enhanced people.However, I don't have the PhD in this area, so maybe I'm just too casual of a lifter and / or not as gifted (Dr. Hatfield, for example, is probably a tremendous outlier in genetic talent for work output and weight lifting--though clearly all who achieve at this level work very, very hard). I think the ideas in the book are truly great and could be used for non-elite / non-advanced people and people not taking drugs, but with modifications.

Excellent ground breaking author that trained from the USA at the Moscow School of Sports in the 80(s). Periodization in the book along with East German/Soviet training secrets.

I have been on this program for one month. I have gained 20 lbs and am all cut up. Dr. Squat is the bomb.

Best book I ever read. I learned a lot and made gains I never thought were possible

Disclaimer on my review: I have not finished the book and don't intend to.How can you write a book with the subtitle "a scientific approach" and not include a single reference to any of the outlandish claims you are making? At one point the author seriously claims he has developed "what amounts to the greatest bodybuilding system ever created." According to whom? He doesn't say. Real scientific.The annoyance of his frequent reference to "pencilnecks" is rivaled only by his repetitive, useless charts designed to inundate and confuse the reader. Actually, after going back and looking at the 10 pages of charts he puts in a row where minor details change but aren't highlighted (p50-60 if you're curious), I'm lowering this review from 2 stars to 1. What a poor attempt at communication. But I guess I'm supposed to feel bad, not him. After all:"All this science giving you a headache? Hey, I told you that you'd have to be willing to pay the price, and here's the price! The price is discipline."Yeah, right. The price seems to be putting up with your ego. And the reward? Unsubstantiated malarky. No thanks. I think I'll go take my recommended 20-30 minute daily nap instead. Speaking of which, did you know Thomas Edison took naps? I guess the author considers citing that as a source "science."

Fred Hatfield is indeed one of the clearest thinking writers in the iron game and I think that intermediate level weight lifters in particular will appreciate the information in this book. However, I will say that his website contains even more information than this book provides. From reading his website, he frequently strikes a condescending attitude toward bodybuilders, so I thought it somewhat curious that he would write a book on bodybuilding. Although overall it's a good book, I found myself wanting some parts fleshed out more. For example, how to cycle intensity isn't addressed adequately, nor is how long to rest between workouts. These are questions that intermediate weightlifters grapple with much more frequently than some problems that Mr. Hatfield discusses at length such as how to maintain a proper diet and I wished that he would've discussed those concerns in greater detail. I recommend this book, but I recommend Mr. Hatfield's website more.