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My goal here is to give you my honest recommendations for books. I am relatively successful financially and simply don't need to make a fast buck. Like the rest of my site I do this as a labor of love, and hope to give people good guidance in their purchasing decisions, that's why you will see relatively long write-ups of the books here. The books will be purchased through the Amazon affiliate program with no extra cost for you and a small commission for me that I hopefully will be able to use to further improve the content of Bigsteel.
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Getting Stronger
This first book occupies the first space in my bookstore because it happens to be the first book I bought on on strength training, and it is still an excellent starting book. When people ask me about a good book to buy for beginners, this is the one I recommend. Years ago I found the book very approachable. The book was created by first taking pictures of the exercises performed by Bill Pearl and then line drawings were created from the photographs, taking out the unnecessary details and showing a crisp result. The book has almost all exercises that most people could possibly need, and actually this book was derived from Pearl's "Keys to the Inner Universe (see Below) which has almost any exercise you can dream of and perhaps a few more. Both books are excellent, and started me off on the philosophy of "Getting Stronger." View details of Getting Stronger from Amazon.
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Mastery of Hand Strength Big Steel is so much about hand strength that this is the next logical choice for books. If the feats on Big Steel intrigue you this is the first book to buy to start you on your own personal journey into hand strength.
View details of Mastery of Hand Strength at Amazon.
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Keys to the INNER
Universe
I think this book would be a bit detailed for the casual weight lifter, but if you want to see every subtlety of how an exercise can be performed it is the way to go. For instance, on the squat, Bill Pearl shows basically the same lift but varying the position of the toes (points forward, pointed out, etc). Many other exercises are illustrated in their various forms. There's also some great pictures of Bill Pearls career and even some nail bending, which I had forgotten about until I recently looked at the book again. View details of Keys to the INNER Universe from Amazon |
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Brawn To me one of the bright spots of Ironman Magazine is articles by Stuart McRobert. His writing style is clear, and his message strong. To me, this book is the definitive work on natural weight training without drugs. What I liked about it was that McRobert essentially defined what someone could expect to develop both in terms of strength and size if they trained drug free. I believe many trainers without knowing there chances for success naturally end up going what appears to be the easier route with drugs, but they are sadly mistaken. View details of Brawn from Amazon.
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Power to the People
When I bought this book I was curious about new training ideas. Because of Pavel's Russian background I thought he would lend a new perspective to weight training, which he is successful at doing in the book.
View details of Power to the People! : Russian Strength Training Secrets for Every American from Amazon.
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Rock, Iron, Steel: The Book of
Strength If you are looking for a book that is different and unique in the field of weightlifting, this is the one to buy.
View details of Rock, Iron, Steel: The Book of Strength from Amazon.
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Paul Anderson the Mightiest
Minister by Dr. Randall J. Strossen This excellent book was written by the editor of Milo. Many rare photographs and along with Dr. Strossen's excellent text there are reprints of contemporary articles. See page 2 of Bigsteel books for Paul Anderson's book, "A Greater Strength." View details of Paul Anderson the Mightiest Minister from Amazon.
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The Weightlifting
Encyclopedia: A Guide to World Class Performance
This book is huge in scope and very concise. I still haven't read the entire book, and tend to use it more like an Encyclopedia, and hence the name. For all those interested in the Iron Game, not just Olympic lifting.
View details of The Weightlifting Encyclopedia at Amazon.
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Sandow the Magnificent
View details of Sandow the Magnificent from Amazon.
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Building the Classic Physique:
The Natural Way
This book is currently out of Stock at Amazon, but it is available from third parties at a big mark-up. I bought my copy a few years ago now and I was impressed with the late Steve Reeves' overall philosophy of Strength and Health. There's no question in my mind that Reeves and Grimek (see below) represent the best in drug free physiques and they continue to be great role models today. An example of this role model in this book is a chart illustrating an obtainable muscular bodyweight as a function of height that would constitute what Reeves considered the classic physique at that height. Stuart McRobert repeated a similar concept in "Brawn" above and both are much more reasonable goals as opposed to the chemically "assisted" physiques of today. View details of Building the Classic Physique: The Natural Way from Amazon. |
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Muscletown USA
This book beautifully recounts the glory days of York Barbell. Not only is this book interesting to weightlifters, but I actually think aspiring entrepreneurs could read it to get a sense of founder and President of York Barbell, Bob Hoffman. While the book certainly describes that not everyone liked Bob, his organizational genius cannot be denied.
View details of MuscleTown USA from Amazon.
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Super Squats
This book details how to gain muscle using 20-rep squats. Personally, while I didn't gain as much as I would have liked under the program, I did find that it increased my intensity and focus when I went back to my normal routine, which is usually 1-5 reps.
View details of Super Squats: How to Gain 30 Pounds of Muscle in 6 Weeks from Amazon.
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How to Think like Leonardo
da Vinci
Ok, this has nothing to do with Strength training, but this is a fascinating book that quite frankly, changed my life for the better. The book is about the genius of Da Vinci, and how his genius extended to all areas of human endeavor.
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The Spiritual Journey of Joseph L.
Greenstein- The Mighty Atom World's Strongest Man
This classic book on the Mighty Atom is currently not available at Amazon. I am really surprised that it is currently not available at Amazon, but they haven't eliminated it completely from their listings so I'm listing it here. Note that there are 9 reviews of this book at Amazon, all with 5 stars! View details of Spiritual Journey of Joseph L. Greenstein: The Mighty Atom from Amazon.
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