Men's Health 6-Week Lean Muscle Level-Up: The Workout to Supercharge Muscle Growth Fast

Great book, easy to understand and use. The exercises are great for someone starting back at the gym and need help with coming up with a routine for the week

I’ve purchased several of these books (this 6 week guide, the kettlebell workout, the 28 day belly fat burner, and the 90 day ABs challenge). I’m 73 and I’m not trying to (and will never) achieve the muscle mass or lean body on their covers. HOWEVER, they each do several things well….. - The plans seem to provide a reasonable level of exercise that you can do. Most take less than an hour and you can vary the intensity to meet your needs by increasing g or decreasing the weight. - they provide a reasonable length program. You don’t get bored. I’m doing 1 book at a time and moving on to another book when finished. - importantly for me, the days workouts are clearly listed and I don’t have to “figure out” what exercises … specific moves, number of repeats, and number of sets. I just get up and follow the plan … no time wasted. - I do these workouts in addition to my normal cardio routines of cycling and walk/run. I don’t find it to be too much. That said I’ve been regularly lifting and cardio exercising for the past 40 years. If you’re already exercising regularly and are looking for a fresh approach to using weights I think these are a good option.

The quality of the book is very good. And well written. The author gives clear and concise information on workout plans to follow

Great book for information for getting fit

For most people, fitness can be a bit daunting. You go to the gym and see fit people looking at the clock counting their reps/circuit times ... knowing exactly what exercises to do in what order ... and which weights to use. Many people figure they are too busy to learn how to work out properly, or cannot afford the cost or the time of scheduling a personal trainer. This book could be helpful for those beginners, or those who are a little beyond beginner, but likely not as helpful to those who know their way around a gym for several years. The best part of the book is the ease of information ... its laid out well, which makes it easy to understand and use in a workbook style format. You have a few chapters (30 pages) of the typical advice ... drink protein, have a good diet, get sleep, etc. which may help the beginner and there is also a stretching routine, which is important to do before workouts as it will increase productivity and lessen injuries. I am a former high-level athlete and can attest to this. The actual workouts are laid out in 6-week blocks ... each week has 3 workouts, A, B and C. You get a brief overview of why you are doing these exercises ... and then a list of the exercises to do (in order) ... the number of reps/times ... and it allows you to fill in the weights that you use. Each week also shoes you a small picture of the exercise, so you know that you are doing the correct one, which will be very helpful for beginners. It's basically all laid out in a very simple follow-along style. The back of the book has more detailed descriptions of the exercises ... although I think I'd prefer a little more info. on ensuring the correct form is used as often poor form can not only lead to injury but also negate gains. This is where a personal trainer really comes in handy. The actual circuits are well put together, which is no surprise as Men's Health is a leading magazine in the fitness industry. I tried these and, as an experienced athlete, they were not extremely challenging ... but they do hit all the muscle groups and seem like a pretty good plan. Your hardest part, as a beginner, would be selecting the proper weight amount for you. Overall, for those who cannot afford the cost of a personal trainer (between $40 - $90 per session) or who want to keep their own schedule and not have to book appointments for a trainer, this allows you to use the same type of format and circuits as a trainer would and take the guesswork out of picking exercises. It's expensive, at $35, but compared to the cost of a trainer, it will really jump start you by giving you an effective plan. Use this book, stretch properly, eat properly and you'll likely see some results. Don't expect to go from out of shape to shredded using this book alone, but 6 weeks is longer than you think in the fitness world and you should see some leaning. I hope my honest review, video and pictures have helped you make an informed buying decision.

Excellent book for keeping written progress. Illustrations are perfect. Exercise routines are exactly what i need. Take this book to the gym with me. Recommend this book.

I bought this book catch up on some much needed exercise after a long break. (Years rather than months.) I have a decent set of adjustable dumbbell weights at home and I was hoping I could find a routine to supplement the larger barbell movements. Like a stop-gap until I could find a decent gym. The cover and the blurb of this book seemed dumbbell focused, so I picked it up. But perhaps I should have payed attention to the old adage about surface appearances, because I'm not sure this book gave me what I needed. There are some good points to it's introductory chapters: - Bite-size, easy to digest text with a tone that is easy and conversational. It's quick to read and understand. - Good, common-sense information about pacing yourself during dieting, proper mindset and cautionary asides about intensity and adherence to the program vs fanaticism - A good graphical layout for text that's easy on the eyes and includes some small diagrams for each exercise. But when you give yourself some pause and begin to work out whats being asked of you, you'll find some logical inconsistencies that may hamper your progress. The first thing being the intensity level of the program itself. Chapter 2 lays out some ground rules about progressive overload for each set and asks you to work close to your limit on *every* set. Lets say at about 85 to 90% of your 1 Rep Maximum. The thing is, the program has you working at 2-3 sets for an average of 12 to 15 reps right out of the gate. That's about 36 to 45 reps total with *very* heavy weight. Aiming at you not being about to do 3 repetitions more for each set... Oh! And some additional supersets! For 2 days, back to back. For "beginners"..!! That's wayyy too much for a de-trained or beginning lifter. For the rep range that this book is asking, you'd want to be at 75% of your 1RM. Maximum. And I'm not pulling that from nowhere. I did a program by Brad Schoenfeld years ago that had high volume like this. I tried doing all that after a long layoff and it just about put me in the hospital. My body really could not recover from all that intensity. It took me 2 weeks to get back to baseline and I ended up changing my routine to something more manageable. You'll need a 3 x5 program or a 5x5 program to take advantage of the progressive overload recommended by this book. You'll have plenty time to recover at that pace. (Make sure to get a foam roller!) This program is also geared towards those with a gym. There's exercises that call for a cable machine, pull up bars, and places to do dips (easier to DIY, but still..). You'll also need access to an ab roller and a preacher curl station. Again, not really home-friendly. For the early chapter sections on weight loss, it doesn't really tell you specifics on how to gauge that, so I'll write them here: You'll want to calculate your total daily energy expenditure (or TDEE for short) and take a 500 calorie deficit from that number. The sailrabbit calculator from Reddit is good for that. Macronutrients (Protein, Carbs, and Fat) work well when split into ratios of 40% protein, 40% carbs and 20% fat (or somewhere near that mark) for most people. You'll take your Deficit TDEE and divide it into the 40/40/20 ratio. For protein, you'll need 1 gram per pound of your *target* body weight (this is the easy calculation). That means if you wanted to be 175lbs for example, you'd eat about 175 grams of protein, divided into 3 meals a day (about 58 grams per meal). I used all the calculations above with a 3x5 program and got to my target bodyweight very quickly, with some small gains on top of that. All from a beginner phase. All told, this guide isn't a *bad* -bad book, but its fuzzy details might de-rail the average beginner who didn't really know what they were doing. It talks a good game and it means well, but its bigger on ideas than execution. 3.5 stars.

Cost and good information