I have read about the first 4 chapters of this book. Excellent job Chris. It is very practical and you allow for the individual needs of each athlete and do not prescribe anything as written in stone.
The charts are really helpful for planning strength trainng for various athletes at various levels. There is too much to juggle around in the mind (for me anyways) and it is tough to keep everything organized. The charts and basic guidelines help with this alot.
The book is clear, easy to read and easy to understand. If only the average body builder, athlete and coach would read through it even once the information environment regarding this sort of training would be far more dynamic.
Thanks Chris for the hard work and study it must have taken to produce that book.
I second Herb’s review. Good book, easy to read/understand. The charts are really helpful to get everything organized.
CT’s second book is good as well. Again he provides a balance of science and practicality. He outlines many training methodologies and a couple of periodization schemes. I really like the fact that he gives you different training methods, what they do, and a framework to apply them to your own specific needs. He also gives sample periodized programs, which are helpful when trying to organize your own program. The exercises and descriptions are great too. I think that both books compliment each other very well.
I’d say Black book followed by the new one. Black book is more “basic” but is excellent for teaching program design and periodization. The new book compliments black book very well. The Short topics section of the black book is one of my favorite sections
BTW some complained that CT released a lot of the info at his forum over at t-mag before the black books release (true). Personally I think that speaks highly of CT’s character. He’s willing to give info for free, even though he sells the product.
Thanks guys! It means a lot to me to know that my work is appreciated. For me, it is much more important to satisfy my readers than to make a quick buck, so your posts are a true reward.
I’m currently working on a book that will be called “Non-linear periodization: The shortest distance between two points is not always a straight line”. It will focus on pendulum training and CAD training applied to various sports.
I believe BB has a weightlifting program in it, or at least a section on learning the movements. MS does have a writeup on plyos, with a bunch pics of a lot of oly and plyo movements, but doesn’t have an actual program. So for you, probly Black Book.
Good Question. I´m confused too. Especially about the CAD thingie. Another unanswered question, how about the 4 extra chapters? What about the early buyers, who doesn´t have the “soon” available chapters? I think in the future CT just has to answer this questions. Anybody who asked didn´t get a clear answer til now. Furthermore, i have read all the CT-Stuff, and i come to the conclusion that every line in the books have been published already for free at t-mag, newsletters and forumposts. I´m really disappointed about buying the books. 60 bucks for almost nothing what i already have been reading from him before. I don´t wanna disrespect your work CT, but i thought i pay for info that i can´t get anywhere else, but i payed 60 bucks for the mentioned free info.
So let’s see --you think he should be like these gurus who give you zero for free and make you shell out the bucks?? You’re unhappy b/c he gives out so much good info for free
I´m happy to get the info for free. But i am unhappy, that i payed 60 bucks for the same info. Within almost every t-nation article, there is an ad for the books. So i thought that i get more info when i buy these books, but that wasn´t the case. In one t-mag article, there was said that the books have more pics and exercise description in this style:
Also, with the cad, there is a big misinfo in the books. Never again will i buy (e)-books that i can´t preview.
Nevertheless, thanks for all the great free info from your articles and your posts, but the books, big mistake. I printed out the 64 tmag articles, his posts here at CF, some webarchived sites, the newsletters, mp3ed the interviews. But the books, once read, dejavued from the free reads, saved on a cd, put away.
