Here is a small program I created to calculate both your basal and actual metabolic rates. All units are standard American and it requires Silverlight.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Pure Physique 4/5 Stars
“Unlike other books that provide you with a fad diet or canned workout routines, which fail to maximize your potential and reach your ultimate goal g a leaner, more muscular body. This book provides you with a thorough and comprehensive understanding of the physical and psychological components of exercise and nutrition and how they affect your success or failure.”
The basic premise of this book, described in the quote above, has been espoused in countless articles but not in this level of detail and not in one place. The great thing about it is that you are given an outline of how to craft your exercise routine and your nutritional regime from scratch. The author provides you with the required scientific evidence to guide you but does not dogmatically force you down a rigid path. One of the things that I hate the most is authors who claim to offer the greatest routine/diet/supplementation that exists and all you have to do is follow it. If you make any adaptation of their methods and do not achieve the desired results it’s your fault for making the changes – not matter how slight. The system you follow needs to be adaptable to your needs, your schedule, and your physiology in order to be optimal. Your workout/nutritional system is not a religion and no Personal Trainer is Moses.
There were a few points that I feel this book could improve on. I would have liked it if the author had used some of the copious amounts of whitespace left in this book to show how an individual (perhaps an example trainee or two - one male, one female) would go through the process of creating their own system using his suggestions. The guidance in this respect was minimal. I think a chapter dedicated to this might be nice. Also, my time and money is important to me. I really don’t want a book like this to straddle the line with self-help. I know the psychological aspect of bodybuilding is important, perhaps more important to others than to me, but I felt that aspect of the book could have been removed and room for more practical material could actually have been made. Focusing on this practicality might also make the book better organized. The index in this book is awesome. Very well composed and needed because at times is seemed the author was writing based on the flow of his thoughts rather than in a structured way. But these are minor complaints compared to the book’s content as a whole.
Over all the book is well written and the author explains his point of view and theories intelligently and I highly recommend the book for the advanced beginner/intermediate trainee looking to go to the next step. We’ve probably seen much of the advice before. But finding it clearly and intelligently described in one place that can be used as a continuous reference is golden.
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