Wednesday, September 12, 2007

A Book Review


There is an old saying, "What goes around, comes around", and that seems to be exactly what is happening in the fitness industry these days. I was pleased to hear of a new book on the market titled, "Dumbbell Training for Strength and Fitness” by Matt Brzycki and Fred Fornicola. At a time when the industry has become thick with convolution, Brzycki and Fornicola have cut through the complexity to bring both the beginner and advanced trainer back to school. Almost lost in the shuffle of contemporary training technology, the bookresurrects the basic dumbbell to its rightful position as a very effective workout tool. In researching my own book, I was led to interview co-author Fred Fornicola. Fornicola stressed the emphasis of safety, efficiency, and effectiveness in the training protocols he and Brzycki present in their work. With decades of training experience between the two athletes/authors, they had no difficulties collecting contributions from almost two dozenprominent strength coaches in the industry who share common ground inthe many philosophies of strength training. Brzycki and Fornicola cementthis dumbbell training commonality in a bed of solid coaching information for the rank beginner to the advanced trainer. This is definitely not a book out to simply try to please everyone. The authors are not afraid to challenge some current sacred ground endorsed by many in the coaching field. The controversial applications of sports specific training, explosive training, and training in an unstable environment are examined for soundness and validity. The dumbbell may not be extravagant in its appearance, but its practicality as a very effective training tool can be traced back centuries, even as far back as the Greeks. Our modern day Iron Game pioneers of this century also benefited tremendously from dumbbell exercise, and were training the muscles of the trunk long before "Core and Functional Training" became buzz words. This book should be in the library of every serious trainer out there working in the industry. Matt Brzycki and Fred Fornicola have done a great job in simplifying the unnecessarily complex views of today’s “trends” and collapsing the time required to produce fantastic results with such minimal equipment. The book is excellent, the timing is right; the price is an insult to the experience of these two men. Good work Matt and Fred! - Randy Roach, Author of “Muscle, Smoke & Mirrors”

Order Your Copy HERE