Advanced Training Guide

I’m currently trying to find more advanced book or training guide along the same premises of Starting Stregnth. I’ve been weight training for about a year now and have a good concept and some what good knowledge of weight training and lifting. I’m looking to get more serious with it and start improving my body comp and make some great progress and came across SS but I’m looking for something more advanced that’ll include more arm work, isolation movements, and ect. I found a good guide on Bb.com and I have plenty from tnation but if anyone knows any good books or online guides please let me know! I don’t have a trainer but if its something I should Invest in I’ll consider it. Thanks

What are your training goals?
What is your current progress towards those goals?
What do you have available to you to reach those goals?

There are exactly 2,567,865,958 programs and approaches to lifting out there, we will need to know the answer to the above before we can advise you on which of these to follow.

Beyond bodybuilding by Pavel

[quote]card1017 wrote:
I’m currently trying to find more advanced book or training guide along the same premises of Starting Stregnth. I’ve been weight training for about a year now and have a good concept and some what good knowledge of weight training and lifting.[/quote]

Not meaning to be a jerk or anything, but you don’t. I’ve been training for over five years and I don’t. You’ve got more knowledge than you did a year ago is all, and that’s a good thing and something to be proud of and a good base to build on. Just don’t get ahead of yourself.

5/3/1 is great and I think a lot of people have done very well coming off SS going into 5/3/1. The Boring But Big variant may suit you; but there are a huge number of programs out there and any given one will generally give you good results if you follow it and work hard and consistently. Greyskull LP also has a very good reputation, but the key is having a definite goal. That’ll guide your choice.

Don’t get too tied up in the book learning side of it. The knowledge is a great tool but in my time training I’ve found the real learning is done under the bar, trying different methods and seeing how they work for me. I know quite a few people with excellent theoretical knowledge but who get average results because they never put in the work. Read as much as you can but focus on learning in the gym too.

Hi. I have completed reading “The Poliquin Principles: Successful Methods for Strength and Mass Development” by Charles Poliquin. Have you ever heard about it? This book takes the real science behind strength and weight training and uses proven research to help you optimize your training plan.

The books mentioned by Pavel and Poliquin are both very good and I would recommend both of them to further your knowledge.

What you will find when reading most books on training is the authors theories. This is particularly true with Charles Poliquin. It is presented as science but in real terms science is often based on hypothesis that are yet to be actually proven. That doesn’t mean these theories are wrong it just means that they may not be totally correct.

The MAX Muscle Plan by Brad Schoenfield.
This is another book that you will get a lot from .

The great thing about this book is Brad Schoenfield is one of the leading experts on strength and hypertrophy, has gained a PHD in this field and actually bases his work on the large volume of scientific research available. Pretty much everything he says will be evidence based.
Although the book is science based it is presented in a way that is very easy to read. It is nothing like reading an actual science training book with graphs and physics formula like Siff, Zatsiorski & Kraemer etc…none of that here.
Actually this book is very straight forward and I would imagine a trainer at any level could easily follow it and learn a lot along the way.

As the name suggest the book does have a Muscle Plan which is periodised and broken down into cycles and blocks.
Even if you don’t follow the plan you will learn a lot if you can understand why he breaks training down in this manner.

You can pick books up like this as E books for around $15 - $20.

Eric Cressey is another great source. His Maximum Strength and High Performance Handbook are excellent programs. EC doesn’t deal in isolation exercises unless warranted by a deficiency, but you will yoke your back, arms, and shoulders with his emphasis on pulling and external rotation.