Ask The Readers: Which Products Do You Want Me To Review?

Jun 27th, 2008 by Mehdi Posted in Strength Training

After the Maximum Strength review a few weeks ago, several readers asked me for more reviews of products I recommend. I read tons of books, watch DVDS & documentaries all time time, so why not.

The following is a non-definite list of products related to building muscle & losing fat through strength training that I liked. There’s a lot more that I didn’t put on this list because I prefer you to tell me what you’d like me to review.

Strength Training

Dinosaur Training by Brooks D. Kubik
Infinite Intensity by Ross Enamait
Practical Programming for Strength Training by Mark Rippetoe
Rock, Iron, Steel by Steve Justa
Science & Practice of Strength Training by Vladimir Zatsiorsky
Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe
The Art of the Deload by Eric Cressey
The Ultimate Off-Season Training Manual by Eric Cressey

Nutrition

Anabolic Diet by Mauro Di Pasquale
Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle by Tom Venuto
Gourmet Nutrition by John Berardi
Metabolism Advantage by John Berardi
Precision Nutrition by John Berardi
The Ultimate Diet 2.0 by Lyle McDonald

DVDs

Building The Efficient Athlete by Mike Robertson & Eric Cressey
EliteFTS Bench Press Index by Dave Tate
Everything’s over My Head by Dan John
Inside/out by Mike Robertson & Bill Hartman
Magnificent Mobility by Mike Robertson & Eric Cressey

Equipment/Supplements

Ivanko Gripper
Jumpstretch Bands
Optimum Nutrition Whey
Myprotein.co.uk whey, fish oil, vitamins.

What Do You Want?

Which products do you want me to review?
Which products not on the list do you want me to review for you?
How often do you want to see reviews? (I’m thinking 1-2/month max)

Share in the comments below.

For a quick, complete guide that will help you build muscle & lose fat through strength training, download StrongLifts.com FREE eBook. Get your free copy today: click here.

63 Responses to “Ask The Readers: Which Products Do You Want Me To Review?”

on 27 Jun 2008 at 3:13 pm1paul

Dinosaur Training by Brooks D. Kubik and Practical Programming for Strength Training by Mark Rippetoe seem like good ones to review
on 27 Jun 2008 at 3:49 pm2bret k

Any of Dr. Barry Sears’ books on the Zone Diet would be awesome.
on 27 Jun 2008 at 4:04 pm3Alex

I’d like to know about the stuff from Zach Even-esh.
Any book from iron mind.
there’s also a bunch of interesting looking manuals at Elitefts.
on 27 Jun 2008 at 4:25 pm4Stephen A

My vote is for Magnificent Mobility
on 27 Jun 2008 at 4:34 pm5Kyle

Have you read Eric Cressy’s The Ultimate Off-Season Training Guide? I want to know some more about that. Also some reviews on Practical Programming for strength training would be beneficial to the blog considering you relate to it alot, and a review of Precision Nutrition would be nice.
on 27 Jun 2008 at 4:46 pm6Philip

Science & Practice of Strength Training by Vladimir Zatsiorsky
Hi Mehdi, this is great book with useful info on periodization, accommodation etc.. I read 1st 2 chapter on google books, but its little scientific.
on 27 Jun 2008 at 4:58 pm7RyanH

I’ve seen most of these so, I’d like to see Cressey’s The Art of the Deload & Building the Efficient Athlete.
on 27 Jun 2008 at 4:59 pm8Adam

I would love to see you talk about http://www.crossfit.com and their unique workout program. While they are different from you, there is a lot of overlap. They do mainly compound movement exercises and lots of squats, deadlifts, etc… I’d like to hear your perspective.
In terms of diet I’d like to see you talk about the paleo diet and the zone diet.
on 27 Jun 2008 at 4:59 pm9swedishchef

I’d say inifinite intensity!

I’d consider it an introduction to something different then we stronglift readers are used to. Plus Ross kicks ass
on 27 Jun 2008 at 5:01 pm10BS

I’d like to see your reviews for Practical Programming for Strength Training and Science & Practice of Strength Training
on 27 Jun 2008 at 5:03 pm11John

My votes: Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle by Tom Venuto and natural hormonal enhancement by Rob Faigin
on 27 Jun 2008 at 5:05 pm12Ravensron

Please do review Dinosaur Training.
on 27 Jun 2008 at 5:08 pm13patrick

hydroxycut as a meal supplement
on 27 Jun 2008 at 5:13 pm14simon boyce

What about good web sites you’ve come across? I’d like to nod to mtbstrengthcoach.com - it’s aimed at mountain bikers, but James Wilson has been preaching the gospel of hip and thoracic mobility, etc. for a long time, and he has lots of good stuff on recovery strategies, and other things that are relevant to all of us. Also stumptuous.com is good for beginners, and targeted at female lifters.

What happened to the post on losing fat fast? Seems to have disappeared.
on 27 Jun 2008 at 5:14 pm15Lana

I would like to hear what you have to say about “Burn the fat, feed the muscle” Thank you.
on 27 Jun 2008 at 5:16 pm1645auto

excellent list! I’d like to see bulletproof knees added possibly.
on 27 Jun 2008 at 5:16 pm17Tristan

I’d like to see a review of any of the nutrition books. I’ve been looking for a good book on nutrition for strength training, but am not sure what to get.
on 27 Jun 2008 at 5:23 pm18Mike

I know you aren’t big into gizmos, but what is your opinion of the Frank Zane Leg Blaster? For me it provides a nice periodic break from squats while allowing the user to control the amount of assistance.
on 27 Jun 2008 at 5:36 pm19Andrew

My vote is for “Practical Programming” by Rippetoe and Kilgore
on 27 Jun 2008 at 5:39 pm20Enigma

Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle by Tom Venuto
on 27 Jun 2008 at 5:47 pm21bret k

Adam

Let me preface this by saying I too would love to hear Mehdi’s opinion on crossfit, and I am not an expert by any means.

I am a crossfitter and have experienced excellent success in fitness gains. Crossfitting and following a paleo/zone diet will lead to fat loss, muscle gain, fitness improvement (probably beyond your imagination if you workout with intensity), and good health.

But, for me anyway, it did not make me much stronger (in terms of max efforts, 3RM, 5RM) after a period of time. I stalled out in the squat and deadlift. I could deadlift 225# twenty-one straight times and then rip off twenty-one handstand pushups as part of a longer metcon workout, but could pull 335# only 3 times.

So I went to Coach Rippetoe’s Barbell Certification (through crossfit) in Ann Arbor. Learned a lot, went through a 2 month strength phase, and improved form as well as gained strength. Now I am trying to incorporate 3-4 crossfit workouts and 2-3 strength workouts per week, sort of a hybrid. Just an experiment. I expect to do a few more strength cycles before going back to crossfit full time. I *think* this is my best strategy for being very strong and very fit (crossfit will make most people strong and very fit, but not VERY strong and very fit). Even Rip criticized (in a positive way) crossfit for a lack of back squat work.

IMO, crossfit won’t get you a 400# squat without extra squat work, or a 500# deadlift without extra deadlift work. But it will improve just about every aspect of your fitness, from balance to speed to power, force you to learn new movements, develop your mental toughness (many of the workouts require a certain toughness just to complete, much less to complete with intensity), improve your body composition, and keep training from getting stale. I would give you personal numbers, but internet numbers are meaningless and I am not trying to brag — just know that crossfit makes people better athletes.

IMO, people doing crossfit might be better served to gain starting strength through a 5×5 program or Rip’s program before going all out on crossfit. Also, people must be sure to get technique down before trying to workout with ridiculous intensity levels. I don’t believe that crossfit is dangerous when performed by the knowledgable and/or properly supervised, but beginners need coaching on a lot of the movements, particularly the O-lifts. Indeed, when done properly, crossfit is no more or less dangerous than other weightlifting enterprises. But beginners should approach it, as most things, with care and thought.
on 27 Jun 2008 at 6:21 pm22aris

starting strength from m.rippetoe would be good
on 27 Jun 2008 at 6:26 pm23Ivan

Please review “Burn the fat feed the muscle”
on 27 Jun 2008 at 6:33 pm24Tom

Like Adam, my vote is for Crossfit as well. I stopped my regular gym training and opted to start following some of the Crossfit principles. I am loving it. The diet portion (zone, paleo) would be awesome too. Keep up the good work, man! I am a fan.
on 27 Jun 2008 at 7:07 pm25Vivek

I would really like to know whether “Magnificent Mobility” is really worth its money. Ie whether it would really increase the amount you can lift and fix muscular imbalance.

-Vivek
on 27 Jun 2008 at 7:13 pm26Jaison

I think you should just take your time and review all of them. One from each category per week perhaps?

All of the products are worthy of review!
on 27 Jun 2008 at 7:15 pm27Anthony.

Robert Dos Remedios - Men’s Health Power Training

and Crossfit too.

Thank you!
on 27 Jun 2008 at 7:40 pm28Jordan

How about Build Muscle, Lose Fat, Look Great: Everything You Need to Know to Transform Your Body by Stuart McRobert?
on 27 Jun 2008 at 8:07 pm29bigwhat62

art of the deload, science and practice of strength training and the efficient athlete.

1-2 monthly is great.
on 27 Jun 2008 at 8:22 pm30Ben

Dan John - Everything’s Over My Head
on 27 Jun 2008 at 8:42 pm31Donnie

Precision Nutrition.
on 27 Jun 2008 at 9:17 pm32kdr927y69tgyv

I’d like to see articles on different goals for strength training. I know you’re philosophy is to gain as much strength as possible as quickly as possible. I like your articles on which exercises to do and how to do them correctly (and they’ve influenced how I work out) which is why I read your blog. But, my goals are not what you are advocating. I’m a lot older than you and I’m mostly interested in preventing muscle loss, unaccostomed use injuries, and general feebleness that accompanies aging. I lift to maintain some reasonable amount of fitness. Over the years I’ve had various injuries and I have lots of aches and pains. I can’t stress my body the way I could when I was younger. For example, I had to go to the emergency room from injuring my shoulder from doing pullups (this was before I started reading your blog). Now, I have a lat machine on my weight bench and I use it with much less than my body weight. I’m sorry, I’m not going back to the hospital because someone insists everyone should do pullups. I’ve had various problems with my back, I can’t do bent over rows so I do one arm rows with dumbells. Every time I try to do squats I get problems with my knees, maybe I’m too old and stupid to learn to do them right, but I do deadlifts instead. I have low blood sugar, I tried doing cardio after lifting and I couldn’t think normally for two days.
If your’re not laughing now, you’d probably laugh if I told you how little weight I lift. It’s much less than you lift, but a lot more than when I first started. After reaching a pleateau I add weight very gradually. My attitude is that in the long run I am more likely to stick with working out if I don’t push myself too hard, so I don’t. I know how my mind works. There are things in my life I work very hard at and at which I am fanatical about, but lifting is not one of them. I enjoy working out the way I do and I look forward to it and regret it if I miss a workout for one reason or another.

So, I wonder what type of workout is best for someone who is not fanatical about gaining the maximum strength they can attain but just wants to stay reasonably/minimally fit and keep from injuring themselves if they have to do some type of physical activity once in a while. How often should I work out? What exercises? How many reps and sets? I know you want to increase readership of your blog so maybe if you target articles to more types of lifters you might attract more readers.
on 27 Jun 2008 at 9:51 pm33Christi

I would love for you to review Metabolic Repair Manual by Leigh Peele that can be found at http://www.avidityfitness.net
on 27 Jun 2008 at 10:24 pm34Jakson

Protein Power (both books), by Dr. Eades
on 27 Jun 2008 at 11:52 pm35Greg

Another vote for Infinite Intensity. I’ve got his other book, Never Gymless, and use it quite a bit. I’d love to hear your thoughts on II!
on 28 Jun 2008 at 12:07 am36Irish Mick

Long time lurker here. I’ve been enjoying your site for quite some time now. As for reviews, I’d rather see you focus on products/authors that are not as well known. Guys like Dan John, Ross, and Rippetoe are already known by most here. We already know they have good material.

Why not focus on some lesser known names who have useful material to share? I’d rather learn about something new, rather than hearing what we already know.

Mick
on 28 Jun 2008 at 12:22 am37RJ

My requests, one from each section of the list:

Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe
The Ultimate Diet 2.0 by Lyle McDonald
EliteFTS Bench Press Index by Dave Tate
Ivanko Gripper
on 28 Jun 2008 at 2:14 am38HumptyBackCamel

How about The Development of Physical Strength by Anthony Ditillo.
Publication dates seem irrelevant when it comes to sound training.
I’d definitely like to know what you think about the Dan John DVD set.
Timewise, how ’bout - at your leisure?
on 28 Jun 2008 at 2:24 am39root

Hi

Just as Adam & Tom, a review on crossfit would be great. Always a pleasure reading from Mehdi, as his articles are unbiased, straight to the point, backed with scientific research and no BS salted on it.

Cheers //
on 28 Jun 2008 at 4:23 am40ukdudeinuk

Magnificent Mobility, Infinite Intensity, Crossfit, and Dinosaur Training, in that order.
on 28 Jun 2008 at 4:37 am41haig

I’m casting my vote for a crossfit review as well. I’m doing a 5×5 advanced schedule right now and am going to start crossfit next month 5 days a week. I would love to get your opinion as stated by a previous commenter on how you would possibly schedule a hybrid crossfit/strength training regiment to get VERY strong and VERY xfit.

Aside from that, I take some biotest supplements from t-nation.com, how about some reviews about their supps and attitude. (I take flameout and rez-v).

Oh ya, and a review of Paleolithic diets if possible. It’s close to what nutrition you recommend except of course no grains and dairy so there goes the milk and whey/oats.
on 28 Jun 2008 at 7:46 am42Rugger

I would really love to see a review of the ivanko gripper, because as much as I love the idea of conquering the different CoC grippers, the ability to incrementally increase weight on the ivanko makes a lot more sense to me.

And I vote that you don’t review any of Rip’s books, because it should be given that they’re awesome and everyone should own two copies of each.

kdr927y69tgyv, you may want to take a look at crossfit.
on 28 Jun 2008 at 11:08 am43nbigbox

Infinite Intensity review that please as it is a different style of training as it is geared towards combat athletes (shouldn’t stop anyone else from using the manual) which is good and it also provides the means to create you own training programme
on 28 Jun 2008 at 12:06 pm44Jo

Practical Programming by Rippetoe please
on 28 Jun 2008 at 12:50 pm45Boris

First of all a big thank you to Mehdi for the offer to review more products.

To those looking for a review of Magnificent Mobility: Mehdi has already reviewed it and the link in the list above is to his review (http://stronglifts.com/magnificent-mobility-dvd-cressey-robertson/)

My votes are for more of Cressey’s work:
The Ultimate Off-Season Training Manual by Eric Cressey
Building The Efficient Athlete by Mike Robertson & Eric Cressey
The Art of the Deload by Eric Cressey

Also, some things not on the list:
Under the Bar by Dave Tate
Supertraining by Mel Siff
The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook by Clair Davies
on 28 Jun 2008 at 4:30 pm46Latarian

Dinosaur Training by Brooks Kubik
on 28 Jun 2008 at 6:09 pm47Laurence

Please review Burn the fat, Feed the muscle.
on 28 Jun 2008 at 6:35 pm48lifelongfitnesstips.com

Practical Programming for Strength Training by Mark Rippetoe
would be awesome.
on 28 Jun 2008 at 8:12 pm49tarun

This isn’t really a review, but I hope that you would write an article on how to do an Olympic Snatch. I am hearing that for overall body development, it is better than even the squat.
on 28 Jun 2008 at 10:16 pm50Jon

My vote is for Dinosaur training, and stretch bands. I think it would be cool if not only did you review the good stuff but the bad as well. The bad would be good, because there are lots of fluke/gimmic and crappy products out there that people get sucked into because they saw it on TV. and if there was someone to say this does not work don’t bother buying in to it, that would be great.
on 28 Jun 2008 at 10:48 pm51Hibiki Joji

Hi Mehdi,

Why not putting up a voting poll to make it easier to collect information on which is the most popular?
on 29 Jun 2008 at 12:17 am52HumptyBackCamel

How about a piece on why people think
the Starr/Rippetoe starting strength approach won’t work.
What’s up with that?
on 29 Jun 2008 at 12:25 am53Rob

Hi Mehdi, thanks for the generous offer.
I’d love to see some reviews of George Jowett’s books, but I understand that they may be too expensive to be a practical suggestion. Anyway, take a look if you’re interested: http://www.oldtimestrongman.com/jowett_order.html.
on 29 Jun 2008 at 12:50 am54Chuck

I’d like to see a review of Marty Gallagher’s new book, The Purposeful Primitive.
on 29 Jun 2008 at 3:04 am55thenonhacker

Oh, you already mentioned my preferences:
* Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle by Tom Venuto
* Optimum Nutrition Whey

Please also review:
* Hydroxycut Hardcore VS Applied Nutrition Green Tea Triple Fat Burner
* Swanson (or other brand) L-Glutamine Capsule Form (is powdered better?)
* Swanson (or other brand) L-Carnitine
on 29 Jun 2008 at 5:28 am56Young Athlete

@Alex the zach-esh stuff isn’t really anything to die for it’s basically a longer version of Infinite Intensity/Never Gymless
on 29 Jun 2008 at 1:16 pm57lottadot

I don’t know if this would be your “thing” or not. My wife and I have bad disks in our backs. (I’ve been very careful w/ the squats starting the 5×5, btw, which I love so far). We were looking at one of those devices that you attach your feet into and you flip upside down. We have read that by flipping, it lets your back stretch and release pressure, thereby letting the disks have a greater chance at being more fluid.

We went to a sporting goods store yesterday and tried it. It felt absolutely weird. We don’t know whether it would give either of us relief. I’m curious to know whether these things really work or not. The cost was $250 so this is not cheap.
on 30 Jun 2008 at 3:35 am58thenonhacker

I have already read “Burn the fat, Feed the Muscle”, and I’m glad Mehdi is already recommending it at the sidebar. Looking forward to Mehdi’s review!

The book works for me, and I’m sure it will work for the rest. It takes a holistic approach to many important areas of becoming fit and healthy based on your body type, with a strong emphasis on persistence on achieving goals and informed decisions in nutrition.

But enough reviews from me! I’m sure Medhi can do better!
on 30 Jun 2008 at 5:23 am59Young Athlete

@lottadot

Yoga will do the trick, also hanging, and sleeping flat on your back You’d be surprised but while doing this you can add up to two inches to your height
on 30 Jun 2008 at 6:46 am60jihad4o

The Ultimate Off-Season Training Manual by Eric Cressey
on 04 Jul 2008 at 8:06 pm61Marilyn Ham

I’d be interested in your thoughts about
The Purposeful Primative by Marty Gallagher
on 07 Jul 2008 at 7:19 pm62RUSTIC360

i vote for LIQUID CHALK by elitefts. seems to be a great alternative for those who go to a gym that doesnt allow conventional chalk.
on 30 Jul 2008 at 2:18 am63Aca

In light of your article on gaining for skinny guys, it would be interesting to see a review of “Scrawny To Brawny”: http://www.scrawnytobrawny.com/