Truely the Bible of Bodybuilding!

This book is a masterpiece. The motivation you will gain from reading this book is worth the price alone, even if you don't follow Arnold's routines. I feel like Arnold is speaking directly to me when I read this book. This book inspired me to become a serious bodybuilder in my spare time. To the reviewers who complain about the routines in this book causing overtraining, you have a lot more to learn about bodybuilding and how training for it evolved. The fact is people must condition their body to handle more intense training. If you suddenly go from a zero to two hours a day program then your body will not respond because it is still too weak! The notion today that hitting the muscles three times a week is overtraining is incorrect. Bodybuilders who DIDN'T take steroids to achieve their success (Bill Pearl, winner of several Mr. Universe titles) train 3 days a week. The body will adapt. Also, Arnold stopped using steroids several years ago. He still looks awesome and he obviously is probably training under the same programs he advocates.

Must have reference

When I first got this book (shortly after it was published) I was a bit skeptical because it seemed to go against a lot of what I had been reading. Now that I've had it for a while I really believe it is a fantastic reference guide and one of the most complete bodybuilding books around. It covers virtually every exercise you can think of in great detail -- how to perform the exercise, which part of the muscle is used, etc. Beyond this it contains a wealth of information about designing training programs for different body types and skill levels and how to prepare to be a competitive bodybuilder.

I still question some of the training schedules (lifting 6 days per week really seems like a lot to me), but it is worth the money just as an exercise reference -- even if you aren't interesting in competitive bodybuilding. Whenever I am changing my training program or looking to verify my form I consult this book.

Great Fitness Book

Great reference book for anybody who is serious about fitness or body building.