The Dutch philosopher, scholar and priest Erasmus once joked: “When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have leftovers, I buy food and clothes.”
that’s a human with a curled head.
You are reading: Best fitness books of all time
While Erasmus focused on the health of the soul, his statement is equally true if you want to maximize the health of the body.
Simply put, reading great books on health and fitness is one of the most effective ways to build a body you can be proud of.
However, that begs the question: what are the best fitness books?
We all have limited time, energy, and attention, and you want to make sure you invest these precious resources in books that offer the highest return on investment. In other words, you should focus on reading books that offer the best insights, tools, and how-to’s to help you achieve your fitness goals.
That’s what you’ll find in this article.
If your goal is to lose fat, build muscle, get stronger, stay healthy, live longer, or perform better in and out of the gym, these are the books to start with:
the best ones to start with are . . .
- initial strength by mark rippetoe
- bigger thinner stronger by michael matthews
- leaner leaner strong by michael matthews
- a guide to flexible dieting by lyle mcdonald
- peak performance by steve magness and brad stulberg
- muscle for life by michael matthews
- the bible of triathlete training by joe friel
- 5/3/1 by jim wendler
- the little black book of training motivation by michael matthews
- strength training anatomy by frédéric delavier
- beyond big thinner stronger by michael matthews
- all about weightlifting by tim henriques
index
1. initial force by mark rippetoe
If you’re serious about strength training, you should read Mark Rippetoe’s Starting Strength.
is the most comprehensive barbell weightlifting guide you’ll ever read, explaining everything you need to know to squat, bench press, overhead press, and deadlift safely and effectively.
Each chapter focuses on a particular exercise, breaking down the main challenges and characteristics of each movement, showing multiple images of the correct and incorrect form, and explaining which “cues” (mental reminders) work best to mark the correct technique. .
The reason starting strength has (deservedly) gained cult status is that it’s simple, effective, and suits many different goals. Whether you want to get strong, build muscle, become more resistant to injury, improve athleticism, or age more gracefully, Starting Strength can help.
and if you like starting strength, you’ll probably also like mark’s practical programming book, which takes a closer look at how to design exercise routines.
The only area the book is lacking in is dietary advice, so if your primary goal is to lose weight or build muscle, you’ll want to start with one of the following two books (and then read starting strength). . .
2. bigger, leaner, stronger by michael matthews
What starting strength is to barbell training, bigger, stronger is to improving body composition.
is the ideal exercise book for men who want to gain muscle, lose fat and get healthy. specifically, it is aimed at men who have yet to gain their first ~15-20lbs of muscle (either due to poor timing or because they are new to the gym).
Unlike other “weight loss” books, it doesn’t insist that you follow a particular diet or training approach. instead, it teaches you the grammar of fat loss and muscle gain, helping you build an amazing body no matter what diet or exercise program you follow.
also gives you clear, specific instructions on how to do everything in the book, from creating a meal plan to warming up for workouts to building a supplement plan that works for you. no stone is left unturned.
after reading this book, you may also enjoy beyond bigger, leaner, stronger, which offers a new diet and training program to help you keep growing and getting stronger afterward. that his rookie gains are gone. more on that in a bit.
3. thinner thinner stronger
slim, slimmer, stronger is like bigger, slimmer, stronger but for women, which means it includes advice on diet and training that are more in tune with female physiology, preferences, goals, and challenges
The fundamental teachings and systems of both books are the same, but there are subtle differences in the details of exercise programming and nutrition for men and women.
3. a guide to flexible dieting by lyle mcdonald
lyle mcdonald was one of the first people to beat the drums in favor of a style of eating known as flexible dieting. In fact, she coined the term in 2005 when she published A Guide to Flexible Dieting.
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The book is based on a simple, counterintuitive and profound idea:
People who take a black and white, all or nothing, no pain, no gain approach to dieting usually fail; And people who take a more relaxed, patient, and committed approach are often successful not only at losing weight, but also at keeping it off. the tortoise beats the hare, basically.
The key, of course, is to be flexible enough to enjoy and stick to your diet while steadily losing weight and keeping it off, and that’s what this book teaches you to do.
If you’ve ever had trouble losing or maintaining your weight and felt “there must be a better way,” A Guide to Flexible Dieting is for you.
5. peak performance by steve magness and brad stulberg
If you like to pursue big goals in your personal and professional life, but sometimes feel drained, rushed, or frustrated as a result, this book is for you.
is an insightful and practical overview of the science of maximizing your long-term mental and physical performance.
Although you’ll find much of the information on peak performance in other personal development books, the authors’ experience in competitive sports (magness) and corporate america (stulberg) gives their teachings a unique style. taste. both ultimately overreached and undermined his aspirations, and his book is full of insights on how to avoid the same fate.
A lot of his advice rang true for me in particular, as I found myself in a similar situation to Steve’s after competing in high level triathlons as a teenager, only to realize that swimming, biking and running fast was not a rewarding path to walk during most of my waking hours.
I particularly enjoyed your guide to finding and formulating purpose in all areas of your life to help guide your day-to-day decision making. this “big picture” approach helps hone your decision-making and maximize your full potential over time, rather than seeing success as a series of rat races from one short-term goal to the next.
If you want to learn simple, effective and sustainable strategies to find your purpose and consistently work towards it for months, years and decades without burning out, you will enjoy peak performance.
6. muscle for life by michael matthews
There are millions of men and women in their 30s, 40s, 50s and over who are overweight, out of shape and deeply unhappy with the way they look and feel, and don’t know what to do about it.
Many of these people feel that it is too late to get in shape, that they have missed the fitness ferry and that the ship will never turn again.
Also, when they’ve worked up the courage to try to eat better and exercise, nothing seems to change much and they sink deeper into a state of “learned helplessness” with each failed attempt.
however,
here’s the truth: Research shows it’s never too late to build muscle, lose fat, and get healthy, and muscle for life provides a time-tested model based on in the science of eating and exercise that can help anyone get fit, no matter their age or circumstances.
principles, systems and programming are made from the same cloth as bigger, thinner, stronger and thinner, thinner, stronger, but muscle for life is aimed at slightly older folks who need a simpler, gentler introduction to proper nutrition and training that still delivers the goods.
Whether you’re a beginner looking for a lifestyle change, a lifelong athlete looking to reach the next level, or something in between, muscle for life will show you how to look, feel and give The best of you. It may be the last exercise book you need to read.
7. joe friel’s bible of triathlete training
If you’ve been bitten by the endurance sports bug, you’ll have a thorny problem to solve:
How do you stay faster without training full time or getting injured?
In other words, how do you make your workouts as productive as possible to keep pushing your fitness limits, while also meeting your obligations at home and work and staying healthy?
This is especially true for triathletes, who have to train for three very different sports at the same time, and The Triathlete Training Bible offers the best solution of all the books I’ve read.
friel explains the physiology of endurance sports, the basics of proper training and periodization, and offers sage advice on what kind of mindset you need to excel in triathlons. what makes this book unique is that all the systems, tools, and tips are highly relevant to whatever sport you want to play.
For example, his system for budgeting training time throughout the week, month, and year is just as applicable to a runner, weightlifter, or golfer as it is to a triathlete. heck, it’s a good system for any area of your life. the same goes for chapters 10 and 11, which try to thread the needle between training load and recovery.
One of the book’s most powerful lessons is that consistent, moderate, purposeful training always trumps sporadic, extreme, haphazard training. The secret to excelling in endurance sports is to put in the time year after year, not to overwhelm yourself with training in the months or weeks leading up to a competition.
At heart, he teaches you how to be your own best coach, and when I was a young half-breed, I used many of his methods to complete over 100 triathlons, foot races, and bike races, and won many. In hindsight, I would have been even better off if I had taken the advice in this book more seriously.
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Whether you want to compete in endurance sports or just enjoy them recreationally, you’ll enjoy the triathlete’s training bible.
8. 5/3/1 by jim wendler
5/3/1 (often called “wendler 5/3/1”) is a strength training program and self-titled book that helps you get as strong as possible , as fast as possible, as fast as possible. as safely as possible.
To understand the value of 5/3/1, however, you must first understand a little about Jim Wendler.
After a successful college football career, Wendler became possessed by weightlifting, eventually weighing over 1,000 pounds in the squat, 675 pounds in the bench press and 700 pounds in the deadlift. In the process, however, he too became overweight, overtrained, and disengaged.
As Wendler confesses in the book, “I was about 280 pounds and I wanted to be able to tie my shoes without turning red. I wanted to be able to walk down the street without getting out of breath.”
After losing weight on diet alone, Wendler decided he wanted to get strong again, but he didn’t want to follow the slow, complex programs he had used as a weightlifter.
After elaborating on the many training programs he had followed over the years, he created a basic but highly effective program which he called 5/3/1.
In essence, Wendler took the most useful features of the most advanced weightlifting programs and used them to create a minimalist routine that could work for anyone. however, the main feature that sets 5/3/1 apart from other training programs like Starting Strength is its unique progression system.
To ensure you get as strong as possible as quickly as possible, Wendler asks you to increase the weights in a specific way that makes for very productive short workouts, going from 5 reps to 3 to 1 over a series of weeks. (hence the name).
5/3/1 is not ideal for everyone (its main drawback is that it has a very low volume, which is not optimal for more advanced lifters), but it is an excellent Introduction to periodized strength training. while not everyone needs to try 5/3/1, it’s a great way to learn how periodization works and is particularly effective for establishing prs after a training phase of Greater volume. .
9. the little black book of exercise motivation by mike matthews
the little black book of training motivation is a book that helps you overcome the mental blocks that keep you unmotivated, unhappy and unhealthy.
It’s packed with wisdom and insights from hundreds of scientific studies and dozens of artists, authors, entrepreneurs, philosophers, and legendary commanders to help you fix the biggest things that keep you from doing and accomplish the things you care most about.
Plus, it includes a 100% hands-on, hands-on plan for personal transformation, in and out of the gym. Whatever your reason for wanting to improve your mindset, skills, and lifestyle, The Little Black Book of Exercise Motivation has tips to help.
10. anatomy of strength training by frédéric delavier
Many books explain how to use different exercises to train different muscle groups, but none are as comprehensive as Frédéric Delavier’s Anatomy of Strength Training.
The description of each exercise is brought to life through detailed anatomical drawings showing which muscles each exercise works and how different positions affect muscle recruitment and surrounding structures such as bones, ligaments, tendons and connective tissues.
Delavier studied human anatomy for years (and even performed autopsies on humans), and his understanding of the human body and creative craft make this book a utilitarian work of art. If you want to better understand how your muscles work during all of the most common strength training exercises, Strength Training Anatomy is the book for you.
11. Beyond Big, Thinner, Stronger by michael matthews
When you first start lifting weights, progress is easy, especially if you’re eating smart and following a well-designed exercise routine.
after your first year or two, however, the game changes and you need to adjust your diet and training regimen to continue to progress.
and that’s where beyond bigger, thinner and stronger comes into play.
Beyond Bigger, Lean, Stronger picks up where Bigger, Lean, Stronger ends and explains the science of building muscle and losing fat as intermediate or advanced weightlifter.
if you want to continue pushing levels of strength and muscle, setting new personal records, and building your best body long after your “rookie gains” are over, then beyond big, most strong is essential reading. .
12. all about weightlifting by tim henriques
powerlifting consists of lifting as much weight as possible in a single repetition of squat, bench press and deadlift (in that order). And while competitive weightlifting isn’t everyone’s cup of tea (nor is it mine), you can learn a lot about building muscle and strength by studying the sport.
In All About Weightlifting, weightlifting coach and competitive weightlifter Tim Henriques examines the sport of weightlifting from every angle. You’ll learn about the history of weightlifting, specific technical tips for improving your squat, bench press, and deadlift, what equipment to use and how to use it correctly, scheduling weightlifting workouts, preparing for your first meet, and more.
if you are interested in becoming as strong as possible, then you will enjoy reading this book.
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