Strength Training Anatomy: Book Review

Strength Training Anatomy by Frederic Delavier

Amazon Link: Strength Training Anatomy (Sports Anatomy)

I bought this book for £13.99 at my local Waterstones. I was looking for Starting Strength, but that was unavailable and this one caught my eye.

Basically it is split into sections for bodyparts; Arms, Shoulders, Legs, Back, Buttocks and Abdomen. Each section contains around 15-20 exercises which may be performed on free weights or machines and there are some excellent illustrations with clearly marked muscle names. The illustrations of the person performing the exercise is drawn so that you can see the muscle fibres and clearly understand what is going on under the surface.

 

One of my personal favourite parts of this book is its attention to the possibilities of injury, with full reasoning and explanation as to why certain movements are not advised. Take for example the "dips" which engage the chest and triceps. In this book it explains that you should keep your head position in line with your spine, as the stress of the exercise itself can cause indirect pressure on the neck.

There are also more in depth explanations of health risks, such as the damage that may be caused to the knee joint during leg exercises. These are brightly marked with a yellow page and also fully determine the scientific facts behind the scenes.

Female readers may also be  drawn to this book as it not only shows the female body for many of the examples, but also goes into further detail, such as the reasoning behind rotation of the hips and the differences to men and why certain exercises may be easier or more difficult based on the physiology of the two sexes.

Although this book focuses solely on exercises and the motor functions of the human body, you cant fault its depth and completeness.

I am sure this will be a good read for those just starting out, and a great reference to pick up and absorb nuggets of information along the course of a fitness lifestyle.

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1000 Kilometres, 3 Course Meals & Cycling

For those who read this blog, may have noticed some inactivity on my part for the last week and a half. There is a good reason for this!



See the video above! Me and 4 friends took on a challenge of riding 587 Miles across the Czech Republic, stopping at a new city each night for a week. In each city was a UNESCO site, to add a bit of class to our travels.

Visit the UNESCO website here

On the topic of food, eating vegetarian in the Czech Republic is possible, but not very easy. For the purpose of my ride I needed as much calories as I could handle, as I was burning off between 3 and 5 thousand calories a day. This led to me straying from a perfect clean diet, and yes I ate meat. The Czech lifestyle is very much centred around pork, beef and some chicken and in some cases it wasnt possible to get a vegetarian meal. One place had a choice between a hamburger or pork and dumplings.

So bear that in mind if you are a strict veggie and heading to Prague or one of the other awesome cities.  

On the flipside, it is generally very cheap, especially if you leave the major cities. We managed to get a 3 course meal, and 3 pints of beer for less than £10 each.

Overall we are on course to raise over £1000 for charity, supporting Martins House Hospice for the work they are doing for a sick girl.

Check out the JustGiving page here

Thanks for reading, stay tuned for more blogs in the near future!