Maximum Muscle: The No-BS Truth About Building Muscle, Getting Lean, and Staying Healthy (The Build Muscle, Get Lean, and Stay Healthy Series)

I love all of Mike Matthew's books. The information is clearly laid out, informative, educational funny and easy to understand. Mike doesn't muck around with trying to sell you a new fad. He provides clear data for you to take or leave. If you want to be fit, it takes hard work and determination and Mike provides you with the information to do it. The best thing is that Mike actually pops you an email and personally keeps in contact with you to check on your progress. The books are inexpensive and I recommend buying the lot. My husband and I loved Bigger, Leaner Stronger + Thinner, Leaner Stronger so much on e-book we had to buy the hard copy as well. Mike has his own website with excellent articles written by him and a great online presence through social media (instagram, pinterest etc)... The guy is lovely and a real fitness champion. Try one of his books and see what I mean. Big love Mike! All the best

This book served as a recap to what I was taught in a strength and conditioning class in college. While the information was not new it was a great validation of the principles I was taught. I enjoyed the ease of concepts covered as many fitness books read either like a science textbook with too many terms and calculation. as a skinny guy who is concerned with body image (who isn't, really?), I'm always interested in the science of getting bigger yet remaining lean and keeping up with the endurance sports I love. I would recommend this book to newcomers to fitness and skeptics. A nice cut and dry overview of what it takes and some reassurance that staying fit and building a body you can be proud of is within reach if you stay focused and take care of your body. I look forward to reading more from this author. I'm most interested in creating a simple clean way of eating and in a vegetarian way. while I'm not vegetarian fully, my soon-to-be wife is and I find I feel the best when eating this way. I look forward to reading his book on green eating and fitness. Thanks for this free read. Great introduction to lifetime of health and happiness. Cheers

I read a lot if health and fitness books along with a lot of pubmed. I have also read all of Michael Mathews books. They are really great. I am looking forward to his supplement line. Check out his podcast and website too. If you are a beginner this can probably save you a lot of time and money. If you are advanced or intermediate, you can cut your time down in the gym. I'm currently following the thinner, leaner, stronger program and I really like it. He has great recipes, that my 10 year old will eat, and they are easy for people not so skilled in the kitchen like me. Until he puts out a bad book, I will continue to buy his books.

This book had good information that made a lot of sense. It's nice to finally know that you don't need to spend hundreds of dollars on supplements and other stuff the big companies are pushing to get into shape and look good. Of course if you want the MR. Olympia look then go ahead and steroid up because that's the only way to put on freakish muscle like them. However, this book says, eat right, exercise and make sure you do it the same time everyday and you can have an outstanding "normal" body in a few weeks. Well I'm gonna try I will see how Michael Matthews advice works.

This is a really helpful book, its explanation about several topic an issues widely misunderstood is very clear, furthermore the autor explains in great details the dynamic that govern the simultaneous processes of muscle growth and lost of unwanted fat (such as stubborn viscerall fat). Besides the autor give excellent recommendation for those who want to use supplements, and how to choose the best products wisely.

No BS is chock full of BS especially at the end. The idea of actually gaining muscle through the techniques described that will transform the body into a muscle bound comic book superhero is beyond all reasonable expectations. I was hoping the author would touch on relative proportions and the overall aesthetic appearance percieved by the onlooker rather than numerous references to Greg Plitt's physique. Since when are well endowed obliques a negative body image? Obliques frame the abs, and in decent lighting with certain poses, help to emphasize the adonis belt. Regarding cardio training, no, hiit is absolutely not mandatory. It helps, but the cycling, rowing, running, or any other example given is truly barely scratching the surface. Any exercise that taxes your cardiovascular system can be used to provide aerobic results. I suggest deadlifting with light weight, jumping rope, power cleans, jump squats, and good old fashioned sparring/bag work. Supplements are another head scratcher. Eat fish instead of fish oil. Eat oranges and mangoes for vitamin c, tomatoes for lycopene, grapefruits instead of carnitine. I can't believe there is a whole section dedicated to this. Whole foods make you grow. Abdominal training is the sketchiest part of the book. They appear with a combination of low body fat, little to no bloat/water retention, and to a small degree hypertrophic development. Overall genetics has to do with the entire package as to how they show up on your body. Best ab exercises I employ are dragon flags, L Sits, L Sit pull ups, deadlifts, romanian deadlifts, and squats. Planks, push ups, and v ups also have their place to a small degree. Hypothetically speaking, realistic expectations of muscle gain are between 0 - 10lbs per year with on point diet and consistent exercise with intensity. You want that 30 pounds of muscle in 1 year or less... you are one of the following 1) previously malnourished and underdeveloped thus have the ability to make gains exponentially at the beginning; 2) using dat dere celltech; or 3) not measuring your gains correctly with a measuring tape and calipers.

Great read! Brief, informative, and straight to the point! I recently moved and started at a new gym and decided to try a trainer for the first time. I am also a marketer by profession. Many of the things said in this book are very true. I was debating quitting my personal training because I wasn't seeing the value. This book confirms that decision and gave me the info needed to make some improvements on my own. I think I'll check out more of Michael's books.

The book flows easily, is written in simple terms and one looks forward to next set of information. The value of the book for you will be based upon your knowledge, but I think it reads so quickly that it is probably worth most peoples times. IMO, even if you know some of the material, it never hurts to have a refresher. Training is covered, discussing optimum level of muscular tear and the necessity for recovery time. A training plan, that you can take to the gym is NOT provided. When choosing this book, I was hoping for step by step instructions for exercise and diet. At first I was disappointed that they were not included, but my perception is that no one can anticipate individual needs, recovery times on a mass scale. That being said information IS provided that can assist you with developing your own plans.