Customer Rating: 
Summary: A "must have" for all bodybuilders around the world!
Comment: I am running a succesfull gym since 2001. Since 2001 I've bought 30-40 books for bodybuilding and sports or dieting.
It's the best book I found and very helpfull for everyone.
Excellent knowledge, very good practical advises on workout training day.
Top workout programms. There is nothing missing on this book. Dieting and nutrition also!
Thanks a lot to the writter of this book, it's a tough durable tool for any proffesional on fitness industry.
5 star is the correct rating for this!!!
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Should be a part of every bodybuilders library.
Comment: Although dated this book contains good information and guidelines to advance your training. Every new bodybuilder should study this book!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Informative and Enjoyable Compilation of Ironman Articles
Comment: I've been reading this Ultimate Bodybuilding Encylopedia for the last few weeks and I find it very useful and motivating.
This is very different than Arnold's encylopedia, not better or worse just different. If you want a systematic and comprehensive guide to bodybuilding exercises and their performance then Arnold's is what I would recommend. Note that (in my opinion), many of the routines are geared more for someone w/ performance enhancing drugs and would severly overtrain most natural bodybuilders. Still, Arnold's book is incredibly comprehensive and has been updated since the original release.
The Ironman encyclopedia is more of a collection of articles from Ironman issues over the years. The great thing about that is you get a variety of points of view and approaches which is excellent.
The price of the book is VERY inexpensive compared to what one would have to pay if you were to buy the same volume of valuable information in magazines.
Personally I'm not a big fan of the overall direction bodybuilding has gone with the extreme juice monsters, but this book has a mix of material that can cater to a natural bodybuilder as well as those into the more extreme aspects of the sport. In addition to the many excellent articles, there are photographs which contain bodybuilders from both "schools" of bodybuilding which is not something you find very often.
I've recently purchased the Ironman Natural Bodybuilding Book which is also excellent for those interested in focusing specifically on a drug free approach (though certainly some of the extreme supplementation used by "natural" bodybuilders almost approaches a middle ground between completely natural and pharmaceuticals).
For me the most important thing has been learning the difference between how to approach training from a natural point of view. I train for health and appearance, but not even remotely with the idea of competition, and it's been great to learn so much about how to workout hard without overtraining, especially for someone drug free like myself.
A lot of attention is paid to the fact that natural bodybuilders/weight trainers really have to learn how NOT to overtrain, something I most definitely did many years ago. I worked out way too much and really hit a wall.
Anyway, the different articles contained in this book has a plethora of interesting information that I think most people interested in pumping iron will find useful and enjoyable to read.
Another thing I really appreciate in the book is the honest discussion of the various drugs being used by non-natural bodybuilders. I especially liked the fact that Ironman had the guts to have interview with the anonymous IFBB Olympia competitor who frankly discusses the insane drug combinations he uses to stay competitive and the dangerous health issues he faces from that use. It's such an over the top interview that it actually had me going "Is this for real?", but most certainly it is. I've talked with several athletes who have used performance enhancing drugs and they suffered greatly from the side effects so this interview rang true to me.
It still amazes me that the IFBB hasn't tried to clean up and legitimize this sport into a sport that people can take seriously. Instead, they've taken a great sport and turned it into a freak show. They've created an environment that is horrific for the athletes, men and woman who should exemplify health and instead exemplify drugs. This Ironman book, while still featuring many "juiced up" bodybuilders, at least doesn't shy away from the truth about these drugs where many other publications have a "don't ask don't tell" approach.
Highly recommended!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Very Resourceful
Comment: I always rely on this book, scanning over and over certain mass-gaining strategies, like the featured article, "Compound Aftershock", which is an awesome biceps/triceps program that potentially explodes your arms. This book is awesome because it includes 3 to 5 pages of weightlifting stories from classic natural bodybuilders like Bill Pearl, Larry Scott, Mike Mentzer, Arnold, Tom Platz, and others too. For instance, Tom Platz explains how he made his legs huge and musculur. Also, how Larry made his football-sized biceps grow so huge with his routine. One bodybuilder will tell you that a good triceps exercise for gaining triceps mass is the decline barbell extentions, which is very effective for me when I superset it with dumbell kickbacks. I've never seen this type of growth before.
I've only read half of the book so far and yet I'm gaining mass.
If you have trouble gaining mass, scan over the "Training With A System" section. It makes you see your mistakes with the possibility of overtraining, using too much weight, inefficient diet, or too much strees. This article shows you how to prevent it.
Ironman's section on the mental aspects of training is especially motivating and convincing--making you eager to workout and get huge.
The Nutrition aspect of this book is weak though. One article is about vegetarianism, which I have no clue why they introduced such an inappropriate diet for a bodybuilder. However, they still give a few pages of bodybuilding type diets that you can gain mass upon.
This book will never bore you because I find that I am always reading new ways to build mass from reading this book and that has helped me eliminate worthless workout routines. Anybody who bodybuilds naturally should get this book, as this book unleashes very clever and strategic workout routines. Buy it now and you will become more motivated that ever!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Terrific Paperback Compendium For Workout Enthusiast!
Comment: Other than regular access to a good gym with all the right equipment and all the necessary nutrition, nothing is so important to the aspiring bodybuilder than information, and everyone from the neophyte to more experienced muscle bombers will find everything they need to grow into the body they dream of in this wonderful bodybuilder's encyclopedia. Culled from a variety of sources from deep within the culture of the west coast bodybuilding havens of Venice Beach and Santa Monica, this compendium of relevant information and sage advice has been produced by veteran bodybuilding coach Peter Sisco, who used extensive interviews with bodybuilding stars and the mounds of information produced by research technicians associated with Ironman magazine, who also produced a wide variety of helpful publications such as this one. You will find everything you need here, from the best way to flare your quadriceps to the best way to widen your shoulders by bombing the lateral heads of the deltoids. Given all this, the book is both highly informative and quite inspirational, showcasing a number of recent bodybuilding luminaries, using both photographs and drawings to illustrate correct exercise performance, useful training techniques, and the latest in scientific breakthroughs that are on the very cutting edge of what contemporary bodybuilders are using to constantly attempt to get even bigger, stronger, and more striated and cut. Using the treasure-trove of Ironman's photographic archives, Sisco has produced one of the best single volume works covering the waterfront of bodybuilding yet. It compares well to the standard Weider's "Ultimate Bodybuilding", Schwarzenegger's version of the book, and even Bill Pearl's superb "Keys To The Inner Universe". This is a book that works well for the bodybuilding enthusiast wanting or needing a handy reference volume he can throw in his gym bag and read between sets at the local iron dungeon. Enjoy!
