The 12 Best Strength Training Books

All the information you need to succeed already exists, the problem is you haven’t exposed yourself to it.” – Jim Rohn

This list contains the best books on the subject of strength training and covers foundational science, anatomy, programming, and lifting technique. Read one a month and after a year you will have a solid foundation to design and implement your own program or coach and instruct others. – Ryan Grella

Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning is the most comprehensive reference available for strength and conditioning professionals. In this text, 30 expert contributors explore the scientific principles, concepts, and theories of strength training and conditioning as well as their applications to athletic performance. Its accuracy and reliability make it not only the leading preparation resource for the CSCS exam but also the definitive reference that strength and conditioning professionals and sports medicine specialists depend on to fine-tune their practice.

Starting Strength has been called the best and most useful of fitness books. No other book on barbell training ever written provides the detailed instruction on every aspect of the basic barbell exercises found in SS:BBT3. And while the methods for implementing barbell training detailed in the book are primarily aimed at young athletes, they have been successfully applied to everyone: young and old, male and female, fit and flabby, sick and healthy, weak and already strong. Many people all over the world have used the simple biological principle of stress/recovery/adaptation on which this method is based to improve their performance, their appearance, and their long-term health. With over 150,000 copies in print in three editions, Starting Strength is the most important method available to learn the most effective way to train with barbells — the most important way to improve your strength, your health, and your life.

Designing Resistance Training Programs is a guide to developing individualized training programs for both serious athletes and fitness enthusiasts. Two of the world’s leading experts on strength training explore how to design scientifically based resistance training programs, modify and adapt programs to meet the needs of special populations, and apply the elements of program design in the real world. An important text for students, researchers, and practitioners, this textbook offers the information and tools to help readers evaluate resistance training programs and better understand the context and efficacy of new data findings in this ever-changing field.

The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding : The Bible of Bodybuilding, Fully Updated and Revised. From elite bodybuilding competitors to gymnasts, from golfers to fitness gurus, anyone who works out with weights must own this book, a book that only Arnold Schwarzenegger could write, a book that has earned its reputation as “the bible of bodybuilding.” Inside, Arnold covers the very latest advances in both weight training and bodybuilding competition, with new sections on diet and nutrition, sports psychology, the treatment and prevention of injuries, and methods of training, each illustrated with detailed photos of some of bodybuilding’s newest stars. Covering every level of expertise and experience, The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding will help you achieve your personal best. With his unique perspective as a seven-time winner of the Mr. Olympia title and all international film star, Arnold shares his secrets to dedication, training, and commitment, and shows you how to take control of your body and realize your own potential for greatness.

The Science and Practice of Strength Training shows that there is no one program that works for any one person at all times or for all conditions. This book addresses the complexity of strength training programs while providing straightforward approaches to take under specific circumstances. Those approaches are applied to new physiological concepts and training practices, which provide readers with the most current information in the science and practice of strength training. The book is divided into three parts. Part I focuses on the basis of strength training, detailing concepts, task-specific strength, and athlete-specific strength. Part II covers methods of strength conditioning, delving into training intensity, timing, strength exercises, injury prevention, and goals. Part III explores training for specific populations. The book also includes suggested readings that can further aid readers in developing strength training programs.

Strength Training. Millions of people want to add muscle, get stronger, and look fit as a result. But when they look for expert guidance, they face a sea of self-proclaimed fitness gurus who say they have a can’t-miss program for fast and easy results. So where do you look for solid, no-nonsense advice you can trust from true experts in the strength training field? Inside this book! Written by a team of experts chosen by the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA), Strength Training combines the most valuable information with the best instruction for proven results.

Practical Programming for Strength Training. The most comprehensive book on the theory and practice of programming for strength training in print. There is a difference between Exercise and Training. Exercise is physical activity for its own sake, a workout done for the effect it produces today, during the workout or right after you’re through. Training is physical activity done with a longer-term goal in mind, the constituent workouts of which are specifically designed to produce that goal. Training is how athletes prepare to win, and how all motivated people approach physical preparation. Practical Programming for Strength Training 3rd Edition addresses the topic of Training. It details the mechanics of the process, from the basic physiology of adaptation to the specific programs that apply these principles to novice, intermediate, and advanced lifters.

5/3/1: The Simplest and Most Effective Training System for Raw Strength. The success of the 5/3/1 Method has been nothing short of extraordinary. For the past year, the response towards this simple but brutally effective training system has been overwhelming. This is because it works. And works for just about anyone willing to put in the discipline and work that getting stronger requires Elite level lifters to absolute beginners have all used the 5/3/1 Method; the basic tenets of strength training have and will never change. Big exercises, constant progress, and personal records will never go out of style. High school and college coaches are now using the 5/3/1 with their athletes with amazing success; it is easy to track, implement and will inspire any team to push for themselves to the limit. Powerlifters use this program, for both raw meets and geared meets.

Olympic Weightlifting: A Complete Guide for Athletes & Coaches. Olympic Weightlifting is a comprehensive guide to learning and instructing the Olympic and related lifts. Includes sections on teaching progressions, lift analyses, error correction, programming, competition, supplemental exercises, warm-up protocols, nutrition, and sample training programs. “Simply the best book available on Olympic weightlifting.” Don Weideman, Vice President, Pacific Weightlifting Association. “Without a doubt the best book on the market today about Olympic-style weightlifting.” Mike Burgener, USA Weightlifting senior international coach.

Olympic Weightlifting for Sports. This book focuses on athletes and coaches outside of the competitive weightlifting world to present a method of teaching the Olympic lifts and their variants simply, safely and effectively to all types of athletes. Also includes information on program design and flexibility training to prepare athletes to perform the lifts. “Coach Everett’s Olympic Weightlifting for Sports is a extraordinary product for any sport coach s library. As a proponent of the power clean and its variations for performance training, I found this book to be an outstanding reference for teaching methodology for the Olympic Movements. Coach Everett provides user-friendly terminology for the explanations of these movements. This book is a must-have for any coach who implements Olympic lifts in their program. Joe Kenn, Head Strength and Conditioning Coach, Carolina Panthers

Periodization Training for Sports. Sports conditioning has advanced tremendously since the era when a “no pain, no gain” philosophy guided the training regimens of athletes. In Periodization Training for Sports, Bompa demonstrates how to use periodized workouts in order to peak at optimal times by manipulating six different training phases: anatomical adaptation, hypertrophy, maximum strength, conversion to power, maintenance, and transition. Coaches and athletes in 32 sports have at their fingertips a proven program that is sure to produce the best results. No more guessing about preseason conditioning, in-season workloads, or appropriate rest and recovery periods; now it’s simply a matter of identifying and implementing the information in this book.

Strength Training Anatomy. This one-of-a-kind best-seller combines the visual detail of top anatomy texts with the best of strength training advice. Many books explain what muscles are used during exercise, but no other resource brings the anatomy to life like Strength Training Anatomy. Over 600 full-color illustrations reveal the primary muscles worked along with all the relevant surrounding structures, including bones, ligaments, tendons, and connective tissue. Like having an X-ray for each exercise, the anatomical depictions show both superficial and deep layers and detail how various setup positions affect muscle recruitment and emphasize underlying structures.