MuscleGainTruth - The Review

The Truth About Building Muscle
Sean Nalewanyj of MuscleGainTruth
http://www.musclegaintruth.com

December 2005 I got a note from Sean Nalewanyj of MuscleGainTruth.

He asked me to take a look at his book, bonus items and then let my readers know about it.  And since I'm always a fan of the more information you have, the less likely you'll be to ever get stuck in a rut, I'm going to do just that.

Starting tomorrow, I'll be using this post as a blog to talk about MuscleGainTruth, Sean Nalewanyj and his writing style and what he offers his visitors in his e-mail courses, books and bonus downloads.

Here's a little promo about his book from the site:

In a bodybuilding world where intense marketing hype and exaggeration have become the norm, Sean Nalewanyj has stuck to his guns and provides his readers with a truthful and honest approach to building muscle and gaining strength. "The Truth About Building Muscle" is a complete step-by-step muscle-building system that is jam-packed with valuable information, covering some extremely important topics such as workout structure, proper nutritional techniques, efficient and cost-effective supplementation, injury prevention, cardio and fat loss as well as a large handful of other useful subjects. All of this information is combined into a 250-page, picture-filled, instantly downloadable e-book.

REVIEW:

As with most of these books (including my own), I'm going to just take it one day at a time.

On a side note, I've always noticed that so many reviews are nothing but sales pitches themselves.  Very short, no real info and just a "oh this is the greatest, come see for yourself" and then a buy now link.

While you can review this with me (link below) I urge you to let me go thru it and give you a chapter by chapter take.  You'll know quite a lot about this book by the time I'm done with this thread.

If you would like to join me in this review, get your own copy at

MuscleGainTruth

P.S.  Feel free to ping me if you don't see frequent enough updates.

Marc C. David - NGA CPT
Author of NoBull Bodybuilding
www.nobullbodybuilding.com

Sean has a few pictures...

Doesn't look like a genetic freak (which is good)

Doesn't look like he's a 300 lbs mass monster

Does look lean

Does look like he put some hard work into his physique



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Attached Image(s)

Marc C. David - NGA CPT
Author of NoBull Bodybuilding
www.nobullbodybuilding.com

"8 Things You MUST Do To Build Maximum Muscle Mass"

Sean gives this away as a promo item.  It's a short, different type of Ebook.  I've noticed it's an EXE.  Not much of a fan of those types of books BUT it does work and it's a quick read.

There's also some DNL format as well but that's apparently some other type of reader.

Why it's not Adobe PDF, I dunno. 

Anyway, you can grab your copy here:

Download The 8 Things You MUST Do To Build Maximum Muscle Mass




[image]local://2/B08DF76629BD431CA50FD8783D788031.jpg[/image]

Attached Image(s)

Marc C. David - NGA CPT
Author of NoBull Bodybuilding
www.nobullbodybuilding.com

Sean's Truth About Building Muscle
MuscleGainTruth


Chapter 1 - Introduction
Chapter 2 - The Muscle-Building Philosophy
Chapter 3 - Structuring The Perfect Workout
Chapter 4 - Proper Muscle-Building Nutrition
Chapter 5 - Harnessing Your Inner Power
Chapter 6 - Supplementing For Massive Gains
Chapter 7 - Critical Feeding Times
Chapter 8 - Muscle-Building Myths Uncovered
Chapter 9 - Proper Rest & Recovery
Chapter 10 - Closing Words

Marc C. David - NGA CPT
Author of NoBull Bodybuilding
www.nobullbodybuilding.com

Marc C. David - NGA CPT
Author of NoBull Bodybuilding
www.nobullbodybuilding.com

"You never build a house without blueprints, and this situation is no different."

Chapter 2 simply addresses the question of Why Muscles Grow.  There's not a lot of science here and that's fine but it's an overview of why muscles respond to stimuli to grow, how the body adapts and why you must give your body a reason to grow.

Intensity and Progression!

Key concepts here.  Sean talks about the concepts of intensity and that "The idea of 100% intensity is simply this: every set that you perform in the gym must be taken to the point of muscular failure."

"You must force muscel growth upon your body!"

Intensity

And while this seems odd, it's really not.  Like he said in the Introduction, this isn't a complex science of building muscle but a very good overview.  And once you read thru Chapter 2 and understand why a muscle will or won't grow, it's easy to see that the above statement is very true.

As far as every set being taken to 100% muscular failure, that is a Max-OT concept.  In order to grow you must overload your muscles.  And the way to overload them is to do more weight or more reps.

But the concept in Chapter 2 is preaching weight and training hard and to failure.

If you are trying to avoid the agony of the gym, you get the point that you won't be able to IF you are serious about packing on muscle.

Progression

" Every single time you set foot in the gym you have your plan of attack in mind."

Nothing could be more true.  Having a plan every time you go the gym is imperative.  Not only do you see this in Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle, The Beginner's Guide to Fitness and Bodybuilding but now you see it here as well.  It's a fundamental concept of training.

Going to the gym without a plan, only leads to wandering around and ends up wasting time.

"You absolutely, positively will not experience any appreciable gains in muscular size unless you focus on increasing your strength on each and every exercise you perform."

Another Max-OT style principle.  In order to get big, you have to train big.  Pretty simple huh?

Keeping a Journal

"You absolutely must keep a written record of every workout you perform."

Nothing mind boggling here but you'd be amazed at the number of people who day in and month out, do the same things, same weights, same reps and at the year end, expect something different.

Keeping track of your progress is a key concept to getting to where you want to go.

The Less is More Philosophy

Something that's been talked about on Discussbodybuilding a lot.  Sean doesn't preach marathon training sessions or endless reps and sets.  He simply states in this section that to get the best muscle results you "will only need to spend roughly 1% of your total available time in the gym!"

So this program isn't about 2 hours a day training and doing nothing but training.

It's about sticking with the basic principles of muscle growth and nutrition in order to acheive the optimal results.

"In order to build muscle you must provide your muscles with sufficient recovery time in between workouts!"

The less is more philosophy goes on and it get very detailed but is explained well.

Bottom line is that you'll be working out less with Sean's program but making better gains then you probably have in the past.

Chapter then ends with a brief chapter review.

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What Am I reading?  The Truth About Building Muscle At MuscleGainTruth

Marc C. David - NGA CPT
Author of NoBull Bodybuilding
www.nobullbodybuilding.com

Chapter 3: Structuring The Perfect Workout

"Building muscle is not just about following set-in-stone numbers and exercise procedures, it is about understanding how to make your muscles grow and why certain approaches work better then others." - Sean Nalewanyj

A nice kick-off to the chapter on Structuring the Perfect Workout.  Now here is where Sean dives into the overview of the workouts you'll get with his program.

He put together a precise 26 weeks plan, step by step with all the exercises, sets and reps you'll do but in this chapter, he's just going over key conceps you need to know about training.

Sean talks about:

• The 3 components of a successful workout
  • If you don't follow these steps, you're just wasting your time
  
  
• The hypertrophy phase
  
• Duration
  
• Volume
  
• Exercise selection
  
• Machines vs. free-weights
  
• Resting between sets
  
• Ideal rep ranges
  
• Rep speed
  
• Proper breathing
  
• The cool down phase
  
• Frequency
  
• Taking a week off from training
  
• Total-body training
  
• Leg and arm training
  
• Strength imbalances
  
• Lifting straps
  
• Chapter review

PHEW! 

Alright, I blew thru that I know.  But in these 18 pages, Sean is talking about all the key components of a successful workout.  Things you need to know before you just grab a 30 lb dumbbell and start 'working out.'

Let's examine that.

First you need to warm up.  And it's not just some 5 min warm-up and then you go lift heavy.  Sean goes thru the proper warm-up procedures but really what he does is talk about why you want and need to do this.

His 5x5 Warmup section talks about the proper way to use weight acclimation.  A term coined in Max-OT where you get your muscles ready for the heavy lifting without fatiguing them first!

This was something I used in Max-OT and it worked like a charm.  Do this wrong and you'll end up wasting a lot of energy warming up and you'll wonder why you are getting weaker.

Anyway, Sean does justice to breaking the warmups into an easy to read section.

The Hypertrophy Phase

A few pages on duration, volume, exercise selection, rep ranges, rep speed and rest.

Now what's important about this entire chapter is that when you grab that 30 lb weight, if you know how many sets, reps, breathing, rep speed and such, you will actually get a lot more out of each rep then if you just grab something and go.

I know this sounds like B.S. but I assure you that after 16 years of training myself, you can use all kinds of techniques to make the movement much more effective.

In fact, I'll let the bird out of the bag on this one.

Rep Speeds

"One big error a lot of lifters make is asssigning a set speed to the concentric portion of the rep....  In fact, some stidies show that more muscle breakdown actually occurs on the eccentric phase rather than the concentric phase.  The most important factor when it comes to this part of the rep is that you are in complete control of the weight at all times."

Jeff Anderson, the Muscle Nerd, the author of the Optimum Anabolics program and Tom Venuto of Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle both preach this in their programs and so do I in my own Beginner's Guide.

In fact, if you let gravity take over, you'll lose up to 50% of the benefits of that rep!

Re-read that sentence again.

You can essentially make your workouts 50% more effective if you simply use your muscle to lower the weight then letting gravity do it for you!

I agree with Sean here.  I see so many people letting gravity do the work that 50% of their efforts are lost and ONLY the concentric phase of many workouts is being used.

Learn to use both the concentric and eccentric and you are golden!

If you need to know what those terms mean, you can check out Sean's book or do a Google search. 

In sum, this chapter does a nice job of explaining the structure of the perfect workout.  Sean doesn't talk about exercises here or reps or sets yet but he does go over the key concepts.

You'll be doing a lot of low rep, heavy weight sets with this program which is a lot like Max-OT.  But it's more structured, better written and easier to understand in this context.

Sean is a beliver in:

In order to grow big, you need to train big.  And to train big, you need to lift heavy and go to failure on each and every set.

Of course, as you'll see in this chapter, he's a firm beliver in less is more, making the most of your workouts and you won't be doing countless sets and reps in his program.  His low reps, heavy weight, less sets approach is on track with what AST says and many on this forum have found to work quite well in getting stronger and bigger.

Chapter 4 is about nutrition.  Which frankly, I'm excited to read about! 

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What Am I reading?  The Truth About Building Muscle At MuscleGainTruth

Marc C. David - NGA CPT
Author of NoBull Bodybuilding
www.nobullbodybuilding.com

Sidebar:

Why haven't you downloaded this copy yet?

Download The 8 Things You MUST Do To Build Maximum Muscle Mass

Before I go into Chapter 4 of this review... I looked at the stats for the downloads and it's very surprising that after all the questions still coming into Discussbodybuilding about nutrition, training and such that people aren't gobbling up a chance to read a complimentary copy of this report.

I personally have a big folder on my computer with these reports and over time, there's some damn good info contained in them.

Please make sure you get this ASAP and give it a look over.  The format of this report is the same format of the book itself.

You'll also get a taste of Sean's writing style to see if you like it or not.

Download The 8 Things You MUST Do To Build Maximum Muscle Mass

P.S.  I still wonder why people haven't grabbed their copy of the Top 12 report which you can find in my signature.  After all the posts on 'how many calories do I need'  clearly, it would be of benefit.

P.P.S.  In fact!  That's it.  Just download both.  Give them a good Friday read over.  I think it may motivate you in the gym (if today is a training day for you).

Marc C. David - NGA CPT
Author of NoBull Bodybuilding
www.nobullbodybuilding.com

Chapter 4: Proper Muscle Building Nutriton

The Truth About Building Muscle... pretty much so far is just telling the truth.  Stuff you've seen on this forum, other forums, articles, books, PMS, chat and such.

But it's organized and in this chapter it's very clear that:

"Eat losts, everyday, all the time, at LEAST every 3 hours, even when you don't feel like it, oryou can kiss your muscle gains goodbye!"

The 5-7 meals a day is advocated.  I 100% agree and it's clear what is meant by that as well.

The next 12 pages talk specifically about:

• Calories
  
• Protein
  
• Carbohydrates
  
• Fats
  
• Water
  
• Alcohol

And I mean Sean dives into them.  He gives you the specifics on why each is important to your nutrition (or detremental) and exactly how to calculate the numbers just for you.  Basic math here.  Standard formulas.  Nothing fancy just the facts.

I especially liked the section on Alcohol consumption and why it was not good for optimal muscle gains.  Becuase this is a book about building the maximum muscle, Sean clearly states that alcohol consumption has negative consequences because it:

• Affects protein synthesis
  
• It lowers testosterone and increases estrogen
  
• It dehydrates you
  
• It disrups your sleep
  
• It depleates your body of vitamins and minerals
  
• It increases fat storage

Just for those reasons alone, you can see that anything above moderation will derail your progress.  In fact, many very competitive bodybuilders will not touch alcohol during intense training or upcoming shows just for these reasons.

I liked the blubs under each section that clearly talked more in detail about why this was bad for muscle growth.

Lastly, Sean makes it very clear that there's no need to freak out about the numbers.  I really liked that point.  Once you do all these calculations you feel that if you miss a gram of protein in a day, you are finished, life is over and you failed!

It's clear this isn't the case.  That the numbers are there as a guideline and you do your best to hit them but if you go slightly over or under, it's not a big deal at all.

Skipping meals is much more of a problem. 

Sean's on the money on this one. 

Chapter review just went over the major points he just talked about.  A nice bullet list to remind you of what points about nutrition were fundamental.

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What Am I reading?  The Truth About Building Muscle At MuscleGainTruth

Marc C. David - NGA CPT
Author of NoBull Bodybuilding
www.nobullbodybuilding.com

Comments in this thread welcome... 

Marc C. David - NGA CPT
Author of NoBull Bodybuilding
www.nobullbodybuilding.com

Chapter 5: Harnessing Your Inner Power

"Above and beyond anythingn else, it is your mindset that will determine whether you succeed or fail."

At first, I thought Sean was going Budda on me.  He goes into the mind, visualization techniques, goal setting, creating imaginary situations and using special techniques to harness intensity and push past mental barries.

However, he's right.

If you don't have a clear goal, a reason to accomplish what you want and written and verbal goals, your chances of accomplishing them are much smaller.

One thing I would have liked to see is an actual goal chart.  He talks a lot about visualization of your new body, the reasons for accomplishing this and how you are going to do it and then sign and date this paper.

I think an actual template, maybe a sample of his would have been helpful here to get people to understand that having this in thier wallet is something that would be of benefit to them.

This chapter is a step by step method to strengthening your brain!

The MOST unique portion of this chapter by far that I've not seen anywhere else except in maybe an old 1980's Ninja magazine is the special techniques you can use to take the energy of your mind and put them to the weights.

I found his techniques to be very good, very detailed and he had quite a few of them.

'15 Ways To Make Your Mind Be Your Training Partner"

Should be the title of the next article he sends me.  <Hint Hint Sean>

These were unique and I really liked them.  For a lot of us who do not have training partners, these are things you can use to push yourself in the gym when you don't have a buddy there to do it for you.

It's important NOT to socalize at the gym.  Since you are spending 1% of your time there, you need to focus and make it efficient.  I think we can all agree that if you want to build muscle, you actually need to workout.  And chatting and resting for 10 minutes probably isn't the best thing you can do.

He ends the chapter with how to select a training partner.  I have to agree with the spotting comments he makes as I've had some horrible spotters in the gym.  To the point where I would rather change my workout then ask for assistance from these people.

Chapter review was standard.  Just highlighted the major focal points.

Still, the mental techniques was very good.  I have not seen that before.

I will see if I can get a re-print permissions just for that section in the Training forum....

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What Am I reading?  The Truth About Building Muscle At MuscleGainTruth

Marc C. David - NGA CPT
Author of NoBull Bodybuilding
www.nobullbodybuilding.com

Chapter 6: Supplementing For Massive Gains

Nice catchy chapter title I think.  Works well for what most people want when it comes to supplements.  However, Sean basically says what most of us seem to say on DB:

"In order to build muscle size and strength, supplements are not mandatory."

That's about it.  He then goes on to talk about his own supplement experience but what makes this chapter worth it, he gives you his:

Recommended supplements
Worth a try
Might be worth a try
Don't bother

He lists quite a few broad categories here like creatine and such, so don't be looking for specific brand names in those type of categories other then if he recommends the section as a whole.

However, I tend to agree with MOST of what he recommends.  Not all but hey, it's supplements.  What works for one, may not work for another and it's just part of this program because it's part of bodybuilding in general.

If you want the most size and strength, you will probably embark upon a supplement journey for yourself.  But at least Sean cuts thru the hype and pretty much organizes what we've said on this forum before when it comes to supplementation.

A decent chapter of 20 pages.  It's really quite involved when he describes each category and then goes into detail about why or why you shouldn't believe in a particular supplement.

I'm going to guess this chapter is also has the most technical scientific talk behind it.  It's not overwhelming at all but it is detailed.

At the end, you get a clear view of what you should be shoppping for when it comes to supplements for your building muscle programs.  None of these are going to drain your wallet and 100% of them on his recommended list have been around for years and have a lot of science behind them to back up the claims.

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What Am I reading?  The Truth About Building Muscle At MuscleGainTruth

Marc C. David - NGA CPT
Author of NoBull Bodybuilding
www.nobullbodybuilding.com

Chapter 7: Critical Feeding Times

Sean's given an overview of proper nutrition at this point and now he dives right into the important of post-workout nutrition.  In fact, he states the 3 most important times to eat are:

• Upon waking up
  
• After working out
  
• Before going to bed

Obviously since you've just worked out, your body is entering a state of catabolism and repair.  It's important at this point to eat right and get the nutrients and protein into the muscles.

The chapter covers:

• Pre-workout Nutrition
  • This is where Sean covers what you ingest before you hit the gym, how much of what and why to do it
  
  
• Post-workout Nutrition
  • As the name states, you'll get a good overview of what's occuring after you finish that last brutal set.  He even covers free radicals (something I've been researching myself).  After a workout, you'll want to consume enough protein and carbohydrates to get back on the anabolic track.  There's no secrets here.  Just solid, step by step information on how to eat correctly after a workout.  Many of this is what's been discussed on DB but it's nice to just have the information readily available.
  
  
• Pre-bedtime Nutrition
  • A decent write-up of why you WANT to eat before going to bed.  Most general nutritional sites and articles you have you steer clear of foods before bed but Sean hits the nail on this one.  You are about to go into a sleep mode and you need to fuel your body for the up-coming fast.  Keeping yourself anabolic is the way to gain the most muscle.  Anabolic 24x7x365 is the goal.  Bedtime nutrition is critical. 

The summary is a quick review of what he's talked about already.  But it covers the pre/post/bedtime really well and gives precise numbers for protein, carbs and anything else like Glutamine.  You could almost just copy this and keep it in your wallet just as a reminder of how much of what to take when.

He does give some brief examples of what a bedtime meal would be.  Sounds like my breakfast! 

Nutrition is such an important aspect of building muscle that maybe I didn't give this chapter enough kudos.  If you are one of those people that hits the gym, leaves and doesn't have a shaker bottle in your bag...

You probably aren't getting the gains you could be getting if you just followed the basics of what Sean is describing.  It's no secrets but when it's written down so you can see it, it sure does make a lot of sense.  (saves time looking around on forums and sites too).

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What Am I reading?  The Truth About Building Muscle At MuscleGainTruth

Marc C. David - NGA CPT
Author of NoBull Bodybuilding
www.nobullbodybuilding.com

Chapter 8: Muscle-Building Myths Uncovered

Sean's a reporter now?  Well not really but he does go thru some of the common misconceptions about building muscle.  But he doesn't just list off the myths and give you a two sentence overview.  He gives details, gym experience, what he knows to be true and some personal opinions.

The Myths:

1. In order to build muscle, you must achieve a 'pump' during your workouts.  The greater the pump you achieve, the more muscle you will build.
   
2. You should gague the success of your muscle-building sets on the level of muscle burn you achieve.
   
3. Bodybuilding professionals have more muscle than anyone on the planet.  Therefore, they also have the most muscle-building knowledge.
   
4. Muscle magazines are a good place to do muscle-building research.
   
5. High protein diets should not be followed because they are stressful to the kidneys.
   
6. The body can only absorb a maximum of 30 grams of protein in one sitting.
   
7. Performing high reps with light resistance will make the muscles more cut and defined.
   
8. You should swithc up your routine periodicaly by changing your rep ranges and exercises in order to 'shock' your muscles.
   
9. You can influence the shape of a musle by performing certain exercises.
   
10. Weightlifting will cause you to become bulky, and as a result you will lose your speed, agility and flexibility.
    
11. People who use steroids should be labeled as cheaters because they have an unfair advantage and are sacrificing their health.
    
12. You must perform all of your exercises using perfect, textbook form, or you may injury yourself.
    
13. When you stop working out, your muscles will turn to fat.
    
14. Eating before bed will make you fat.
    
15. In order to achieve an impressive physique, you should use the same techniques as the 'buff' guys at the gym.

And there you have the list of myths Sean talks about.  He gives a lot of detail to back up his point.  99% of the myths I agree with and I've either avoided them because of education or did the mistake myself until I learned.  It would have been nice to avoid them in the first place.

Myth #8 I do not fully agree with.  But you'll have to read his full explanation.  I've tried some programs that do 'shock' the muscle because it's different and new.  While it's still intense and I'm progressing, I like the shock value that my body cannot adapt to the new exercises.

If I keep doing heavier weights, that gets old for me personally.  So the intensity for me is sometimes to 'shock' the muscle by simply doing something differently.

This might be just a case of my own reading of the myth and my interpetation.

Clearly Sean has some great points he's making and if you want to be anabolic and gain the most muscle, you will steer clear of them.

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What Am I reading?  The Truth About Building Muscle At MuscleGainTruth

Marc C. David - NGA CPT
Author of NoBull Bodybuilding
www.nobullbodybuilding.com

Chapter 9: Rest & Recovery

Here's where I fully agree with Sean's, bodybuiding is a 24x7x365. 

You see, most people when they are done training, that's it.  They grow in the gym right?  WRONG!

All you do in the gym is stimulate muscle growth and changes.  It's what you do outside of the gym that will bring bigger results.  And that is your nutrition and rest and recovery.

Some of the concepts covered in this chapter are:

Sleep - and why it's important and how much to get.  There's a description of why it's so darn important and what changes are happening while you are resting.  There's even 7 tips for better sleep.

Injury Prevention - Just covers the warm up, proper form, training within your limits, knowing when to quite, sticking to a schedule and nutrition and supplementation.

Taking Time Off - I once wrote an article about this and basically taking a training break is a good thing.  By taking a break you help to prevent injury.  It's also covered here.  And this is a biggie because many men will NOT take breaks.  They think, if I miss a session, I'll lose everything.  Entirely a myth.  In fact, you'll probably come back stronger and get bigger for it.

Training When You're Sick - Again, covered in a podcast but Sean does it nicely and gives a brief outline of why resting and recovery are important during this time and what to do if you catch a cold right in the middle of the week when you are at the top of your game.

Taking a Day Off - Another deal breaker for many.  How many people freak out when they miss a day of training?  I know I do.  Sean's got some insight here.

Then it ends with the chapter review.  It's just an overall mental view of why bodybuilding occurs outside of the gym and that fitness is a lifestyle and not just a 4 hour a week occurance.

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What Am I reading?  The Truth About Building Muscle At MuscleGainTruth

Marc C. David - NGA CPT
Author of NoBull Bodybuilding
www.nobullbodybuilding.com

Chapter 10: Closing Words

Much like Jerry Springer, Sean does a 1 1/2 page, single spaced closing words type thing.  Which basically gives you a 50,000 foot overview of what he's just told you and that changing your body for the better is a thing of beauty.

I actually wish he'd write a bit more considering but it is the conclusion and the learning aspect of the program is over.  It's more of a "now you know what you need to do so go do it!"

There's some bonus items I'll cover here briefly as well and then give a final conclusion of my own.

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What Am I reading?  The Truth About Building Muscle At MuscleGainTruth

Marc C. David - NGA CPT
Author of NoBull Bodybuilding
www.nobullbodybuilding.com

My Recommendation:  Marc's Closing Words

At the end of this review, you should know if this book is going to add to your collection and increase your knowledge.  Hopefully, you've already got an idea in your mind after read this chapter by chapter breakdown.

Imagine what it would be like if...

Somebody like Sean told you step by step what you needed to do to gain the most muscle possible?  Without all the complicated formulas and steps and without making bodybuilding like rocket science.

Well he does.  Sean doesn't make big promises and he doesn't go into the deep research like a Will Brink but what he does do nicely is just give you the facts, the proven fundamentals that we all talk about on DB and puts them into an easy to read guide.

Everyone knows you should probably print these things out as reading a PDF on the computer would make you blind.  The nice thing about this book is that it wasn't 400 pages.  I finished it in a couple of days and had a plan ready to go.

From the moment you step into the gym until you shut your eyes at night, Sean's got you covered.

If you're like me...

You just want to get fit fast.  You don't want to spend too much time thinking about each rep, each workout, every piece of food, every second of the day about eating and such.  The more complicated it gets, the quicker I fall off the wagon.

I just want something simple. 

Granted, I do like learning about nutrition and other things in more detail but sometimes it's nice to just have a quick and easy step by step guide.

Now keep in mind...

Sean isn't telling you things you can't find on your own.  Most people aren't.  But what he's done is save you a boat load of time.  The quicker you can learn the right steps and the faster you implement them, the gains will come.  You'll skip all the newbie mistakes and get to the real deal.

Most of us... know a lot of these things since we've been on this forum.  But when your head gets so cramed full of info, it is a breath of fresh air to have somebody just lay out the fundamentals. 

At times I think bodybuilding is a very complicated science.

It's not.  Work hard, eat right, rest and repeat.  It's that simple and thanks to Sean, he reminded me of that. 

If you are a man or a woman who's looking to get fit fast and build muscle, then Sean does a very nice job of making it easy.  He just gives you the facts, a few quick formulas and you are on your way to making every workout count.  I recommend this for anybody who's looking to gain some muscle mass.

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What Am I reading?  The Truth About Building Muscle At MuscleGainTruth

Marc C. David - NGA CPT
Author of NoBull Bodybuilding
www.nobullbodybuilding.com

Nice review Marc. 
 
One thing I have learned that seems to apply to everything is that education is ongoing. 
 
If you got this book and learned (or remembered!) ONE new thing, that you could then apply to your training, and that got you 5-10% gains somewhere...then you progressed significantly!
 
Sounds like a pretty darn good resource!

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My shelf is filled with these ebooks (printed from Kinkos).  I plan on doing the hard work of buying them and reviewing them.

I think each one I've read has a little something I didn't know or forgot about.

A few bucks for a tip that gets me 1" in my biceps is well worth it.

Let me say this:  Knowlege will put a lot more mass on your in a year then any supplement stack.

However, for those who are always asking or strugging with:

• what exercises should I do?
  
• what should I eat and how much?
  
• how often should I train?

This pretty much sums that up.  And Sean has a good writing style so it's not some jargon filled reading.

Like I said, it's not full of scientific references or studies but fundamentals and well known principles of gaining mass.

Which is what we try to do on DB but this is just organized.

It's a good resource.  Deserves to be printed out and read over.

Marc C. David - NGA CPT
Author of NoBull Bodybuilding
www.nobullbodybuilding.com

good read, I liked the myth section

These two myths are a bit misleading:
 

• You should switch up your routine periodicaly by changing your rep ranges and exercises in order to 'shock' your muscles.
  
• You can influence the shape of a muscle by performing certain exercises.

 
There has been a observed "diminishing returns" effect in all training from repeating the same training time after time.  However, it is not changing the reps and exercise alone that will generate variation and continued adaptation.  There must be some overload applied in some variable.
 
The appearance of a muscle area, such as the chest or pects is dependant on the development of a number of muscles.  Working the chest with exercises that target primarily the "Clavicular Head" or upper pect will effect the general shape of the pect by showing preference to the upper pect and not the Pectoralis Minor, Serratus Anterior, and Sternal (or lower portion of the) Pectoralis Major.

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You can influence the shape of a muscle by performing certain exercises.

Right.  But you are talking angles and Sean is talking about doing specific exercises to influence the shape.

You can make your bicep bigger but you can't develop a freaky peak on your bicep if it's not genetically that way.

Your chest is what it is.  It can be bigger and you can vary the angles to make it more developed but you won't influence the shape it would be naturally.

The common misconception is that by doing specific exercises for the biceps you can change the shape of the bicep.  When in fact, you don't.  You just make it bigger and lose fat around it to show it. 

Larry Scott had some freaking peaked biceps.  That was genetic.

You should switch up your routine periodicaly by changing your rep ranges and exercises in order to 'shock' your muscles.

I also disagreed here.  I've been doing Tom's workouts for a while and I believe that if you are an advanced athlete with good to optimal recovery, you will have to change at least 1 variation per workout in order to build.

Just adding more weight isn't always the best way to progress and raise the intensity.

At some point, you will hit a breaking point.

I don't add 5 lbs to each workout.  I'd be curling 315 lbs by now if that was true.

I'll get the name of the guy but he said your body will adapt in about 6 workouts to whatever routine you are doing.  So changning it up for me, is a must.

Doing the Max-OT thing forever doesn't cut it for me personally.

Marc C. David - NGA CPT
Author of NoBull Bodybuilding
www.nobullbodybuilding.com

Agreed on both points.  I was simply making distinctions. 

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thats what i thought. its hard to believe everything you hear about workin out since everyone thinks they're right, and there way works best
but some of the myths were good like #1
I-for-one do not get good pumps when i work out legs.I kinda worried about that one
 

Hi Marc,
 
Thanks for the review!
 
I got curious about these training e-books and started to searched around. I started checking-out and see reviews for with Skinny to Muscular, to MuscleGainTruth, to Optimum Anabolics and even X-Adaptation which led me to this forum/thread.
 
On your review, Since you mentioned about Max-OT, i got curious and searched for it. AST is giving the whole program for free in their website. Is there something in Sean's book that is not covered in the Max-OT e-book that deserves the $95 premium? I know he's offering tons of other additional material but for me i'm more interested in the training program and routines. Since you have the e-books can you let me know? Or how much of it is different from each other? I would definitely like to save my money for something else.
 
Thanks.

If you know what to eat, how to train, how to rest and aren't concened with meal plans and such, then Max-OT is great.

But if you are confused in general on various bodybuilding topics, then Max-OT isn't going to give you insight on much.  It's a training program.

And after some time, you may (will) get bored and want to change your routine.

Max-OT is a training program.  MuscleGainTruth is a complete package.  They are different in that regard.

Personally, I find it VERY difficult to spend above $60 for anything.  At that point, I can roll to Barnes and Nobles and buy a hardcover book that's a complete package, check out the details and see if it's interesting to follow.  Or find comparable eBooks and programs more reasonably priced.

There's a lot of good books out there for reasonable prices.

What you are paying for is:

* the book itself in the author's words that is putting a spin on the same stuff but it's your style to read

* the bonus items like meal plans, extra training programs, resources, lifetime updates, videos, audio, etc.

I've found extremely good programs for $60 and under.

Will Brink's Bodybuilding Revealed is everything MuscleGainTruth is at 50% of the cost and includes a membership forum that is professionally run and informative to read.

Put it this way...

eBooks in the fitness niche are becoming like MuscleTech vs. all the others.

At some point you are just paying a premium price for the name and all the hype.

It's what the market will bear.

If I can ask for $40 and get it.  And then I ask for $78 and get it.  Being in business, I'm going to ask for $78 because it's what the market will bear.  It has nothing to do with quality at that point or fair priced.  It's what I can ask and get which means more $$$ in my pocket.

Capitalism pure and simple.

Max-OT is a fine fine program. 

But if you want more than a program, the complete package with meal plans, more training routines, a forum, a supplement review guide and some fantastic bonus materials by people like Charles Poliquin, then Will Brink's BBR is what you want.

Marc C. David - NGA CPT
Author of NoBull Bodybuilding
www.nobullbodybuilding.com

I should close my thoughts with...

Always look for a guarantee in these programs.  That way you can "browse" the materials after you pay but get time to look them over and ask for a no questions asked refund if you aren't happy.  And then take a look at something else.

Sean is a stand-up guy.  He's extremely nice and his intentions are nothing but noble.  Many people LOVE his stuff.  I don't dislike it at all.  I just said "I haven't found a program I would personally pay that much for."

If you are at all intrigued what Sean has to say, at least check it out.  You'll get your money back 100% if you aren't happy.  I know Sean well enough to say you won't be screwed.

Marc C. David - NGA CPT
Author of NoBull Bodybuilding
www.nobullbodybuilding.com

Thanks Marc for the quick reply!

good review ive lernt something already

Seems like a great book.

No Matter How Much You Succeed, Never Stop Striving.