How to Maximize Muscle Growth Using Bodyweight-Only Training

While the book gives good information it doesn't give any specific exercise progressions, which could leads to people who don't know enough about exercise to injure themselves. It would have gotten my highest endorsement had it included basic, intermediate and advanced exercises. I'm a CPT so I know what all is involved but the average user wouldn't have a clue.

Everything he says is true, and the info is delivered in easy to understand language; however, I don't see the point in belittling women and LGBT people. I took a star off for all that. Otherwise it's fantastic.

I enjoy whatever these guys publish, but I must admit that I'm still working through some of their earlier books and haven't started reading this one. I'm not a fan of going to a gym to workout with weight machines, but will give them a five star rating based upon past books.

The book was informative and worth the cost. Some of the information was new to me and some of it was a reminder of what I've learned in the past. It didn't get too far in depth with exercises and diet. Some of it was cheerleading. I don't need an author to tell me, "You can do it, Kid!" Use the space for information, not filler. It was inspirational nonetheless.

The material is decent, the delivery got annoying. The whole prison shtick got to be a bit much. The swearing and crude humor, not really necessary. People are buying the book for the material, not the prison persona of the author. All in all, worth the couple bucks.

Not what I expected, no structure to the book, difficult to navigate on kindle, s***load of pages, minimal content regarding specific moves, sets, reps, etc... Good for reading just to read, but if you're looking for clear concise direction on adding mass via bodyweight exercises -- this ain't the one.

Awful, shameful money grabbing and product plugging. As good as Convict Conditioning was, I expected much better. Paul Wade succeeds in nothing more than creating a bound stack of used toilet paper. Nothing in this book is remotely original. (Why doesn't it say Al Kavadlo on the cover?) It offers an extremely rudimentary programming section complete with an silly graph that tells you how "complex" your training is. The fact that trees died for this saddens me, as the bulk of this is just a bunch of pictures of old-time strongmen...are you Brooks Kubik, now? Then the Pavel-esque plugging of other titles and authors was equally upsetting. Throw in some "hard" language ..."power-packed pages of stone cold truth." and you round out the travesty....wow. Poor...just poor.

Awesome book. I also bought convict conditioning 1, 2, and 3, diamond cut abs, and strength rules. All great books. Changed my workout from just lifting weights. I have lost weight, kept strength, and have a sleeker, more defined physique from following the principles in these books. They are great!

The book has plenty of information about body weight exercises for bodybuilding. I was disappointed that the author kept receding to his other books instead of explaining his concepts again. If I wanted to buy your other books, I would have. I bought this one.
Also, a sample bodybuilding program or 2 would have been nice.

This book was really only an advertisement for his previous books, Convict Conditioning 1&2. This had no workout plans, just advice, which he constantly said "I go into more detail in my other book...." so why publish this one??? Also, tons of misspellings and cursing. Worthless. I wish I could get my money back. :-(

I have the ebook version, but will definitely need to get the paperback copy soon. This interesting book from Paul Wade apparently started out as a couple of blog posts that just grew and grew into a life of their own. Being a big fan of Paul Wade's other books, Convict Conditioning and Convict Conditioning Vol 2 I had to read this one too. It provides so much info on a subject many of us would like to know, but are not always wanting to ask--how to build actual muscle mass with calisthenics ALONG WITH strength. It's very trendy right now to say you are just focused on performance and nothing else, but the truth of the matter us, we human beings (myself very much included) want to know how we can improve our looks as well as our strength. In his usual style, Coach lays out the truth in his brutally honest, not-so-pc way that we've all come to love. This book is not for the easily offended... but it is for those who are serious about building muscle using advanced calisthenics techniques.

This book is an “application” of the principles of his previous Convict Conditionings. He references earlier exercises but often doesn’t explain them. You can google and figure it out.

He promises 20lb-30lb gains from bodyweight alone? Well, this is a half-truth. You probably won’t gain 20lbs of lean muscle anytime soon. However, he is right in contrasting training for neural strength (think Pavel Tsatsouline) and training for muscle growth.

Pros:

I honestly learned a lot of new stuff. I’ve been doing a combo of kettlebells and bodyweight training for two years, and have done some form of weight training for close to two decades, and I still learned a lot of new exercises. And it works. I’ve gained close to 25lbs in two years from some variety of bodyweight training.

His dieting advice is mostly sound. You don’t need outside “help.” Eat a lot of hearty, manly food and work hard and you will be fine. Shucks, even drink a beer from time to time.

A lot of the sciency principles are sound and he does a good job explaining why stuff works.

Cons:

As others have pointed out, the language is a problem. I’m used to the “bro” culture and I can get past some language. But dropping the F-bomb every page really doesn’t add anything. Further, while I am all for making fun of the “Be-liebers” and some of the slams towards the metrosexual Jersey shore community are funny, he overdoes.

I am not convinced that bodyweight purism is the way to go. Pavel has shown conclusively that kettlebells can heal and rehab the body and add insane strength. Further, I am not sure about dropping deadlift altogether. It s a raw strength exercise with real life application.

And the truth remains, if you want to pack on real mass real quickly, nothing equals barbell squats. Personally, I don’t do barbell squats because I don’t have the equipment, but it is the real mass gainer. Even more, Wade praises guys like Saxon, Reg Park, and Steve Reeves, yet these guys all used forms of weightlifting.

A very, very surprising book. I want to say "little book", but at pushing 200 pages on Kindle it's much bigger than most other Kindle-only training books, which are more like extended articles. This is an actual, proper training manual.

There are lots of books on getting stronger and fitter using calisthenics. There are also many (thousands?) of books on getting more muscled with machines and barbells. However, there don't seem to be many entirely dedicated to building muscle with bodyweight. I mean, how do you work your hamstrings? Your neck? Your inner triceps? Your quads? It's all in here, with plenty of routines and also the LOGIC behind those routines, which I really enjoyed.

What interested me also is that as "Devil's Advocate" there was a big chunk of the book dedicated to pure strength, which Coach Wade clearly views as essential for getting bigger (this is no "appearance-only" book, by any means). I learned a lot from this, also the section on building testosterone over your lifetime, which (like everything else Coach writes) is the OPPOSITE of the status quo ideas, which is, as ever, why Coach is so much fun to read.

This is by no means the "typical" book you expect. Page by page, Coach Wade explodes myths and smashes down sacred idols. At the very least this book will make you think--at the most, it may hold the "secret" keys you have been looking for to add some real muscle! I'm a fan, now more than ever.

Lastly, Dragon Door books are almost always high-quality, but (to me) invariably overpriced. Pavel's Power to the People is a great book, but at only a hundred pages or so I was charged too much. This book is much bigger, and just as full of information. For the price (about the same as a McDonald's meal) this book is simply unmissable if you want to gain some quality size.

in this "book", these guys recommend you eat ramen noodles and candy. stay away from this blasphemy. if you want to grow, bodyweight excersice can only take you so far. you will plateau quickly, even if you avoid the noodles and candy. a real book is "the encyclopedia of modern bodybuilding", by arnold schwarzennegger. for real, noticeable growth, you cannot avoid lifting actual weights. do bodyweight to build a solid foundation for a few months, and then be a man and step up to some iron. as ronnie coleman once said, "Everybody wants to be a bodybuilder, but nobody wants to lift no heavy-a$$ weights.'

The good: this ebook is affordably priced.

The bad: Nothing new here. If you have Convict Condition 1 or 2, or any Al Kavadlo book, you already knew everything in here.

Here's what it says in a longwinded, roundabout fashion: Want to use calisthenics for increased muscle size? Increase your reps.