Reviews and Comments

DIdn't know this series existed, it is a fun quick read that you can finish in a cold winter evening with a hot cup of tea.

This series has me staying up reading again. Most fun I've had reading a book series in years.

This is always an interesting read. It has a lot of ideas from a lot of different people all rolled into one. Some of them contradict each other a bit (He has Pavel inspired strength programs rolled next to HIT inspired hypertrophy programs.)

But what is always interesting is the slow carb diet.

He references ideas that have long since been proven to be bunk (No insulin and carbs do not cause obesity), but on the other hand... adding more fiber and veggies to your diet seems to work wonders for your waist line (try to eat 500 calories of rice vs 500 calories of beans sometime). So it is kind of cool to see how something works through a more modern lens. It is also an interesting look into the fitness culture of the late 2000s/ early 2010s. I don't think I've seen Gary Taubes referenced as a knowledgeable smart guy for almost a decade. Usually he is the example people give of the dangers of cherry picking data. One interesting thing is that seemingly DEXA scans and Bod Pod scans went from being a $50 thing you do quick and easy to a $300 a session thing that you need to pay for 4 sessions in advance. Why did they go from a convenient relatively cheap way to track progress to stupid expensive? I don't know. Usually technology gets cheaper the older it gets.

Lets talk about the sex chapters...
They get weird. It has basically a couple moves that I'd assume most men figure out by the time they turn 20 (just find the little guy in the boat). Also it says to eat steak and have sex. It says this through a weird awkward sweaty sex story.
Tim should not pursue a future in erotica.

The sleep chapter: This one I can't figure out. Take a cold shower before bed? I'm unsure if Tim has ever taken a cold shower, because if you do, it WAKES YOU THE FUCK UP! They are great to start the day! Not so great to calm down before bed. The other advice seems sound and practical. That is just one that I'll never understand.

The rehab chapters: These seem like they were AWESOME a decade ago. Unfortunately half the links no longer work so the majority of the advice is rendered in-actionable. That said, things like the FMS screen are no longer weird things that you will struggle to find someone to help you with. Just about any city with a population over 50k is going to have someone there that can do a screen for you.

All in all, it is an interesting read with a lot of good tips. There is a lot of bad information in there too, but if you were going to just have one book for all your fitness and health advice this wouldn't be the worst choice. Although oddly there is a topic not covered, despite being featured on the cover. There is no meditation/stress reduction chapter. This seems like a glaring omission. If you had to choose five things to improve health, meditation would probably be on there. But instead you have a chapter on eating steak and having the sex.

I had to go through this book twice and more rereads will be needed. I went in expecting a Enter The Kettlebell type book. Which in hindsight wasn't an appropriate approach. First off, Dan isn't Pavel. Second, I realized after starting that this isn't aimed at the guy lifting kettlebells in his living room. It is aimed at someone who coaches others. So don't read this book expecting Dan's version of ETK.

There isn't really a "DO THIS" program in here like I was expecting. It is much more of a "these are some principles you should use to program things for yourself. But some of the programming logic doesn't make sense to me still. For instance in one section it says "Push, Pull, and Squat reps must be the exact same every week". Then proceeds to give an example with the push pull and squat all with different numbers of reps. So I kinda get that he is saying "should be kinda the same", but it is confusing wording and it leaves me not sure what I should be taking at face value and what I shouldn't be. The Classical Conditioning template is probably the closest thing to a "do this" style program. There are also a couple variations on the original PM from ETK.

But at that point it shifts authors abruptly and reads kind very oddly. Suddenly Dan is referring to himself in the third person (he isn't, I just missed the author change). Kind of like the book was done, but there was a word quota so the publisher copy pasted a blog post in to fill the gap. But that seems to be pretty standard practice for some of the later DragonDoor works, so I don't fault the author.

All in all I left the book knowing a few principles about program design, but am still struggling to bridge the gap of putting these principles into an actual program that isn't just someone else's slightly tweaked. I suspect it is something that you figure out the more you do it. I wish that there was some additional dumbing down for people like me.

In conclusion, it is an enjoyable read with good information. Unfortunately it was tainted by my own expectations of what I wanted from this book. Dan is as always an enjoyable author to read, but the book does get pretty choppy but I'm fairly sure it is an editor issue rather than an author issue.