Top 5 Books for Strength and Weight Loss

Since the beginning of modern humanity, books have been the source of well-constructed information. Unfortunately, over the past decade, social media and other media channels have brought access to easy-watch videos and other services to explain the ins and outs of fitness and health.

Now, I am not here to say that explaining strength and weight loss concepts through video is bad, but when we look at the type of information and detail there are very few channels that can beat a book.

Why Books Are Superior To Video

The first and most important aspect to consider is that books need to be well constructed. In order to create a published book, there are numerous stages and checks that the writing needs to go through in order to be successfully pushed into popular stores.

This means that books, in general, have a much more objective view of their statements and are generally much more comprehensive than the concepts found in online videos.

The other aspect to consider is that those who are engaged in writing the actual book need to have a deep understanding of the concepts in order to articulate the information in a text.

Virtually anyone can discuss the concepts they have seen or heard of, but to teach someone how to maximize their strength or increase their weight loss means the writer needs to completely understand their topic of choice.

Books provide a very comprehensive approach to health and fitness because they are highly regulated, objective (for the most part) and require an articulate mind to publish properly.

Now that you understand why in some cases books can be a much more effective tool for publishing information here are the Top 4 Books for Strength and Weight Loss:

How Not To Die

We start this list off with one of the great books of the past couple years. The book, How not to die is a book published by a world-renowned doctor, Dr. Gregor who advocates a plant-based diet to help eliminate some of our leading causes of death.

Throughout the book, Dr. Gregor uses many sources of peer-reviewed science to justify his claims that eating a diet sourced mainly from plants can help to limit the likelihood of diseases like heart disease, cancer, lung disease and many more.

Dr. Gregor takes a very unique approach to health and fitness by splitting up each chapter in the book by describing the foods that would be more effective for limiting the onset of a specific disease. He finishes by explaining how you can incorporate these teachings into a complete and balanced diet, what you may need to supplement and how often you should be exercising.

The popular book, How Not To Die is one of our personal favourite books for helping people to understand the detrimental effects of our moderns western diets.

Science and Practice of Strength Training

Perhaps the GOAT of all strength books, the Science and Practice of Strength Training is a very comprehensive approach to everything you need to do in order to grow stronger in Olympic and strength-based sports settings.

The author, Vladimir M Zatsiorsky, is a world-renowned strength coach who has a very old school, yet effective training protocol to help anyone engage in a deeper state of fitness and health. His programs are still used to this day to help anyone achieve a stronger build and limit the onset of injury.

Vladimir’s writing takes a unique approach over other books because he attempts to explain the complex nuances of strength progressions.

Vladimir M Zatsiorsky discusses the use of periodization, overload, deloading and complete recovery – all while explaining how to conduct yourself in the gym and the most effective exercises you can use to grow stronger.

Perhaps the best part about this book is that none of the information is theoretical. Everything displayed in his strength programming has been used on his athletes – athletes that have gone on to be world champions and beyond.

Starting Strength

There have been few people and few books which have had a larger impact on the market as a whole than that of the starting strength book. This book was written by Mark Rippetoe, a world-renowned strength expert who advocates a very simple set of exercises with complex training progressions.

Mark is a unique strength training coach who uses a base of 5-7 main exercises to train an athlete to grow stronger. Instead, of relying on an array of complex exercises he leaves the work to his big lifts and alters the strength programming of each.

In his book, Starting Strength, Mark discusses one of the most important aspects of fitness – lever classes. In this way, Mark can explain why you are losing strength, why you may not be growing stronger and what movements you need to integrate into your training in order to push your limits further.

The best part of this book is that it is written and designed for the complete beginner. This is a book unlike the one published by Vladimir M Zatsiorsky, Starting strength will be a very easy read and a guidebook that you can use every day at the gym.

TOP TIP: for those athletes that might be just above the beginner level and are starting to get a grasp for how to train properly, take a look at Marks other book, Practical Programming.

In this edition, Mark focuses on the complex nuances of strength programming while keeping his writing in a simple and easy to follow context. You can use this information to help you grow stronger and periodize your training to avoid injury.

Overcoming Gravity

Those who are more accustomed to bodyweight training as it relates to strength will have a lot of fun reading this book. Steven Low explained the complex training protocols needed for developing strength and balance in bodyweight strength training.

As a past gymnast, Steven combines his practical knowledge with theoretical concepts to explain how you can go from a complete beginner to an elite level calisthenics athlete.

Steven covers all aspects of strength, mobility, programming and even touches on nutrition to help you make the most of your goals. Anyone looking to master complex bodyweight movements like handstands or other movements should look no further than the Overcoming Gravity book by Steven Low.

Knowledge is Power

You hear this saying a lot but it rarely relates to strength training. Most guys who walk into the gym think that they can just lift heavy every day, eat whatever they want and grow stronger.

This might work for a short period of time, but eventually, your potential will be realized and you will need to make adequate changes to your strength training in order to maximize your goals.

These books will serve as a basis for complete nutrition, longevity, strength and balance, whatever your goals are, whatever your thought process is regarding human performance, a book that is backed with peer-reviews research will always be a very effective way to gain more knowledge. Only with knowledge can you become stronger and more powerful in your strength training.

Gabriello Ianniruberto

Gabriello is a writer and strength expert best known for his science-based and practical approach to Exercise Physiology, Nutrition and Strength. After serving in a directors position for The Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology Gabriello moved towards writing to help more people understand the importance of living a healthy life. Gabriello’s writings have been published in several languages on some of the largest health and fitness websites helping people learn, grow and understand the complex components of optimizing human performance in a simplistic way.

Gabriello also takes on specialized, high-performance athletes who are in need of strength, mobility and conditioning programming to optimize their fitness through his Earned Fitness program.

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