The Gold's Gym Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding (Gold's Gym series)

Bodybuilders, wisdom has it, go through three stages: First, people make fun of them because they're so skinny; then, after they've been training for a while and starting to see results, people admire them because they look so strong and healthy; then, after they've become successful bodybuilders, people make fun of them again because they have so much muscle. The Gold's Gym Encyclopedia is about getting to that third stage and staying there--and not caring what anyone who's not a bodybuilder thinks of the way you look. For the hardest of the hard-core, this book shows the way to hugeness with the latest information about training, nutrition, nutritional supplementation, and, of course, actually competing in the sport of bodybuilding. There's an interesting discussion of high-volume (lots of sets and repetitions of each exercise) vs. high-intensity (one killer set per exercise) training methods and other systems, plus a token caution against using physique-enhancing drugs (followed by a list of drugs that's far longer than the caution preceding it). If Gold's Gym is the mecca of bodybuilding, then this "encyclopedia" is surely the sport's holy text.