How
does it compare to Dreschler's Weightlifting Encyclopedia?
To
be fair, Schmitz's manual doesn't even pretend to cover the depth that Dreschler's
does. However, for beginners it actually may make more sense to buy the Manual.
The sheer volume and depth of Dreschler's can be a bit bewildering. Whereas with
Schmitz it's no-fluff, no-fat, just pure usable info that you can get stuck into
right away. Schmitz's takes out all the umming and ahhing and makes the decisions
for you. He choses the weights, the reps, the frequency, the lot. All you have
to do is show up and lift.
Like
the best things, it's simple. Just follow the routines. Schmitz has seen it all
before and he'll coach you week-by-week from pure novice to your first weightlifting
competion. The learning curve is gradual. In fact he says "the first workout
the weights should be light enough so that you hardly strain or sweat". ..."it
should take about six months to get up to your appropriate weights".
Lifting
Technique
It's
always a bummer to convey proper instruction of any lift in print, but this manual
takes a damn good shot at it. Each lift gets a separate page. The lift is split
into a four photo sequence with written instruction underneath. It's done extremely
efficiently. Plenty of detail so you can attack each part with confidence yet
not so much as to blind you with science. Here's the list of lifts covered:
Conclusion
Great
stuff. Schmitz has done all the brain work, he's even tried it out on many athletes
countless times over 30 years. He's sure it will work. What more do you want?
Oh,
OK then - get the video too if you can.
