Dr. Zatsiorsky is very complete and extremely accomplished in his explanation of the science of human movement. I am a graduate student in Exercise Science at the University of Hawai'i and this publication has easied my transition and will be valuable to any student or professional in the Exercise Sciences.

This is a good book on strength training, which reminds me of Fleck and Kraemer's "Designing Resistance Training Programs" (DRTP). While Zatsiorsky says that he tried to write this book for the coach, he admits that there is more science in it than he would have liked. In my opinion, it is more theoretical than DRTP, which I found to be a scientific, but more practical book.

There are things here that you won't find in Fleck and Kraemer's book, but I think the average practitioner would find DRTP more useful overall. Although I'm not really an expert myself (I'm an interested layman), I think this book would mainly be of interest to strength and conditioning experts, and to those with a keen interest in comparing former-Soviet vs. western training ideas. I may have been inclined to give this book five stars if I hadn't already read DRTP and "Essentials of Strength and Conditioning", both of which I think are slightly stronger than this book.

On the other hand, Arthur Drechsler in the annotated bibliography of his "The Weightlifting Encyclopedia" says this about Zatsiorsky's book: "A very interesting and imaginative work by one of today's best thinkers and researchers on this subject, especially in the area of training for increased power." He lists DRTP without comment, so I have to assume he liked this book better.

This book is based on decades of methodically documented training of Russian athletes. Rather than use hypothesis of what training methods SHOULD work, found so commonly in U.S. training literature, what you'll read in this book is scrupulous analysis of what actually worked and what didn't work. There is no equivalent in the U.S. athletic training system; no one has tracked and scientifically analyzed the training of U.S. athletes like the Russians did with their centralized training programs.

This is a must-read book for serious sports strength and conditioning coaches. It's a little too technical for the average fitness trainee, however. The format is a bit like a scholastic textbook, not a how-to book.

This book is probably the best overall book when it comes to serious weightlifting science. Most of the "science" regarding strength training done in the west is of poor quality. Most exercise science in the west has been focused on cardiovascular (aerobic) exercise. However in the east, in the former Soviet Union weightlifting science was taken very seriously and was far more advanced than in the west. This book is one of the better Russian translation books on strength training science. If you are looking for solid strength training science grounded in the basics, this is the book you should read. There is good discussion of the critical nature of the central nervous system on strength and power, in the west so much attention has been placed upon hormonal (steroid and testosterone) aspects of strength. The Russians found the CNS to be the critical aspect of successful strength training.

This is the one book you should read before you read any other "serious" strength training books. To get a solid foundation, then move onto other stuff.

Eric