ABSolution The Practical Solution for Building Your Best Abs
ABSolution The Practical Solution for Building Your Best Abs
The question I’m most frequently asked goes something like this, “Shawn, what’s your secret–what’s the one thing you do differently than everyone else that allowed you to build such great abs?” The one thing, the one thing, the one thing… So many people are looking for the one thing–the secret. Many people think the one thing is some ab-training device like the type you see advertised on television infomercials. It’s not. Others would like you to believe that the one thing is some miracle fat-burning pill. It’s not. Others would have you believe that the one thing–the big secret–is liposuction or some other quick fix. Once again, it’s not.
The fact is, and this is the first and most fundamental lesson of my ABSolution Program, the one thing is everything! Everything we do affects the way we look and the way we feel. It’s when we exercise, how we exercise, and the exercises we do. It’s when, what, and how much we eat. It’s which vitamins and supplements we nourish our bodies with. It’s how much we rest and recover. It’s how we think and how we live. It’s everything. And, that’s what this book is all about. It’s about everything you need to learn to build your own absolutely fantastic abs.
User Ratings and Reviews
2 Stars Too many unnecessary photos, poor on substance
In this 130-page book, there are 23 full-page photographs of the author, posing on mountains, streets, in front of his home front door, on lakes, under the shower, with and without glasses, you name it. Before you get to chapter 6, which contains 10 pages, the first 5 chapters range in length from 2 to 5 pages. Whether it is relevant or not, the author scatters his personal photos everywhere in the book.
If you think that an eloquent author could make a 2-page chapter so informative, you are up for disappointment. Shawn admits that his college education is in computer science but he bases his knowledge on his experience. Indeed, he proves to do very well in building large muscle mass. Yet, he acts like a biochemist with Ph.D. in nutrition when he prescribes his daily intake of 16 capsules of “lean-system 7″, antioxidant fuel, multivitamins, and “z-mass pm”. Like his brother Bill, he does not strive to learn the systemic basis of human anatomy or physiology before tackling fitness training. Here are the mistakes that should have not been made in a well searched book:
1) The rectus abdominis muscle does not have two regions as chapter 7 suggests. There are no upper or lower activating exercises to the rectus abdominis. The author’s poor understanding of anatomy made him confuse the relationship between the origin, insertion, and the direction of action of that muscle.
2) Chapter 7, “My Absolute Favorites”, displays fifteen abdominal exercises, starting from basic crunches and ending with abs vacuum. Then the author recommends in chapter 11, performing abdominal exercises in the morning. If the back erectors are not strengthened in proportion to abdominal muscles then serious muscular imbalance follows. This author does not believe in any strengthening of the back erectors. All the exercises of chapter 9, “the best of the rest”, deal with peripheral muscles. As you can tell, the author is only obsessed with the muscles that he could visualize in a front-view mirror. The back erectors are out of sight and out of the author’s mind.
3) The “standing dumbbell press”, chapter 9, shows how the author had incurred serious shoulder stiffness and loss of shoulder range of motion by his inability to erect his arms vertically overhead. All the exercises he describes in chapter 9, do nothing but shortening and bulking muscles without balancing their antagonists. Chapter 9 starts with “dumbbell bench press”, then “inclined dumbbell flyes”, and ends with “barbell squat”. There is no single word about whole body motion such as Clean from the floor, Deadlift, overhead squat, or good morning. The routine described in the book builds massive peripheral muscles that induce trauma to the spine, because of lack of spinal strengthening.
This book, like many others on strength training, proves that there are many well-accomplished self-motivated bodybuilders despite their mediocre understanding of the science of fitness or of nutrition. The main drawback with these self-centered, poorly educated fitness trainers is the long term errors that cause serious health issues such as weakening the spine by building massive arms and legs without proportionally developing the spinal muscles. Bill Phillips’ approach of reversing long accrued pathological changes with his 12-week training program is an example of such irrational and inexperience approach to fitness. It does not recognize the chronic ill-effects of obesity and overweight on health and the great difficulty (if not impossibility) of reversing such chronic effects in a matter of weeks or even months.
2 Stars Not worth the money
Anything you read in here has already been written in much better detail. although the pictures of the exercises are good with explaination, you can get this from the internet for free with a little looking.
4 Stars A useful addition to my fitness library
I think that this is a very good book. I do not agree with the reviewers who have trashed the book and the author. The text is concise and simple. It does not claim to be Arnold’s Encyclopedia but it gives a good program in a straightforward and easy to understand format. I do agree that the hardback is too expensive. I was lucky and found a discounted paperback. I am glad that I purchased it and consider it a useful addition to my fitness library.
4 Stars A Great Guide To Obtaining More Than Just Cut Abs
Kudos to Shawn Phillips. Absolution is an excellent book that teaches how you can get great abs. It dispels the notion that great abs are gained by merely performing ab exercises. Spot focusing just doesn’t work. In this book, Shawn explains that excellent abs come only by consistant and intense strength training over the whole body and by using a healthy diet. Good job, Shawn.
-Craig Nybo
3 Stars This is overkill
This is overkill in my opinion. Focus on a program like his brother’s ‘body for life’ and with consistent training you will see more defined abs in 12 weeks. ABS ARE MADE IN THE KITCHEN.
Filed under: Bodybuilding Books
