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Department of Health and Kinesiology Texas A&M University 4243 TAMU College Station, TX 77843-4243 E-mail: jwilmore{at}tamu.edu
This book is part of a miniseries on nutrition in exercise and sport published by the CRC Press. The book focuses on strength training and emphasizes the nutritional and metabolic aspects of strength training exercise and appropriate nutrition for the strength training athlete. The book is composed of 12 chapters and 11 appendixes. The first chapter provides a basic review of resistance training principles and program variables. Chapters 2 and 3 provide background material on general nutrition and metabolism, and chapters 4 and 5 provide an overview of vitamins and minerals. All 4 of these introductory nutrition chapters focus on the application of these topics to strength training. Chapters 6–8 deal with nutritional and hormonal supplementation, with a major emphasis placed on supplements that supposedly facilitate hypertrophy and amplify increases in strength above that gained from normal strength training alone. Chapters 9 and 10 deal with immune function and hydration, respectively, and chapters 11 and 12 address nutritional concerns of women who resistance train and of athletes who compete in tennis. Of the 11 appendixes, 9 are reproductions or summaries of Position Stands or Current Comments released by the American College of Sports Medicine. The remaining 2 appendixes provide a list of selected websites and a list of nutrients.
For the most part, the chapters are well written and well referenced. Most of the chapters include a substantial list of references, some published as recently as 1999 and 2000. The chapters are uneven, however, with respect to their depth of coverage, with several chapters written as scholarly reviews and others as undergraduate texts. Some material is also duplicated across chapters. It is unclear why a chapter specific to the sport of tennis is included when no other sports or activities are featured. A chapter on competitive bodybuilding or competitive weight lifting would have seemed appropriate, however. Furthermore, considering the tremendous emphasis today on weight control to combat the increasing prevalence of obesity, the book contains little information on strength training and weight control. A full chapter devoted to this topic would have seemed appropriate. The appendixes are of questionable value, particularly considering that they account for almost 15% of the text. The American College of Sports Medicine Position Stands and Current Comments are readily available and could simply be listed as suggested reading material at the end of each chapter. The 2 appendixes providing lists of websites and nutrients are superficial and could have been incorporated into the body of the text.
In summary, readers will find this book informative and generally well written. Most chapters are good to excellent reviews that synthesize the existing research literature. The authors represent a good cross-section of scientists and practitioners and are, for the most part, highly qualified and well respected in their areas of expertise.