While there are many courses and tutorials online, learning from a book is still one of the best ways to greatly improve your skills. Below I have selected top Muscle Building books.
- Anatomy of Muscle Building: A Trainer’s Guide to Increasing Muscle Mass (2011)
- The Bodybuilding Meal Prep Cookbook: Macro-Friendly Meals to Prepare, Grab, and Go (2019)
- Bigger Leaner Stronger: The Simple Science of Building the Ultimate Male Body (2019)
- Strength Training Anatomy, 3rd Edition (2010)
- Principles of Muscle Building Program Design (2017)
- Beyond Bigger Leaner Stronger: The Advanced Guide to Building Muscle, Staying Lean, and Getting Strong (The Build Muscle, Get Lean, and Stay Healthy Series) (2014)
- Jim Stoppani’s Encyclopedia of Muscle & Strength (2014)
- Living Large: The Skinny Guy’s Guide to No-Nonsense Muscle Building (2016)
- Building Muscle and Performance: A Program for Size, Strength & Speed (2016)
- 51 Plant-Based High-Protein Recipes: For Athletic Performance and Muscle Growth (vegan meal prep bodybuilding cookbook) (2018)
- Thinner Leaner Stronger: The Simple Science of Building the Ultimate Female Body (Second Edition) (2019)
- The Lean or Mass Fitness Cookbook: 65 Body Building Recipes to Getting Huge (2016)
- The Ultimate Guide to Build Muscle & Stay Lean: The Bodybuilding Cookbook with Healthy and Delicious Recipes (2019)
- Plant-Based Muscle: Our Roadmap to Peak Performance on a Plant-Based Diet (2017)
Anatomy of Muscle Building: A Trainer’s Guide to Increasing Muscle Mass (2011)
This is the first muscle-building instruction book written by a professional trainer that is tailored to the general reader. Its annotated full-color anatomical illustrations are revolutionary, clearly explaining which muscles are engaged in each exercise, what the exercises are designed to accomplish, and the precise interaction of the adjacent muscles. is organized by body area to reflect the common progression of a well-planned workout.
The Bodybuilding Meal Prep Cookbook: Macro-Friendly Meals to Prepare, Grab, and Go (2019)
The Definitive Bodybuilding Meal Prep GuideThe Bodybuilding Meal Prep Cookbook takes the challenge out of fixing the healthy foods that are the key to sculpting your perfect body. Learn everything you need to know about prepping no-hassle, grab-and-go dishes for every meal―all without losing time at the gym.Whether you’re bulking, maintaining, or cutting, this cookbook shows you the right way to calculate your daily macro goals.
Bigger Leaner Stronger: The Simple Science of Building the Ultimate Male Body (2019)
If you want to get muscular, lean, and strong as quickly as possible . . . regardless of your age . . . you want to read this book.Here's the deal:Building muscle and burning fat isn't as complicated as the fitness industry wants you to believe. This book is the shortcut.
Strength Training Anatomy, 3rd Edition (2010)
With new exercises, additional stretches, and more of Frédéric Delavier’s signature illustrations, you’ll gain a whole new understanding of how muscles perform during strength exercises. This one-of-a-kind best-seller combines the visual detail of top anatomy texts with the best of strength training advice.
Principles of Muscle Building Program Design (2017)
Learn all the principles behind the muscle building workouts of the world’s most successful personal trainers. Distilled from our experience as the world’s leading results producing trainers, Volume 1 of the UP Encyclopaedia of Personal Training gives you everything that you need to know to understand and create your own hypertrophy specific workouts.
Beyond Bigger Leaner Stronger: The Advanced Guide to Building Muscle, Staying Lean, and Getting Strong (The Build Muscle, Get Lean, and Stay Healthy Series) (2014)
If you want to build as much muscle as naturally possiblebe able to bench press, squat, and deadlift gargantuan amounts of weightand maintain a ripped, beach-ready physique year roundthen you want to read this book.If you’ve been lifting weights for any period of time, you’ve probably wonderedWhat does it really take to make the jump from a “good” physiquefrom being “kinda strong”from looking “athle…
Jim Stoppani’s Encyclopedia of Muscle & Strength (2014)
Finally, a research-based book that covers all facets of optimizing the development of muscle and strength.
Living Large: The Skinny Guy’s Guide to No-Nonsense Muscle Building (2016)
Let’s face it: You’re tired. Tired of filling your body with bogus supplements that only give you the most expensive pee in town. Tired of busting your ass in the gym six days a week, only to find you’re the same size you were last month and the other guys are twice as big. Tired of all the conflicting and mind-numbingly complex advice floating around in cyberspace.
Building Muscle and Performance: A Program for Size, Strength & Speed (2016)
Every weekend warrior has two goals: compete successfully and look great doing it. Enter Building Muscle & Performance: The Program for Strength, Size, and Speed by expert trainer Nick Tumminello. By combining the most effective approaches and exercises, Tumminello has developed a high-octane, high-efficiency system for building muscle and boosting performance. Step by step you’ll learn the best exercises for increasing speed, explosiveness, athleticism, and endurance.
51 Plant-Based High-Protein Recipes: For Athletic Performance and Muscle Growth (vegan meal prep bodybuilding cookbook) (2018)
51 Delicious Plant-Based Protein Recipes!Recipes in this book are also included in the ‘Vegan Meal Prep’ series by Jules Neumann.Fire up the stove and prepare 51 tasty high-protein dishes to power you.Recover faster, perform better and get in shape!Make your plant-based diet effortless with these 51 delightful high-protein recipes.
Thinner Leaner Stronger: The Simple Science of Building the Ultimate Female Body (Second Edition) (2019)
If you want to be fit, lean, and strong as quickly as possible . . . regardless of your age . . . you want to read this book.Here's the deal:Losing fat and building lean muscle isn't as complicated as the fitness industry wants you to believe. This book is the shortcut.
The Lean or Mass Fitness Cookbook: 65 Body Building Recipes to Getting Huge (2016)
In this Cookbook, you’ll find 65 Bodybuilding recipes for specifically Mass or Lean gains. Not everyone’s goals are the same for physical attributes, therefore we’ve scripted the book for two different weight gain categories with the clean recipes we have provided. Typical fitness cookbooks will display generic recipes with no actual focus, in Bodybuilding everyone’s goals are different. Some go to the gym just to stay health, be lean, or gain mass.
The Ultimate Guide to Build Muscle & Stay Lean: The Bodybuilding Cookbook with Healthy and Delicious Recipes (2019)
Abs are indeed made in the kitchen. If you want to make some positive body changes, then changing your diet is the first thing that you should do. And if you need a helping hand, the Bodybuilding Cookbook is here to suit your needs.
Plant-Based Muscle: Our Roadmap to Peak Performance on a Plant-Based Diet (2017)
Co-authored by plant-based athletes with more than 35 years’ combined experience, Robert Cheeke and Vanessa Espinoza, Plant-Based Muscle is the most complete plant-based fitness book to be released since Shred It!.
Best Muscle Building Books Everyone Should Read
We highly recommend you to buy all paper or e-books in a legal way, for example, on Amazon. But sometimes it might be a need to dig deeper beyond the shiny book cover. Before making a purchase, you can visit resources like Library Genesis and download some muscle building books mentioned below at your own risk. Once again, we do not host any illegal or copyrighted files, but simply give our visitors a choice and hope they will make a wise decision.
An Essential Guidebook On Building The Body: Build Muscle & Burn Fat Easily In 12 Weeks And A Healthy Way Of Eating You Can Actually Maintain
Author(s): Delibertis, Petrina
ID: 2904327, Publisher: , Year: 2021, Size: 21 Mb, Format: pdf
An Essential Guidebook On Building The Body: Build Muscle & Burn Fat Easily In 12 Weeks And A Healthy Way Of Eating You Can Actually Maintain: Strength Training Exercises
Author(s): Delibertis, Petrina
ID: 2912243, Publisher: UNKNOWN, Year: 2021, Size: 20 Mb, Format: epub
The Bodybuilding Bible for Men II: Guidebook to help building muscles with science-based bodyweight workout, body composition, body confidence & mass nutrition, ... fitness trainer tips that truly make an
Author(s): Mulford, Henrik
ID: 2921688, Publisher: Independently published, Year: 2021, Size: 3 Mb, Format: epub
Please note that this booklist is not definite. Some books are really best-sellers according to Chicago Tribune, others are written by unknown writers. On top of that, you can always find additional tutorials and courses on Coursera, Udemy or edX, for example. Are there any other relevant books you could recommend? Drop a comment if you have any feedback on the list.