10/20/Life Second Edition: The Professional's guide to building strength has gotten even bigger and better

Before I got this book, I was decently strong, and squatted around 455. This book shows a very good basis for training for powerlifters and for people who just want to get stronger in the big 3 lifts squat bench deadlift. I work and have other things going and some powerlifting or weight training programs I've tried I'm the past are just too taxing on my body and my mind. With this training protocol in the 10/20/Life book, I've been able to increase my squat and deadlift 50ibs more and my bench 20ibs more and it's only been 7 weeks. Doing this with less stress on my body too and I'm able to recover better. After trying this out and many of the concepts explained in the book, I already know Brian Carroll is the man! I'm surely going to follow this program for the rest of my life, it's that good and its sustainable and keeps me injury free. 100% recommend 👌

I first remember listening to Brian on Scott Iardella's podcast talk about the book back in April of 2017--and I purchased the e-book a couple of weeks later. Before learning about 10/20 life I started Wendler's program (5,3,1) in 2016 and ended up with a pretty scary back injury while deadlifting one morning. I still remember right as the bar reached my knees hearing a loud pop, and after I dropped the bar, feeling numbness in my right butt cheek and down both legs. Pretty scary experience but it taught me a lot. With that said, once I heard Brian's story on the podcast I became fascinated with his and Dr. McGill's recommendations and started to incorporate the big three into my weekly routine to keep my back healthy. I wish at that time I had incorporated his training philosophy but still experimented with other programs until I began preparing for my second PL meet. I competed in my first meet in Oct of 2018 in the 82.5kg weight division (Raw) while doing my coaches traditional progressive overload program, which did work well and I had a good first meet. As I began training for my second meet meet in July of 2019 I switched to a Westside style of training and it just broke me. I actually had to pull out due to a lower back injury and a partially torn pec. It was at this point I went back to the book and decided to give his training philosophy a chance. I had a good feeling that deloading every 3rd week was going to help me because I always felt over trained and the injuries were just accumulating. My experience with the pre-contest training guide was great. I was making progress every week and while I was still sore and the workouts were hard--I wasn't injured and I could feel my strength building. I know a lot of guys feel like the weight feels super heavy coming off a deload but for me after every deload I came in fresh and felt super strong. This was also a great primer for going into the meet as I felt like his recommendations for the last heavy lifts were spot on and I peaked well. While I didn't hit the total I wanted in my second meet I was still able to add 38 lbs to my meet total and walked away healthy and ready to train. I'm currently using Brian's philosophy in the off season and my coach and I will utilize it for my 3rd PL meet later this year. I highly recommend the book if you're intererested in powerlifting and want to not only get strong but stay healthy in the process. This is one resource that is chock-full of advice and info that will help you reach your goals.

This is a fantastic book on the principles of training. It is obviously targeted towards those who enjoy powerlifting, but the principles are relevant for anyone involved in any kind of athletic pursuit.A few of the positives about this book:1. Brian lays everything out with simplicity. He covers a wide range of topics including periodization, deloading, warm-up, nutrition, technique, and the mental approach to training. The nice thing is every chapter on these topics provides simple to implement ideas and strategies that will improve the quality of your training and health.2. Brian obviously has reached the pinnacle of his sport so it’s awesome to learn from someone who has been to the top. But he has also dealt with debilitating injuries that nearly cut his career short. Having been to the top and bottom of his sport makes the book relatable to us mere mortals. Brian is not just some elitist condescendingly shouting his unrealistic dogmas (though Brian is an elite powerlifter) and advanced ideas to the masses. He writes with the intent to help everyone along the training spectrum, from beginners to seasoned veterans. Anyone that can read the English language can understand these principles and learn how to apply them to their specific training goals.3. Brian is a no-nonsense type of guy. This book is not fancy. It is not flashy. It is straight-forward, basic, and gets the job done. Want to get stronger and stay healthy? Train with the appropriate intensity at the appropriate times and recover. That’s the jist of it. And this book does an excellent job detailing how to do that. From volume and intensity, to nutritional considerations, to warming up… Applying these principles will get you stronger while maintaining your health. Obviously powerlifting is judged by the raw amount of weight lifted, but rarely if ever should a training day be an all-out, nose-bleed and blackout inducing psychedelic experience. Train hard, and go for the big weights when you are scheduled to peak.Overall, this is one of the best training books I’ve read. I highly recommend it to anyone who is a coach, or to athletes who are coaching themselves. This will help cut through all the training confusion out there and get you back to the things that have been proven to work through the years.

Hands down the best, most versatile and useful book about Powerlifting training I have ever read. Has improved my own training tremendously and I've since got a couple more as presents to my lifter friends. I've run multiple training cycles using it as base now and can see myself using it for many more. I can absolutely see how you could use it to keep progressing through your whole life. Can't recommend enough.

Written in clear and understandable way, most important was I learned a few more things, program suggested is solid explanation on how to pick assistance exercises helped me finally target weakness. And he made me rethink my lazy approach to warming up.

I have meant to purchase this book for a longtime having watched videos of brians recovery from back injury and what others jave said about this book. I have had several back injuries and fully recovered through hard work and care of my back through training, recovery, mobility etc. BUT i have let things slip a bit and am letting old habits creep in. Everything about this book is screaming at me to react (not always as obvious as it sounds!) To get my back, back on track and kick on with my training. Cant give 5 stars atm as im just beginning to follow this philosophy in book. But iv no doubt it will be 5 stars very soon!

A easy to read book explaining a training philosophy that's easy to understand and put into practice . Top class

I am not a powerlifter but am a fitness enthusiast and have been forever. He really emphasizes to be safe at all times and to err on the side of caution if you think that a lift may potentially injure you, especially off-season, which I really liked. His philosophy on 'Deload' is fantastic as I think that would be very useful for any type of training to allow the body and mind to heal from the prior heavy poundages. His stance on 'Warmup' is excellent as I know for a fact most of us skip that part and go right to the lifting. Avoid injuries, lift forever, don't let careless programming result in a life altering injury which will can keep you out of the gym for good. Thank you Brian excellent book.