This would be one of the most common questions I get from BOM graduates – which book in my Get Buffed! book range to go to. What I tell people is this – the Get Buffed! book range is more than just a collection of generic progressive programs. They are packed with progressive education.
I understand that this may not be readily apparent, as it is common for prolific authors to create book ‘series’ of the same name, however with no connection or pattern or reason or purpose between the books other than to create short term cash flow and put their name back up the Amazon authors list. The Get Buffed! book range is not a series – it is a sequel. A true sequel. With a plan, with purpose and with progression. I have not seen an equivalent multi-book sequel in my lifetime.
So putting aside the program comparison between the Book of Muscle and Get Buffed! series, if you jump over the GB 1 book, you miss a massive part of the lessons available.
I know, you would imagine the content of the BOM and the GB 1 book may overlap. Let me stress this – the GB 1 was not edited down to suit the perceptions and paradigms of mainstream book publishers. It talks my language, and the language of success in physique training.
Now lets talk about the life-time value of the Get Buffed! books. The content in these books will serve you for life. They have done for me, and thousands of athletes during the last 30+ years who have relied on my training guidance. You will want to have all the books on your library shelve, and I hope they take pride of place – they are not trend based, they are based on generalized principles that never change. They will be potentially your best source of lifetime training every published. Big statement I know, but there is simply no other options for 1,200 pages of progressive education and progressive generic programs based on honesty and originality, and tried and proven in the real world with elite athletes .
Now let’s talk about the programs. When I wrote my first mass-marketed generic program, it hurt. It hurt because it went against everything I believed it. You see, for the 19 years of coaching prior to the 1999 release of these original programs and training methods, I had always individualized programs. My concern with providing generic programs is that is send the wrong message – that a generic program is good enough. It’s not. An individualized program is better every time. But I took heart in concluding that a great generic program may be better than what most people are doing.
However because of my concerns about generic programs I went to massive lengths to provide guidance on how you as an end user could modify the programs to individualize it. This approach spawned a number of latter books by other ‘authors’, but at the end of the day they still defaulted back to using copies of my workouts, slightly modified.
In fact the programs in the Get Buffed series have been so impacting, one ‘expert’ published a workout in a mainstream bodybuilding magazine in about 2011, that was so identical to the Get Buffed! 1 program that even I had trouble telling them apart.
Now for the program comparison. Here was my brief – in the BOM I was asked to produce 3 workout a week programs. Understand this – even if the BOM program was identical to the GB 1 program (which it is not) it would not make the GB 1 program redundant because the GB 1 (and II, III and IV) programs are all 4 day a week programs. In other words, the volume per week is 33% higher. You body would need at least the three months of the GB 1 program just to adapt to this.
So for me the answer to your question is simple – the Get Buffed! 1 book is the place to start even for graduates of the advanced program in the BOM.
Now for those who say this recommendation is commercially driven. Lets get a few things clear. In case you don’t know me and haven’t figured it out, I have not time for those who place profit before purpose, or their own personal gain ahead of others needs. For example, the BOM nearly didn’t happen because there was an attempt to change the status of the primary author, myself. Yes, I was prepared to walk away from that deal if the publishers didn’t keep their word. And the BOM program has been my single most lucrative program I have ever written. Not convinced? There was a certain internet magazine whose direction I didn’t agree with, and despite their offer to double my pay, I chose to leave. Then there is our policy of GB IV. If you don’t have all the three prior books on your shelf, we won’t sell you the GB IV (we can do that because we are the sole distributors). If fact I would love to stipulate that you can only get GB II after you have GB I etc. but that may be going too far.
The GB book range really doesn’t make us much money at all. Between the cost of production and shipping etc, we really don’t make anything. I am confident those who have knocked off our content have made a lot more than we have, and they are doing so faking it was their experience and conclusions! So the suggestion that my recommendation is commercially driven is a waste of time. I would rather walk home naked than to take your money if I wasn’t convinced you were going to have your life significantly changed for the better by the exchange. In fact, we often give people their money back just to get rid of them if we can’t solve their life problems.
I have put my life’s experiences into the GB educational range, and whilst I walk this planet, I will do all I can (within the constraints of the weak international copyright laws) to ensure the contents of GB are used to create the outcomes that were intended, for the reasons that were intended when we created this educational range.
So yes – start with GB!
Ian King
PS. Check out our Book of Muscle Facebook page - http://on.fb.me/17ESbCj or our Get Buffed! Facebook page - http://on.fb.me/15LcUDq
