The 10 Best Weightlifting Books

If you have never trained with a barbell, Starting Strength teaches the basics one step at a time, from foot position to bar path. Mark Rippetoe, a former competitive powerlifter, gives whole chapters to the squat, deadlift, press, bench press and power clean, with drawings of each position. The plan is plain: add a little weight every workout for as long as you can. The writing is dense and opinionated, and some coaches dispute his squat style.

Frederic Delavier paints the muscles under the skin, and Strength Training Anatomy uses those drawings to show which ones work in each lift. The fourth edition covers more than 200 exercises, each with a color illustration and short notes on form and on the joints most at risk. It suits lifters who want to know why a movement works, and trainers who explain it to clients. There is no training plan inside, so it works best as a reference.

Men who want more muscle and less fat get the training and the eating laid out together in Bigger Leaner Stronger. Michael Matthews explains calories and protein in plain terms, then gives a weekly lifting schedule built around big multi-joint lifts like squats and presses, with steady weight gains on the bar. The tone is upbeat and direct, which keeps beginners reading. The author also sells supplements, so give his advice on them a skeptical read.

Once the easy gains stop, Practical Programming for Strength Training explains how to keep getting stronger. Mark Rippetoe and Andy Baker start with why progress slows as you improve, then give sample plans for novice, intermediate and advanced lifters, such as weeks split into heavy, light and medium days. The idea of stress, recovery and adaptation runs through every chapter. It assumes you already know the lifts and spends little time on form, so it is slow going for newcomers.

For the snatch and the clean and jerk, the two lifts contested at the Olympics, Olympic Weightlifting by Greg Everett is a thorough coaching manual. Everett, who runs Catalyst Athletics, breaks each lift into teaching steps, then covers warm-ups, flexibility work and how to build a training program. It is written for athletes and coaches alike. These are fast, technical lifts, and a book can't spot a bad pull, so plan on a coach or on filming your sets.

Heavy weights won't make women bulky, argues The New Rules of Lifting for Women, and it backs the point with a full plan. Trainer Alwyn Cosgrove wrote the workouts, which move through stages from basic full-body sessions to harder ones over several months, and nutrition expert Cassandra Forsythe added the eating advice. Lou Schuler's writing is friendly and often funny. The book first came out in 2009, and its diet chapters now read as dated.

Written for people past 40, The Barbell Prescription treats simple barbell training as medicine for an aging body. Jonathon Sullivan, a physician, makes the case for building strength and muscle later in life, and coach Andy Baker supplies plans with more rest between hard days than a younger lifter would need. It also shows how to adjust the lifts for stiff joints. The medical argument fills the opening chapters, so readers who just want a program have to skip ahead.

Arnold Schwarzenegger's New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding is a huge, photo-filled tour of the sport he helped make famous. It covers the history of bodybuilding, hundreds of exercises shown by champions of the era, training splits, posing and contest preparation. Readers who enjoy the history get the most from it. The routines were built for full-time competitors, with far more sets than a beginner needs, and the nutrition advice dates from the late 1990s.

Jeff Nippard, a coach known for science-minded training videos, built The Muscle Ladder as a step-by-step path to bigger muscles. He explains what research says about sets, effort and rest in plain language, then offers programs from first-timer to advanced, so you can climb a rung as you improve. Color photos show each exercise. It came out at the end of 2024, so few lifters have run its plans for long.

When a lift starts to hurt, Rebuilding Milo helps you work out why. Physical therapist Aaron Horschig, who runs Squat University, goes joint by joint, from knees and hips to the back and shoulders, with simple self-checks for mobility and exercises to rebuild strength around the problem. Kevin Sonthana's drawings make each movement clear. It is a guide rather than a diagnosis, so sharp or lasting pain still calls for a clinician.