Charniga's Thoughts on Various Books and More

[Donald Lee]

http://www.sportivnypress.com/documents/80.html

He criticizes many books and more, including Practical Programming for Strength Training.

[George Mounce]

It is not the purpose of this section of the Sportivny Press© web site to endorse, sell, or purposely trash any person, book, article, or a specific genre of the weightlifting or strength training literature. Our purpose is to offer a reasonably objective opinion.

I read all the reviews, I don't buy the above statement one bit.

The sample strength programs offered in the book for certification combine powerlifting and weightlifting movements. The biomechanics of the deadlift, for instance, biomechanically has little in common with the weightlifting movements of the snatch and clean and jerk; there is a definite risk of negative transfer of habits to these exercises.

Uh.....

In point of fact the strongest man in the world is the winner of the gold medal in the super heavyweight class at the summer Olympics.

Yet that same person I will wager isn't the world record holder in a good number of other strength events, including other strength events held outside of the Olympics. The Olympics are not the defining event for any event competition, they are defining event for country versus country competition.

Yadda...yadda...yadda....this crap goes on and on into opinion....

[Brian Lawyer]

Anyone care to just summarize it for me on this thread. I don't feel like reading all that stuff. Mainly, what books DOES this Charniga guy recommend?

I am a big fan of Starting Strength but I also bought Practical Programming about a year ago and I haven't got much use out of PP. So I may agree with him if he dislikes that book. Rip really needs to just come out with a DVD to go with the Starting Strength book. I'd spend money on that.

[Allen Yeh]

I read the Practical Programming review and skimmed a few of the other things on the site. I don't know that it's a bad/good review but this disclaimer is certainly not fool anyone into thinking it's really an objective opinion....

It is not the purpose of this section of the Sportivny Press© web site to endorse, sell, or purposely trash any person, book, article, or a specific genre of the weightlifting or strength training literature. Our purpose is to offer a reasonably objective opinion. If there is one soap box which we stand on, it is that objectivity and information for sale do not necessarily go hand in hand. However, objective to one’s intentions, the information market place is as competitive as any.

Frequently, objectivity is cast aside to compete, i.e., authors often begin by trashing the “competitor’s” ideas in order to sway the potential customer that their information for sale is better. On the other hand, there is plenty of information for sale (books, videos, seminars, professional certification) which is biased, flawed, or just plain trash.

[Garrett Smith]

I'm going to guess he raves about the OL books his own company puts out, and OL books/vids in general. Anything else is "just plain trash".

[Carl Chia]

Skimmed through and I agree with some and disagree with some..

[Ben Shechet]

Charniga's a pretty smart guy, and was a good weightlifter in his time. He has some pretty loopy opinions on things, but the books from Sportivny Press are really gold mines if you take the time to dig into them.

[Donald Lee]

Originally Posted by Ben Shechet

Charniga's a pretty smart guy, and was a good weightlifter in his time. He has some pretty loopy opinions on things, but the books from Sportivny Press are really gold mines if you take the time to dig into them.

I'm sure they are, but his personality is such a turn-off.

[Laszlo Madarassy]

I can't see why his personality is a turn-off. He is just defending the books which he have translated and advocate. He thinks that the Rippetoe's thoughts about these russian books are simply not true so he made some statements.

[Enrique Billington]

Originally Posted by Laszlo Madarassy

I can't see why his personality is a turn-off. He is just defending the books which he have translated and advocate. He thinks that the Rippetoe's thoughts about these russian books are simply not true so he made some statements.

Thank you.

A lot of people really don't understand what Charniga has done for the sport of weightlifting and strength and conditioning in general, the number of people who have misinterpreted him notwithstanding. He's pretty much one of the world's foremost experts on the sport. He doesn't pull any punches, but that's what makes him Bud.