Bodybuilders these days live in a time where they are bombarded with conflicting training and nutritional information backed with double-blinded scientific studies, research papers and peer reviews. It is not clear anymore what is the path that will lead to the acquisition of great strength and muscle mass along with razor sharp definition. Great wars are fought in the name of training theories and it has gotten to the point that some bodybuilders actually do more thinking and arguing than training; a sad pattern that leads to the painful road of no results.

It is in such a time that a man from the Golden Era of bodybuilding, a time where bodybuilders would push heavy iron first and ask questions later, emerges with all of the answers on how to get from point A to point B in the road to muscular acquisition. This man is Dave Draper, the Blond Bomber, former Mr. World, Mr.America and Mr. Universe.

Dave comes from a time where bodybuilding was not a glamorous thing. As a matter of fact, most people in society misunderstood it and thought that it was some type of weird cult. Lifting weights to sculpt yourself up was something that you did not do in order to win a contest or to be in the cover of the latest muscle magazine. It was something that came from the heart and that was to be accomplished through pain, sweat, tears and heavy iron. Bodybuilders from those days consistently experimented with routines, tossing those that did not worked and keeping those that did. There was not as much training information published in those days; something that in my opinion inspired the creation of new ideas and new training concepts. Instead of focusing on researching the theoretical scientific reasons of why routines might work, they researched through experimentation which ones did. As a result, great bodies emerged from that era, created not by pharmacy but through innovation and plain hard work.

Dave takes all of the knowledge from this Golden Era and puts it together in a logical, simple, concise, and poetic volume called Brother Iron Sister Steel. This book includes all of the knowledge necessary to achieve the body of your dreams. Whether your goals are modest, such as losing a few pounds here and there, or large, such as bodybuilding competition, this book has something for everyone. In it, Dave cuts through all the myths that are rampant in the fitness industry these days and replaces the confusion with enlightment by presenting a clear and concise roadmap that will allow you to get where you want to go. Dave covers all aspects of tried and true training, nutrition, supplementation and rest as well as sharing personal aspects of his life and the era that he came from; something that a Draper fan, such as myself, finds invaluable. He also covers the mental aspect of training, how to deal with lack of motivation, his past workout partnerships, and much more. Finally, this is the only book that I have seen that contains an extremely complete and well researched Resource Appendix that contains a list of other helpful books, web pages and other resources that the reader can refer to for bodybuilding and fitness information.

So if you ask me: "What do you think of Dave Draper's book?", my reply would be that no bodybuilding library is a bodybuilding library without a copy of Brother Iron Sister Steel.