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MuscleNow Book Review
by Hugo Rivera
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A few months after I started selling my manual Body Re-Engineering over the Internet (sometime in 1999), I stumbled across a website owned by a guy named Francesco Castano. His site contained a very familiar story.
Francesco began training dissatisfied with the way he looked (like most of us do). He started reading magazines, taking weight gainers and following the "Champion Routines". After getting fed up with the fact that he was not getting the results he was looking for (more muscle with less fat) he started experimenting with different routines, diets and supplements while recording what worked and what didn't. I read his story and I identified so much with what he was saying (as a matter of fact, our stories are almost complete parallels) that I decided to go ahead and purchase his manual to see what it was all about. I figured that although a bit pricey, I needed to see what conclusions he has arrived to through his own experimentation. Besides, based on the information that he had on his site, I knew that the manual couldn't be that bad.
Within the same week that I ordered I received the manual on the mail. While at first glance it is not visually impressive as it is a non-glossy looking, softcover manual that consists of approximately 50 pages (double sided though; so you get around 100 pages of information), once you start reading it you really cannot put it down.
The book consists of 17 chapters with 7 appendices and a conclusion. A good bodybuilding course should always cover some type of discussion on the determination required to achieve results, training, nutrition concepts, supplementation and rest. Francesco covers all of these topics and much more in a very easily understood down-to-earth manner.
Training wise, he chooses basic exercises that anybody can do in a home gym with a basic free weights setup. No fancy machine exercises in his routine; only effective muscle building ones. His workouts are not long so don't be afraid with having to change your whole schedule around them. Most impressive was the way in which he teaches people to create their own diet plans. For this, Francesco created a plug and play type of formula where based on the caloric intake that you need to take in (which is determined by your goals) you go ahead and multiply by your Mass Index (a number assigned based on caloric intake) in order to get the nutrients that you need to take in per meal.
As far as the validity of his principles, all I can say is that we basically preach the same concepts (cycling of training and diet) but we implement them differently:
Training Differences
- I do more sets than what he recommends.
- I change more the exercises and use more variety. (However, while he likes to use the same exercises, he does vary the grip).
Training Similarities
- Short Workouts (generally 60 minutes of training).
- Variation of rest and repetitions.
- Twice a week frequency for all body parts.
Nutrition Differences
- I recommend different ratios depending on the body type of the person (mesomorph, ectomorph, endomorph). Less carbs for endomorphs (people
with tendency to get fat) than ectomorphs (naturally skinny people).
- He recommends the same ratios for everybody but plays with the quantity of carbs depending on whether your meals are pre-workout, post workout, non-workout or close to bedtime. It is an interesting implementation.
Nutrition Similarities
- Cycling of calories over the week.
- Big post workout meal.
Supplements Differences
- I do use protein supplements as a convenient way to get my five or six meals in.
- I also believe in the value of essential fatty acids.
Supplements Similarities
We don't advocate heavy reliance on supplementation (other than the use of a Multiple Vitamin and Mineral Formula along with Vitamin C).
Even though our implementations are different, based on the fact that we both independently did the same exercise of figuring out what worked and didn't and reached the same basic conclusions (such as the fact that workouts need to be short and cycled) it was a great relief to see that our theories got in some way validated.
In any case, I was very impressed with Francesco Castano's work and I was glad to see that there are people out there that are also battling misinformation by truly sharing that which has worked for them. By reading his work I could tell that not only he knows what he is talking about, but he also cares about his clients (as also evidenced by the fact that he also answers questions through e-mail for those that buy his manual). In addition, he gives free updates of his manual as well. It is a pity I did not had his manual 11 years ago as it would have saved me a lot of trial and error.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Francesco gets two thumbs up for his awesome work and for continuing to help eliminate confusion out there. I think that anybody would benefit from using the MuscleNow program, but based on his set and repetitions ranges I would predict that ectomorphs (naturally skinny, hardgainer bodybuilder) that can't seem to grow no matter what they do would benefit the most.
To visit Francesco Castano's website, please go to MuscleNow.com.
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