Best books for strength and conditioning at home

A great strength and conditioning book intended for everyday people rather than professionals. Nicely laid out and easy to follow, will get you training like an athlete and sprinting towards your health and fitness goals!

A good strength and conditioning book for use at home if you want a more 'pure' read. John Cissik gives a great introduction to strength and conditioning as a discipline, bringing together the field's philosophy, theory, application and scientific foundation.

Possibly the only strength training book you'll ever need. Mark Rippetoe goes into exquisite detail on the 5 key barbell strength training exercises: the squat, deadlift, press, bench press, and power clean. Rippetoe is not only passionate about strength training, but exercise in general, as can be seen from this passage: "Exercise is not a thing we do to fix a problem - it is a thing we must do anyway, a thing without which there will always be problems. Exercise is the thing we must do to replicate the conditions under which our physiology was - and still is - adapted, the conditions under which we are physically normal. In other words, exercise is substitute cave-man activity, the thing we need to make our bodies, and in fact our minds, normal in the 21st century. And merely normal, for most worthwhile humans, is not good enough."

Basically the bodyweight version of Mark Rippetoe's Starting Strength. This book will help you develop immense strength and power at home through bodyweight exercises alone. The exercise variation, progressions and regressions alone are phenomenal.

Not a strength and conditioning book per se, but an excellent book for understanding the foundations of sport and exercise science. Necessary for those wishing to get a good understanding of the physiology of the body during exercise.

An absolute masterpiece when it comes to understanding the anatomy of the body as it performs strength training exercises. Frederic Delavier is a truly gifted artist who combines beautiful illustrations of the human body engaging in strength exercises with a wealth of information about correct strength training.