Top 15 Best Fitness Books Updated 04 /2024

Erasmus, a Dutch philosopher, scholar, and priest, once said, "When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left over, I buy food and clothes. "

He has his head screwed on straight.

It doesn't matter if you want to keep your body healthy or your soul healthy. Erasmus said this even though he was talking about the health of the soul.

Great health and fitness books are one of the best ways to get the body you want.

How do you know which books are the best?

We all have limited time, energy, and attention, and you want to make sure that the books you read are worth the investment. In other words, you should read books that give you the best advice, tools, and practical advice on how to get fit.

Those are the things you'll find in this post.

Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe

If you want to get strong, you need to read Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe.

If you want to learn how to squat, bench press, overhead press, and deadlift safely and effectively, this is the best book you'll ever read.

In each chapter, the author breaks down the main challenges and characteristics of each exercise, shows multiple pictures of both correct and incorrect form, explains what "cues" (mental reminders) work best to get the correct technique, and shows how to use them.

The reason Starting Strength has become a cult favorite is that it's simple, effective, and can be used for many different things. You can use Starting Strength to get strong, build muscle, become more resistant to injury, improve athleticism, or age more gracefully.

You might also like Mark's book Practical Programming, which talks more about how to design workouts.

Start by reading one of the following two books instead, and then read Starting Strength.

Bigger Leaner Stronger by Michael Matthews

To improve your body composition, Bigger Leaner Stronger is like Starting Strength.

You should read this book if you want to build muscle, lose fat, and be healthy as a man. A lot of men who haven't gained their first 15 to 20 pounds of muscle because of bad programming or because they're new to the gym.

Unlike other "weight loss" books, this one doesn't make you follow a specific diet or exercise plan. As a result, it teaches you how to speak the language of fat loss and muscle gain. This helps you build an amazing body, no matter what diet or exercise plan you follow.

As a bonus, the book also gives you clear, specific instructions on how to do everything in it, from making a meal plan to warming up for your workouts to putting together a supplement plan that works best for you. It doesn't matter what you find.

Beyond Bigger Leaner Stronger is another book that might be interesting to you after you read this one. This book talks about how to keep getting bigger and stronger after your first gains fade away. More on this in a second.

Thinner Leaner Stronger

Bigger Leaner Stronger is for men, but Thinner Leaner Stronger is for women. This means that it has diet and training advice that is more tailored to women's bodies, preferences and goals, and challenges.

The main ideas and systems in both books are the same, but there are some small differences in the specifics of workout programs and nutrition for men and women.

A Guide to Flexible Dieting by Lyle McDonald

He was one of the first people to spread the word about flexible dieting. Back in 2005, when he wrote A Guide to Flexible Dieting, he came up with the name for flexible dieting.

Because of one simple idea that isn't what you think, the book is very important.

In general, people who try to lose weight in a strict, all-or-nothing way usually don't succeed. People who try to lose weight in a relaxed, patient, and compromising way usually do well, not only losing weight but also keeping it off. The tortoise beats the hare, in general.

It's important to be able to enjoy and stick to your diet while still losing weight and not gaining it, and that's what this book shows you how to do.

It's a good book for people who have struggled with weight loss and thought, "There must be a better way."

Peak Performance by Steve Magness and Brad Stulberg

To read this book, you should be someone who likes to set big goals for yourself and your work, but who sometimes feels rushed, stressed, or frustrated because of it.

It's a detailed and practical look at how to improve your mental and physical performance over time.

Peak Performance has a lot of information that you can find in other self-help books, but the authors' backgrounds in competitive sports and corporate America give their teachings a unique taste. Both of them ended up going over the top and not meeting their goals, and their book is full of advice on how to avoid that.

As someone who competed at a high level in triathlons during my teens, I found myself in the same situation as Steve. I quickly realized that swimming, biking, and running weren't what I was most excited about when I was awake.

I really liked their advice on how to find and write down a purpose for everything in your life so that it can help you make decisions on a day-to-day basis. People who take a "big picture" look at things like this can make better decisions and use their full potential over time, rather than seeing success as a race from one short-term goal to the next.

If you want to learn simple, effective, and long-term ways to find your purpose and keep working toward it for months, years, and decades without getting tired, Peak Performance is for you.

Muscle for Life by Michael Matthews

Every year, millions of men and women in their 30s and 40s as well as in their 50s and beyond are overweight, out of shape, and unhappy with how they look or how they feel. They don't know what to do about it.

They think it's too late for them to get in shape, that they've missed the fitness ferry, and that the ship will never come around again.

Then, when they try to eat better and work out, nothing happens. They get even more helpless with each failed attempt.

A lot of research shows that it's never too late to get healthy. Muscle for Life has a time-tested and science-based plan for eating healthy foods and exercising that can help anyone get from where they are to fit, no matter their age or circumstances.

The principles, systems, and programming are all the same as Bigger Leaner Stronger and Thinner Leaner Stronger. Muscle for Life is aimed at people who are a little older and need a more gentle introduction to proper eating and training that still gets results.

Anyone who wants to change their lifestyle, whether it's for the first time or has been their whole life, can learn how to look and feel and perform at their best with Muscle for Life. I think it might be the last fitness book you'll ever need to buy or read.

The Triathlete’s Training Bible by Joe Friel

As a person who likes endurance sports, you'll have to come up with a way to deal with a tricky issue:

How do you keep getting faster without having to train full-time or get hurt?

Make your workouts as productive as possible so that you can stay healthy while still meeting your responsibilities at home and at work.

This is especially true for triathletes, who have to train for three very different sports at the same time. The Triathlete's Training Bible has the best solution of any book I've read so far.

Friel talks about the physiology of endurance sports, the basics of proper training and periodization, and what kind of mindset you need to be good at triathlons. All the systems, tools, and tips in this book are very useful for any sport you might want to try. This makes the book unique.

For example, his system for budgeting training time throughout the week, month, and year, is just as applicable to a runner, a weightlifter, or a golfer as it is to a triathlete. It's a good idea to use this system in any part of your life. They also talk about how to balance training with rest, which is the subject of chapters 10 and 11.

One of the most important lessons from the book is that consistent, moderate, and purposeful training is always better than sporadic, extreme, and haphazard training. The best way to get good at endurance sports is to work out all year long, not just in the months or weeks before a race.

Ultimately, he shows you how to be your own best coach. When I was a young athlete, I used many of his methods to finish over 100 triathlons and running races, and I won many of them. When I think back, I could have done even better if I'd listened to more of the advice I found in this book.

It doesn't matter if you want to compete in endurance sports or just enjoy them for fun. You'll like The Triathlete's Training Bible, no matter what.

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