Review by Rahul Alvares

When I first read one of Peter Sisco’s articles I knew I was reading something that was radical. It was information that I had been searching for for years, and writing that made perfect sense to me, leaving no doubts whatsoever.

"How often should I train?", "How many sets and how many reps?", "Which is the most intense exercise for the Quads?" These are the types of questions I had struggled to find the answers to for a very long time with little success. I had talked to ten different trainers only to get ten different opinions (none of them the least satisfactory).

Then I chanced upon one of Peter Sisco’s articles and a lot of questions I answered for myself. All the training fundamentals began to fall into place. I got my hands on every one of Sisco’s articles after that and have been a fan of his training ideas ever since.

If you haven’t heard of "Power Factor Training" or "Static Contraction" you will be spellbound when reading "Train Smart." The whole concept of measuring exercise intensity precisely to obtain whole real numbers is a step ahead of HIT (High Intensity Training) and every training style or method I have come across. Actually, it's a Spiderman jump - it’s that far across. Revolutionary, that’s the word!

The book explains in a most easily understood way the concepts of "Static Contraction" and "Power Factor Training." It takes you through the aspects of recovery, training frequency, maximum overload, "Power Factor" calculations, the best routines for all the muscles, and even has a good section on Alpha and Beta strength. It's perfect for someone who has been banging weights around and getting no results whatsoever because he/she has never stopped to understand the principles of training and progressive overload in the first place...the person who has spent all his training time shooting in the dark.

"Train Smart" has one more advantage and that is it is the compilation of all the research Sisco and John Little have done and published in six other books: Static Contraction, Power Factor Training, Golfers Two Minute Workout, Power Factor Specialization Abs and Legs, PF Chest and Arm and PF Shoulders and Back. As Sisco himself says "It is the meat of all my books."

But if you have tried "Power Factor" and "Static Contraction" then there is discrepancy in it you might agree with me upon. That is, flawless though the training principle may sound, you will not be able to use it solely or continuously because it is my experience that you will hit a plateau.

Almost every bodybuilder will agree that the body adapts to everything. And I mean even "Static Contraction" and "Power Factor." Sisco, however, hardly touches the topic of adaptation, relying only on progressive intensity and optimum training frequency claiming that these two will avoid any plateau and keep muscle gains continuous. From my personal experience, I believe that this isn’t always so.

But otherwise, I think that the book is simply spectacular and is a must have for every bodybuilder who should train with intensity, precision, and who needs to take his/her training to a whole new level.

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