Clint Nielsen’s Reveal the Steel is a fitness book that completes a circle often left incomplete in the lives of many Americans. It comes from the position of struggle, trials and tribulations, success, and a repeatable plan to dig readers out of the very rut the author used to share with them.
From the high ground position of my own health and fitness, I’m often amazed when I look down on the countless folks struggling to turn their lives around. I’m amazed there are so many people who don’t have the tools or knowledge to even begin their climb to the top of their best health. My heart aches for the millions of people getting up early to head into their local gym to work out the only way they know how and to eat the only way they know to eat – without success.
With Reveal the Steel, you’ll quickly learn that the author is speaking as an expert on the subject, while remaining in touch with the reader. Clint Nielsen begins his book with a compelling personal story of rock-bottom health, and his own success story paved with dedication, trial, and error. This is a guy who went from being called names as a heavyset teenager, to trying to train his way out of his rut with cardio, experimenting with supplements (even steroids), portion control, and endured endless peaks and valleys.
The author isn’t vague in any way shape or form about who this book is for. Reveal the Steel is an approachable plan for any man or woman to achieve a sustainable, lean physique. I love how real Nielsen is in his writing and his intentions. He even goes as far to say that if you’re looking to get “super massive like a bodybuilder” that you’ve come to the wrong place.
What’s Reveal the Steel’s “magic bullet?” Ironically, it’s a mature approach to a combination of lifestyle components. Nielsen’s honesty brings the reader crashing back down to Earth over and over, which sets the stage for lasting change.
Before there is even a word about exercises and program structure, Reveal the Steel dives into food and nutrition, as it should, in my opinion. It’s in the nutrition section that Nielsen begins to get specific with his plan of action. It’s here he encourages intermittent fasting and carb cycling, as well as outlining the dos and don’ts of macronutrient food sources. The nutrition section even gets into general guidelines of quality and addresses common misconceptions about calorie intake. The reader will definitely be steered in a helpful direction, albeit without having specific meals and regimented portions to follow.
The training portion of the program starts by also wiping the slate clean of common misconceptions and exercise mistakes. Here, Nielsen addresses overtraining, neglect of the posterior chain, logging workouts, cardio intensive training, and plateau. After the reader is free and clear of what he/she thought was true of training, Nielsen gets into action mode. What’s his first bit advice? Goal oriented training.
I was specifically impressed with Nielsen’s ability to cover the basics for people new to training. Things that I would be prone to skipping over, like defining what exercises constitute isolated movements versus compound movements, are critical foundational concepts he addresses in great detail. From there, the training begins with an eighteen-week program, with the flexibility to accommodate modifications whether the reader is training at home or in the gym.
The full program is three stages long, with a fourth bonus stage for “hardcore trainers” only. The first stage gets things rolling with strength and fat loss, stage two incorporates muscle gain and strength, and stage three rounds it out with focus on fat loss and muscle gain. The entire program is well illustrated and easy to follow, including modifications. A guide to nutrition strategy is coupled with each section of the training outline, as well.
Reveal the Steelis personal and well thought out. I don’t doubt for one minute that a compliant participant will see a positive adaption. Starting with the premise of lasting change and sustainable results, the big question is whether or not participants will be able to live with the steel once they’ve begun to reveal it. Nielsen addresses this very topic with a handful of strategies for life after week eighteen. Potentially, the most helpful way he does this is with enticing advanced skills, like the human flag or a one-armed push up, which may keep folks pushing on for years to come.
“Reveal the Steal” is available at for $47.00 at revealthesteel.com.
