Men's Health Workout War : Lose Pounds, Gain Muscle, Destroy Your Opponents

Former Los Angeles Lakers strength coach Jim Cotta harnesses men's passion for one - upmanship with an innovative get-in-shape program in Men's Health WorkoutWar.

This book features a highly effective, 60-day exercise and diet program broken up into quarters and an overtime round.

The unique hook is that it makes the fitness instruction much more effective by turning it into a friendly weight-loss war that uses locker-room-style trash talking and cash prizes to drive dramatic results.

Basketball great Shaquille O'Neal, who penned the book's foreword, used a "shirts off" competition against Charles Barkley on national television to spur his own body transformation, and Cotta was his weight-loss coach.

That gave Cotta the idea to build a blueprint for grassroots fitness competitions, complete with multiple contest formats and advice on using social media to build excitement.