The New Rules of Lifting for Women: Lift Like a Man, Look Like by Lou Schuler

The New Rules of Lifting for Women: Lift Like a Man, Look Like a Goddess by Lou Schuler

Print Length: 272 Pages
Publisher: Avery
Publication Date: December 26, 2009
Language: English
ASIN: B004IE9RGC
ISBN-10: 1583333398, 1583332944
ISBN-13: 978-1583333396
File Format: EPUB

In The New Rules of Lifting for Women, authors Lou Schuler, Cassandra Forsythe and Alwyn Cosgrove present a comprehensive strength, conditioning and nutrition plan destined to revolutionize the way women work out. All the latest studies prove that strength training, not aerobics, provides the key to losing fat and building a fit, strong body. This book refutes the misconception that women will “bulk up” if they lift heavy weights. Nonsense! It’s tough enough for men to pack on muscle, and they have much more of the hormone necessary to build muscle: natural testosterone. Muscles need to be strengthened to achieve a lean, healthy look. Properly conditioned muscles increase metabolism and promote weight loss — it’s that simple. The program demands that women put down the “Barbie” weights, step away from the treadmill and begin a strength and conditioning regime for the natural athlete in every woman. The New Rules of Lifting for Women will change the way women see fitness, nutrition and their own bodies.

Reviews

I was lent this book to try out, and later bought this book for myself. This was the first program that I’ve ever followed. The routine goes on for about 6 months. With breaks and visits out of town, I took over 7 months. Prior to this book, I was one of those cardio addicts who spent all my time on the machines at the gym. With dieting and cardio, I lost about 30 lbs. Then as some people who still have a long ways to go might realize, cardio alone will eventually stop working. The body will get accustomed to that hour a day of biking, or treadmilling, etc. That is my personal discovery. And any diet plan proved difficult to follow for long term. Don’t get me wrong, I am eating much healthier than ever, but my point is, life doesn’t have to be all about a “perfect” diet. With lifting, I have discovered that I don’t always have to eat like a bird or cut out all my grains or carbs, etc.

I had been wanting to start a weight lifting routine for a few months before I started the program in this book. I started in January of 2015. I didn’t follow any specific diet, nor did I follow the recommended meal plans. I think if I had, I might have seen even more progress. The exercises in the program started off very basic, perfect for a beginner like myself. Then there were workouts that made me sore in places that I didn’t know I had muscle. The workouts are demanding, but fun. I did exercises that a beginner like myself didn’t know existed, but when I did them, I really felt the soreness later. I would say that these workouts are challenging, however with some determination, the routines are all doable for a beginner.

Now that I am finished with the program, I can report on some of my results and thoughts about it. After I had finished the program and immediately moved onto another one, I could really tell the difference between the routines in this program vs. routines in other programs. These workouts made me feel like I was constantly working out muscles that I don’t often workout, making me feel stronger and with more stability. This book focuses on health and strength, which it really delivers. There are lots of compound movements, which is why I often felt like my body was tired but in no specific area afterwards. The quads will end up burning a lot. I became much stronger after this workout. My deadlift and squat numbers all started out with weights that were less than the 45lb bar. By the end, I was deadlifting 135 at one rep max, and squatting about 95 lbs.

Visually, I got compliments by many people that I was noticeably looking better. I lost more than an inch off my waist, and I started to see curves on my apple-shaped body. The weird thing is, I actually didn’t lose too much weight – about 7 lbs. So imagine my surprise when I got all those compliments. Trust me, what matters are the inches that are shedding off of your problem areas! Again, I haven’t followed a diet or cut any carbs. I ended up counting my daily calories and apparently that’s quite enough.

There is one hang-up I have on this program. I started out on the program about 25-30 lbs overweight. In this way, I felt that perhaps the book wasn’t exactly written for me. The book does not place a lot of emphasis on cardio. I am not passionate about cardio either, however in my opinion, as someone who was 25-30 lbs overweight, some cardio is still necessary. During the beginning of the program, I was doing mainly the HIIT cardio like the book illustrates. However, I started to lose MORE body fat when I began to do the steady state cardio at medium intensity for over 45 minutes again. Of course, I hear that HIIT works wonders for some people. It’s just not enough cardio for my body. That’s a learning process that I’m still trying out for myself.

Overall, I owe my high regards to this book after my full year of my life in lifting. I am sad for the people who can’t follow this book. Exercise tapes are nice and provide good workouts, however books like this are educating for a lifetime of health awareness. The general fitness or health industry is a lot of flashiness, promising fast results and amazing changes. Most of these marketing pitches don’t work in the long run. (Believe me, I’ve tried them all.) I personally am liking going to the arm curl section of the gym and scrapping for the squat rack. I am considering other programs from this book series later on. If there is an intermediate or advanced book for women available, I am on it.