The New Rules of Lifting for Women

The New Rules of Lifting for Women is subtitled: "Lift like a man, look like a goddess". However, beneath the cover-page hyperbole is a book that is sensible, useful, and very much needed.

Lifting for Women essentially takes the very latest research into strength, conditioning, fitness, and weight loss and combines it into a direct and usable training manual for women.

Author Lou Schuler wastes no time in attacking the traditional diet mentality of today: "eat less, and keep eating less". Instead he argues for a sensible view of food; eat more of the right foods to power the workouts that you will be doing (a little like BFFM).

This book is aimed specifically at women (I guess the title gives that away) and carefully tackles all of the myths and misunderstandings surrounding women and weight-lifting. As for "bulking up" - Schuler concedes that it is very difficult for men to put on visible muscle - let alone women who have far less amounts of testosterone.

Schuler calls in Alwyn Cosgrove to create an entire workout schedule. This isn't about hours on the treadmill. It's about split-squats, stiff-legged deadlifts, and all those other incredibly useful weight-bearing exercises - all done with 60 seconds break between sets. As for straight-out cardio - Cosgrove offers a series of interval training plans.

What I liked about this book is the level of detail given to the workouts. Many times we are given an outline of the ideas, and the exercises - but left wondering exactly how to draw up a plan. This book has months and months of carefully scheduled workouts. There is also a section detailing basic nutrition plans (including recipes).

If you're a woman looking to get into some weight training but have a lot of questions - then this book will answer most, if not all of them.