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lifting_heavy_things2010-05-17 06:38 pm
gchick) wrote in lifting_heavy_things2010-05-17 06:38 pm
Book Review: The New Rules of Lifting for Women
The New Rules of Lifting for Women is a followup to the very well-respected book The New Rules of Lifting by the muscle writing guy Lou Schuler and the strength and conditioning coach Alwyn Cosgrove. For the second book, they've added the sports nutritionist Cassandra Forsythe to the team, and included a full eating plan to the book. Schuler is the main writerly voice; he's a little too addicted to corny jokes and has a long history of writing books that reference testosterone a lot, but he seems to have genuinely grokked the fact that women deserve serious strength training too, and -- unlike what a lot of people have proposed -- should train just like men. (Ironically, this suggests that there shouldn't be a need for this particular book at all, but do I even have to say how far we are from getting there?)
Rule 1. The purpose of lifting weights is to build muscle.
The authors start out by gleefully demolishing the usual myths about women and strength training: it's not all about freakish bodybuilding stuff; no, you won't get huge; "lengthening" and "toning" and such are fairly meaningless; lifting something that weighs less than a cup of coffee isn't really a workout, and so on. I won't spend a lot of time on those since they've already been brought down and kicked around like soccer balls quite a bit in this comm. What's more interesting and new and improved (tm) in this section of the book is their info on men's and women's muscle physiology - muscle is muscle and it grows in similar ways in response to training, but testosterone is massively (heh) important in the amount of muscle you have and thus how much it grows. Without having read the scholarly research, this feels a little handwavey and contradictory to me (we're the same! except in the ways we aren't!), but luckily they come down firmly on the side of YES YOU SHOULD LIFT HEAVY THINGS, or I wouldn't even bother writing a review.
The bit that may feel a little more strange if you're new to strength training culture is their stance on cardio: it's entirely optional. Not just for muscle-building (because, let's face it, there have been a lot of people in the history of lifting heavy things who just wanted to lift even more heavy things without bothering with the rest of that silly exercise stuff) but also for fat loss. This is all to do with how intense bursts of activity (including not only serious lifting effort but also high-intensity interval training, which you'll have the pleasure of meeting a month or so into the program) mess with your metabolism, whereas steady-as-you-go stuff (whether it's an hour of jogging or a billion reps with a two-pound weight) is designed to not shake things up too much.
Rule 12. Calorie restriction is the worst idea ever.
The next part of the book turns to eating. As the rule above says, the authors are absolutely not down with cutting calories -- you need food, and very possibly more of it than you're used to eating, to train effectively. They recommend multiple small meals a day with a balance between protein, fat, and carbs, and they insist on a lot of protein for anyone trying to build muscle. Beyond that, though, the emphasis is on what they call "nutritional consistency" - eat a range of good foods (that is, lean proteins, more whole grains and less refined sugars, lots of fruits and veg, avoid trans fats and too much saturated fat), avoid very bad ones, practice moderation.
The book provides a bunch of recipes for breakfasts, lunches, dinners, morning and afternoon snacks; nutritional breakdowns are provided for each, and there are sample menus at several different daily calorie levels. The eating plan is mix and match - there's no "you must follow this diet to the letter" in any of this, and (aside from protein powder after workouts) no strange miracle ingredients. The recipe lists for each mealtime include at least some vegetarian suggestions. Usefully, they also provide recommendations for prepared foods that can fit into their recommended nutritional framework -- after all, who really has time to cook 5 delicious homemade meals a day anyway?
Rule 20. Every exercise is a "core" exercise.
Most workouts fall into one of two patterns: the ones with lots of running from one machine to the next were designed for health clubs to move people through in time with their class schedules. And the ones with lots of exercises isolating specific little muscles were developed for bodybuilding, not strength training. If you've ever learned half a dozen different not-quite-identical variations on curls, it was designed to make your muscles look stronger rather than be stronger. The better way, according to the authors, is to focus on strengthening the whole body and let the non-core muscles be strengthened as a happy by-product.
Lou seems especially fond of using triceps exercises as a ceremonial whipping-boy, so let's go with that. The argument is that there is no good reason (outside of rehab or bodybuilding, anyway) to isolate a muscle that exists only to straighten your elbows: your goal in life is basically never to straighten your elbows. On the contrary, your goal is very often to lift and stabilize something overhead, or to push against something heavy; if you train for lifting and pushing, you can get better benefits more efficiently, and working the hell out of your elbow-straightening comes free as a gift with purchase. Not only is it a lot less boring and pointless this way, but whole-body exercises actually do a better job on the elbow-straightening than isolation does because you're working the whole interdependent system of muscles and connective tissues.
So, with the philosophical treatise out of the way, we can get to the fun stuff. (I'm assuming you consider lots of squats and deadlifts to be fun stuff or you wouldn't still be reading this, yes?)
The book provides a strength training program that lasts 6-9 months, depending on whether you work out two or three times a week. It's all broken up into phases, so your workouts change every month or so, and the progression is suitable for beginners -- you start with a simple (but not necessarily easy!) set of exercises in phase 1, add new and different things as well as high-intensity interval training in phase 2, and so on. Aside from preventing terminal boredom (yay!), changing your routines every month or so is important for continuing to make progress in training, so it's important to follow the program as well as to keep adjusting the weight you're lifting to be just at the edge of what you can lift for the number of reps you need to do.
For all of the workouts, each exercise is illustrated, and there are alternatives for people who don't have certain equipment. There are progressions for building up to full pushups, chinups, etc, and at the other end of the scale, there are more difficult variants for when you want more of a challenge, especially with bodyweight exercises (because, srsly, who wouldn't feel just a little badass graduating to Dumbbell T-pushups?)
There's an "Extra stuff to do" chapter at the end that discusses incorporating other activities into your schedule, whether it's recreational activities or regular classes/cardio/sports.
Is too much. Let me sum up.
A really very good book, especially for people who are just getting started with lifting. I've been going around and recommending it to everyone including dudes, and not only for the look on their faces when I recommend a Lady Book because the workouts are harder than in the original version. My biggest regret, looking ahead to a magic fantasy world in which I actually finish things, is that the program is a 6-month run rather than something that can be an ongoing routine afterwards, but the habits and skills should be sustainable, as the eating plan is designed to be. Or if not, they're working on another book.
Rule 1. The purpose of lifting weights is to build muscle.
The authors start out by gleefully demolishing the usual myths about women and strength training: it's not all about freakish bodybuilding stuff; no, you won't get huge; "lengthening" and "toning" and such are fairly meaningless; lifting something that weighs less than a cup of coffee isn't really a workout, and so on. I won't spend a lot of time on those since they've already been brought down and kicked around like soccer balls quite a bit in this comm. What's more interesting and new and improved (tm) in this section of the book is their info on men's and women's muscle physiology - muscle is muscle and it grows in similar ways in response to training, but testosterone is massively (heh) important in the amount of muscle you have and thus how much it grows. Without having read the scholarly research, this feels a little handwavey and contradictory to me (we're the same! except in the ways we aren't!), but luckily they come down firmly on the side of YES YOU SHOULD LIFT HEAVY THINGS, or I wouldn't even bother writing a review.
The bit that may feel a little more strange if you're new to strength training culture is their stance on cardio: it's entirely optional. Not just for muscle-building (because, let's face it, there have been a lot of people in the history of lifting heavy things who just wanted to lift even more heavy things without bothering with the rest of that silly exercise stuff) but also for fat loss. This is all to do with how intense bursts of activity (including not only serious lifting effort but also high-intensity interval training, which you'll have the pleasure of meeting a month or so into the program) mess with your metabolism, whereas steady-as-you-go stuff (whether it's an hour of jogging or a billion reps with a two-pound weight) is designed to not shake things up too much.
Rule 12. Calorie restriction is the worst idea ever.
The next part of the book turns to eating. As the rule above says, the authors are absolutely not down with cutting calories -- you need food, and very possibly more of it than you're used to eating, to train effectively. They recommend multiple small meals a day with a balance between protein, fat, and carbs, and they insist on a lot of protein for anyone trying to build muscle. Beyond that, though, the emphasis is on what they call "nutritional consistency" - eat a range of good foods (that is, lean proteins, more whole grains and less refined sugars, lots of fruits and veg, avoid trans fats and too much saturated fat), avoid very bad ones, practice moderation.
The book provides a bunch of recipes for breakfasts, lunches, dinners, morning and afternoon snacks; nutritional breakdowns are provided for each, and there are sample menus at several different daily calorie levels. The eating plan is mix and match - there's no "you must follow this diet to the letter" in any of this, and (aside from protein powder after workouts) no strange miracle ingredients. The recipe lists for each mealtime include at least some vegetarian suggestions. Usefully, they also provide recommendations for prepared foods that can fit into their recommended nutritional framework -- after all, who really has time to cook 5 delicious homemade meals a day anyway?
Rule 20. Every exercise is a "core" exercise.
Most workouts fall into one of two patterns: the ones with lots of running from one machine to the next were designed for health clubs to move people through in time with their class schedules. And the ones with lots of exercises isolating specific little muscles were developed for bodybuilding, not strength training. If you've ever learned half a dozen different not-quite-identical variations on curls, it was designed to make your muscles look stronger rather than be stronger. The better way, according to the authors, is to focus on strengthening the whole body and let the non-core muscles be strengthened as a happy by-product.
Lou seems especially fond of using triceps exercises as a ceremonial whipping-boy, so let's go with that. The argument is that there is no good reason (outside of rehab or bodybuilding, anyway) to isolate a muscle that exists only to straighten your elbows: your goal in life is basically never to straighten your elbows. On the contrary, your goal is very often to lift and stabilize something overhead, or to push against something heavy; if you train for lifting and pushing, you can get better benefits more efficiently, and working the hell out of your elbow-straightening comes free as a gift with purchase. Not only is it a lot less boring and pointless this way, but whole-body exercises actually do a better job on the elbow-straightening than isolation does because you're working the whole interdependent system of muscles and connective tissues.
So, with the philosophical treatise out of the way, we can get to the fun stuff. (I'm assuming you consider lots of squats and deadlifts to be fun stuff or you wouldn't still be reading this, yes?)
The book provides a strength training program that lasts 6-9 months, depending on whether you work out two or three times a week. It's all broken up into phases, so your workouts change every month or so, and the progression is suitable for beginners -- you start with a simple (but not necessarily easy!) set of exercises in phase 1, add new and different things as well as high-intensity interval training in phase 2, and so on. Aside from preventing terminal boredom (yay!), changing your routines every month or so is important for continuing to make progress in training, so it's important to follow the program as well as to keep adjusting the weight you're lifting to be just at the edge of what you can lift for the number of reps you need to do.
For all of the workouts, each exercise is illustrated, and there are alternatives for people who don't have certain equipment. There are progressions for building up to full pushups, chinups, etc, and at the other end of the scale, there are more difficult variants for when you want more of a challenge, especially with bodyweight exercises (because, srsly, who wouldn't feel just a little badass graduating to Dumbbell T-pushups?)
There's an "Extra stuff to do" chapter at the end that discusses incorporating other activities into your schedule, whether it's recreational activities or regular classes/cardio/sports.
Is too much. Let me sum up.
A really very good book, especially for people who are just getting started with lifting. I've been going around and recommending it to everyone including dudes, and not only for the look on their faces when I recommend a Lady Book because the workouts are harder than in the original version. My biggest regret, looking ahead to a magic fantasy world in which I actually finish things, is that the program is a 6-month run rather than something that can be an ongoing routine afterwards, but the habits and skills should be sustainable, as the eating plan is designed to be. Or if not, they're working on another book.
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And the six-month thing... is this something where you could do the program, take a month off and just maintain, then start it over at higher weights? Because that would be really cool.
I like what they say about high-intensity exercise. I'm working on rebuilding my aerobic base right now (and OMG does it suck), but I always get the best bang for my buck when I do intervals a couple times a week.
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I'd say that the first book was not exactly written for a broad audience, and only someone who thinks that dudes are the default would miss that point -- but obliviousness annoys me less than dismissiveness.
I have never actually tried the program, but if I ever did a program, it would be this one.
ETA: And I should add, for those who have not read the book themselves, that this review is great at giving the flavor. I mean, aside from the author's really bad jokes. But they're cheerful isn't-living-heavy-things-fun bad jokes.
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(And also glad for you that it's working so well!)
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Sometimes I learn other things. For example, during the body-weight matrix portion of the workout I learned that I really need a new sports bra.
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