The New Rules Of Lifting For Women

If you are a woman are are looking to actually increase your strength, this is a must read. It's called The New Rules of Lifting for Women. Someone I trust online recommended this book and now I can't remember who it is, but I'm glad I bought this one.

This book contains a 6 month workout program and diet plans. But don't just buy this book so you can just start following the plans. It's written to be read like a book, beginning to end.

I actually didn't love it at first because I wanted to just learn about how the strength program worked. But I'm glad I sat down and read through it. Schuler provides great information. This isn't a quick 30 day fix to a beach bod, rather you'll learn about how to actually gain strength. 

Here's Schuler's key insights:

• you actually have to lift heavy weights to gain strength, and even women should work to actually be stronger (there are many long term benefits in addition to looking great)
• women lift barbie weights to "tone" and are afraid of bulking up like men, but it's a big fat lie that women will gain muscle like men by lifting heavy weights
• there's no such thing as toning - you can gain endurance in your muscles to be able to lift 5 pounds over and over again and that's okay, but don't think that's giving you any muscle or tone
• how you look after eating right  and exercising is mostly based on genetics, so don't bother listening to everyone that tells you do xyz in order to look like a model

I didn't buy this book for the nutrition section however it gave me some great meal ideas and ways to increase my protein and good fats intake. The content and the strength training workouts were well worth the money. 

Final note on this book - if you want to use this book so you can follow the workout programs, you will either need a gym membership or good home gym equipment. That includes a bench with a benchpress barbell, weights for the barbell, free weights, and an exercise ball. A lat pull-down machine is a plus. 

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