Book Recommendation: New Rules of Lifting for Women

Has anyone heard of this book? ThethisNew Rules of Lifting is great. I used to be the girl that jogged on the treadmill for 10 minutes (and I use the term jog loosely) then hit the circuit machines, blaze through them doing one set of 15 reps, and be out the door in under an hour including stretching. I thought I was doing the right thing to lose weight. I lifted weights and did cardio, what else was I supposed to do?

Various fitness articles throughout the internet had taught me that the more muscle you have, the faster your metabolism is, and therefore the more calories you burn at rest. That is some pretty solid logic in my mind. Every week when I went to the gym, I was able to up my weight on a couple of the machines. I thought I was making progress. Yet when I went to use that muscle, I didn't feel stronger. Pushing a heavy grocery cart didn't get easier, holding back my dogs on a walk never felt like less effort, and running never became any less miserable.

Fed up, I read The New Rules of Lifting for Women by Lou Schuler and Cassandra Forsythe. What's great about this book? It got me out of the deprivation mind set. Eat less, lose weight makes sense, but NRoLfW walks through how eating fewer calories slows down your metabolism in the long run. This was mind blowing to me. You mean I can eat if I'm hungry? Hallelujah! I am a girl that is always hungry. I don't do "dieting".

The other reason I think NRoLfW is such an excellent starter book is because it really made me comfortable with the weight room. I was always so nervous walking into the weight room surrounded by all these buff guys. I had no clue what kind of exercises I was even supposed to do with free weights. Another reason I has enjoyed the machines-they came with directions!

Through this book I figured out a basic weight lifting routine and a great starting point. This book has a bunch of great illustrations on different exercises, as well as a basic workout. I didn't follow the workout and can't attest to its effectiveness, but it certainly looks like a nice starting point and has adaptions for different fitness levels.

Interested? The book can be purchased through the offical website as well as through your app store, in most book stores, and ebay.