Fitness magazines that don't suck

I'm keen to improve my knowledge of fitness so I can work out better, more efficiently, get stronger, and most importantly improve my form/technique. I like reading magazines but most of the ones I've seen seem to be geared towards either body-builders (which I'm not) or are pseudo-diet magazines like Shape, Self, Zest etc. I don't want to know about "toning" or workouts that require no effort and can be done in 10mins and will result in a loss of 2 dress sizes in 2 weeks! And whats more, usually involve pink dumbells...

I know that real results come from hard work, and I want a magazine that can give me ideas on losing fat, gaining muscle, and how as a woman I can lift heavier, get fitter and feel great!

Any ideas?

since you don't like shape or self...try Oxygen...it's good! :)

I second Oxygen! It's REALLY good. I'm nto a fitness mag reader, per se, but I love this magazine. You should give it a shot. It's not into fad dieting or anything like that, they advocate regular workout regimines and have lots of helpful advice for the gym and home.

I really like the variety of topics in Women's Health magazine. 

DEFINITELY OXYGEN magazine = # 1 choice... along with all their sister/brother magazines like Clean Eating, Fat Loss, Abs & Glutes

Muscle & Fitness Hers is a pretty good publication too although there are a lot of pictures of women demostrating how to do specific exercises and not enough information about food & nutrition (which is what I am more interested in). 

Health Magazine recently redid all their content, etc (I think they got a new editor or something) and I actually really enjoy reading that magazine now! I used to NEVER buy it because I thought it was such a waste of my money, but now I am excited when I see a new one on the stands. 

Prevention Magazine is also a good one but it's geared to women between the ages of 38 and above... but I don't care - it still gives out a lot of great information needed for a healthy lifestyle. 

Woman's Health is pretty good too although for me there is WAY TO MUCH fashion & make-up and NOT ENOUGH nutrition and exercise content. But I still buy it anyway!

Self Magazine is alright, not exactly the best place to get hardy information but they do offer good tid-bits here and there! Never the less, I always buy the newest edition when on news stands! 

Fitness RX For Women is a great magazine full of good useful information, exercise tips, diet advice and more - definitely pick up a copy! 

Men's Health is a good magazine too... even though it is catered to males... it still gives a lot of good information women can use... except for the men's fashion pages and the pages and sex... oh and pages about prostate cancer and ID. ha ha! 

**One magazine I think is slightly a waste of money = Fitness Magazine... It's a short publication filled to the brim with beauty & fashion tips.. and not all that much about nutrition and exercise... and what they do feature in there that is in fact "fitness"... well it seems dated or as if I have already heard it a million times. 

Oxygen is my bible.

I have thrown out all other "fitness magazines" like Shape because they don't come close to Oxygen.

when you look at a fitness magazine, you see the cover model first. A good rule of thumb is to make sure that the cover girl has MUSCLE DEFFINITON. It's so sickening to see all these skinny-fat airbrushed chicks on all those so-called fitness and health magazines when they have probably never picked up a weight heavier then 2lbs in their life, or have done a real pushup!!

I like Muscle & Fitness Hers too, but I find it too short for the price you pay for it, and the women are WAY TOO masculine sometimes.. and like GG said it's mainly women demonstrating excersizes.

remember it's 80% diet and 20% exercize... if your magazine doesnt give proper advice on nutrition, then your hard work in the gym won't show. A good magazine will give tips on eating right, working out, and living a healthy lifestyle overall... it should not be filled with useless crap about celebrities and hair products.

http://figureathlete.tmuscle.com/index.jsp

There's also http://www.tmuscle.com/index.jsp geared towards the guys, but women that like to lift heavy seem to visit the t-nation forums and read their articles too.

The info is free, you just have to read ads about their supplements.

Great, thanks for all the ideas! Everyone seems to agree on Oxygen so I will definitely buy myself a copy and check it out.

Original Post by ds1973:

http://figureathlete.tmuscle.com/index.jsp

There's also http://www.tmuscle.com/index.jsp geared towards the guys, but women that like to lift heavy seem to visit the t-nation forums and read their articles too.

The info is free, you just have to read ads about their supplements.

Thanks for the links - I'm not a figure athlete but the site has some good info :)

Wow, I've never even heard of Oxygen, but it sounds great. I'm so over my Shape and Self subscriptions. Seems like the same tired stories over and over. I just went ahead and ordered a subscription to Oxygen and a free trial issue of their Clean Eating mag. It'll be nice to have something new to read. Thanks for the suggestions and thanks to merylwhite1 for posting this question!

I'd like to second Womens Fitness RX and Muscle & Fitness Hers.  As with any magazine, some of what they print is crap, but some of it is really worthwhile.

The Good: Oxygen is great for fitness. I love its "attitude". Women's Health is an interesting read for a variety of health issues with a bit of fitness & food mixed in. Clean Eating magazine is my food bible in magazine food.

The Bad: I subscribe to Fitness mag and I won't be renewing when my subscription runs out. It's a read & toss magazine. Same for Health magazine, except I don't subscribe to it. It's a light read & I rarely learn anything new.

I second figure athlete and tnation! Even if you aren't a figure athlete, just looking to lose fat and gain some muscle, they're really helpful. Or pick up "New Rules of Lifting for Women", it's a book not a magazine, but it has great info about lifting weights AND nutrition, plus it has a 6 month progressive weight lifting plan that totally kicks ass.

Original Post by carmenxox:

when you look at a fitness magazine, you see the cover model first. A good rule of thumb is to make sure that the cover girl has MUSCLE DEFFINITON. It's so sickening to see all these skinny-fat airbrushed chicks on all those so-called fitness and health magazines when they have probably never picked up a weight heavier then 2lbs in their life, or have done a real pushup!!

I know! I picked up Fitness the other day and flipped through their "bikini body" workout while I was in line at the grocery store.  The moves weren't terrible - lots of lunge and half-squat variations (unweighted of course) - but the model demonstrating them looked like a twig! Rail thin, completely unathletic.  Sad.

I picked up copies of Oxygen and Clean Eating - both are great, well worth the money and so much better than the magazines I've previously bought. I thought I was well informed nutritionally (and diet mags never tell me anything I don't know) but Clean Eating had tonnes of great info I didn't know before. I wasn't even looking for a food magazine, but I'll definitely be buying this again. Oxygen also has the kind of attitude and workouts I'm looking for... good stuff.

I also liked the look of Muscle & Fitness Hers, so I'll buy it next time I need a magazine fix. Luckily, I know a magazine shop that sells back-issues of nearly every magazine for half-price - I think that's my next go-to.

I'm also going to try and find NRLFW. Haven't found it in any bookstores yet (not surprising, seeing as I read only 2% of Malaysians exercise regularly, so God only knows what tiny proportion lift weights) so I'll try to find it online.

Thanks everyone for the great ideas!

Include me as a Women's Health fan (and subscriber).  I'll get Oxygen every now and then and enjoy the articles, but find it to be full of ads for supplements. 

Weight Watcher's magzine has some good diet and exercise articles for someone who isn't into fitness quite so much.

I have just cancelled my subscription to Women's Health, I find that every issue has the exact same headlines and the headlines and the articles are almost completely unrelated (for example, something headlined as "Lose 2 sizes in 2 weeks!" was actually an article on how you can cut 100 calories from little everyday things, a headline saying "Get back into shape guide" was really an article about how different exercises physically and chemically affect your body) and they spout tons of crap about 'Blasting Belly Fat!!" which is misleading and makes me think that they don't know what they are taking about.  Their workouts are generally pretty sissy (pink dumbell) as well.

Oxygen is great, they have a some misleading articles (belly blasting, and the like), but the workouts and recipes are great.  The workouts can be beginner or harder, depending on what level you are at and what results you want.  Too bad they only seem to have 2 cover models, Jamie Eason and that Alicia girl...and the diet pill and fat burner ads are a bit much.

I like the advice in Muscle & Fitness Hers, and the workouts are hardcore, but it's a lot of ads and not a lot of content for how expensive it is.  It's at least $1 more than the others, but there isn't the content to support it.  I guess this is because it's a smaller mag.

I love Clean Eating for food, it has a lot of really kickass recipes, I've tried a bunch and they have all turned out super tasty and satisfying.

Original Post by thermal:

I have just cancelled my subscription to Women's Health, I find that every issue has the exact same headlines and the headlines and the articles are almost completely unrelated (for example, something headlined as "Lose 2 sizes in 2 weeks!" was actually an article on how you can cut 100 calories from little everyday things, a headline saying "Get back into shape guide" was really an article about how different exercises physically and chemically affect your body) and they spout tons of crap about 'Blasting Belly Fat!!" which is misleading and makes me think that they don't know what they are taking about.  Their workouts are generally pretty sissy (pink dumbell) as well.

Oxygen is great, they have a some misleading articles (belly blasting, and the like), but the workouts and recipes are great.  The workouts can be beginner or harder, depending on what level you are at and what results you want.  Too bad they only seem to have 2 cover models, Jamie Eason and that Alicia girl...and the diet pill and fat burner ads are a bit much.

I like the advice in Muscle & Fitness Hers, and the workouts are hardcore, but it's a lot of ads and not a lot of content for how expensive it is.  It's at least $1 more than the others, but there isn't the content to support it.  I guess this is because it's a smaller mag.

I love Clean Eating for food, it has a lot of really kickass recipes, I've tried a bunch and they have all turned out super tasty and satisfying.

Yeah, I've read Women's Health several times and I'm getting fed up with it for the exact same reasons! Cover headlines turning out to be something different, fad diets and articles that just get reformatted but are basically the same deal, month in and month out.

After reading Oxygen mag, I'm loving the workouts and the clear photographs that will help improve my form, but there are way too many supplement adverts. The issue I just bought also had a 1050-cal a day diet plan, and although they warned it wasn't healthy, they still published it....

Cleaning Eating mag is good, it resembles the Healthy Food Guide mag that I used to buy at home (New Zealand). I think I'll stick with Oxygen for now as the best of what's available, and maybe try and buy a few back-issues of Muscle and Fitness Hers just to check it out.

I can't deny the flaws of Women's Health, but still have to confess that I LOVE it!!  I get so excited when it comes in the mail every month!!  Ha!

I will definitely have to try out Oxygen, too...  Looking forward to picking up a copy!