New Rules of Lifting for Women

Anyone read the "New Rules of Lifting for Women" by Lou Schuler?  I am in a new city.  Before I moved I belonged to Gold's Gym and I took a strength training class three days a week.  The instructor was excellent and I always had a very challenging workout.  I was noticing a lot of fat loss and muscle development.  I tried several gyms in this area, attending the strength training classes before settling on a gym.  None of the instructors gave workouts comparable to the classes back home.  I have decided I will have to strength train on my own.  The problem is, I work harder in a group exercise setting than on my own, and I am not quite sure how to structure a good workout on my own.  Sooooo - I bought the above mentioned book.  The author recommends doing the exercise programs as written - not to vary it much.  I did the first workout and it was not very hard.  It is recommended that I do this routine, alternating with a similar one, three times a week for four weeks before graduating to a more difficult routine. 

Anyone follow this program successfully?  Any suggestions on other ways I can structure a good strength training schedule.  My last hurdle is that I feel intimidated in the gym in the free weight section.  I force myself to do it because I really enjoy free weights more than the machines, but I do not feel comfortable.  Man, do I miss my old city and my old strength training instructor!

One thing I did love about this book though, was that the author convinced me to eat more.  I was suffering on 1200 calories a day, often failing and then feeling like a failure, and just as often succeeding but going to bed starving. The author gave good arguments to go to 1500-1800 a day.  A much more comfortable range for me.

Lostjadis, what kind of results are you seeing?  Are you following the nutrition plan as well - more cals and protein?

I'd love to jump in, too! Lostjadis, It sounds like you and I might be in a similar spot in program. I'm just about to transition to stage 2; I start workout A tomorrow. How's stage 2 going for you?

I'm following the workout plans pretty meticulously as I learn my way around the weights and I've followed the nutrition plan: more cals, and the cals are much more nutritious and much more protein rich - about 120 - 130 grams each day (I weigh around 124, 5'2). I've lost about an inch on most parts of my bod, more in some places and a less in others :) Tomorrow is also my measuring day so I'll be interested to see  what's happened over the past two weeks. The scale also dropped a few pounds this week, but I suspect that was mostly water weight that my body let go when I took a break to get over a nasty cold.

Anyway, I'm loving it - I look forward to each workout, too! I'm curious how it's going for others who are in my similar situation, or within a stage or two.

well actually...i'm in the middle of stage 1.  i've added an extra workout at each tier of reps/sets...so instead of doing 2 reps of 15 of workout A 2 times...i'm doing it 3 times.  that sounds really confusing, but basically i'm adding in extra A/B workouts because i was new to lifting and didn't want to get too crazy.  also, on 2 separate occasions i had a week off because i didn't have time/motivation to go to the gym. annnd i only work out 3 times a week because of my schedule. i'm sure this sounds really disappointing to everyone haha.

moving on...i have been eating more and having a protein shake after every workout.  i haven't lost any weight (i go up and down within 2 pounds) but as i said, i've been eating more.  my body measurements have gone down but really slowly...this is probably from the gaps i've had in my workouts and i bet i would have seen a more significant improvement if i didn't have any breaks.

i don't have an awesome success story (yet!) but i do feel great and have a lot more energy throughout the day.

lostjadis - sounds like you are doing great!!  Repeating weeks is perfectly acceptable!    At first I thought you meant you were doing more sets per workout... which is supposed to be a no-no.  It is good to hear you did not gain weight by eating more. 

I thought I did at first as Saturday I was up a pound... but it came off today.  Didn't lose any, but didn't gain either.  I finished only 1 week so far.  2 of workout A and one of B.

Hi,

I have finished stage 1. At the beginning of stage one I could only do push ups from my knees and only about 5 to 9 of those. Now at the end of stage one I can do about 15 push ups - full and do 3 sets. I will move on to doing push ups with my feet elevated, etc.. to make it harder.

On lunges I started with 15lb weights and now I hold 25 to 30lbs weights and do 3 sets.

So that is a few examples...

My bat wings are lessened!! My butt is tighter.

I am able to run hills somewhat more easily and I think it is becuase of stronger muscles.  My pants are getting baggier.

My middle is not that much better though (sorry no 6-pack abs yet..) but this is where I store my fat so I think it will be a while.

I did not change my diet although I am a 1400 cal/day person.  On my long run days ( 1.5 to 2hr) I will eat more.

One thing I would encourge is more stretching (gentle PULEEZ) - perhaps use yoga moves if you know them and also I find the foam roller very helpful in releasing my upper back and illioband / quad / hamstrings / glutes...

Hope this helps. I am starting stage 2 this week.

-Carol

Carol - very nice!!!  Great job!  I can relate to the pushup experience.  I tried knee push ups my first workout and only could do about 8 too.  Then the last one I did I did the 30 degree ones (with hands lifted & on toes), but I did finish the full 15 twice.  It feels good to progress!

Hi Everyone!  I am so excited that there's a thread specifically for NROLW now!  (I haven't been on the site in awhile).  I finished stage 1 a couple of weeks ago and have been trying to start Stage 2 since then.  Unfortunately, work has been super hectic and I've been incredibly tired recently, so I haven't been very consistent (only one workout a week for the last two weeks ).  It doesn't help that I have to work out at 5 in the morning before leaving the house for work by 7am and the Stage 2 workouts seem to be taking longer than Stage 1. 

Is anyone else having a similar problem?  Are there any good suggestions for motivating yourself to get your butt out of bed and workout in the morning?

Original Post by mhaskell:

 It doesn't help that I have to work out at 5 in the morning before leaving the house for work by 7am and the Stage 2 workouts seem to be taking longer than Stage 1.  

Why not workout in the evening after work?  That is what I do.  Mornings take too much time for me just to be awake enough to get ready for work!! 

I've found that if I put my workouts off until the evening, I'll find even more excuses not to do them!  For one thing, my commute takes over an hour and I often work until 6 or 7, so I don't get home until 8, and then I just want to have dinner with my husband and go to bed.  If I workout in the morning, the only person I can blame for not getting it done is myself, which in the past has meant that I'll do it, but now I'm just tired.

Good news though - I managed to get a workout in this morning and it felt great!  It was workout B from Stage 2.  I didn't do the interval training because I ran out of time, but I think I'll be able to work that in this afternoon, or at worst tomorrow morning. 

Mhaskell - that is a LONG day!!  I don't know if I'd manage to work out either with a schedule like that! 

Sounds like you are doing well with that kind of time limitation!  Give yourself credit for that!  At least you should be able to get a good workout in on the weekend.  Then all you really have to worry about is one more during the week.  Twice a week is ok too!

mhaskell:

I am currently finishing up Stage V of NROL, and I have a similar schedule to yours.  I'm up at 5 a.m., at the gym by 6:30 a.m., work out until 8 a.m. or so, shower, change and am at work by 8:30 - 8:45 a.m.; work 8 hours, take night classes, teach yoga and care for my family (ok -- my kids are grown now, or I would have to clone myself, but my elderly mother lives with me and is as much, if not more, work than a child).  I consider my work-out my sanity saver, as well as my investment in my health.  So when that alarm goes off at 5 a.m., as hard as it is -- I foce myself to get up and move and I feel so much better for it. 

In the summer, I normally switch to a lunch time routine (no classes in the summer -- I give myself the gift of no studying), but with the demands of my job, that can (and unfortunately does) get in the way.   If you can hang in there, I find it's much better to get the workout out of the way first thing.  Not to mention the other benefits of getting up and out early-- no traffic; prime parking spaces in the garage; the gym is less crowded and I don't have to wait for equipment, etc.  There are two days per week when I don't have class that I let myself sleep until 6 a.m., but otherwise, it's 5 a.m. or bust.

The down side is that by 9 p.m. or so, I'm toast, but thankfully, my husband doesn't mind :).  I use the weekends to catch up with him and we'll often work out over the weekends together, or I'll cajole him to come to my yoga class.

You can do it! If you have to limit yourself to 2x a week during the week, you always have the option of getting your third session in over the weekend as was mentioned earlier.

Keep up the most excellent work :)

Boy, I have a tendency to chat too much!  I meant to tell you that I too, had difficulty fitting in the intervals in Stage II (and they included in every stage after II as well) in the allotted time I had when I was working out at lunchtime, so I would do them the following day as a separate workout.  In Chapter 12, they discuss "Extra Stuff to Do" and describe an interval workout very similar to the one that accompanies the lifting stages, except it can be longer than 15 minutes -- you do the intervals for 15 minutes, rest for 5 minutes, then continue at a moderate pace for as long as you want to work.  It worked for me on the days when I just didn't have time to add the intervals to the weights (especially as the rest times between sets increase). 

Wow Paula - your schedule puts me to shame!  But I totally agree that working out saves my sanity.  Especially NROLW, I think because lifting weights makes me feel powerful, and improving my physical strength seems to improve my mental strength at the same time. 

When I was doing stage 1, I would work out Tues and Thurs and then either Sat or Sun depending on what my plans were for the day.  That seemed to work really well.  I think what's getting to me now is that Stage 2 is taking a little longer in the morning, so if I'm not out of bed, dressed, and warming up by 5:15 (I work out at home), I won't have time to get it all done before I have to get ready for work (starting no later than 6:30), so then I just decide to try again the next day and go back to bed (bad attitude, I know).  Maybe it's just efficiency though.  Since I've just started stage 2, I still double check the book to make sure I'm following proper form and trying to figure out the right level of weights for each exercise.  I'm sure it will get better (or I will ).

Thank you all for your support!  I think just posting here yesterday was what got me out of bed this morning.  I just told myself that there couldn't be any more excuses.

What have people done for the interval training?  Any thoughts on doing the lifting one day and the interval training the next?  I think that may be what I have to do in order to get the interval training in, at least during the week, but I'm not sure how that will affect the performance of the program.  Does anyone know if it will make a difference?

Hi Paula -

Somehow I missed your second post there about the interval training (#53).  Did you ever do the intervals on your lifting day, like on the weekend?  If so, did you feel a difference in your performance?  I'm interested to know what the affect of splitting it up will be, but like I said before, most likely that is what I will have to do too.

Hey all, I just did the stage 2, workout b, for the first time this evening and it totally takes longer. I did the interval training and my workout was about an hour and twenty minutes. That's really only about 10 minutes longer than when I do a full warm up - which I didn't do today.

I hit the gym after work and when it's busy, like today, it's tough to get to all of the equipment for some of the intervals - so that adds time. And, being new to most of the exercises, it took longer to get set up, figure out the weight, etc. I was hoping that after I had some of it figured out I'd shave some time off. However, given your experiences, it sounds like that is optimistic.

I thought about resting for less time between the crunch / flexion interval to speed things up as well. I'm not sure if that's a smart idea...

I have to say, though, that I feel great. Those freakin' split squats are out to kill me!

Original Post by mhaskell:

Hi Paula -

Somehow I missed your second post there about the interval training (#53).  Did you ever do the intervals on your lifting day, like on the weekend?  If so, did you feel a difference in your performance?  I'm interested to know what the affect of splitting it up will be, but like I said before, most likely that is what I will have to do too.

 Yes -- I would do the intervals on the lifting day if there was sufficient time.  As for feeling a difference, yes, on the lifiting days the intervals felt a bit harder, but that's to be expected, since you've just fatigued your muscles with the weights, but it was certainly do-able.  At the end of a workout where I did both the lifting and the intervals as set out in the book, I was sweating bullets and got that euphoric feeling that follows a really good workout where you know you pushed yourself, but not too hard -- you know?   It made my yoga practice that day that much sweeter!

I'm just starting Stage 2 also, I've finished the first instances of workouts A and B as of today.  I also can't fit in the intervals over my lunch hour.

One other issue I've been running into is the particular setup at my gym in doing some of the supersets - it virtually impossible to do the two exercises together without losing my spot on the cable pulldowns, which always have folks waiting for them.  And it's just busy and crowded in that area so I can't pile up "my" equipment around it without being rude and getting in someone else's way.

Love the Bulgarian split squats - hurts so good!

I'm looking forward to stage 2.  Sounds great.  Right now, I'm a little nervous about how much I am eating.  I'm sticking to the plan - lots of protein. And it feels good not to be starving - but can eating more, backing down on the cardio and weight training three days a week really take the fat off?  I don't have a lot of weight to lose, but I have been on a quest since early summer to get rid of cellulite.  I don't want to go backwards even a little bit.

Yes, I definitely believe it can, although you'll still need to be in a calorie deficit to lose weight, or at least that's what I'm understanding from that section of the book.  I'm currently on maintenance, so not losing weight and not gaining weight, and yet I still lost 3.5 inches over 4 months, which is the point when I started seriously working with free weights.