We finalized a deal this week for a follow-up book, a kind of New Rules of Lifting for Women, although that won't be the title.
We're going with the same editor and publisher, which I'm very happy about.
This time, Alwyn and I have a new coauthor, Cassandra Forsythe, who is a Ph.D. student of Jeff Volek's at the U. of Connecticut. (Jeff designed the diet for Testosterone Advantage Plan.)
Because I've always written for men's magazines, I had never paid much attention to the type of advice women get from their books and magazines. But when I started to look closely at it, I was stunned.
The research shows pretty clearly that women should do the same types of routines as men, and that they get the same benefits, proportional to where they started. All the top strength coaches know this, and train their female athletes accordingly. For example, in Core Performance, you'll see references to male and female athletes, but nowhere does Mark Verstegen differentiate between their workouts.
Alwyn and I have talked and emailed about this frequently. He and Rachel train male and female clients more or less the same way; the modifications they make from one client to the next are specific to that client but rarely to that client's gender.
But you'll never pick up a women's magazine or workout book and see workouts like the ones we use in our books, or that we used to run in MH. You'll never see periodization, or any kind of emphasis on strength development. The state of the art reminds me of where we were in the late '90s with the workouts in men's magazines, and in the workout books being published back then. It's all about the magic bullet, the single exercise or routine that's going to fix everything, with no mention of the importance of committing to a program and making progressive improvements in physical performance as the key to improvements in physical appearance.
My thinking, when I started writing the proposal, was that if all of us in the fitness biz know that women aren't a separate species whose muscles magically circumvent all the known parameters of strength and conditioning, why isn't anyone telling them what we know? Why do all of us sit back and ignore the total bullshit that appears in books and magazines without refuting it?
So this is the book where Alwyn, Cass, and I will set out to explain and promote the current state of the art in training science and practice. Why should guys get all the good information and advice?
There's no publication date set; the editor and I have discussed fall '07 and January '08 as possibilities. I'll keep you updated as we move forward.
Last night at the gym I saw a bunch of dancers lifting soup cans. They were slender, but not necessarily lean, and surely could've handled more weight than they were using.
Let me know if you need a guinea pig on the program
This awesome news. Huge thank you to all of you, its about time that something like this was done. I hope that this changes the way people look at those women who train hard to a higher level of respect I can't wait to see the book when it comes out. This is a huge service to women everywhere Awesome! Big Thanks to you all.
__________________
"My darling," she said at last, "are you sure you don't mind being a mouse for the rest of your life?"
"I don't mind at all," I said. "It doesn't matter who you are or what you look like so long as somebody loves you."
Very cool, Lou. I've read a few of Cassandra's articles over on Berardi's site. Good stuff. Cassandra, Alwyn and yourself is going to be a winning combination. Best of luck with it.
__________________
"A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have."
That is super cool. Ever since I heard it on the fitcast I was like: finally, an official book stating what we do I'll have it translated into Bulgarian if you and your publishers let me.
Pull that January '08 back to December '07, so men can give it as gifts to women!
Ah it dosen't matter when it comes out, you can always give gifts.
Women like to get gifts for no reason...
Although tread carefully and know your woman well. Getting her a workout book could explode in your face
Og.
__________________ 2009: No races, No times. Slow year. So, now you're 96 cals short. You're now in starvation mode. Doomed. - LostDog
Blog entry: November 1, 2009, Pancakes LiveSTRONG daily plate log
Great news!! I'm sure there are many who will rejoice over the death of the sculpt-n-tone pink dumbell "workout."
__________________ The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves happy. The amount of work is the same. -- Carlos Castaneda
Fabulous news! Although I bet that making it as deliberately funny as NROL was inadvertently funny (to this female reader) is going to be hard work, I'm sure you're up to the challenge. :-)
How was NROL inadvertently funny? I've been told by a few people that the deliberate jokes didn't work for them, but this is the first I've heard about unintentional humor.
now maybe I can encourage my sisters and girlfriend to lift without them complaining about becoming "huge."
What's funny about this -- and it's a point I hope to get across in the book, with deliberate or "inadvertent" humor -- is that women like your sisters and GF seem to have no concept of how hard it is for a guy to get huge. And that's with all the advantages of hormones and greater size and strength at the outset.
I mean, I've been lifting more than 35 years, and I have yet to get huge. And I don't want to think about how many years I lifted before I had moved beyond "skinny."
Women can certainly gain strength and muscle size, and the gains tend to be proportional to those of men, as I said. But two pounds of solid muscle in a month is a big, big achievement for a guy. For a woman starting out with half as much muscle weight, one solid pound is just as big an accomplishment.
If one pound of solid muscle makes someone "huge," we've truly entered the Twilight Zone of body image.
How was NROL inadvertently funny? I've been told by a few people that the deliberate jokes didn't work for them, but this is the first I've heard about unintentional humor.
I haven't time to reread it with pencil in hand, so forgive me for being less than specific. But some of the deliberate jokes are second-order funny to me -- that is, not funny in themselves, but "good lord, they talk like that to each other when we're not around? How cute. *snicker* *chortle* *flip page*".
On a different topic, my personal plea? Can we please, PLEASE keep the "honest, lifting weights will not turn you into a musclebound mini guy" rap to one chapter that I can skip over? Because if I have to read a reminder on every 3 pages I will explode. kthxbye.
__________________ It all starts with the mind, but the thoughts, the intention aren't enough. Action needs to come next. Dream it, believe it, plan it, execute it, celebrate it. - Wendy
I so wanna say something about a shiney hiney (but really can't figure something good out ;P)
__________________ It all starts with the mind, but the thoughts, the intention aren't enough. Action needs to come next. Dream it, believe it, plan it, execute it, celebrate it. - Wendy
The original post is from July 2006. Perhaps Lou could give us a timing update for publication. Is it still on track with the original publication dates?
__________________
"Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you are right." - Henry Ford
"UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not." - Dr. Seuss
"Life is no brief candle to me. It is sort of a splendid torch which I have got hold of for a moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations." - George Bernard Shaw
fantastic!! I am a 43 year old woman, and I have been using NROL since 2-1 and have lost 15 pounds of scale weight, but have completely transformed my body. I am a triathlete and marathon runner, and I totally disagree with so many running purists who shun lifting. I tend to be bigger and carry more muscle than the average endurance-head, and so I think that my big powerful muscles help me. I will never beat the greyhounds in my sport, but I like the way my muscles look!! I took your advice and I lift and do track workouts on the same day, with easy recovery swimming on the off days, and I back off the reps and weights on the thursday before my saturday long run. all good so far! so excited about your women's book--post it in large font here so I can be one of the first to buy it.
Good news
I'll have it translated into Bulgarian if you and your publishers let me.
hehe
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