I was lent this book to try out, and later bought this book for myself. This was the first program that I've ever followed. The routine goes on for about 6 months. With breaks and visits out of town, I took over 7 months. Prior to this book, I was one of those cardio addicts who spent all my time on the machines at the gym. With dieting and cardio, I lost about 30 lbs. Then as some people who still have a long ways to go might realize, cardio alone will eventually stop working. The body will get accustomed to that hour a day of biking, or treadmilling, etc. That is my personal discovery. And any diet plan proved difficult to follow for long term. Don't get me wrong, I am eating much healthier than ever, but my point is, life doesn't have to be all about a "perfect" diet. With lifting, I have discovered that I don't always have to eat like a bird or cut out all my grains or carbs, etc.
I had been wanting to start a weight lifting routine for a few months before I started the program in this book. I started in January of 2015. I didn't follow any specific diet, nor did I follow the recommended meal plans. I think if I had, I might have seen even more progress. The exercises in the program started off very basic, perfect for a beginner like myself. Then there were workouts that made me sore in places that I didn't know I had muscle. The workouts are demanding, but fun. I did exercises that a beginner like myself didn't know existed, but when I did them, I really felt the soreness later. I would say that these workouts are challenging, however with some determination, the routines are all doable for a beginner.
Now that I am finished with the program, I can report on some of my results and thoughts about it. After I had finished the program and immediately moved onto another one, I could really tell the difference between the routines in this program vs. routines in other programs. These workouts made me feel like I was constantly working out muscles that I don't often workout, making me feel stronger and with more stability. This book focuses on health and strength, which it really delivers. There are lots of compound movements, which is why I often felt like my body was tired but in no specific area afterwards. The quads will end up burning a lot. I became much stronger after this workout. My deadlift and squat numbers all started out with weights that were less than the 45lb bar. By the end, I was deadlifting 135 at one rep max, and squatting about 95 lbs.
Visually, I got compliments by many people that I was noticeably looking better. I lost more than an inch off my waist, and I started to see curves on my apple-shaped body. The weird thing is, I actually didn't lose too much weight - about 7 lbs. So imagine my surprise when I got all those compliments. Trust me, what matters are the inches that are shedding off of your problem areas! Again, I haven't followed a diet or cut any carbs. I ended up counting my daily calories and apparently that's quite enough.
There is one hang-up I have on this program. I started out on the program about 25-30 lbs overweight. In this way, I felt that perhaps the book wasn't exactly written for me. The book does not place a lot of emphasis on cardio. I am not passionate about cardio either, however in my opinion, as someone who was 25-30 lbs overweight, some cardio is still necessary. During the beginning of the program, I was doing mainly the HIIT cardio like the book illustrates. However, I started to lose MORE body fat when I began to do the steady state cardio at medium intensity for over 45 minutes again. Of course, I hear that HIIT works wonders for some people. It's just not enough cardio for my body. That's a learning process that I'm still trying out for myself.
Overall, I owe my high regards to this book after my full year of my life in lifting. I am sad for the people who can't follow this book. Exercise tapes are nice and provide good workouts, however books like this are educating for a lifetime of health awareness. The general fitness or health industry is a lot of flashiness, promising fast results and amazing changes. Most of these marketing pitches don't work in the long run. (Believe me, I've tried them all.) I personally am liking going to the arm curl section of the gym and scrapping for the squat rack. I am considering other programs from this book series later on. If there is an intermediate or advanced book for women available, I am on it.
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