A LADY WHO LIFTS - 1 year of progress! (pics)

I'm sorry to sound dumb on her but what does NROLFW stand for? and how do you access it? Do you already have to be at your ideal weight to begin?

Not a dumb question! I should have written it out. It's a book called "The New Rules of Lifting for Women". It's a great beginners guide to lifting aimed at women (but it's just like a men's program because women can lift just like them!). It explains the benefits of lifting, how it effects your body, and nutrition. It has meal suggestions and a 6 month workout plan with instructions on how to do all the lifts. It can be found on amazon for ~12 dollars.

You do not need to be at your ideal weight to begin lifting! In fact the sooner the better!! Dieting tends to cause muscle loss which just makes one's body looser and jigglier. Strength training makes everything tighter and stronger!

Basically my answer is that your workout regimen doesn't need to be all or nothing. Turbofire doesn't need to be done every day, you could do it only on rest days just pick whichever dvds you like! And then on the other days do heavy lifting or other programs. You can mix it up however you like best for YOU I personally don't do anything else with stronglifts but that's because I just like lifting best good luck!

You look amazing!!! Which do you prefer NROL4W or stronglifts?

If you could go back and do it all over, would you still have started with NROL or would you have gone straight to SL?

If I went back, I would definitely either do NROLFW to begin with or I would do Jamie Eason's LiveFit. I haven't actually done Live FIt but I've looked a lot into it and it's a similar program to new rules, starts with no cardio, adds it in in phase 2, has more lifts in each workout and focuses on certain parts of the body in certain workouts.

I don't like how the live fit trainer pushes supplementation so much, even though I think that it can possibly be very helpful, it may not be necessary for everyone or at least not while they're starting out especially if they can't afford it.

I like that nrolfw begins with higher reps and fewer sets and then progresses to lower rep higher weight because it assumes that the average female who is beginning lifting for the first time will *underestimate* how much they can lift (I did!) and thus should start at higher rep and then progress as their confidence progresses.

Nrolfw workouts can be a little confusing at first if one doesn't take the time to actually read the book and read the instructions. It's a short, informational, and really well done book but a lot of people skip to the end for the workouts and then say they don't understand how it's set up. It's confusing but if you read it closely, it is all explained!

And I like that nrolfw has a whole section devoted to nutrition and why eating ABOVE BMR and even at maintenance during lifting is CRUCIAL. I think this is the best information in the book, how to calculate your calories. In fact, I have this old post outlining it if anyone is interested:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/538943-how-to-calculate-calorie-goals-according-to-nrolfw

I would not start with stronglifts if I went back and started over because although stronglifts is an amazing workout program, I think I would have been very intimidated by it (even more than I was!) if I had started with it. It's very much aimed at men, and as much as I am a proponent of women and men being able to lift the same, I liked having a program that I felt was aimed at me as a female when I first started. Stronglifts is great for me now because it's quick, the workouts are always the same, and it's not anything I have to think about. Plus the app is handy!

Thanks for the great question!

^^^ I think this pretty much addresses your question To sum it up, I prefer stronglifts now because it's straightforward and a quicker workout.