New Rules of Lifting for Women group?

Are you all on M/W/F schedules as far as your lifting days? I am. Sometimes I feel like it might be not quite enough time for muscles to recover. If my muscles are really crazy sore, like on the first day of the 5-sets-of-incline-reverse-crunches session, then I wait an extra day but really don't like to do lifting stuff on Saturday since the gym is extra packed.

Im doing MWF. By the weekend I really wore out. Before this program I worked out 6 days a week. Now I find that Im doing the 3 days and MAYBE one cardio day. But thats how I know Im getting a good workout though. Im really starting to see the definition in my arms.

My first best guess would be calories, sunshine. I felt progressively stronger and more and more solid as the program went on, especially when I bumped up my calories a bit and put prioritized protein consumption above all else. I lifted heavier (and got sweatier!) the more I ate.

Well, let's not focus so much on the fat as much as upping the strength. I did a super-quick check of your food diary and if you aren't ready to up your calories by another 100 or so (which I can relate to, believe me) than how about making a real commitment to at least 100 gms of protein every stinkin' day...lifting or not. I believe that 100 should be the bare minimum protein limit and ideally the weighttraining pros say something like 1 gm per lb. of body weight. (I don't know how that converts to kilos though, arrgh.)

I think that when you give your body--your muscles--the fuel it needs to grow, this will up your metabolism and make your body the more solidly muscular machine we are all trying to build around here.

Anyone on Stage 7 yet? I did the 3rd workout and it was a killer. I can't do as heavy as weights as I am accustomed to doing, but since it is such high reps and little rest I am not sweating it. They call it a fat burning stage anyhow. They are definitely good workouts. I pair it with 20 minutes of HIIT training and I've got a nice 45-minute workout.

I started today. I was surprised at how short the workout was - I think it took me about 20 minutes including a 5 minute warmup. I was lazy and didn't do warm up sets though. Also, it wasn't all that challenging for me except for the push ups - probably because I've been doing body pump and yoga for a few weeks now. We've been working on those prone jack knifes in yoga class! But I tried to push myself with as heavy a weight as I could do. I just felt like maybe I wasn't working hard enough because I'm used to 60 minute workouts. It did kindof make me wonder if I should skip stage 1, but on the other hand, this way I'll get better at push ups.

Yay! I picked up my Craigslist bench and weights yesterday! I'm going to start tomorrow.

Two quick questions for you: since I'm doing this at home and I dont' have a squat rack, what should I do instead? And same thing for the lat pulldown - I didnt' see substitutions listed in the book for these two exercises.

Hi Elizabeth! I think the curvy barbell (my guess is an e-z curl bar that people typically use for bicep curls) is not ideal but if it's what you have then I think it will be fine.

kdiamond--I am technically done with the workouts in stage 6 but I think I might linger (hopefully just a little) longer in the hopes that I will be able to do one actual pull-up. If this doesn't happen for me in a month, then I'll move onto stage 7. I'm happy to hear it's been great for you, especially since I have been mentally preparing for "fat-burning" mode.

I think I am going to do Ripptoe's Starting Strength (apparently what the Stronglifts guy based his plan on) after I'm done with NROLFW. After that, I might just do it again!