New Rules of Lifting for Women?

Who's tried it? Did you get results? Anyone do it at home? Accomodations for lack of barbell possible? Any info is appreciated! Thanks!

I'm doing it now, just finished my first week. I was sore and also felt awesome at the same time. One interesting side effect is that I'm retaining water like whoa. I put on 5 lbs over night after my first workout. Then half of them disappeared in another day, then I added another pound after the second day. Now I'm only up 1.8lbs since sunday. I'm pretty sure it's still only water weight (I can FEEL the water and swelling.) I ran on wednesday and had the best time I've ever had running. I'm 297lbs and usually running is one of the hardest parts of my work out, but my muscles felt so awesome after recovering from the first 2 days of this program that it felt so much easier running than I can ever remember it feeling.

Although to be honest, I found a huge part of the book to be unnecessary. Some of it was interesting, but it feels a little padded for word count. I like the section describing how to do all the workouts. I have modified a couple of them for my needs. For example, the Step-Ups have you using dumbbells, but the step-ups are very very hard for me as it is so I'm not ready to use weights with it yet. I can't yet deadlift with the barbell - too heavy, so I am using dumbbells instead until I can build up to the weight of the barbell (which I think is 35 lbs.) I also do the goblet squats instead because the barbell is too heavy for me. I've been doing squats for several months now already and have built up to squatting with 20lbs. The barbell is 35, so I'm hoping I can move on soon.

I'm doing it now, just finished my first week. I was sore and also felt awesome at the same time. One interesting side effect is that I'm retaining water like whoa. I put on 5 lbs over night after my first workout. Then half of them disappeared in another day, then I added another pound after the second day. Now I'm only up 1.8lbs since sunday. I'm pretty sure it's still only water weight (I can FEEL the water and swelling.) I ran on wednesday and had the best time I've ever had running. I'm 297lbs and usually running is one of the hardest parts of my work out, but my muscles felt so awesome after recovering from the first 2 days of this program that it felt so much easier running than I can ever remember it feeling.

Although to be honest, I found a huge part of the book to be unnecessary. Some of it was interesting, but it feels a little padded for word count. I like the section describing how to do all the workouts. I have modified a couple of them for my needs. For example, the Step-Ups have you using dumbbells, but the step-ups are very very hard for me as it is so I'm not ready to use weights with it yet. I can't yet deadlift with the barbell - too heavy, so I am using dumbbells instead until I can build up to the weight of the barbell (which I think is 35 lbs.) I also do the goblet squats instead because the barbell is too heavy for me. I've been doing squats for several months now already and have built up to squatting with 20lbs. The barbell is 35, so I'm hoping I can move on soon.

You'll get there! Just go up little by little! Are you sure your barbell is 35 pounds? Im just asking cause I have 2 here that are 45 pounds.
I see what you mean about some of the book being unnecessary. heee heee! But, overall I really liked it too. Although, I am a little frustrated now because I want to start on Tuesday and I don't understand how the workouts go. :huh: I posted a topic to ask about it....but Im not sure where it says "workout 1" and "workout 2" if that means "week 1" and "week 2". Ugh, I don't even know how to explain what I am asking here. I know you alternate beteween A and B But, I don't know if it's like this: M- A, W-B, F-A and then the next week it would go M-B, W-A, F-B....is that "workouts 1 and 2"? Or is it when you do A the first time it's workout A and the second time you hit it, it's workout 2 so then the next time you hit it, you decrease the reps/increase weights because now it's workout 3...alternating still of course...
I don't know....I hope that made sense!:laugh:

I'm doing it at home (just about to finish Stage 2), though I bought a cheap barbell and weights. The only annoying thing is that I can't do squats at home because I don't have a squatting cage and I can't safely get the bar into the right position otherwise without a spotter, so I do dumbbell squats instead if no one's around to help me. Not the same thing, but better than nothing.

For those of you who bought the book and are confused about the workouts, there's a free spreadsheet available:

http://maggiewang.com/2008/05/20/new-rules-of-lifting-for-women-diet-calculator-and-workout-logs

(I downloaded it myself and there were no viruses or anything attached.)

It lays it out much more simply than the books do and even has a nifty diet calculator. (You need to own the book to be able to download the sheet.) Just alternate between workout A & B until you run out of blanks, then move on to the next 2 sets of tabs...very easy!

As for results, I have been weightlifting on and off for years but was never doing it the way the book suggests (I was always lifting too light & doing isolation movements). So far:

-Appearance - a little bit more "fit" in shape, but not enormous changes (I was pretty fit before starting). Would probably see bigger changes if I was totally new to lifting.
-Muscle tone (how firm the muscle is when relaxed) - much, much improved, particularly in my thighs, butt and arms.
-Weight - my weight has gone up a bit and my measurements are the same, which means I am gradually building muscle -- yay!
-Strength - HUGE INCREASES. This is by far where the program has blown me away. It is astounding how much stronger I have gotten since I started (and I'm only at the end of Stage 2!), and it's really paying off in my everyday life. (I can carry around things that were way too heavy for me to even budge before.)

It's also doing wonders for my muscle balance (I'm prone to knee injury, and my knees have been rock solid as of about 4 weeks ago...they were pretty awful at the start because of imbalances!)

I won't claim that this is the only program that will give awesome results like that -- I'm sure any good compound-movement, heavy lifting program would (like 5x5 mentioned above) -- but I love this program's approach and I feel like it's a fantastic introduction to doing things right.

I do love that this one (NRLFW) is for women who aren't shy to eat lots of calories and lift heavy!
Thanks again for the info on the spreadsheets and for sharing your progress on this program!

I'm about to finish Stage 1. (last workout Tuesday) and I love it. Best way to show I think is pictures so here are mine. These are taken about six weeks apart and the weight difference is 4kg (I'm still very heavy so I'll continue to lose weight on this program. If you're closer to your goal weight you might not see big numbers but you'll get the body shape change)





Notice the waist? Can't wait to see the difference once I'm finished!

EDIT: Omg Lozze, your training has sculpted an hourglass shape! That's really inspiring!

I just got the book! Where did you ladies purchase your dumbells and barbells? I need to get some asap!