The New Rules of Lifting: Six Basic Moves for Maximum Muscle

I'm a fifty year-old guy who's long been more into cardio workouts than weights. Sure, I might do a half-hearted circuit on machines after jumping off a treadmill, but like many folks, I thought cardio workouts were tantamount to "real" exercise. Then I happened upon this book. It struck a chord with me, and I decided that free-weight training was in my future. One day, I bravely picked up an empty Olympic bar and embarked on the first exercise of Schuler and Cosgrove's "Break-in" program: the squat. "Fifteen reps with 45 pounds," I told myself, "I can do this." However, I stopped at twelve reps. I stopped at twelve reps because I really wanted to avoid forever being tagged as the guy who collapsed in the power cage with forty-five measly pounds atop his shoulders. I forgot all about the prescribed one-minute resting period between sets, and simply waited for my legs to quit shaking. This took significantly longer than one minute. A profound realization overtook me: I was a wimp--a six-four, two hundred and forty pound wimp. At that moment, I decided that I'd spent decades of my life ignorant of what constituted "real" exercise. The upper-body exercises went better. The real challenge, at that point, was walking from station to station. If the gym had offered me a wheelchair to move between exercises, I would have humbly taken them up on it. The next morning, I felt sore, although I told myself that it wasn't so bad. Then came the second morning. I got out of bed, and for a moment, I considered asking my wife to call 9-1-1. My upper legs felt as if someone had taken a meat tenderizer to them. For about the next week, my lower body reminded me that I might have bitten off more than I could chew. It took me two weeks to gather the courage to embark upon the Break-in program again. (I felt torn between that and self-flagellation.) The second time around, things began on a little better note. I still couldn't get through a full two sets, but I was no longer moving between stations at tortoise speed. I'm now finishing the four-week Break-in program. I'm still not using much weight for the squats, but I've graduated from the empty bar, and I'm completing all of the reps. Instead of staggering out of the gym trying not to vomit, I'm doing Cosgroves's "Afterburn" program on cardio machines to top off my workout. I'm glad I've stuck with it, especially when I run up hills and notice that my heart rate is lower than before I began the program. It never occurred to me that free-weight training would benefit my cardio activities. Of course, as a newbie to free-weight training, I can't offer a valid comparison between the NROL programs and others. However, I like the idea that the Break-in program uses higher reps with lower weights. I think the chance of connective tissue injury is lessened compared to the "standard" three sets of eight to twelve reps, and I think it's a much safer way to learn what's involved in working your mu

Between Schuler's self-effacing humor and Cosgrove's heiny-kicking programs, you can't go wrong with this book. Schuler and Cosgrove helped me look at my lifting routine in a whole new way. I'm no longer stressed out that I'm "missing" a muscle or muscle group, I'm working to muscle fatigue every time I work out--and yet I'm spending less time in the gym per session. Another plus: I emailed Lou Schuler to ask if I needed to modify any of the programs because I'm a woman; he responded in about an hour. Very impressive. I highly recommend this book for beginner and intermediate weightlifters. Advanced lifters will no doubt be disappointed at the lack of "curl" exercises. See the book for Schuler's take on why all those myriad curls are unnecessary. I for one found it liberating--saves me so much time to cut out hammer curls, preacher curls, concentration curls, etc., etc.

The writing is very conversational and the information will probably surprise a lot of people that have been "lifting" for many years. But "New Rules" is an excellent book on what people really know about building complete, strong, functional bodies. You'll find a lot of commonality, and some differences in approaches, with the methods in books like "Outside Fitness", "Core Performance", and "Muscle Logic". All of these are excellent as well and fundamentally get down to similar ideas of building strength and stability. Like other reviewers I loved the routines and thinking behind them in New Rules. Outside Fitness uses a similar approach as do some other books but New Rules takes a different approach and the writing style if great. I am looking forward to many months of fun applying the routines and enjoying this book again and again.

This is a phenomenal book for anyone, from the personal trainer down to the weekend-warrior. As a physical therapist and certifeid strength & conditioning specialist, I appreciated all of the research references. Lou and Alwyn have done their homework to make this program. I'm looking forward to using their workouts and I'll report back in the future (for those that may find it helpful). Although, there are "only" 6 basic moves, there are many variations of the moves, so don't think for a minute that the routines will be boring. BTW, this ties in real nicely with the works of Gray Cook, who has developed a Functional Movement screen around the 7 main movements of the body. Funny, how these tie in together. Its about time that someone has made this program simple for the masses. Lou, Alwyn, Mark Verstegen, Gray Cook, and Mike Boyle have got IT. Nice job to the authors!!!

Having been in this industry for a long time, I have read hundreds of forgettable books on weight lifting. Not the case with the New Rules. As a personal trainer and club owner who has hired trainers for years, I have been disappointed with the basic knowledge of applicants. Now I have finally found a resource for my trainers to make sure that we are all philosophically on the same page. It is now required reading at my fitness center. It is the fastest way I know to get someone "up to my level" in one book. It is very readable, even by a non-professional. Along with being informative, it is also funny at times, and very motivating. It's not just just recommended reading from me... It's required!