The New Rules of Lifting is a recently published book from Lou Schuler and Alwyn Cosgrove. The New Rules of Lifting‘s basic premise is that it is not which muscles you work out at the gym that makes a real difference in your body, but how you move those muscles. The New Rules of Lifting are based upon using muscles in tandem and in very natural ways, rather than isolating your muscles and working your muscles in a way that your body will never need outside of a gym. The authors recommend six basic movements with which to base your workouts. From the back cover:
The New Rules of Lifting, with more than one hundred photographs, gives you more than a year’s worth of workouts based on these six basic movements. Whether you’re aa beginner, an experienced lifter looking for new challenges, or anything in between, you can mix and match the workouts to help you get bigger, stronger, and leaner. In addition, the comprehensive nutritional informatoin provided makes The New Rules of Lifting a complete guide to reaching all your goals.
The six basic movements that they base The New Rules of Lifting on are:
- The Squat
- The Deadlift
- The Lunge
- Pushing
- Pulling
- Twisting
The book is divided into six sections, but it can easily be broken into three basic parts.
The first part of the book contains the “Facts” and “Techniques” sections, which give a very broad overview of weight lifting in general and The New Rules of Lifting specifically. There are 20 New Rules of Lifting, and the first 19 of them appear in these two sections. The six basic movements are introduced and briefly explained, and there is a specific warm-up plan that prepares the body for those six movements. I do not particularly agree with how they feel on the importance of flexibility, but my main athletic pursuits are on the road and not in a gym. I feel that better flexibility is important for preventing injury, and especially as a runner it can give me a competitive edge.
The second part of the book contains the “Exercises” and “Programs”. The “Exercises” section is broken into each of the six movements, where a detailed description of the movement is given. The muscles that are used to complete the movement and the necessary technique to safely complete the movement are provided for each, as well as describing the functional importance of that movement outside of the gym. There are a few different exercises shown for each movement with variations and descriptions. Most of the exercises are illustrated with black and white photos.
One of the things that bothered me about the “Exercises” section was that each exercise lists which programs that it is used in. That is a good thing, but there has been nothing but passing references to those programs up to that part of the book so the reader is left with no idea what those programs are about. Granted, the names are not particularly complicated (Break-In, Fat Loss, Hypertrophy, and Strength levels I through III), but the first page to the “Programs” section should have been included before the “Exercises”, followed by all of the exercises and then followed by the programs that make up The New Rules of Lifting.
The programs themselves are fairly straightforward, and I do plan on playing with them a bit in the near future. I probably won’t try following them for any length of time until after my next marathon, but I will at least try the different workouts to see how they are. There are also a few combo moves that I have never done before and that I am looking forward to trying.
The third part of the book contains the nutrional information. Explaining how carbohydrates, fats, and proteins are processed by the body was fairly straightforward and basic. There is a good description of how the metabolism works and it agrees with my own theories on how too much of a calorie deficit is counterproductive. However, the actual food lists were not particularly useful. Throughout most of the book, humor is used sparingly but well. The humor in the “Clean Eating” chapter makes the food lists next to worthless. You can go off of the “A” list of things you should definately be incorporating into your diet, but past that the author even tells you he doesn’t agree with what he is writing. Mention of his own favorite foods would have been fine as an example that deviation is all right, but I do not want to have to read an entire description to find out that something is ranked higher than it is supposed to be. I also completely disagree with the statement that caffeine is harmless.
Conclusion
In a small way, I agree with Chris’s conclusions about the book; it’s a great primer for beginners that will get them set off in the right direction. It is much better than a few of the others that I have read. I also think that most experienced lifters should either give The New Rules of Lifting a pass or should just skim it at the library. However, I think that even some experienced lifters might get out of a funk with the programs in this book if they have hit a particularly bad plateau. I also think that this book would be well received by intermediate lifters such as college athletes, who may know a few programs to help them with their sports but who have not spend a lot of time developing their own programs.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of The New Rules of Lifting from the publisher to review on this site. My thoughts on the book are my own and do not reflect those of the author or publisher. I was not paid for this review in any way other than receiving a copy of it.
Nice review. Just curious – is this a book you were looking at anyway, or did you review it simply because you were given a copy?
That’s got a mixed answer. The review was not just because I was given a copy, as I likely would have written one after I read it whether I bought it or got it from the library or was given a copy. The book lends itself to being reviewed. On the other side of the coin, however, I may not have read the book without having been given a copy, since right now I am not in the market of making a new purchase and I am currently reading personal finance and nutrition books rather than fitness books.
I have two or three more book reviews I need to write; one especially I want to get done by the end of the month, since I read the book last August (and most of it again in January). I mentioned that one on your site once, Eat Smart, Play Hard.
Got a few more reviews to do myself – I also seem to be surrounded by a combination of personal finance and nutrition books (not that one though). Some interesting ones in there.
Well, as I recommended a few months ago, that one is well worth reading. I’ll try to get the review up for next Thursday. Now that I have said I will, I am more likely to.
Losing weight and getting stronger, leaner, etc is not some proprietary secret known to but a few self-annointed fitness cognoscenti. Overall calorie reduction is the only factor that counts in the long term. Scientists can argue about what causes you to lose weight fastest and what will make you feel least hungry in the meantime and all sorts of seemingly relevant issues, but these are mostly besides the point. The best diet for you is the one you like well enough to stick with. This differs from person to person. That’s why the “experts” will always disagree on dieting. No diet will take pounds off unless you consume fewer calories than you need to maintain your weight. And any diet will work for that purpose as long as you eat less for long enough. The science of this fact is undeniable, no matter who you consult. As far as lifting, free weights, machines, body weight, rocks, it doesn’t matter. I could save millions of people millions of dollars on worthless crap. And I could do it in one paragraph or less on one sheet of paper!
I’ve read the book from cover to cover and am using the programs exactly as described. I’ve seen terrific results in a short period of time. One thing that places this book above many others is the fact that it provides an entire year’s worth of programs using the concept of periodization. The workouts take about 30-45 minutes and work your entire body (and you definetly feel it the next day!) The theory and research behind the programs are clearly explained in the first part of the book.
I highy recommend this book!
I, too, have read the book and am in my sixth week of the beginner’s program. I have lifted weights all my life, off and on, sadly more off than on. This is the best weight training book I have ever read and I have read a bunch of them. The book is definitely not just for beginners. It is comprehensive. Let me tell you that Bulgarian split squats are something else. Wonderful explanation of the deadlift. The authors do the best job of explaining the necessity for weight training that I have ever read. I use Excel to prepare my progress sheets. I maintain records. Progress? Yes indeedy! Documented progress! Homemade protein shakes? Just finished one! Sixty years old and feeling good! Thanks to Lou and Alwyn.
I got the book, New Rules of Lifting for Women, and I really like the book for several reasons. First of all, they don’t treat women like men, but they do not let women “wimp out” with dumb moves and feather – weights. Like the previous reviewer Bob said, you feel it the next day. Well, I totally agree because I cycle and do stair-mill (mimics stairs almost exactly) and do some running so I am in fairly decent shape and I did the dead-lift squat and lunges and I had to wait a full week to even be able to think about lifting again I was so sore in my A – -!!! So, it pinpoints the areas you didn’t realize you were weak in, and I got a bench, and a chin-up bar to add to my free weights and pilates ball and I can now kiss my club membership goodbye if I want!! I have fooled myself before thinking that tons of running/cycling/etc could wittle my weight problem (10-13 lbs over) and now I remember why 5 yrs ago I looked so good and slim. I was doing resistance training! The book is overall very good because it shoots straight, but you have to take some time to figure out the workouts and at 45, my eyes cannot focus too well, so I suggest having the pages enlarged at a Kinkos, so you can concentrate on your form (be in front of a mirror — big plus) rather than struggling and squinting and wrestling w/ the hardcover book on where to stick your butt or putt your arm. Form is very important so until you get in the groove of the basic movements, you need a good way to reference it while your working out.
The moves make sense and they are for the big muscle groups rather than the “bicept curl” stuff that the author rightly dumbs down. You basically should be able to lift your kid up from a cliff along with your own body weight if your in a survivalist mode and that’s what being strong really boils down to…life is unpredictable, don’t regret being able to do what needs to be done when you may not have help around, or for that matter, kick some A – – if the situation should call for it. I have a feeling the author would wholeheartedly agree!! Enjoy.
Why did you even review this book and post it publicly? You’re a marathon runner…it’s not even designed for someone with your fitness goals and you clearly have no idea what you’re talking about. Oh and Eric is wrong too.
I reviewed this book for a few reasons.
First, 4 or 5 years ago when I wrote the review, this was more of a personal blog and less specific about marathoning and touched on a lot of fitness related topics I was interested in that weren’t directly related to running.
Second, I read the book, I found it useful in my training, and I think that other marathoners would also find it useful. The trails near my house weren’t designed for runners, they were designed for mountain bikers, but since I enjoy running on them and it provides a not insignificant part of my training I see no reason not to use them even though the designers weren’t thinking about marathoners when they laid the trails out.
So, if you don’t think that this book would be useful for you, I recommend that you not purchase it. If you think that you might learn something by reading it, I hope that my review helped you make an informed decision.