New Rules Of Lifting

I thought long and hard and did a lot of research before committing to something new, as far as weight lifting goes. I plan to stick with BFFM for nutrition purposes. And I mean really stick with it!

The best things about New Rules Of Lifting by Lou Schuler and Alwyn Cosgrove are the simplicity and variety. There are 27 workouts (I think - I'm too tired to go back and look) that are designed around 6 different moves. They are put together in different ways, such as different rep schemes, frequency of workouts, and specifics of the moves. It would be complicated to explain, for me, but the way it's presented in the book is fantastic. The book provides very specific workout logs.

There are 3 different types of workout, plus a "break in" program to get you ready. There are 3 fat loss programs, each with 2 workouts that are alternated. The hypertrophy program also has 3 pairs of workouts. There are 3 strength programs, each containing 4 alternating workouts. Schuler and Cosgrove provide four different overall programs, but a lot of people I've seen on the NROL board design their own. If you do one of the pre-designed programs, it will take about a year to get through it as written, but not all of the workouts are incorporated into all the programs. The one I'm planning on doing, for the eternal beginner, focuses more on fat loss and hypertrophy, with just a little strength.

More about the six basic movements. They are squat, deadlift, lunge, push, pull, and twist. The programs use different types of these exercises (full squats and front squats plus a couple other types, conventional and Romanian deadlifts as well as rack pulls, 50 billion types of lunges). Push exercises include things like presses - you know, you push things away fro your body. Pulls include movements that - SURPRISE - pull toward your body, such as rows, pullups, and pulldowns. Twist exercises are core exercises that crunch and rotate. The book provides examples - with pictures - of most of these, and of course there are a thousand web sites out there that show substitutions.

For cardio, NROL suggests something called Metabolic Overdrive. That's a fancy term for high intensity interval training (HIIT) with a 1 minute work interval, 2 minutes of active recovery. You start out with 3 rounds, 3 times a week and progress from there. I'll be doing my HIIT on the elliptical after lifting. On non-lifting days, I'm going to do Turbo Jam. I really enjoy that stuff. Not the sculpting though - yuck. I also have some Tae Bo stuff I'll be checking out. And then once a week, for now, I'll attempt a tabata session, with the goal of moving to 3 times a week within six months.

The book doesn't focus on nutrition too much, just as Tom Venuto's Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle doesn't focus much on fitness. So I think these books fit well together for me. I'm not sure what my nutritional macros are going to be. I have it all in table form in my binder, but in general: 1300-1800 calories, 30c/30p/40f and I'll probably carb cycle.

I'll be posting all my specifics daily. I had an easier time staying on plan when I posted every day, even if no one read my blog. I'm going to try to focus on the emotional/psychological crap related to my eating. The book I ordered will be here by the time I get home, so I'm looking forward to that. I've been doing fairly well - no binges since early last week. I'm sure my trip will suck though.