578
people found this helpful, as of 2023
ranked #28,221 most helpful
out of 571,544,897 reviews
★★★★★
buy. this. book. period.
First, PLEASE ignore the reviews that are complaining about the lack of detail in this book. This is a companion training guide to THINNER, LEANER AND STRONGER. This book lays out a complete year long training plan and functions as a notebook to log your progress if you like. You should definitely look at THINNER, LEANER AND STRONGER before starting this training plan.
I bought this book for my wife who was looking to change up her workout this year. I had recently read Mike Matthew's book for men and have really been enjoying and finding success with his suggested training program. I loved how simple and straightforward the workouts are. This is all stuff that you should be able to do in an hour at the gym, and there isn't any silly, confusing nonsense. Strength training is really not that complicated. As Matthews explains, so many people are just confused by all of the misguided, contradictory information we're bombarded with.
My wife has been going to the gym fairly regularly for the past few years, but her time there hasn't been very organized or focused. Occasionally she would ask me to write out "something to do" at the gym, and she would do that routine for a while. Its good that she has been going, but at some point you need practical advice and a program like Mike Matthews offers here to really get the most out of your time. i.e. Do these things on this day, this number of times, this many weeks, etc;
I was really impressed by this book. She won't be asking me to write out "something to do at the gym" anytime soon. The day's training plan is written out clearly, page by page here for the entire year. She is set! More importantly, I was happy to see that she read through THINNER LEANER STRONGER and seems to have picked up a better understanding of both WHAT she is doing and WHY she is doing certain things.
Fair warning: I kind of laughed during the first week when she was complaining how tired she was at the end of the day. She couldn't understand it. I had the exact same reaction when I first started Mike's program last year. For a week or so, I was incredibly wiped out at the end of the day. It was very disconcerting because we're both pretty active people and no strangers to the gym. Don't let it slow you down or worry you. My body adjusted and caught up to the new training, and I haven't felt that level of exhaustion since.
I can't recommend this book highly enough. Every day I see people at the gym paying $50/hour to have a personal trainer do goofy, not especially effective exercises. For about $20, you can get the two THINNER, LEANER books, save yourself hundreds of dollars through the year and get way more out of your time at the gym. Be patient, follow the advice here and good luck!
January 2015 · Books · verified purchase