Strength Training for Women

Rating:
Summary: Great Advice for Beginner or Mature Exerciser
Review: At last Joan Pagano has provided us with what has been missing from many of the fitness and exercise books: a concise, well written, superbly illustrated guide to simple, effective exercises for women. Pagano is a certified personal trainer who has worked with women of all ages.

Thankfully, there are no references to "quick fixes", pills, or elaborate, expensive equipment. In fact, all of the exercises can be performed with no special equipment at all, although one or two hand weights, an elastic band, and a large ball are useful.

Pagano points out that strength training helps a woman to "curve up" without bulking up or becoming muscular. She shows you how to get the benefits of such training for every age. Special attention is paid to prevention of osteoporosis and recovery from breast surgery.

The color photographs are of excellent quality and demonstrate the movements clearly. Especially useful are the "feel it here" arrows pointing to the muscles targeted by the exercise. Helpful Training Guidelines are enclosed in boxes at the top of the pages. Photographs even show the proper use of weight machines so that anyone can feel comfortable going to a gym if they need more challenging amounts of weight.

This book provides safe, medically correct, effective exercises that will serve women well for their entire lives. I recommend it highly to my patients, friends, and colleagues.
John E. Barnett, MD

Rating:
Summary: Motivating and Inspiring!
Review: Fantastic, motivating book! Although I have been working out for years.... weights, yoga, running, I realized that there was a lot to fitness that I just did not understand. This book answered so many of my often-thought-about-but-never-answered questions. The inspiring pictures are awesome!! and there are many useful, helpful hints about how to work out properly.

Rating:
Summary: Looking Forward to Looking Fit
Review: I am a woman in her mid-twenties who has, for quite some time now, been wondering how to get myself back in shape. When I came across Strength Training for Women I was thrilled. I really like how it offers different levels (beginner, intermediate, and advanced), and I'm very pleased with the step-by-step photos that are on every page of the book. I don't feel overwhelmed by types of exercises included, and I can be confident that I am performing each exercise correctly. I would highly recommend this book to women of all ages.

Rating:
Summary: Husbands Work Out Too
Review: I am in my late 70s and have been helped so much by Joan Pagano's strength training techniques. Not only am I stronger but I am more limber and have better balance. Even more important, I have got my 80-year-old husband to work out -- doing the Pagano exercises -- with me and he loves it. We don't do all the same exercises, but do those that each needs the most.He is stronger, less stiff and more steady than he was before he started the regime.

Rating:
Summary: An Inspiration to Get Started Exercising Again!!
Review: I was wondering how to jumpstart my "weight-bearing exercise" again since I'd had pneumonia and lost a lot of strength, when I got a copy of Joan Pagano's breathtaking new book, Strength Training for Women. It is designed with such simple elegance, starting with easy exercises and working up to more difficult ones, that it doesn't overwhelm the reader. Because there are Trainer's Tips throughout, and little dotted-line circles on the model's photos to show where you should feel the exercise, it's almost as good as having Joan Pagano right there in the room as your personal trainer. (She's been training on NYC's Upper East Side for 16 years, and has clients aged 13 to 92.) There is a section called "4 for Life," with 4 exercises that if you do only these, you're taking care of your body and way ahead of those who do nothing: simple squats, pushups, back stretches, and pelvic tilts. The exercises can be done at home, with inexpensive equipment like a floor mat, stretch band, and folded towel. The models are lovely to look at but not too skinny or too muscular. The blue, pink, lavender, and plum page colors make me want to keep picking the book up and reading it. I was so inspired that I actually did get started today!

Rating:
Summary: The Best Guide I've Found for At-home Workouts
Review: I've been working out with a trainer at my health club for more than 6 years and now I want to start working out at home on my own. This book provides me with the perfect guide for staying in good shape. The step-by-step directions with great photographs make each exercise clear and easy to follow. The "Trainer's Tips" make me feel like I have my trainer right there with me. Having the correct positioning of the body for safe weight training is essential, and this book has so many photographs along with clear and concise directions that anyone can follow the exercises contained within correctly. The "Programs at a Glance" takes the guesswork out of putting together a balanced program. I like being able to choose one with special emphasis, like working the major muscle groups, improving posture, targeting trouble spots, and balance and coordination. This book offers a wealth of guidance and information. I know that I will be able to do a varied and exciting exercise program on my own.

Rating:
Summary: A great way to start the new year!
Review: If you struggle to lift grocery bags in and out of your car or carry heavy pots and pans across your kitchen, this book can help. Unlike some exercise books, this one has great graphics (like all DK books) and easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions for doing each exercise. I appreciated the circles indicating which muscle you should feel working, as well as the color-coded system to designate basic, intermediate and advanced exercises for varying levels of fitness. There are so many great practical benefits for women who do strength training. I recommend this book to anyone who would like to start a strength-training program or add some weight-bearing exercises onto an existing aerobics routine.

Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive and Creative!
Review: Joan has masterfully combined a comprehensive strength training program aimed to serve the needs of women. She has creatively combined a variety of resistance options to keep our interest and challenge us!

Cheryl Jones,

Health and Healing Director
Mercy Center at Madison

Rating:
Summary: Too basic, oversimplified, poor on strengthening
Review: Like many strength training books authored by female writers, this book lacks aggressive and progressive planning for building up physical strength. It deserves a different title, such as "Strength Training For Chickens", since "Weight Training For Dummies" is already taken by others.

The book has great photographs, high quality glossing paper, and well-engineered design. Very helpful advices are tabulated in neat and colorful boxes. The following is my main criticism on the substance of the book.

1- No single exercise in the book involves a barbell. All exercises are done with dumbbells, balls, tubes, strings, and machines. The heaviest dumbbell in all photographs weighs only 3 pounds. That can hardly be called strength training.

2- Although the author clearly stated the principle of specificity, reversibility, overloading, range of motion, and consistency, the entire book is very soft on all five.

(i) In page 17, the author contends that two workouts sessions per week is the minimum for strengthening, while all exercises are performed with such light weight that it would never advance strength in the young and healthy females pictured in the book. It might be suitable for handicapped or elderly, but not for youth.
(ii) The split-routine recommended for six workouts per week is never been proved scientific. Many people perform daily jobs of eight hours of physical labor that far exceed the 45 minutes sessions recommended in this book. The rule of not exercising a single muscle more than three times per week is very subjective. Modern strength training has rediscovered the old and well known fact of progressive incremental training as long as the body tolerates stress.
(iii) The Squats exercises described in the book are ridiculously flawed. The author prescribes squatting against the wall for beginners and squatting to above parallel for advanced trainees. There is no full-squat, not barbells. The weighed squat photos show females carrying two 3-pound dumbbells and performing high knee bending (she calls that squatting). The Quadriceps muscles in healthy adults require more than 6 pounds to get strengthened. Campers for example have to squat fully during bowel evacuation in the wilderness without seeking a wall to support their back. Full squatting should be a natural human activity.
(iv) The author contends that strength training enhances metabolism even if you are not working out and that endurance training like aerobics only burns calories. However, using 3-pound dumbbells is a waste of time since you could strengthen your knees with mere running and create greater virtual forces by your body inertia.
(v) The author cautions against hyperextending your joints for fear of wear and tear and that you should not lift heavy weights if you have history of hypertension, or injuries before consulting professionals. None of these advices is of practical use since there are no well-established standards for wear and tear of joints and medical limitations are mainly based on tolerance to pain.

3- The anatomical errors in the book preclude its use by school students, as follows.

(i) In page 20, the outer muscles of the thigh are erroneously called thigh abductors, on the anatomical chart. The correct abductors are deep muscles lying under the gluteal muscles and are not accessible or visible on the surface. The author did not research the mechanism of hip abduction though the greater trochanters of the upper part of the femur.
(ii) On page 21, the Serratus anterior muscle is erroneously mistaken for the Trapezius. This is very essential muscle in thrusting the chest and is located on the sides and back of the ribs.
(iii) On the same page, the Rhomboideus muscles are erroneously confused for the Trapezius. The correct description is that the Rhomboideus are deeper to the Trapezius and cannot be visualized on the surface of the back.
(iv) The Erector spinae muscles are confused for the Latissimus dorsii, on the same page.
(v) The rotator cuff muscles are confused for the Deltoids. The rotator cuff muscles are deep and follow more complicated course than the book portrays them on the simplified figure.
(vi) On page 42, the pectoralis major muscle is erroneously drawn with very wide insertion on the upper arm, instead of its real narrow insertion.

4- The common trend of personal trainers publishing books on strength and weight training with such haphazard planning strategy, deficient scientific basis, and many useless and retarding information calls for a national campaign of physical education for the purpose of promoting better understanding of the anatomical and physiological bases of enhancing human strength without squandering resources on self-motivated, yet undereducated, trainers.



Rating:
Summary: A very easy and quick visual guide
Review: Women who participate in strength training routines can battle osteoporosis and even defy aging â€" with just a few sessions a week. Women who want to learn exercises which shape up without bulking the body, but who balk at descriptions, now have Strength Training For Women: Tone Up, Burn Calories, Stay Strong by Joan Pagano. This is a very easy and quick visual guide which covers everything from step-by-step routines to pinpointing which muscles should be feeling the results of such exercise. Color photos of different women are the meat of this easy tone-up handbook.