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If there’s a woman in your life who’s considering weight training (or a man in your life who trains women), The New Rules of Lifting for Women is an excellent introduction to the field of women and weight training.

NROL is written by a kickass trifecta of three major names in the business, including women’s nutrition and fitness expert Cassandra Forsythe. I review her book and chat with her for nearly an hour about women’s strength training, working out while pregnant, the dirty little secret of disordered eating in the fitness biz, and lots of other good stuff.

In the world of slick yet content-free fitness video production these DVDs stand out as a breath of fresh air and the voice of reason, just like Dan himself.

As an oldest sister myself, I always wanted someone to look up to — someone who’d tell me the real deal about men, women, periods, getting into shape, being my own best friend, and how to dress myself. She’d be compassionate and encouraging, but honest. She wouldn’t let me get away with BS, but she’d always be in my corner. Strength trainer Rachel Cosgrove is that woman to her clients.

Conscious eaters ask themselves how to eat ethically. Or how to live in good health. Or how to care for the environment. Lierre Keith has tackled all of these questions throughout her life. Like many people, she assumed that being vegan was a good way to implement her desire to care for her health, animals, and the environment. She diligently followed a vegan lifestyle for two decades. Then, she writes, her body gave out. Wracked with pain from a degenerative spinal condition; with insulin whiplash; with depression and cognitive problems; and with plain old hunger — all of which, she says, were caused by twenty years of self-imposed malnutrtition in the name of ethical eating — she knew she had to change.

It’s tempting to think that overeating and its symptomatic consequences — obesity, chronic diseases, etc. — represent a failure of individual will. But is it really that easy? Are we all just moral weaklings? Lazy? Stupid? David Kessler explores.

To every teacher who’s demotivated a student, every anal-retentive bodybuilder-by-numbers who worries about fluffing up their “upper biceps”, every gym salesperson personal trainer who can’t teach the foundational lifts, every sports science egghead who can’t apply their own concepts to make people actually better, and every sucky coach who can play well but can’t communicate the basic skills that athletes need, I say: Follow the gospel of Dan John and learn ye the error of your ways.

News flash: exercise is good for you.

Sure, we all know it.

But do you know why?

And do you know the many hows? Judging from a lot of traditional medical advice, most folks have failed to appreciate the plethora of ways in which exercise can treat, heal, and even cure. Bed rest is commonly prescribed, particularly for older people. Yet according to Blech, this is likely the worst advice someone can receive!

People often ask me about printing up my website pages so they can take them to the gym. It’s not a bad solution, and it beats hauling your laptop to the squat rack and asking the floor staff if you can set up a wireless router. But what if there were an easier way to quickly –and portably — reference exercise tips and pics?

Usually the secret to us doing something is that we want to get it done. So we’re “too busy” to scrub out the toilets or balance our chequebooks but never too busy to read the comics. It’s a question of where we choose to direct our efforts. Here are some tips to help get your butt into the gym. None of these are lazy-proof, since it only works if YOU want to do it anyway. But hey, they can’t hurt.

“Having experienced the joys of being pregnant three times over for a total of 839 days (who’s counting), it’s clear just from watching Lauren Brooks’ latest DVD, Baby Bells: Fit Pregnancy Workout With (Optional) Kettlebells that it would have been a great addition to my training regimen as I aimed to stay fit and strong as each of my babies grew…”

Reviewed by guest author Erin Weiss-Trainor

Setting goals is an important part of success in any fitness endeavour.

Don’t be intimidated by the eggheads or the sciencey-sounding BS. Get in there and draw your own conclusions!

Smart talk on training. The hows, whys, and whos of working out.

So, you’ve gotten the ball rolling and have tried your best to follow my advice, but dangnabit, you’re just not seeing the results you want. Or perhaps you feel like you’re doing something all wrong. Don’t be embarrassed about it! Most beginners, by virtue of being beginners, have trouble with one thing or another. I’ve screwed up in just about every way there is.

Learning from your own screwups is good.

Learning from other peoples’ screwups is better, because you maximize your knowledge pool, and avoid the inconvenience of being an idjit yourself.

You get up in the morning all ready to head to the gym and CRAP! it’s raining or snowing or windy or another one of those damn pestilences of locusts outside. Arrgghh… gym… so… far… away… well, back to bed! What is the secret to leaping energetically out of the house and into the gym? If you find anything foolproof do let me know. Usually the secret to us doing something is that we want to get it done. So we’re “too busy” to scrub out the toilets or balance our chequebooks but never too busy to read the comics. It’s a question of where we choose to direct our efforts.

I see a lot of folks get into the gym with the best intentions and a bit of knowledge, and even some smashing gym outfits and nice little navel rings, and either make no progress or make so little progress it’s discouraging.

Here’s a handy little progress tracker worksheet that goes beyond the usual “pounds lost” or “pounds lifted” — it looks at some of the more intangible aspects of what constitutes real, meaningful, lasting progress.

Even though this is ostensibly a site about women, a lot of male readers email me. Some are trying to encourage the recalcitrant females in their lives to hit the weights and are looking for evidence of why weight training is a good thing. Some would like assistance in training their wives, girlfriends, friends, moms, daughters, and female clients. Some just like the training advice, most of which is gender neutral.

How do we know what the “truth” is? When it comes to health and fitness, people are often confused by what seems like conflicting research reported in the media. It seems like everything conflicts. Eat this. Don’t eat this. This will give you cancer. This will cure cancer. And so forth.

So how do you, an average schmoe, figure out who to believe? Well, a scientific background is helpful, but if you don’t have one, you use your common sense. Here are some helpful tips about how to read and interpret scientific research.