Jenny's Book Bag

I won this book on Goodreads’ First Reads giveaway. I loved this book because it has a ton of great information, but my biggest complaint is that the photos are in black and white. The photos do show both the starting and ending position of each exercise which I think encourages proper form. I would have given the book 5 stars, but they lose a star because of the B&W photos. It has a mixture of information for everyone from beginner to advanced so there’s something for everyone.

It starts with diagrams of your muscles and benefits of fat loss. It discusses benefits such as healthier joints, increased strength, better cardio conditioning, less stress, less anxiety and depression, better sleep and increased energy. I especially love that it talked about less anxiety and depression because it's often overlooked and I personally find exercise to be very beneficial in treating these issues.

There’s an introduction to metabolic strength training explaining exactly what it is. They discuss adjusting sets and reps explaining which method adds strength and which adds muscle. They have what they call "3 C’s of strength training for fat loss" which is strength training with circuits, complexes and combinations. They have separate chapters for each. There’s an entire chapter on nutrition, very important. There’s a chapter on body weight training, but the other exercises in other chapters of the book require either a machine or dumbbells. They offer both warm ups and cool downs for fat loss.

There are a lot of different workouts throughout the book including muscle-base, metabolic, body weight, fat loss, and they even have a workout called “At-home for beginners.” There are a lot of advanced exercises in this book, so this isn’t a book that you’ll outgrow quickly. The exercises in the workouts are grouped together as follows: upper body pull, upper body push, lower body legs, lower body hips, and abdominal/core. It’s great that they grouped them together this way because every experienced lifter knows not to use the same push and pull muscles two days in a row, so with their groupings, you avoid this.

At the end, they have a chapter called "training for life" where they give suggestions such as participating in other sports and taking up yoga. The workout schedules are in the back so you know what exercises to do each day and week. Overall, great book and worth reading.