Why Isn’t There an App for That?

A couple of weeks ago I was talking with another member of my bowling team about how we tend to bowl better when we’ve been working out, and I realized that was true. My best bowling has been when I’ve been faithful about lifting weights.

So, I’m mixing it up this week by talking about a book (or series of books) instead of a DVD.

The original book in the series was The New Rules of Lifting, but author Lou Schuler has since come out with variants for women, older people, abs, etc.

This is a multi-month program (the first phase is 6 weeks), so obviously I’m not going to get that far in a week, but hopefully I can give you the general flavor based on this one week and my past experience with one of the books (The New Rules of Lifting for Women).

The books each have some general information about fitness and the science behind the program, then a nutrition section, and then the exercises and workouts.

Schuler’s writing is entertaining and informative. I agree with his science (things like the benefits of compound exercises that work multiple muscle groups at once, since this is closer to movements you do in your day-to-day life).

In general, there are 5-6 weight lifting exercises per workout, although you do multiple sets of each exercise. There are 7 “stages” to the program, so you increase the difficulty as you get stronger.

Stage 1 is pretty basic. Stage 2 adds interval training at the end of some of the workouts, and some more difficult weight lifting exercises. Of course, throughout each stage, you can and should increase the difficulty by adding more weight on exercises that have become too easy.

The book has very detailed descriptions of each exercise, with pictures for each. These descriptions explain how you should be positioned at the start of the exercise, what you should do during the lifting, and how to complete the exercise (e.g. safely put the weight back down).

He also includes lots of modifications, both for beginners that may have less strength, and for working out at home where you may have a smaller range of fitness equipment available to you.

The major beef I have with these books is that the way the workout plans are documented is super confusing (apparently I’m also organizationally uncoordinated). There is a chart listing the exercises you do in the workout, with how many sets, how many reps per set, and how much rest time you should take after each set, before starting the next set. In addition, with some exercises, you alternate between exercise 1 and exercise 2 with each set.

So, for example, the first and second time you do the workout, you should do 2 sets of pushups, 15 reps each, with 60 seconds of rest between sets, and alternate those 2 sets of pushups with 2 sets of seated rows, 15 reps each, with 60 seconds of rest between sets (the numbers of sets and reps change every couple of times you do the workout). Only these numbers don’t really apply to the first and second time you work out, because there is also a workout B (with a totally separate chart in the book), which you alternate with this workout A, so you’re not doing the same workout two times in a row.

Confused yet?

I ended up creating a spreadsheet for these workouts the first time I did the program. It translates these super compact charts into detailed lists of which exercise to do when. My Stage 1 spreadsheet is 7 pages long, but there is no confusion about what to do. I have a table for each of the 18 workouts in the stage, with a place to enter the date I did that workout. In each of the 18 tables, I have a line for each set that needs to be done, in the order it needs to be done, with columns for reps and rest periods, plus a place to write in the amount of weight I lifted for that set.

This way, it’s easy for me to keep track of which workout I’m supposed to be doing that day, which exercises to do, what order to do the sets, how many reps, and also what weight I lifted last time I did that exercise, so I can adjust the weight accordingly.

The program cries out for an app (Lou Schuler, why is there not an app for this?). At the very least, it would be nice to have a downloadable spreadsheet for readers, rather than making each reader reinvent the wheel.

My original plan was to review The New Rules of Lifting for Life (the one for middle-aged people), which I had received for my birthday (you know, the one where I became middle-aged). However, once I started looking at the book, it became apparent that I wasn’t ready to do this workout on short notice.

First, this one required some equipment that I didn’t already have at home (some sort of cable/pulley thing). Second, I had forgotten just how much time I had put into creating that spreadsheet to help me understand which exercises to do in what order on the New Rules of Lifting for Women workouts.

So instead, this got morphed into a review of The New Rules of Lifting for Women – one that I was more prepared to review on a one-week timeline.

It was tough to know how to rate this one. Overall, I think this is a great program, and there was no trouble with following the “instructor” due to my lack of coordination, but the program is one that is a little daunting to get started with. There is definitely a lot of prep time, understanding the workout structure, learning all the moves, and making sure you have the appropriate equipment.

For the casual exerciser, there’s something to be said for a DVD that tells you what to do and when, along with a real-time demonstration of each move.

[For the record, I did not bowl especially well this week. I’m sure it takes more than a few workouts for weight lifting to have any noticeable effect on one’s bowling average.]