Body by You: The You Are Your Own Gym Guide to Total Women's Fitness

I loved the Mark Lauren's first book, You Are Your Own Gym. It was a great book in the severely lacking bodyweight training market. It is still, in my opinion, the best book on bodyweight training in the market.

However, as great as that book is, this one is equally as effective for the specific market for women. There are so many great things about this book. I especially like the information in the introduction where he explains that women are aspiring for looks that are only achievable by a very small minority and that are not, in reality, healthy. He wants you to appreciate the body that you have, but to try and make it as healthy as possible.

I have had a lot of training in the field of functional training and I will never do anything else. I completely agree with the statements that chronic cardio is just asking for overuse injuries. I was a marathon runner and now I am a broken marathon runner. I can speak to this first hand. This book emphasizes short, high quality functional exercise that is the key to a healthy body. I whole heartedly agree.

The exercise section is wonderful and reminds me of another book Convict conditioning. The strength is in the progression of exercises in order to achieve more and more challenging exercises. But, unlike Convict conditioning, this is for women and includes more steps of progression. This is exceptional since a woman's strength gains are different and not as great as a mans.

This is my new go to training book. I received an advance copy for review, but I liked it so much that I am ordering the final version when it is ready for release. If you are tired of the confusion of the fitness market and want simple and effective training, this book is IT. Thank you Mark!

After working many years in a long-hours, sedentary job, I found myself in sorry physical shape. I started turning that around by making simple changes to food choices and becoming more active. That helped a lot, but eventually I found I hit a plateau and was no longer becoming stronger or fitter.

Just when I was thinking I would have to start going to the gym or acquire a lot of exercise and weight training equipment for my home, this book came along. Right off the bat, what Mark Lauren was saying resonated and made sense to me. Here are some of the key messages:

* You don't need equipment, trainers or a gym to get fit and stay fit

* To become lean and fit, you must build muscle

* Adding muscle is the key to losing weight because muscle burns more calories

* Weight training allows women to firm and tone their bodies; women do not have the hormonal makeup to develop bulging muscles

* Cardio exercise is time-consuming and can be counterproductive, because it doesn't use most of your muscle mass and may actually cause a loss of muscle

Mark Lauren prescribes a system of weight training that is designed to exercise the entire body, build lean muscle and give you more grace and balance. You don't need any equipment; you just use the walls and furniture around you. The system is described clearly and completely and you can get started right away.

(I don't want to get off track here, but I remember a few years ago seeing an interview with Martina Navratilova, and while out on a walk in the country, she talked about how she exercised without equipment, using her own body weight, and demonstrated several of the exercises she did regularly. This is one of the world's top athletes, not somebody trying to sell you something.)

HOW THE PROGRAM WORKS

In this book, Mark Lauren prescribes five types of bodyweight training exercises, called movement categories:

* Pulling

* Squatting

* In-line Pushing

* Perpendicular Pushing

* Bending

Lauren divides 125 specific exercises into each category (25 in each movement category), ranks them from easiest to hardest and includes good, detailed descriptions and illustrations of each exercise. Every one of the exercises can be done in your home, at an office or in a hotel room without any specialized equipment.

The training system is designed for you to consistently train three days a week for 30 minutes each time, with a day of rest between sessions. The book includes workout session charts that list each of the five movement categories, tell you how many sets and repetitions of each type of exercise to do in the session and a column in which you can write the number of the specific exercise you will do that session in each movement category.

You begin the program with a couple of evaluation sessions, so that you can determine where you should start your program. For example, you will look at the ranking of the exercises in the Pulling category and try them until you reach the most challenging exercise you can still complete within the prescribed time period, using the designated number of sets and reps, and in proper form. If that's #5, then you write #5 on your exercise chart for the session and that's where you will begin your program for the Pulling category. You'll repeat this for each movement category and wind up with a chart filled out with the numbers of the exercises in each category that you'll begin your program with. You might be much better at pulling than squatting exercises, in which case your starting exercise for pulling might be much higher than your starting exercise for squatting.

Once you've completed your two evaluation sessions and established your starting points for each movement category, you follow the program through 4-week cycles that Lauren describes. You upgrade from one exercise to the next-harder exercise once you can do all the sets and reps in good form. You do this at your own pace. If you need to take it down a notch, Lauren tells you how to do that. You can also go to Lauren's website to get (for free) other exercises to add to your program and to share experiences with others.

SPECIFIC EXERCISES

Just to give you an idea of the exercises in the book: In the Pulling movement category, they include wrapping a towel around a doorknob, placing your feet on each side of the door, grasping one end of the towel in each hand, leaning back with bent knees and pulling yourself up to the door. Other exercises (in different categories) include many varieties of presses, push-ups, pull-ups and hip raises; again, all ranked from easiest to hardest.

STYLE

When I read that Mark Lauren has, for many years, been a physical trainer for military elites, I had some trepidation. I thought he might have a boot-camp style, full of aggressiveness and macho posing. I was pleased to find his style to be just the opposite. His manner is no-nonsense, for sure, but he shows a lot of respect for women and is helpful and encouraging. What a refreshing approach in these days when so many trainers seem to think that yelling at people and humiliating them is motivational.

I'm just getting started on Lauren's program, but I can report that the book is clear and easy to follow. It's exciting to look at all the exercises and imagine getting stronger and working all the way to #25 in all five categories. If you're a woman who is ready to start bodyweight training, I can recommend giving this a try before spending time and money on a gym, trainer or expensive equipment.

Note: The book also includes a nutrition portion, but I am not using it. I have other resources I use for nutrition, including SparkPeople.

UPDATE: I've been working with the program for several weeks. I don't always do it every other day, but I'm pretty consistent. I started in the very low numbers of the exercises, especially those involving upper-body strength. I've moved up a few steps, but I'm taking it slowly so that I don't get discouraged. I do feel stronger in the upper body and I think I'm getting a little stronger in the core. I was already strong in the legs, so I don't see as much change there.

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MY THOUGHTS

LOVED IT

Every January, I try to get back into shape and this year I think I found the perfect book to help me out. I can't get to a gym and with a bad back, some exercises are just impossible for me to try. I am now working through this program and I find that it is really easy to do. No special equipment, no special things, just a door and some floor space to make the whole thing work. You can make the exercise as easy as you need it to be and for anyone with injuries, it is easy to work up to doing more repetitions as the author recommends.

I have found that my strength is increasing and I can easily work in these movements. I really recommend that you find a very stable door I use the fire door between my house and garage. I was afraid that using one of the other interior doors would be too much of a strain on the hinges. I really don't mind doing these movements and the whole program reminds of a fitness class that I took in college that had me in the best shape ever. I really recommend this easy to use guide to getting you back into shape.

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This book IS all you need if you can't afford a gym membership and want better faster results. Mark Lauren is a certified military physical training specialist, special operations combat controller, triathlete, and champion Thai boxer. He is NOT some ordinary guy who was obese, lost weight, and wrote a book to cash in on his journey. Instead, this book shares his knowledge of fitness for those who want to get in shape without gym memberships, funky expensive equipment, and pricey trainers you can't afford. He uses a simple yet extremely useful strategy, your own body weight.

Mark Lauren uses the same movements the military's advanced forces, SEALs to Green Berets use. He also addresses a woman's needs and concerns by adjusting every exercise to fit your own physical ability to accomplish each movement. Each movement category progresses from easiest to hardest so you're never doing the same exercise over and over. Train 3 days a week, with a rest day between workouts.

Movement Categories: Pulling, Squatting, In-line Pushing, Perpendicular Pushing, and Bending. Difficulty is adjusted by changing the intensity of movements through leverages, pauses, and single or double-limb engagement. Broken down into 3 Cycles each lasting 4 weeks, with 25 exercises listed for each category to choose from. This progression lets you avoid hitting a plateau and continue building lean muscle and a faster metabolism.

Excerpt from book "The reality is that strength training will make you smaller, not bigger, because increasing lean muscle mass will burn up fat over your entire body." -"Your muscles will not look toned unless there is little fat masking them."

Remember ladies...we don't have the same hormonal makeup as men therefore we don't turn into the hulk (unless you're using certain substances) we instead get leaner, harder, sexier bodies : )

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I am a fan of Body by Science: A Research Based Program to Get the Results You Want in 12 Minutes a Week but I don't necessarily want to go to the gym to exercise. I was happy to get a review copy of this book. Somehow I thought that it would be full of exercises to do without any aids except your body and the floor and possibly a mat and a wall. Many and maybe most of these exercises involve pieces of furniture or doors. I live in an older house and I really don't think my door hinges and frames would hold up to the challenge. And I don't think I have the right kind of furniture. However there are also lots of exercises without props also.

I do like the progression he offers. He does not just give you easy, moderate and hard exercises for a particular function he gives you lots of exercises in a detailed progression so you see the path forward.

He offers exercises in 5 movement categories (Pulling, Squatting, In-Line Pushing, Perp Pushing and Bending) with 25 exercises or variants described and listed in order of difficulty. Also he details how to plan your work out cycles and individual work outs and chart your progress. I wish that they had put each movement category in a separate chapter and changed the page footers to match so it would be easier to find a movement category. I have a black and white review copy so perhaps there are colored visual cues that I can't see.

I'm not sure who would need the third part of the book a simple overview of his views on nutrition. I follow a primal/paleo diet so it was not speaking to me but I did appreciate his emphasis on the need to eat some fat. He suggests multiple small meals of low Glycemic index foods although he does recommend things like fruit juice (!) and oatmeal ...

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