The Women's Health Big Book of Exercises: Four Weeks to a Leaner, Sexier, Healthier You!

**Second Update - 2 YEARS AND COUNTING**My husband and I are STILL using this guide on an almost daily basis as we both continue to strength train/exercise 3 - 5x week. Since we just rounded the corner on 2 years of consistent at-home exercise, we finally felt qualified to invest in more gym equipment ($$) and have now converted half our garage into a home gym (though I maintain my stance that you do NOT need hardly any equipment to get started!!!). This book has kept our routines varied and even though we to look for inspiration in other sources (online, etc.), we continue to come back to this guide to give us tips, proper form, new exercises, etc. If I can become an exercise person SO CAN YOU!**Update - 1 year using this book and still going strong**It's been almost a full year since my original review and I still use this book constantly - its dogeared and well loved! Using the suggested exercise routines in the back, I've gone through about 4 different "12 week" programs, and still have many options to choose from. The combinations are limitless and the book has grown with my strength and only become more helpful! I continue to do strength training 3x/week (my husband too!) and alternate with cardio or other kinds of workouts. Ichange up my strength training routine utilizing the suggestions in this book about every 4 weeks. If I come across a suggested exercise that uses equipment we don't own, I do some googling for improvising the exercise, or target the same muscle group with alternatives suggested in the book. IE, we don't own a rack and things like inverted rows are difficult without a bar, but I've managed to use YouTube inspiration to do inverted rows with cables over doorways, etc.Since buying this book, we've gradually expanded our equipment - starting with adjustable dumbbells (1-50lbs), a stability ball and a yoga mat. Truly, that kept us busy for almost 6 months (and could keep me busy a lot longer, but my husband's weight needs exceed my own). We've since added a chin up bar, some cables/resistance bands and are now at the stage where we're looking to invest in more equipment (a rack, barbell/weights, adjustable dumbbells 50-90lbs). This book has been wonderful in getting us started without the need to buy a lot off the bat, saving us from making irrational, expensive home gym decisions. This is truly the best $17 I've ever spent on myself and my health. If you are truly committed to doing it. If getting to a gym or being around competitive gym rats scare you, start with this book and some simple tools. I am so much stronger already, and so much less intimidated by strength training than I once was. I plan to continue to use this book as my 'proper form' and exercise suggestions bible.**Original Review**This was an awesome book for someone like me, who has typically relied on cardio workouts and has felt pretty unequipped in how to begin weight and resistance training. After having read repeatedly about the importance of weight training for people as they age to maintain muscle mass and weightloss/ weight maintenance, I committed to figuring out where to start. I'm in my mid-30's, have a healthy BMI and typically work out at home (either via walking/running/biking around the neighborhood or on a home treadmill). As much as I'd like to have access to a gym, I know myself well enough to know that it would be hard for me to squeeze a gym visit into my daily life as a working mom.Someone I knew recommended this book and it is chalk full of the information I needed: exercises I can do at home (with or without extra equipment). It includes all kinds of information on how to start, what exercises are good for beginning and how to develop more advanced workouts depending on your goals. It has full body options as well as targeted muscle groups. Every exercise has pictorial examples and discusses proper technique/form, as well as modifications for making each exercise easier or harder. I've been doing the "beginners" routine for six weeks and am now shifting to the other routines in the book. I love how the book "grows" with my improvement and can continue to offer value as my fitness improves.In reading the reviews, some people complained that the Men's Health Big Book of Exercises was the exact same book with a man pictured doing the routines rather than a woman. With this knowledge in mind, I told my husband that the books were identical and he felt comfortable just using my book to develop his own routine (inspired by my increased interest in resistance training). He has been a marathon runner for several years, but is now also focusing on these exercises as well.As a result of our commitment to this book, we've been gradually adding some equipment to our home (though this is not necessary to begin!). We agreed not to rush into buying anything expensive, but after about 4 weeks of both using these books, we found an adjustable dumbbell set on Craigslist. We're both able to use them (at different weight settings) and they take up a lot less room than a full set of traditional dumbbells. Otherwise we just use a yoga ball and yoga mat. As we continue to grow our fitness, we may consider investing in more - but don't let a lack of gym equipment stop you from beginning.

I had been with a trainer for the last 7 months and stopped going now to save money. I got this book to try and help me put together my own work-outs at home to keep the weight I've lost off.I got the book yesterday and spent a good hour or more flipping through the book, and it's amazing!The first part of the book breaks working out down really simply so even people who have never worked out before can understand their bodies while using weights (or body weight). It gives you facts on why lifting weights is so great for you (I knew most of them already, but it's very motivating still and it was a nice refresher after my trainer). It also gives you a section on common questions such as "how many reps?" and "how much weight should I use?" and then gives very detailed, easy-to-understand answers. Then it lists "the essentials" for equipment if you want to start building a home gym or deciding what to use at your gym.The next section tells you how to use both the nutrition and excersise part of the book to get the most benefits. I loved the diet section because it gives you a couple examples of what your day's meal plan might look like and then gives a chart of the types of foods you can eat and what is considered under that category (for example, high quality proteins: beef, cheese, etc. Low starch veggies: broccoli, artichoke, etc. and natural fats: avacados, butter, etc.)It tells you how to do the workouts in enough detail to really easily understand. Do work out A on Mon, and Fri and workout B on Wed and then switch it up next week, so easy! It even gives the part of your body to work out, how many sets, reps and how long to rest!Throughout the book, it's organized by muscle group and what exercises to focus on those groups. It shows an anatomy book type graphic of the muscle group and gives you the names of the muscles and what they do for your body (loved this!). For each muscle group, there's one or two "main moves" that you can master before doing variations. Then it lists many variations of the excerise. For push-ups, for example, the push up is the main move and then there are variations such as Incline push up, decline push up, modified push up, weighted push up, etc. Many pages have a side panel with fitness tips and also "muscle mistakes" to tell you things that you're probably doing wrong and how to fix it.There's an illustration for almost every exercise (I only saw a couple that didn't have them) and each image has arrows pointing to parts of your body and saying how to have them during the workout ("your palms should face forward", "the dumbbells should nearly touch", "your body should form a straight line from your knees to your shoulders") which is helpful when trying a new exercise so you know if you're having good form.In the back of each section there's a specific work out plan to target that area ("get the perfect _______") which is awesome. Also, in the last pages of the book, there's warm-up exercises, "Best Workout" plans and a chapter for "Nutrition Secrets."I read reviews before I purchased the book and many people were upset that you needed so much equipment to use this book. In my opinion, yes this book has a lot of its variations that require equipment BUT how do you expect to work out at home and not have ANY equipment, not even dumbbells? Tons of the exercises can be done if you just have dumb bells and a swiss ball. You can replace a workout bench with a chair or coffee table, bar bells with dumbbells, etc. You can get creative (but safe!) at home and still do most of the work-outs even if you don't have a gym membership or a complete home gym. There's even a section on The Best Body-Weight Workouts :).Overall, I am SO satisfied with my purchase and I can't wait to really start getting into this book and doing all the exercises!