The Female Body Breakthrough: The Revolutionary Strength-Training Plan for Losing Fat and Getting the Body You Want

First of all, I hate giving 5 stars to any product, so my best is 4 stars. I have read over 20 workout books in the past 6 weeks and I decided to go with this plan b/c it made sense. I also got a hold of her husbands book Afterburn through interlibrary loan (it is really a notebook) and the workouts and nutrition are pretty much the same (she did the nutrition portion of his book), and of course read The New Rules of Lifting for Women (for which her husband did the workouts as well), as well as some advanced books for trainers and coaches. Anyway, I settled on this one and am now on week 5. I checked this book out before I finally bought it and so far I love it! It is so nice to be free of the machines and watch the gym goers looking at what I am doing and trying to copy it later. My physical therapist was also impressed with the exercises and how they are laid out. I have lost 12 pounds in 5 weeks and more inches than that. My body fat has gone down too and I have dropped a dress size. I even purchased a band from rubberbanditz.com so I could do the pull ups without assistance or a machine and it is a truly phenomenal experience. I also met several of my fellow gym goers as they wanted to try the band out too. The personal trainers in my gym don't like that I am using a book and not them, but hey, it works for me!

I ended up buying this book for my Kindle because - I didn't have a good phrase for it until now - I'm "skinny fat", as Rachel says. She hit the head on the nail when she said I am slender, don't want to drop any pounds on the scale necessarily, and look good in my clothes, but my arms are mush with a bone in the middle! I run half marathons a couple times a year, do P90X once or twice a week (OK or month), and occasionally do some planks for my abs, but have never achieved the body I want and hate wearing a bathing suit. I am 24 so I figure if I can't get it now I'll never get it, so I purchased her book but didn't have too high of hopes since I thought I knew what I was doing.Boy was I wrong! It was my first fitness book purchase and everything I was previously worried about in following a fitness program like this isn't an issue here. For example, I don't want to start a program that lasts a few months and then leaves you with no long-term plan, and I don't want to count every single calorie, and I better be able to drink on the weekends and eat cake on my friends' birthdays. I also don't want to have to think too much about what workout to do on what day, like "Did I lift my biceps last time, or my chest?". And I am a grad student planning a wedding so I also want to use my time efficiently.Her book gave me all this and more! Granted I'm only a couple weeks into it, but if I don't succeed it won't be because she didn't give me all the tools I needed, it will be because I got lazy or something. The rules for eating are very straightforward - I don't need to pull out her book when I'm at a restaurant because I forgot rule 47 or anything - they make sense and don't require any memorization, just common sense. The workout plans are very detailed and strengthen your body in important, natural ways rather than machines at the gym that focus on one muscle that you probably don't use much anyways, and she takes the guesswork out of which body part to train and when.Overall I recommend this book even for those of you who think you know what you're doing but can't figure out why it doesn't show in the mirror! Not only are all the workout plans very detailed, but she gives great analogies and lessons that alone can motivate you to kick your own butt in the gym. The two most important things I've learned so far are that 1) endurance running trains your body to efficiently run for long periods of time... so I've basically trained my body to not get any more fit! Oops. And 2) even if I see skinny girls in sports bras on the treadmill, they probably already had that body type and all that running to nowhere isn't going to get me the body that I want if I don't have it by now!I hope I can stick to her program because I've wasted hours a week (up to 20!) with excess cardio for half marathon training and never gotten the results I wanted. The only thing I don't care for much is all the BITCH talk, because when I'm in my clothes I'm the BITCH everyone talks about ;) and now when I'm in my swimsuit I will be too!

I approached this helpful book with a friendly attitude, having read a couple of Lou Schuler's books (and Schuler collaborates on the technical/program end with Alwyn Cosgrove, who is Mrs Cosgrove's husband). I was attracted to this simply because when you are trying to make major changes, the more cheerleaders you have, the better -- and this after all was written by a woman, who knows what being a woman is, inside out.I like the no-fluff no-frills seriousness of this book. But I do have a critique. For one thing, I do find the talk about a BITCH (it's a clever acronym, see?) very crass. I'm sure I'm not the normal target audience -- I do not have a tattoo and never would, for instance; and I read Victorian books and know some ancient Greek -- but I do think that one can be strong and a lady at the same time. Also, the book constantly refers to sex: it clearly thinks that this is our main motivation. It also discusses at some length both the Pill and menstrual periods, as if we are all both engaged in a sex life and pre-menopausal. I may be an outlier, but my motivation has nothing whatever to do with sex (if anything, I seek the strength of my own body as a physical component of a life otherwise not given to the physical); and I am 47, not 27. The emphasis on sexuality I found not only off-putting but besides the point (my concern is with my own well-being and not with my husband's or anyone else's opinion). Oh, and I hate jeans because I think they're ugly and uncomfortable -- but 'thermometer jeans' are supposedly a means of gauging one's progress to this author.I'm sure many younger (and perhaps less cosily married) women will appreciate the mood of this book. But I have to say: I didn't.

Fantastic book ,absolutely spot. on as a male PT I find it difficult to get across to my female clients the incredible results weight training can bring them. I now just show them a picture of Rachel cosgrove.

Better than buying this book .. We can refer you tube for exercises ..

Amazing book! I am on phase 2 of this workout plan, and I am noticing results already!It's very easily laid out program and an even better meal plan to go with your workout schedule.Great excersizes, it makes me feel excited to get into the gym 3 times a week!Rachel Cosgrove does a really great job of explaining the exersises and really gearing it towards women.I have done "The New Rules of Lifting for Abs" which was co-written by her husband Alwyn Cosgrove, it was a great book as well, I can see how this couple really knows what they are talking about!Would definetly recommend this book to a friend who is just starting out or even a girl that has been working out for a while! I love the layout and the program completely!Thank you for writing this book!