This book, Women's Home Workout Bible, is another great text from Human Kinetics, a reliable publisher of fitness titles. Brad Schoenfeld is a well-known, experienced and qualified trainer and author. The book focuses on workouts at home for women, and it does it very well.
The picture illustrations of the exercises are superb and the exercise coverage is copious, presenting a cornucopia of exercises that cover every body part, and with variety of choice to prevent you from getting bored. If I counted right, about 150 exercises are illustrated and described.
The book is large-format size of 318 pages.
Space, Budget, Setup
The first thing you notice about this book is the superb production, which we have come to expect of Human Kinetics publications. It's divided into three sections.
- Space, Budget, Setup
- Equipment and Exercise Selection
- Strategies and Ultimate Home Routines
This first section is all about setting up the home gym -- on a budget if necessary. The author discusses the essential considerations of what you can afford and what space you have to store and utilize the equipment -- from dumbbells and elastic bands to more complex stand-alone home gym machines.
This is a good start because one hears stories occasionally of people purchasing home equipment and machine gyms only to discover that they really don't have enough space for comfortable access and execution of exercise movements.
He hasn't missed anything in this section -- from where to buy, second-hand equipment, and how to create a suitable ambiance in your training room or training space. Although the advice is directed at women, the basics could easily apply to most men starting out with weight training at home as well.
The first part of the book has an excellent "Exercise Finder" section that comprises several pages of charts that list the exercises inside and their page number plus essential equipment price bracket. This is a great start.
Equipment and Exercise Selection
Part 2 of the book is the core of the equipment and exercise instruction relationship, including using no equipment at all. The book introduces:
- Body weight, balls and bands
- Dumbbells and barbells
- Machines
- Cardio
- Stretching
This section has the illustrations and the descriptions for each exercise listed and grouped under equipment type. Very handy.
It's difficult to find fault because so many exercises are included, but I probably would have included a standard from the floor deadlift as well as, or instead of, the stiff-legged deadlift, but no doubt the author had reasons for this choice -- and it's by no means out of place.
Strategies and Ultimate Home Routines
The final section gets down to the nitty gritty of exercise programs, strategies and goals, including week by week program description for the various target outcomes -- body sculpting, body conditioning and core stability.
The section also provides basic information on exercise physiology and anatomy to put the training into perspective. I've little to quarrel about here . . . the science is generally of high quality.
In all, a fine book, not only for women (or anyone) training at home, but also as a general exercise description guide for personal trainers who want a convenient catalog of new ideas for their clients. Highly recommended.
Brad Schoenfeld, CSCS, CPT, is highly regarded fitness trainer and owner of the exclusive Training Center for Women in Scarsdale, New York, and at www.lookgreatnaked.com.
