The New Rules of Powerlifting was written by Lou Schuler and Alwyn Cosgrove and presents the basic premise that it’s not the muscles you train in the gym that make a real difference to your body, but how you move those muscles.
The New Rules of Lifting is all about using your muscles together in a very natural way, rather than isolating and working them in a way your body will never need outside of a gym. I think the programs in the book might be especially relevant to runners looking to cross-train. The book provides a year of training made up of 6 basic movements:
- the squat
- the dead weight
- the lunge
- entrepreneur
- Traction
- Cramp
The book is divided into six sections, but can easily be divided into three basic parts.
Part 1
The first part of the book contains the “Facts” and “Techniques” sections, which give a very broad overview of weightlifting in general and The New Rules of Lifting in particular. There are 20 spelled rules that make up the “new rules”, the first 19 of which appear in these two sections.
The six basic movements are briefly introduced and explained, and there is a specific warm-up plan that prepares the body for those six movements. I don’t completely agree with the authors opinion on the importance of flexibility, but my main sports activities are on the road and not in a gym.
I feel that better flexibility is important to prevent injury and, especially as a runner, it can give you a competitive edge.
Part 2
The second part of the book contains the “Exercises” and “Programs”. The “Exercises” section is divided into each of the six movements, where a detailed description of the movement is given. The muscles used to complete the movement and the technique needed to complete the movement safely for each are provided, as well as describing the functional significance of that movement outside of the gym. A few different exercises are shown for each movement with variations and descriptions. Most of the exercises are illustrated with black and white photographs.
One of the things that annoyed me about the “Exercises” section was that each exercise lists the programs in which it is used. That’s a good thing, but there hasn’t been anything other than passing references to those shows up until that part of the book, so the reader has no idea what those shows are about.
Agree, the names are not particularly complicated (interrupt, Loss of fat, HypertrophyY Strength levels I to III), but the first page of the “Programs” section should have been included before the “Exercises”, followed by all the exercises, and then followed by the programs.
part 3
The third part of the book contains nutritional information. Explaining how the body processes carbohydrates, fats, and proteins was pretty straightforward and basic. There is a good description of how metabolism works and time is spent describing how an excessive caloric deficit is counterproductive.
Unfortunately, the actual food lists weren’t particularly helpful. Throughout most of the book, humor is used sparingly but well. The humor in the “Clean Eating” chapter makes food lists almost useless. It may go off the “A” list of things that he should definitely incorporate into his diet, but it’s not like the author is saying that he doesn’t agree with what he’s writing.
Mentioning your own favorite foods would have been nice as an example that deviation is okay, but I don’t want to have to read an entire description to find out that something is ranked higher than it’s supposed to be.
I also completely disagree with the author’s stance that caffeine is harmless.
conclusion
The book is an excellent beginner’s manual that will point you in the right direction for runners who want to cross-train and incorporate a weight routine. I also think this book would be well received by intermediate lifters, such as college athletes, who may know of some programs to help them with their sports but haven’t spent a lot of time developing their own programs. If you’re depressed, then the book may be worth a look no matter how experienced you are, if only for the specific programs listed in the book.
However, more experienced lifters should probably give The New Rules of Lifting a pass or just skim through it in the library, as most of it is very fundamental.
In my own experience, I have used a few of the fat loss programs during my marathon training with good results and I would recommend starting there if you are looking to enhance your own running.