Introduction

Art S said:

"elzinator" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

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Art S said:

I just got VERY frustrated some time ago because there was one

lady

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who

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kept holding Nelson's books up as good examples of how to

exercise.

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There are few good comprehensive exercise books for women on the

mass

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market level. And from their base level lack of knowledge and
experience, I can see how they easily subscribe to the dogma of one
author or the other. Regardless, keep in mind it's all relative. A
colleague here is a very petite woman, for which a 10-lb dumbbell

*is*

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heavy. She knows that her relative strength (or lack of) is not the
same for everyone. But then she's also a PhD and intelligent enough

to

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not project her limitations on others.

People tend to be narrow minded. It's the 'One Size Fits All'

syndrome.

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Different definitions of "heavy." You are thinking "heavy" means

that

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the exerciser either can't lift the weight using good form for the

number

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of sets and reps desired *now*. In the book, she says not to go

higher

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than 25 lb dumbbells (I think that was for young males doing squats

and

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lunges, and it was only 10 lbs for females) due to risk of injury.

That's moronic.

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Her web site leaves out a lot, but if you look at
http://www.strongwomen.com/strong_bones/SB_essentials.asp, note that
necessary equipment is a pair of 3 lb dumbbells, a pair of 5 lb

dumbbells,

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and 10 lb ankle weights. She hints at when to increase the weight,

without

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being explicit, and calls 5 - 8 lb dumbbells indicitive of exercising

"hard".

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This implies that there is no reason to go beyond 8 lbs - the

equipment isn't

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needed and the exercise being done is "hard", so why make it more

difficult?

Okay, that's just plain ignorant and stupid.

"Lynne" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

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Art S said:

How many women do you know that have a valid lifetime maximum safe
weight of 8 lb dumbbells?

That *is* pretty wimpy. I suppose that there may be some very frail
people who will never manage more. But they are probably already 95 an
weigh 87 pounds.

I no longer have the book, but I notice that her site doesn't even have
the "Stay Young" program. Interesting that, as I recall, the equipment
was 5, 10 and 15 pound dumbbells and 20 pound ankle weights. In fact, I
remember her cautioning against buying 10 pound ankle weights because
you would outgrow them too quickly. She said 3 pound dbs if you really
needed them (as I recall -- I may be wrong). I never looked at strong
bones, but how could you need LESS for strong bones? She does seem to
be contradicting herself.

She convinced me that I needed weight training. Even that actually
being strong was an attainable goal. But I did move on and find other
sources of information. And I do have a functioning BS meter.

If she claimed her routines were for beginners, or gave more explicit
information about how and when to increase the weight without providing
the limit she does, I would have far less objections to her web site and
books.

Glad to hear that you progressed beyond her recommendations.

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Lynne

Art

"elzinator" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

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Art S said:

"elzinator" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

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Art S wrote:
>
> I just got VERY frustrated some time ago because there was one

lady

Quoted message said:

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who
> kept holding Nelson's books up as good examples of how to

exercise.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

There are few good comprehensive exercise books for women on the

mass

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

market level. And from their base level lack of knowledge and
experience, I can see how they easily subscribe to the dogma of one
author or the other. Regardless, keep in mind it's all relative. A
colleague here is a very petite woman, for which a 10-lb dumbbell

*is*

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

heavy. She knows that her relative strength (or lack of) is not the
same for everyone. But then she's also a PhD and intelligent enough

to

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

not project her limitations on others.

People tend to be narrow minded. It's the 'One Size Fits All'

syndrome.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Different definitions of "heavy." You are thinking "heavy" means

that

Quoted message said:

the exerciser either can't lift the weight using good form for the

number

Quoted message said:

of sets and reps desired *now*. In the book, she says not to go

higher

Quoted message said:

than 25 lb dumbbells (I think that was for young males doing squats

and

Quoted message said:

lunges, and it was only 10 lbs for females) due to risk of injury.

That's moronic.

Unh-hunh.

The impression I got when I read her book is that she took some of
the standard exercises done during aerobics back in the 80's and some of
the rehab exercises done at home by older people (sit down, stand up, sit
down, stand up. You can do that? Good. Do it again, with a 1 lb. dumbbell.)
and oriented them towards out-of-shape older women (60 - 80 years old) who
wouldn't go to the gym or buy much in the way of gym equipment, and then
tried to apply the same information to everybody to increase her target audience.
(At least that is the only way I could come up with some of the exercises she
promotes.)

And, unfortunately, she never considered the assumptions she was keeping when
she changed her target audience.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Her web site leaves out a lot, but if you look at
http://www.strongwomen.com/strong_bones/SB_essentials.asp, note that
necessary equipment is a pair of 3 lb dumbbells, a pair of 5 lb

dumbbells,

Quoted message said:

and 10 lb ankle weights. She hints at when to increase the weight,

without

Quoted message said:

being explicit, and calls 5 - 8 lb dumbbells indicitive of exercising

"hard".

Quoted message said:

This implies that there is no reason to go beyond 8 lbs - the

equipment isn't

Quoted message said:

needed and the exercise being done is "hard", so why make it more

difficult?

Okay, that's just plain ignorant and stupid.

And THAT is why I react to her books the way I do.

Art

Art S said:

"elzinator" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

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Okay, that's just plain ignorant and stupid.

And THAT is why I react to her books the way I do.

Ditto.

Art S said:

The impression I got when I read her book is that she took some of
the standard exercises done during aerobics back in the 80's and some

of

Quoted message said:

the rehab exercises done at home by older people (sit down, stand up,

sit

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down, stand up. You can do that? Good. Do it again, with a 1 lb.

dumbbell.)

Quoted message said:

and oriented them towards out-of-shape older women (60 - 80 years

old) who

Quoted message said:

wouldn't go to the gym or buy much in the way of gym equipment, and

then

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tried to apply the same information to everybody to increase her

target audience.

Quoted message said:

(At least that is the only way I could come up with some of the

exercises she

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promotes.)

And, unfortunately, she never considered the assumptions she was

keeping when

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she changed her target audience.

She is a *nutritionist*, which should explain a lot.

Most people (in the US, anyway) don't exercise AT ALL. When I say "I
have to go to the gym first," a frequent response is: "You don't have
to go EVERY DAY, you know." I don't. I go 6 days a week. *Most* of my
co-workers are fat and out of shape. And I work at a university that
only offers sports-related degrees. We can barely get a couple of
people to dust off their bicycles and ride a few miles.

If she gets some people to do SOMETHING and a few of them (like me)
actually move on, then she's not evil. She did a damn good job of
convincing me that I needed strength training. But no WAY am I going to
hold up her wimpy workouts as good examples of weight lifting. I only
read the one book, sounds like her other workouts got worse.