В этой книге собраны упражнения, комплексы и рекомендации, которые учитывают особенности женской анатомии и являются оптимальными для силовых тренировок представительниц прекрасного пола. Вы освоите более 150 упражнений и 50 программ для укрепления, развития и совершенствования формы ваших рук, ног, плеч, ягодиц, груди и живота. Пошаговые инструкции, сопровождаемые анатомическими иллюстрациями и фотографиями, помогут вам понять, как сделать каждое упражнение максимально эффективным, чтобы вы могли целенаправленно прорабатывать отдельные мышцы и проблемные зоны. В книгу включены испытанные программы упражнений для сжигания жира, наращивания мышечной массы и совершенствования разных частей тела.
Frédéric Delavier is a gifted artist with an exceptional knowledge of human anatomy. He studied morphology and anatomy for five years at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and studied dissection for three years at the Paris Faculté de Médecine.
The former editor in chief of the French magazine PowerMag, Delavier is currently a journalist for the French magazine Le Monde du Muscle and a contributor to several other muscle publications, including Men's Health Germany. He is the author of the best-selling Strength Training Anatomy and Women’s Strength Training Anatomy.
Delavier won the French powerlifting title in 1988 and makes annual presentations on the sport applications of biomechanics at conferences in Switzerland. His teaching efforts have earned him the Grand Prix de Techniques et de Pédagogie Sportive. Delavier lives in Paris, France.
I am not a hard core feminist, so when even I cringe, a red flag goes up. I was expecting a book –designed for women- on training for a fit and healthy body. But this book assumes that my main goal is to have an “attractive” body (attractive/according to men standards by the way). It assumes that I most likely want a big butt like J-Lo and large breasts. (Errr…no.)
Let’s quote: “Wearing high heels will alter your posture, rendering your silhouette more attractive.” How is that for scientific? I am shattered. I don’t wear high heels. This means that I am missing the chance every day to look more attractive. Strangely, not a word about the long term impact of high heels on the body. Never fear, with specific exercises, I can modify my posture so that I look like I’m wearing heels even in flats. Wow, of all the motivations I ever had for strength training, this one had never crossed my mind!
Then, going against undisputed research that says otherwise, the author still raises the possibility that spot training might be efficient after all. He therefore pays a lot of attention to which area of your body your desire to “sculpt”, for optimum looks. Still no word on fitness and health.
I find the tone of the book unbearably condescending. Let’s quote again: “However, nature has not provided us with abdominal muscles to look pretty.” No, really? It mentions how some women will prefer to keep in thin layer of fat over their abs so that the definition is less apparent and doesn’t look too masculine. I’m truly touched by this level of concern for my looks. I’ve always been worried about my abs looking too masculine. It might turn men off.
By then I was so disgusted with the book, I didn’t care whether the exercises were good or the drawings excellent. The one good thing about this book is that it made me really question WHY I was strength training. Since it is NOT to have a “perfect” body (to better attract men), I will look elsewhere for guidance and coaching, with less stereotypes and a more scientific approach.
Mainly focuses on legs, glutes and abs since apparently women are not interested in getting big arms cause we have vaginas (smh). I think the authors should have kept their opinions about what women want their bodies to look like out of the book, BUT the general content was very informative and I learned a lot from it.
I wrote an entire post ranting about the first 20 pages of this book for my blog. It's horrendous, sexist dribble. But, the exercise examples and sketches could be helpful for creating an exercise program... if you don 't read the text.
Decent collection of exercises. And A TON of sexist bullsh*t. "Equal rights made women more fat" -- excuse me??? Did I ask? I came to train, not to hear some questionable opinions that have NOTHING to do with science of health and exercise. Jesus Christ.
'ello, I am some random French azhole who hates women and 'appens to 'ave some talent for drawing and thinks elles sont, 'ow you say, imbéciles. Zey can't underztand scientific information and zey all want ze same thing parce que elles sont très shallow and incapable of deciding what zeir own goals are. All women want to be skinny with big asses and don't care about strength, only aesthetics. J'aime être un misogyniste!
Seriously, how did this get through editorial?!
It sucks that something so well illustrated (he really is great at that) and occasionally well-explained is ruined by constant "women are idiot babies"-coded language stuck in there.
I am willing to give a lot of credit for knowing that there is a market for people who want to know more about lifting and strength training and yet believe that "toning" is a thing and that women should look a certain way to remain feminine or whatever. I know there is because I've worked in the fitness industry on and off for the last decade and I have been on the internet before. So I'm actually kind of fine with how often the word "tone" was used because at least it was otherwise actually explaining how muscles work and why various exercises stretch or strengthen this or that muscle. Fine. Where I get mad is how often it was like "this has no aesthetic value, only strength or functional value, so women won't be interested and I won't cover it," because fuck you.
I just think this book could have been amazing if it had had an editor and authors who don't obviously hate women and still could have provided both real scientific knowledge while appealing to people who subscribe to fitness pseudoscience, and that is huge! But instead it continually interrupted its good content with misogyny and nonsense.
This book was so unnecessarily sexist in so many ways. You might as well read the original strength training book for men and then skim through this one for the few actual differences between male/female morphology.
The bizarre obsession with the “right” aesthetic for women and what women “should” develop to have the “right aesthetic” was completely mind-numbing and made absolutely no sense.
Great, guess I’ll injure my shoulder on the deadlift/bench press because some French guy thinks women’s shoulders shouldn’t “look too big”. Make that make sense in a book for athletes. He hardly covered the bench press in this book — LOL.
No wonder so many women who can’t lift a backpack over their head in the gym are over here goblet squatting into oblivion instead of doing anything utilitarian in the slightest if this is what passes for information “for women” out there.
Sure, the average woman may want a specific physique and want to train for it (I have no issue with that) but it would have been less condescending to assume that female ATHLETES would read a book FOR ATHLETES and therefore would have training goals that were either considerably less shallow or at least allowed for serious athletes alongside the “careful not to make your triceps ugly to men” warnings.
The entire book had a “careful not to hurt your brain” tone to it, which was weird. Weightlifting isn’t notorious for being the sphere of the highly intelligent male by any means.
There were considerably less anatomical diagrams in this one (women struggle to learn long lists of muscle groups, I assume) and the actual diagrams of the women…
Let’s just say the original version never had to put men in a thong to illustrate a point about growing musculature. I would have appreciated that, but it didn’t happen.
If you want lots of useful information without a headache, just read his other book and if you’re a woman, do the same stuff in that book, but rest more because our bodies are stricken by more hormonal fluctuations. We need more rest and we are more prone to injury, so we must train slightly more carefully, but by no means “less”.
You’re welcome. Now you don’t have to suffer the way I did. Hope you have fun hitting the barbell.
Required reading if you want to teach yourself how to weight train and also if you want to work out at home. Some reviewers were offended by a couple of assumptions made by the author about women (enhancing chest, attractive posture). Didn’t bother me a bit. I’m not that sensitive. I appreciated all of the weight training wisdom this book offered especially the guidance on preventing joint injury. I refer back to it often.
Information was handy but the author was stressing to much on the "you don't want to look like a man" part. I mean come on. I think the book was pretty expensive for basic information. Also note to self, never buy a self help book on kindle. Very difficult to go back to specific pages or highlights. All in all it was ok.
If you can ignore the gross mansplaining and comments about how women train to make their butts more attractive to men (Seriously? What century is this....), this book has very detailed information about working specific muscles and muscle groups in your body. The anatomical diagrams and clear photographs of each exercise are great.
I won this beautifully written and illustrated book from Goodreads Giveaway. It came with a letter from the authors. The exercises are doable. I let my daughter use it as well. The science of strength training for women is explained in details. Great manual.
Perfect book for women who want to start training in a gym without a personal trainer. Good and clear illustrations really help. Pieces of advice given about exercises to-do or not to-do for women really cool.
I started to read this book after having a well-established training routine, and to that extent, it wasn't helpful for me to plan any program. The book sometimes uses unfortunate goals, for example, "do this to be more attractive" rather than "to be more healthy" or "to have more strength". But in general terms, I found it interesting it targets women and shows the pros and cons of many specific movements. Some of them are not useful for me, as I prefer training with dumbbells, but I enjoyed exploring why some specific moves work the way they do.
I was looking for a book that focused on strength training designed for the female anatomy. I believe I have found it. While the efficacy of the programmes can only be evaluated after the advice in the book has been implemented, I cam at least say that the book is thorough and seems to based on physiological facts as well as observation. I look forward to the implementation phase.
The drawings are fantastic. The content was average and not comprehensive. Also, much of the exercises were described under the assumption that the woman is training for her looks. Some women train for looks but certainly not all. No other reasons/benefits for strengthening various muscles was provided. Only major muscles are addressed. I wish I had bought "Women's Strength Training Anatomy" instead.
I read dozens of blogs and many other workout programming but didn't find any other one even close to this all in one book! It's a must for women, especially those who r fairly new to fitness world and need to choose best moves among thousands created out! You won't regret your time and be sure to take note :) Enjoy reading :)
This is the best strength training book that I have approached for a long time. It features the most effective and well-known exercises but also embraces many tips, which will be useful even for someone with some experience of amateur weight lifting. Moreover, it is truly written for female athletes and as such is tailored to our usual demands and challenges. Definitely recommended!
The Gray's Anatomy-style drawings accompanying the text of this book are what distinguishes it from so many books on strength training. It made the text very clear and compelling, much more than photographs. I'd like to see this style of illustration used as a baseline in every discussion about anatomy.
Great anatomical illustrations to visualize what muscle groups are used in specific exercises, and demonstrating correct body positions for said exercises. Chauvinistic explanations of what types of exercises women should work on, examples being how to accentuate your breasts and buttocks to appear more attractive. Very disappointing.
The authors’ unnecessary opinions on the goals of women in strength training (primarily attractiveness, apparently) severely detract from their ethos. While many of the suggestions regarding the exercises and variations themselves appear useful, it is too time-consuming to sift the actual information from the authors’ misogyny.
This book is a unique book of its kind, but it makes the same mistake, all of them. He discusses the subject at a higher level, but talks about nothing else. Just because someone reads this will not make you smarter in the gym about what you should be doing. How should you eat? etc
As a beginner in the world of knowledge about weight training, it was a good book giving me an overall look about the muscles I should work, exercises and programs. I will try one of the programs and see the result.
Cons: Not at all body positive, assumes the only reason women want to strength train is to look sexy - to the extent that they only recommend training the muscles that make you look good, not the muscles that you need to be strong and healthy.
Well yes the author's tone is very male-oriented and sometimes makes me uncomfortable, but this book introduces a good amount of knowledge of how to work out properly. I wish I had read this earlier. Save your time watching YouTubers doing fancy things and read this.