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Old 05-23-10, 10:40 AM  
Vintage VFer
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Question Opinions on New Rules of Lifting for Women?

I'm torn between doing a P90X halfsies rotation or trying the NROL4W program. I've read KathAL79's excellent review and her thread about NROL4W. My goal is to add muscle mass (yes, bulk up, LOL!) and improve bone mass.

Any opinions or advice on NROL4W? The schedule seems complicated with all the assorted phases, numbers and letters.
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Old 05-23-10, 10:54 AM  
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I think the book's layout makes the program unnecessarily complicated; once you figure out a way to log the workouts it makes a lot more sense. I ended up making my own simple workout sheets, but there are some available out there, too.

IMHO NROL4W is a great program if you're looking to add muscle. I hadn't really done anything like that before and was amazed at how solid the muscle on me felt when I was done.
I hope Nancy S (warriorprincess) sees this, as she turned to NROL4W to improve bone density. She posted more on what she did here: No more osteoporosis!

Over on the Strength Check-in we have two people currently working their way through NROL4W. I'm considering another go at it in the near future; I still need to get my weight back down a little first, because this isn't great for weight loss.

I've never done P90X, so I can't compare, though. I found one thread with NROL4W / P90X comparisons: Moving from P90X to NROL4W But you've probably already found that many of the longer NROL4W threads are tagged with NROL4W or NROLW.
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Old 05-23-10, 11:30 AM  
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Thanks, Kath! I'll check out those links.

I found some Excel spreadsheet NROL4W logs here:

http://maggiewang.com/2008/05/20/new...d-workout-logs

You have to have the book to use certain words to log in to the download page. I guess she got in trouble with the authors.
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Old 05-23-10, 11:40 AM  
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Wonderful program! I've done parts of both NROL and NROL4W and saw incredible strength gains.
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Old 05-23-10, 05:07 PM  
Anne29
 
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Originally Posted by KathAL79 View Post

IMHO NROL4W is a great program if you're looking to add muscle. I hadn't really done anything like that before and was amazed at how solid the muscle on me felt when I was done.
I agree! I had never done this kind of weight lifting before, and I was amazed at how strong I got. It's also just really empowering and fun. There are so many different exercises that I'd never tried before. That ended up being one of my favorite aspects of the program, learning new moves.

It's long, and I had never done a long rotation like this before. I kept expecting to quit, but somehow I did it all.

I think the main drawback to it is that it's not on video. I did it at home and would sometimes play a workout dvd just so I'd have some company.

But I'm really glad I did it. I wanted to replace some muscle I lost thanks to a bad bout of IBS. (I had lost around 15 lbs in about a month!) I knew I needed to build my strength back for health's sake, and this was perfect. It would have taken me years to do it if I had kept using my regular high rep/low weight workouts.
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Old 05-23-10, 08:11 PM  
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Thought of one difference I know of vs. P90X: NROL4W works the lower body in pretty much every workout. I'm not really knowledgeable about what's recommended as the best weight training moves for building or maintaining bone density, but I'm guessing Lou's love of squats, deadlifts, and lunges certainly can't hurt.

I agree that a major drawback is the length. The workouts can be long, especially towards the middle (Stages 1 and 6 are the shortest, from what I remember, and they're significantly shorter), and the rotation itself is long. If you're looking at P90X halfsies, you might find yourself tearing your hair out when it comes to, say, Stage 5 (I think that was one of the longer workouts that just dragged on).

Anne, I used this to rebuild my muscle base after a long battle with illness (mono), too, although the whole thing was more a happy accident than planned.
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Old 05-24-10, 10:23 AM  
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I think the main drawback to it is that it's not on video. I did it at home and would sometimes play a workout dvd just so I'd have some company.
I can see me doing that. I'd work out with DH, but he just started an Insanity rotation.

Quote:
Originally Posted by KathAL79 View Post
I agree that a major drawback is the length. The workouts can be long, especially towards the middle (Stages 1 and 6 are the shortest, from what I remember, and they're significantly shorter), and the rotation itself is long. If you're looking at P90X halfsies, you might find yourself tearing your hair out when it comes to, say, Stage 5 (I think that was one of the longer workouts that just dragged on).
How did you keep motivated? Did you play good music?

I much prefer high-rep/low weight workouts. I had just started getting in to barre style workouts. But, I have to go heavy for my bones. This is going to be a chore for a while until I get in to the groove.
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Old 05-24-10, 11:27 AM  
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I'm doing a NROL/w rotation, and I'm enjoying it a lot. It does take more "prep" work to get started, such as getting used to his workout notations with the letter and numbers. I downloaded workout sheets from Lou website and then made up all my workout sheets for all phases at once.

I wore a HRM at first and was really please at how many calories I burned and where my HR was, love getting a cardio and strength workout at the same time like I was for phase one.

I wasn't sure how I would like it not have a DVD to work to...but it turned out fine, I'm actually enjoying my strength days more....I work out to my own music. It's fun hearing music I haven't listen to for a long time.....like working out with old friends. And at first, I tried to get the "right music" for working out...and have discovered...that pretty much everything works. Working out to a huge variety of music, and that's cool. Cept with some music....I have to remind myself..."this is strength time"....cause I'll start dancing and forget I'm in the middle of a strength workout.

I can't tell that my muscles are bigger, but they are feeling firmer and I am definately stronger. Getting stronger is a kick in the pants fun. Still too much bodyfat for definition in the torso, however, my legs are taking on a nice shape, and the beginnings in my arms also.
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Old 05-24-10, 11:37 AM  
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I haven't yet gotten to the workouts in NROL4W. I'm grateful for these worksheets you've posted, since the official ones are so basic and the calendar looks confusing.

I really just wanted to say I like the text of the book. Interesting read.
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Old 05-24-10, 11:47 AM  
Messe
 
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Werkit also has some workout logs for NROL/W (this is another "type in the phrase" setup for access):

http://werkit.com/programs/nrol4w

Alta, I think you'll get more bang for your workout goals with NROL/W than with P90X. And good music, episodes of a favorite TV series, etc. can really make the time fly during these workouts.
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