Strength Training

Get strong like a Quiver Tree with strength training exercises

When I began strength training, I wasted time with inappropriate and ineffective routines. It took persistence to find the information I needed. There are a few good books and web sites about resistance or strength training, but there are more magazines, web sites, and books geared toward steroid-enhanced, bulging muscles. Common sources of information about strength training make promises that can’t be kept. Women are led to believe that they can get strong and increase their bone density by using light weights in endlessly repeated easy movements. It’s not true.

I hope this section of my website will help you get focused and get started. For further reading, check out my list of additional resources.

Appraising Your Exercise Risk: Ideally, everyone should have a physical before beginning an exercise program. I explain risk factors that make it is absolutely necessary to get your doctor’s approval and/or have a stress test. My recommendations are based on suggestions from the American College of Sports Medicine.

Getting Started With Strength Training: A brief introduction to basic concepts in strength training, plus a beginner’s routine. I wish someone gave me this when I started.

Designing Exercise Programs to Lower Fracture Risk in Mature Women: This was published in Strength and Conditioning Journal, February, 2006.

Beginning Strength Training Routines: I wrote separate guides for routines at home and at the gym.

Making Progress in Strength Training: Systematically and safely improve your strength.

Strong Women Don’t Starve: I write about weight control, body image, and strength training. It’s based on my personal experience.

Squatting: How I Found my Groove: I explain my struggles and successes with a valuable strength training exercise, the back squat. I hope my experience and tips will encourage others to move beyond the leg press and experiment with squatting. Squatting builds full-body functional strength and balance and is superb for building muscle and bone.