The Year One Challenge for Women: Thinner, Leaner, and Stronger Than Ever in 12 Months (The Thinner Leaner Stronger Series)

First, PLEASE ignore the reviews that are complaining about the lack of detail in this book. This is a companion training guide to THINNER, LEANER AND STRONGER. This book lays out a complete year long training plan and functions as a notebook to log your progress if you like. You should definitely look at THINNER, LEANER AND STRONGER before starting this training plan. I bought this book for my wife who was looking to change up her workout this year. I had recently read Mike Matthew's book for men and have really been enjoying and finding success with his suggested training program. I loved how simple and straightforward the workouts are. This is all stuff that you should be able to do in an hour at the gym, and there isn't any silly, confusing nonsense. Strength training is really not that complicated. As Matthews explains, so many people are just confused by all of the misguided, contradictory information we're bombarded with. My wife has been going to the gym fairly regularly for the past few years, but her time there hasn't been very organized or focused. Occasionally she would ask me to write out "something to do" at the gym, and she would do that routine for a while. Its good that she has been going, but at some point you need practical advice and a program like Mike Matthews offers here to really get the most out of your time. i.e. Do these things on this day, this number of times, this many weeks, etc; I was really impressed by this book. She won't be asking me to write out "something to do at the gym" anytime soon. The day's training plan is written out clearly, page by page here for the entire year. She is set! More importantly, I was happy to see that she read through THINNER LEANER STRONGER and seems to have picked up a better understanding of both WHAT she is doing and WHY she is doing certain things. Fair warning: I kind of laughed during the first week when she was complaining how tired she was at the end of the day. She couldn't understand it. I had the exact same reaction when I first started Mike's program last year. For a week or so, I was incredibly wiped out at the end of the day. It was very disconcerting because we're both pretty active people and no strangers to the gym. Don't let it slow you down or worry you. My body adjusted and caught up to the new training, and I haven't felt that level of exhaustion since. I can't recommend this book highly enough. Every day I see people at the gym paying $50/hour to have a personal trainer do goofy, not especially effective exercises. For about $20, you can get the two THINNER, LEANER books, save yourself hundreds of dollars through the year and get way more out of your time at the gym. Be patient, follow the advice here and good luck!

I'm a wife, mother, and an elementary school teacher. I meal plan, lesson plan, plan appointments...plan, plan, plan. I DON'T want to plan my workouts. In fact, I wasn't working out because it was one more thing I had to think about and plan. I like Mike Matthews--I've bought his Thinner, Leaner, Stronger book and his cookbook, both on my Kindle. After reading his blog for some time now, I trust what he says. I really like that I don't have to think about structuring my workouts, he's done all the work for me. I'm only 2 weeks in, so I can't comment on how effective it's been for me, but like I said, I trust what he says and I'm sore, so I believe it's doing what it should be doing! Maybe I'll be a "before and after" success story on his blog someday...but I've got to get better at the eating part for that to happen ;) I went back and forth about taking off a star because it should be spiral-bound. I know sometimes the author doesn't have choices in components of a book--perhaps Mike didn't with this one. Or perhaps it would have made it way more expensive. In the end I am reviewing this based on the content, and the content I feel is five stars. If I were working out in a gym (I work out in our home gym) it would be a different story because it would make the book less user-friendly for me. At home it's not as much a problem. I have had to come up with alternatives to gym machine exercises he's included. Use bodybuilding.com to look up alternatives. I also use their website to watch the videos to make sure my form is correct. **EDIT--I've been using this book as my workout plan for 9 weeks now and I LOVE it. I am seeing progress I've never seen before with any plan I've ever done (mostly The Firm and Cathe Friedrich tapes). I didn't start working on the food part until almost a month ago (read his Thinner, Leaner, Stronger book OR go to his website MuscleForLife.com and look up "meal planning") but it all WORKS. I'm tracking my progress in a Google Sheet and my weight/body fat is going down while I'm putting on muscle. My only complaint is that I'm losing time each day from flexing in the mirror, lol! I can't wait to see what happens in the next 2 months. **EDIT #2 on the spiral bound edition-- I love this book!! I finished the first one I bought, which this review was written for and then bought the newer edition with the spiral binding. It is a big improvement both with the binding and how it is organized with 5 day, 4 day, and 3 day a week workout plans. I use the 5 day/ week option because I can fit the workout into my morning routine, but sometimes it takes me longer than 5 days to complete a week. I'm still seeing improvements on my modified version. This last year I've worked on my consistency in working out and I'm finally in a place where I can say I am consistent (read the book Mini Habits by Stephen Guise if you too struggle with this--helped a lot for me). I'm still working on the food part, but I'm getting better with it. I think the best testament to the effectiveness of this workout plan was our recent trip to Miami. It's rare that I am happy once I see the pictures that are taken on a beach vacation, but this year was the exception. It is a regular occurrence that when people find out that I have kids in their twenties, they don't believe it. I credit Mike's advice for that--when you are toned you look younger. Don't think that you have to lift impossibly heavy weights to get the body you want either. If anyone saw what I'm putting on the bar they'd think I was a wimp. But I'm a wimp who regularly gets under the bar and lifts it. I highly recommend this book!

I've gone through the first five weeks so far, and am really liking this book! I appreciate that each week is basically the same routine, and that I don't need to learn a whole set of new exercises every few weeks. It's very adaptable (you can choose to do 3, 4, or 5 workouts per week), and it's spiral-bound, which allows it to lay flat and open, so that you're not constantly flipping back through pages to write down your sets. I found this workbook easy to understand and use with only a cursory skim through the associated book ("Thinner, Leaner, Stronger" by the same author). The TLS book gives all of the details, this workbook gives only the workouts. You won't find much guidance in the workbook, and you won't find any nutrition info. Some people in previous comments seemed to miss this detail. If you want all of the guidance and how-to, get the TLS book and read that first. This book isn't supposed to take the place of TLS, but instead it works in tandem with it. My only qualm with this workbook is that it could be smaller. There's a lot of blank space in the margins, and the book could easily be cut down an inch or two in length and width. That'd make it easier to bring to set down in the gym, especially my crowded gym. Since that's my only issue with this book, I'd certainly recommend it.

Simple and easy to use. Everything is planned for a year, no excuses. Anyone can follow it. Good companion to the main book too.

I wish I'd read the 1 star reviews before I purchased this as I would have understood that this book doesn't meet expectations. The content should have just been an additional paragraph in TLS which I already have but also found it not easy to navigate/implement without having to re read sections over and over again. I thought this book would give the basic steps and breakdown of how to implement TLS but it was woefully deficient. I got it in kindle version so even more unhelpful than maybe the physical book. If I'd picked this up on a shelf I'd never have purchased it. As it's a kindle when you get a sample they're often super random and hard to tell what the actual book would be like. REGRET buying! Cannot find a way to return for a refund even though only purchased a few days back.

Purchased this and Thinner Leaner Stronger to kickstart my sister's fitness journey, and consider this the best investment made yet! This workbook provides any fitness newbie or veteran with structured workouts and eliminates guesswork from the equation, which really makes it analogous to hiring a personal trainer of your own. My sister has the habit of aimlessly wandering around while at the gym and only half-heartedly applying some of the exercises/form adjustments I suggest to her; with this workbook in her arsenal, she gets straight to task on her scheduled routine for the day. More importantly, recently she has been making a conscientious effort to hit the gym after work, and asks to accompany me when I would have had to drag her by the heels previously! I have demoed a couple of workouts myself (with slight modifications to hit certain muscles in lieu of the ones targeted) - they make sense, get results, and are concise enough to complete in under an hour, which is a godsend for anyone who hates spending more time in the gym than necessary. Would highly recommend if you'd like to simplify and streamline your routine, or if find yourself reading a lot of fitness books but never know where to start!!

Lots of great information in this book. Well written and everything explained well.

Ja also immer wenn ich beginnt zum gym rennen kriege ich mehrere kilo auf. So ehrste zweite woche habe ich auch 4 kg mehr gewicht bekommen aber leute die mich kennen glaubte dass ich habe viele kilo weck und war auf diet. Ich glaube diese buch ist gut falls man auch mit grösserer hanteln und gewichte nutzen.