I was flattered to see a plug for The New Rules of Lifting and The New Rules of Lifting for Women in this article by James Fell:

To find the right program, you need to become sort of an expert by reading advice written by experts. I’ve read a lot of good and a lot of bad weightlifting books, but here are some I recommend:

For Women:
• The New Rules of Lifting for Women
• Women’s Strength Training Anatomy

For Men:
• The New Rules of Lifting
• Strength Training Anatomy

Did you see a pattern up there?

Depending on your gender, buy these two books and study them, and then figure out a weightlifting program that is right for you.

What does that have to do with Jillian Michaels? Nothing, except that Fell also wrote a recent article for the L.A. Times about Michaels’ unfortunate venture…

Tags: Tags: bad form, biggest loser, books, jillian michaels, kettlebells, new rules of lifting

Happy New Year … just 14 days after the fact.

Some quick updates:

* I went back to my old site, Male Pattern Fitness, with a guest article. In it, I review my favorite new workout books of the past 12 months, including Adam Campbell’s outstanding Big Book of Exercises.

* I did a really, really fun podcast with Mike Robertson. The goal was to talk about how fitness professionals can improve their writing to move their careers forward, but the most memorable stretch comes when I go off on a spontaneous rant about how annoyed I am by Facebook. I’ve been thinking about it for a while, so I guess it was going to come out sooner or later. Still, it caught both of us by surprise. I just hope it’s as entertaining to you as it was to me when I was getting…

Tags: Tags: books, dad fitness, journalism, mens health, mike robertson, podcast, writing

I’ve been resisting the temptation to write about Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers for the past several weeks. But every time I sit down to work on something else, my mind goes back to that book. More specifically, I start thinking about the book’s second chapter, “The 10,000 Hour Rule.” Even more specifically, I come back to the idea that not all hours are created equal.

The book, as you know, is the nation’s #1 nonfiction bestseller at this moment. I think everyone I work with in the fitness business has read it. TC, editor in chief at Testosterone Muscle, wrote about it in his Atomic Dog column more than a month ago. Chad Waterbury recommended it to me even before that, and finally sent me a copy as an early birthday present when I mentioned in early January that I still hadn’t gotten…

Tags: Tags: books, journalism, Media, outliers, publishing, writing

I mentioned in the previous post that, to my shame, I read very few new books this year. And I feel guilty about that, like I’m a traitor to my profession. 

I’m not the only one feeling guilt. Check out this confession by David Streitfeld from last weekend’s New York Times, in which he admits to buying used books from resellers rather than purchasing them new:

Here’s one example of how I casually wreak destruction. I was reading “Sylvia,” an account by the late short-story master Leonard Michaels of his unstable first wife. Looking for material about Mr. Michaels, I saw his friend Wendy Lesser had written a long essay about him in a book published last year by Pantheon. I could buy a new paperback edition of that book, “Room for Doubt,” for $13.95 plus tax in a…

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Tags: Tags: books, personal, writing

When I started this blog, at the original louschuler.com, I gave an annual summary of my favorite books, movies, and events. (Or, in 2006, my favorite book.)

And from time to time, I would write about movies and books without any reason other than to note a trend I’d spotted. I particularly enjoyed writing this summary of recent biographical films. (Important lessons: If your brother dies when you’re young, you will become addicted to drugs. But if you’re not addicted to alcohol or drugs, no one will make a movie about your life, because you aren’t interesting.)

This year, as usual, I haven’t seen most of the movies that show up on the critics’ top 10 lists. All I’ve seen are what’s available on DVD. And, because of the Olympics and the election, I spent way too much time watching TV, and way too little…

Tags: Tags: books, entertainment, movies, Politics, sports

For me, this holiday season was more exhausting and stressful than usual, for reasons that are ultimately positive.

I was busy with work, which is great. I love my new(ish) job at Testosterone Muscle, a magazine I admired for 10 years before I finally joined the team this summer.

Kimberly and I were driven like parental sled dogs this December, but I can’t complain about that either. I love the fact our children do things that weren’t available to us when we were growing up. When I was a kid, I got a few karate lessons and could only play sports if my parents didn’t have to drive me back and forth. Kimberly got to do even less. Yeah, it’s a pain to shuttle Harrison to karate twice a week, and Annie to ballet, and Meredith to all the things she’s involved in,…

Tags: Tags: books, Media, personal, publishing