Lift: How Women Can Reclaim Their Physical Power and Transform Their Lives

Chaker, a former Wall Street Journal reporter, delivers a vigorous introduction to strength training for women. She recalls how a chance encounter with a female bodybuilder convinced her to take up the sport in her early 40s, allowing her to unlearn her belief that “skinny equals success” as she put on muscle and ascended to the level of professional competitor. Encouraging women to follow her lead, Chaker notes that weight lifting combats the aging process by stimulating the production of satellite cells that regenerate muscle tissue and typically decline with age. Her seven-day workout routine recommends targeting the glutes on day one by performing squats with a barbell on one’s shoulders and exercising the pectorals with bench presses on day three. The dietary guidance suggests that middle-aged women who lift regularly should consume about a gram of protein per pound of body weight. The detailed instructions on proper technique for such exercises as donkey kicks, kettlebell swings, and Romanian dead lifts provide all readers need to know before hitting the gym, and Chaker offers fascinating historical background on how the social idealization of thinness has cropped up whenever women push for greater political participation, revealing patriarchy’s desire to “keep women in a more childlike, controlled state.” The result is a valuable resource on bulking up. Agent: Todd Shuster, Aevitas Creative Management. (June)