She Lifts is a program developed by Mike Samuels and Jason Maxwell specifically for women to suit their different requirements for training, fat loss, strength, and muscle building.
The workouts are designed for all fitness levels and final goals, but always with a view to a better muscle to fat ratio, resulting in an athletic, feminine, sexy look, without the bulk that comes by following generic muscle programs designed for men. This review will tell you how this program works, the good and the bad points.
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The Authors Of She Lifts
There are two authors for this program. One from the UK and the other from Canada.
Mike Samuels is a personal trainer and diet coach from England. His fields of expertise are strength, performance, and fat loss.
In fact, he is a competitive power-lifter, holding the bench press record for under-23 for the South East of England obtained at the Great British Power-Lifting Federation All England Championships.
His qualifications include a level 3 trainer with Premier Global and Dr. John Berardi’s Precision Nutrition coaching award.
Mike Samuels started off his career as a 10K runner but then switched to power-lifting and strength. His training principles are based on progressive overload as he thinks great results can be achieved in the long run by tiny increments each and every workout session, however small they may be.
He is also a keen writer and regular contributor to top fitness magazines like Livestrong, Kettlebell Inc, EliteFTS, STACK, and T-Nation.
Jason Maxwell’s career path is similar to that of Mike, though he started off with a Bachelor of Aerospace Engineering from Ryerson University in Toronto.
While @ the campus, in the free time was trying to overcome his skinny-fat frame with little success until he got workouts and nutrition right, gaining 20lbs of muscle in 6 months while losing fat.
He then went on to get a Master’s level nutrition certification and today is a Certified Personal Trainer under the National Strength and Conditioning Association.
Following his success in the fitness department, he decided to make a career out of it and today he helps people build muscle, lose fat and change their bodies.
What Is She Lifts?
“She Lifts” is a strength training, muscle building, and fat loss program designed only for women. It is not a get-skinny, fat loss kind of program.
Instead, it was created with the aim to rearrange body tissues, or body mass index, to add muscle in the right places while reducing body fat and actually make you look more like a woman, not bulky.
The program contains workout and nutritional guidelines for women intended to completely reshape their physique. As such, it requires commitment and the willingness to put in physical effort and be disciplined, whether it be for fat loss, strength, muscle gains, or all of them.
The problem with men’s programs is that while the basic principles for fat loss and lean muscle building are the same, the way these goals are achieved is different and unsuitable for a feminine outcome.
She Lifts Exercises
For example, men’s workout schedules place an emphasis on big, muscly arms, shoulders, and chest, while women’s interests in the real-life shift toward perky glutes, strong, curvy legs and small waist, or an hourglass figure.
With their strong desire to get as big as possible fast, men’s workouts and nutritional guidelines tend to bulk up their bodies, building not just a lot of muscle but also a lot of fat along the way, which they can later shed with unhealthy cutting practices.
She Lifts contains workout and nutritional guidelines designed to get a sexy, feminine muscle in the right places while losing fat, therefore without bulking up like a male bodybuilder.
How Does It Work?
The program works by tapping into women’s natural physiological response to training which is different from men’s physiology. For example, while less explosive than men, women seem to have a greater capacity for recovery between sets and workout sessions.
This is no novelty, there are many types of research, studies, and empirical evidence pointing to this, as this interesting article from bayesianbodybuilding.com says – worth reading.
This means that women should make the most of what they have instead of imitating typical men’s split routines with one or two body parts spread out in a week. What they should do instead is full-body workouts each and every session several times a week in order to optimize lean muscle growth, metabolism, and fat loss.
She Lifts Workout Schedules
The program workout schedule is flexible and takes into account real-life factors like your free time, so your workout schedule can be organized on a 2x/week, 3x/week,4x/week, and even 5x/week full-body workouts.
This way you can make progress even on the limited time at hand, but generally, the frequency is higher than a men’s schedule, as the whole-body sessions coupled with the higher frequency result in all your muscles being worked out several times a week!
At the very least, you end up training your whole body twice a week. Another advantage is that such workouts are time-efficient, as all the movements are compound, multi-joint exercises like dead-lifts, squats, Bulgarian split squats, bench, military presses, and pull-ups, without time-consuming isolation exercises.
Compound exercises have a terrific effect on your nervous system as well as your metabolic rate and EPOC, Excess post-exercise oxygen consumption or after-burn, a guarantee for sound sleep, recovery, growth, and fat loss even while resting, well after the end of a workout.
While the compound exercises are no different than men’s, the program places an emphasis on problem areas such as thighs and butts. So you’ll end up doing a lot of hip thrusts and squats bum to the floor for a round, perky booty.
Generally, the focus is on glutes, legs, and upper back, with less workload for arms, chest, and shoulder with the idea to naturally enhance your hourglass figure with an extra sexy, athletic edge.
There are 3 exercises in particular designed to modify your physique’s proportions and make your boobs look bigger and your waist smaller.
To summarize, the workouts hit your whole body each and every session and are repeated more frequently throughout the week, while the emphasis of the exercises is on legs, butts, upper back, and a slim waist for a feminine look.
All this while keeping track of nutrition, so as to avoid bulking up with fat as often men do with their programs.
Who Is She Lifts For?
The program was created specifically not just for women in general, but for women with a desire to workout to dramatically change their body composition for permanent results.
This is not a quick-fix to get-skinny-before-you-hit-the-beach plan to be used for a few weeks and then consigned to the dust bin. It’s a professional plan designed as a long term investment for women by two authors who know what works best for them.
It is a solid blueprint that takes your time and a good deal of effort to be implemented, but results are no fluke.
As such, this program is for motivated women who do not like just to get skinny, but rather want to get strong and healthy with lean, sexy muscles in the right places and general low body fat.
This is a plan for women who are prepared to work hard to make it happen or for those who have tried before but have been left disappointed or those still who never tried but are dissatisfied and unconvinced with the priorities of men’s plans.
If you are looking for a women-only fitness, fat loss, strength, and muscle building program that addresses all the particular expectations of women and their unique physiological response to training and nutrition, this is it.
She Lifts PDF And Components
She Lifts is a digital program with many PDF manuals and an online video library that you can access from your phone, PC, or tablet. Here is what you get:
She Lifts Main Manual – The basic information with the workout protocol where you decide how many days per week you should train.
She Lifts Nutrition Guide – All you need to know about carbs, proteins, fats, and calories for a healthy meal planning and feeding your muscles while burning fat.
She Lifts Exercise Video Library – A demonstration video collection with all the exercises of the program to know exactly how to perform them and avoid injury.
She Lifts Getting Started Guide – A quick-start guide before you dig into the main manuals to save time. This booklet helps you decide which program you should follow.
She Lifts Muscle Building Program – An additional workout manual with detailed exercises for muscle building on a 5-day a week schedule. While helpful, this information could be have been included in the main manual rather than separately.
She Lifts Powerlifting Program – This is a workout protocol geared toward strength. It involves a 3-day a week schedule with low-repetition exercises. Again, this information could have been put into the main manual.
She Lifts Fat Loss Program – This is the workout protocol for those women who do not want to add muscle but still want to lose fat. Workouts include weight lifting with different poundage and rest as opposed to cardio.
She Lifts 2x Per Week Strength Program – A schedule for beginners and busy women, the She Lifts 2x/week strength program tells you how to get stronger and leaner without using too much of your time.
She Lifts 3x Per Week Strength Program – Similar to the 2x/week program but more involved, for intermediate women.
She Lifts 4x Per Week Strength Program – An increase in intensity from the previous program for motivated women who can train 4x/week.
She Lifts 5x Per Week Strength Program – The ultimate schedule for women who want to get into their best possible shape.
Bonuses
She Lifts Discovering Yourself Manual – A practical manual that tells you where your fitness level really is and take action accordingly. Again, this information could have been included in the main manual or the quick start guide.
How to Test Your Maxes – The title says it all. Information on how to determine your maximum strength and select poundage for your exercises accordingly.
She Lifts “The Deload Method” – All you need to know about de-loading, aka taking a break from working out to give your body a chance to fully recover and start growing again. This information could have been done as a chapter of the main manual.
Pros and The Cons Of She Lifts
Benefits
The program was designed by two competent authors who know how to train for lean muscle gains, strength, and fat loss.
Flexible program with a variety of schedules to suit social, job, and family commitments. You can workout from 2 to 5 times a week.
Suitable for beginners, intermediates, and advanced.
It rearranges body composition, muscle vs fat, in order to reshape your body.
Effective compound exercises that spur muscle growth and increase metabolic rate and EPOC.
Exercises choice suitable for women, the full-body workouts place an emphasis on feminine parts like legs, glutes, and waist.
60-day money-back guarantee.
Cons
While it is a quite large program, some components could have been merged into one.
No physical format available.
The Bottom Line
She Lifts is a strength, fat loss, and muscle-building program specifically for women. While the compound exercises and training methods are similar to the men’s programs, the frequency of the workouts and the exercise choice is in line with women’s needs.
While the workouts cover all muscle groups, the focus is more on legs, glutes, upper back, and waist, but less on pecs or arms. Even though the frequency of full-body workouts can be surprisingly high comparing to men’s schedules, the program also offers flexibility for women with little time to spare.
The materials are comprehensive and conveniently accessible from your phone, but some parts look excessively fragmented as they could have been joined together.
My name is Deborah Foster and I am a Weight Loss Coach with a background in Nutrition Coaching and Personal Training. I specialize in helping women and men break through the yo-yo diet cycle and lose weight for good, without being miserable in the process.
