Shape Training: Review by Ruth Silverman, IRONMAN Aug '97

Don’t tell anyone, but this book is about bodybuilding. That’s not so surprising, considering it was written by Robert Kennedy, publisher of Musclemag International, and fitness writer Maggie Greenwood, his co-author on Built! The New Bodybuilding for Everyone. It’s just that most books with subtitles like “The 8-Week Total Body Makeover” don’t start their exercise descriptions with instructions on how to use a squat rack. It’s hard for knowledgeable trainees to believe, but many exercise-and-weight-loss books aimed at women still pander to the fear that they’ll get too muscular if they lift heavy weights. Kennedy and Greenwood know that serious shaping and toning requires serious weight work, however, and in Shape Training they’ve adapted basic bodybuilding principles and techniques in a unique approach to women’s training, based on body type.

Starting with the basic mesomorph, endormorph and ectomorph identified by Dr. William H. Shelton back in the 1940s, the authors expand the concept to six different “frames,” each named for the letter it resembles, and lay out detailed programs designed to create a balanced physique. For example, an A-frame physique is wider on the bottom than the top, with medium-to-large bone structure, slow-to-moderate metabolism and a tendency to develop lower-body fat. For women who resemble that description, Kennedy and Greenwood prescribe a split program with a lower-body routine that features wide-stance barbell squats, close-stance hack squats and 12 to 15 reps on work sets and an upper-body routine that uses six to 10 reps on all exercises. I-frames, on the other hand—small bone structure, lean limbs and trunk, little muscularity, low bodyfat and fast metabolism—do a routine of strictly compound barbell exercises performed with pyramiding weights and
decreasing reps. T-frames—small-to-medium bone structure, shoulder width even with hips, moderate metabolism, full breasts and a tendency to gain bodyfat in the trunk—use an upper-body program of high-rep supersets.

It makes perfect sense, and it’s basically a bodybuilder’s approach to physique rehab. Most of the programs emphasize pyramiding weights and three to four weight-training workouts a week. Each routine uses different exercises, so the book covers a lot of movements and variations, and there’s a complete aerobics schedule for each program. There are also clear demonstration photos of every exercise that were taken by Jim Amentler and feature some of the top fitness athletes and models. I especially like the fact that the women are lifting substantial—if not exactly hefty—weights in the majority of the pictures. For the most part the authors pull no punches in this respect, although an exercise labeled “dumbbell bun burner” that is said to target only the buttocks looks suspiciously like a dumbbell stiff-legged deadlift with butt squeeze.

The book includes excellent guidelines for people who are new to exercising, as well as well-researched material on aerobics choices, nutrition and diet, bodyfat testing, shape training at home, training during pregnancy and a substitution chart for trainees who don’t have access to certain equipment or just want a little variety. In other words, it’s a very complete manual that covers the whys and hows of using progressive-resistance training to build the body of your dreams aimed at a market that’s usually told that two-pound dumbbells can make a difference. Fledgling fitness competitors especially would do well to give this publication a good read before they send in those contest applications, but I recommend it to any woman who’s made the startling discovery that aerobics class isn’t doing much for her saddlebag hips, narrow shoulders or wider-than-it-should be waistline.

Pros: An excellent and complete manual designed to help women reshape their bodies and reap the many great benefits of weight training.

Cons: One might question a couple of the exercise choices, but for the most part it’s difficult to find something too negative to say.