Smart Girls Do Dumbbells: 30 Minutes, 30 Days, 30 Ways — Develop the Leanest, Healthiest, Sexiest Body You’ve Ever Had

lots of good techniques
I’m old, so have some knowledge in this catagory, but still found new ways to keep this old body as healthy as possible

Motivational but not terribly instructive
Sensible approach, not very clear descriptions of the exercises. I appreciate the motivational style of the book; the author stresses that some exercise each day will yield better results than doing nothing at all, and has designed a workout for people who can’t spend hours at the gym. Her program suggests just one exercise per muscle group each day, alternating upper & lower, with different exercises on alternate days to balance the workout over the week.However, I find her descriptions of the exercises less than ideal if you don’t already know the exercise. Consider the first exercise in the book, the Hamstring Hug. Her instructions say to lie on the floor and gently draw your knee toward your chest. Um, okay… I suppose it’s common sense to straighten your leg to stretch the hamstring, but if you were new to stretching, would you know that? It really should have been mentioned. Or maybe she meant something else. Is it possible to get a good stretch on the hamstring by pulling your bent knee toward the chest? Could be, as she goes on the say that it’s okay if you’re not flexible enough to get your knee very close to your chest. On the other hand, maybe the reader was never supposed to bend the knee at all but pull straight up from the hip? This is just inexcusably sloppy. Exacerbating the problem, none of the stretches or abs exercises are illustrated.The exercises with weights are better because they have pictures, but even these can be confusing. For example, on day 1, she recommends doing V-Backs for triceps. The pictures show before and after, but the description doesn’t explain the motion intended to get the reader from point A to point B. The picture for point A shows a woman standing with feet slightly further apart than hip width, holding weights with her arms akimbo, the weights touching in an “A” in front of her. The picture of point B is from the back, showing the woman with her leg position unchanged, arms straight, arms and legs parallel to each other. The first step in the instructions is “Glue the insides of your upper arms against your rib cage.” This isn’t apparent in either picture. She goes on to tell you to extend your arms behind you. That makes sense, but because the picture of point B is directly from the back, the reader can’t tell how intense the backward thrusting motion should be. The arms look flush with the body, but could be several inches behind her. I couldn’t tell from the picture; as this was a new exercise to me, I ended up skipping it and will eventually ask someone else to show it to me. The poor quality of instruction is especially annoying given the book’s emphasis on the importance of good form.Overall, I give this four stars for passion, one for content. I do find that I’m using her workout guidelines as a quick cheat, but substituting exercises I already know for new ones she’s introduced, or going elsewhere for similar exercises, rather than slogging through her descriptions.

Great program.
Love this program. Very do-able, nothing complicated or expensive, something that you can easily stick with. The 30 day recipes provide enough variety that you won’t get bored, and if you start to feel ‘blah’ in your workouts, you can increase the weight a bit to challenge your body.

Inspiring and helpful!
Nice little book. Lots of good tips and ideas. The author is clear and supportive. I wish the photos were a bit more clear in the movements.

An almost too-catchy title, a Barbie-pink front cover and under-par photos do injustice to this otherwise good manual for resistance and weight training, targeted at women. I bought this book to build and maintain my own resistance training routine without going to the gym. I have earlier worked with good trainers who have taught me correct technique and the use of body weight, free weights, resistance bands and tubes and the Swiss ball. This book is a good companion for motivation and for remembering to do the right exercises in a balanced manner throughout the week.The book is written accessibly. Judith Sherman-Wolin peppers it with stories from her clients and their experiences with exercise failure. She proposes an exercise success triad of virtue comprising knowledge, consistency and results. She recommends the equipment required for this exercise and lists their prices in US dollars which is not very useful for readers like me outside the US. She also address myths related to bulking up.The book could be organised a bit better. For instance, stretches are listed in Chapter 7 and exercises do not appear till Chapter 10. It can be disorienting for users who have not worked out in structured gyms before. The photos could have been better, probably even in colour. However the breathing techniques are explained which are not ordinarily found in many books. For those, who do not want to devise their own routine, the ‘exercise menu’ at the back is very helpful in maintaining a balanced workout with weights.I recommend the book but I should add, just as Sherman-Wolin says, motivation is necessary to get results.

The more I read about this book the more I knew I had to at least buy it and read it. I am still reading it but have already put into practice the programme. As other reviews I would agree about having to flick backwards and forwards to make sure you are following the right exercise and how it should be carried out but once you accept that and not use it as an excuse to give up it’s great (there are ways around that anyway !!). I think that it will be an excellent guide for me for a very long time to come. The instructions are easy to follow and the number of exercises overcomes any thought of becoming bored with the workouts. Having said that Judith Sherman-Wolin does suggest that other like for like exercises may be incorporated for variety so there is an added flexibility to her pre-programmed workouts.

Unsure if this is an original. It looks like poor misprint. The font is so light in places it is nearly impossible to read.