Authors: Steve & Becky Holman
Editorial Quality: 2.5 out of 5
Effectiveness: 4.5 out of 5
Price: 4.5 out of 5
Ease of use: 4 out of 5
We liked
- The great workout plan
- Focus on motivation
- Fit for weight loss and body building
We didn’t like
- The layout of the ebooks
- Little interest on nutrition
Summary
The Old School New Body program is made for couch potatoes trying to get in shape. It offers great workout advice and works out both for the fitness beginner and the gym know-it-all. Although a little less comprehensive on the nutrition side, we highly recommend it for the great workouts.
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Have you ever wished that you could totally change the way you look? Many people have, but very little of that desire has to do with your facial features.
Most of the people that want to change their appearance are thinking about their body.
Whether you have a very skinny body or a body with a bit extra fat, there’s always something you want to change. Finding a good program to help you shape your body is important, as it will allow you to pack on the muscle or lose weight – whichever your goal may be.
That’s what the Old School New Body book promises to do. In this Old School New Body review, we’re going to find out everything you need to know about this workout and diet program designed to help you shape your body!
What is Old School New Body?
Old School New Body is a complete program meant to help you change your eating and workout habits, with the goal of shaping your body just the way you want it. It comes with all the workout and exercise routines you could ask for, along with nutritional information to help you follow a proper diet.
It uses the Focus-4 Exercise (F4X) protocol, which is meant to help increase metabolism and reduce the risk of injuries during workout. The program combines weight training with cardio exercise, promoting fat burning and muscle building. It’s even great for those who are getting on in years – both of the writers of the book are in their 50s!
The Mind Behind Old School New Body: Steve and Becky Holman
If you’re worried that this workout and diet program is a scam, take a look at the bios of the authors of the program.
Fitness Authors
Steve started weight training at 15 as a skinny 119-pounder and has been training ever since (more than 35 years). He has written more than 20 books on weight training and nutrition and has also penned hundreds of articles on building muscle and burning fat.
Becky has been working out on and off for more than 20 years, but she lapsed in her 30s while raising her two daughters. In her 40s she became fed up with her overweight appearance and made a radical physical transformation in only a few months (her story is part of the e-book Old School New Body).
She is now a regular contributor of lifestyle- and nutrition-based items to IRON MAN magazine, and Steve has been IM‘s Editor in Chief for more than 25 years.
As you can see, both of the book’s authors have years of experience under their belts, so they’re the real deal! It’s definitely not a scam, and it’s a book worth reading if you want to lose weight.
This workout program is definitely worthwhile as it is one of the cheapest out there. It’s almost half the cost of the Adonis Golden Ratio program!
Old School New Body Review
None of the other Old School New Body reviews take a close look at the book itself, but we’re going to dive right in and share some of the secrets of this workout program with you.
The Old School New Body Exercises and Workouts
Before we get into the diet section, we’re going to look at the most important part: the workouts.
What is F4X Protocol?
- Choose a weight that you can lift with moderate difficulty. You should be able to reach 15 reps.
- Instead of doing sets of 15 reps, ONLY do 10 reps per set.
- Do four sets of 10 reps each.
- Rest for 35 seconds between sets
This may sound easy, and for the first set it will be. However, as you progress through the last three sets, the difficulty will increase. By the time you reach Set 4, your muscles are going to be straining hard.
Why is this an effective training method?
First off, the strain on your joints is greatly reduced, meaning there is a much lower risk of injuring yourself while working out. You can push your body hard at the gym without adding so much weight that your wrists, elbows, knees, and back suffer as a result.
Second, you work out all of the fibers in your muscles:
Your red slow twitch muscle fibers have a lot of strength, but very little energy. They do most of the work during the first set.
Your red fast twitch muscle fibers have less strength but more energy, and they’ll engage during Set 2 and 3.
Your white fast twitch muscle fibers have very little strength, but are packed with energy. They end up working during Sets 3 and 4 when your muscles are very tired.
As you progress through the 4 sets of workout with light weight, you hit all of the muscle fibers for a complete, effective workout!
The Old School New Body workout plan isn’t for those people who don’t want to train hard. This isn’t also for people who believe that they could change their bodies in just 3 days. Lastly, this F4X Program isn’t for people who still cling to the weight loss myths.
The workout calls for less rest between sets, meaning you get through your workout more quickly. Not only does this help you to get in and out of the gym more quickly, but it causes a cardiovascular effect.
As you blast through the different movements with less rest, your heart rate never drops below 110 to 120 BPM, ensuring that you burn more calories as you work out.
You’re working out with a weight that’s light enough for your body to use without risk of injury, but heavy enough that it pushes your muscles hard. It’s an ideal workout that will force you to work out to full intensity, but it’s not a long, drawn out workout.
It’s meant for speed and maximum results, making it a supremely effective workout to help you build muscle mass AND tone your muscles at the same time.
The F4X Workouts
Here are some of the Old School New Body exercises you will do:
- Squats (the best for your thighs)
- Incline or regular bench presses (works your chest and triceps)
- Bent-over rows (works your shoulders, arms, and back)
- Dumbbell Upright Rows (works your shoulders and arms)
These four exercises are the mainstay of the F4X workout, which you will do three days a week.
Fitness Blogger
“This program is not born out of luck. It’s a product of two people who, just like you and me, wanted to achieve a body but dislike working long hours in the gym. One of them has been the editor-in-chief of the leading fitness magazine in the world, the Iron Man magazine.” – Andrea Ostine
The purpose of training only three days per week is to give your muscles time to repair after the workouts. You’re going to be pushing them hard, so they’ll need no less than 48 hours to recover.
Contrary to what you might think, working out the same muscles every day is not a good idea. It can lead to muscle damage, reduced muscle growth, and even a greater risk of injury.
On the days that you don’t lift weights, you’ll do cardio work. That means you can:
Run
Either on a treadmill, in a park, or on the streets. Running/jogging is one of the best forms of cardio exercise.
Cycle
Either on a stationary bike or a regular bike. Cycling takes a toll on your legs, but it’s less intense for your upper body.
Use the Elliptical Machine
It’s not as effective as running or cycling, but it’s still a good choice for easy cardio.
Swimming
Swimming does push your upper body hard, so it could actually negate the effects of your workout if you don’t rest.
These types of cardio will help you to keep up the fat burning, and will improve your overall shape. The more fat you burn, the more the muscle you are building will show through! As you read through the book, you’ll find a lot of advice on how to do the workouts as effectively as possible.
There is a lot of helpful information that will help you to customize your workouts according to your body type, current fitness level, and ultimate goals, so it’s worth reading through the material carefully!
Joint Pain
After the exercise chapter, we get into a chapter on joint pain. Joint pain is actually fairly common among bodybuilders and athletes, even those who maintain proper form and work out properly. It’s just the strain on joints that causes deterioration of the cartilage in certain areas, which can lead to pain.
This chapter gives information on how to work out properly in order to reduce joint pain, specifically how to maintain proper form as you perform the exercises above. It also gets into how the food you eat can affect your joints, dealing with topics like celiac disease, arthritis, and other causes of joint inflammation.
Motivation
The next chapter is dedicated to the mind, the most important organ for a successful workout program. The chapter gets into the mental discipline required for weight loss and muscle building, including tips and tricks to help you stay focused. These include:
- Find the reason why you want to get in shape
- Plan your weight loss
- Identify the habits that stop you from reaching your goals
- Replace those bad habits will good, productive habits
More Transformation Tricks
After this, the book goes on to detail more tricks and tips to help you lose weight and get in shape with the F4X method, including:
- Doing cardio after blasting through that tough workout
- Spending more time walking around throughout the day
- Sleeping more every night
- Having sex more often (it works!)
- Eating meals properly without skipping
- Drinking more water
- Adding more fruits and veggies to your diet in order to get more fiber
All of these tricks are simple, yet supremely effective!
F4X Shape Workout
Once you’ve completed the F4X Lean workout for a few weeks, you’ve probably begun to see weight loss results. Now it’s time to start building muscle and getting your body into the shape you want.
The workout focuses on toning the muscle, not just building raw strength. It’s a simple workout, involving a lot more exercises, including:
- Deadlifts (for your back and glutes)
- Dumbbel Flys (for your chest and triceps)
- Cable Pulldowns (for your back and arms)
- Machine Rows (for your back and arms)
Of course, all of the exercises in the F4X Lean workout are included in this program, ensuring you continue getting the results you want!
You’ll find that the book is loaded with helpful advice and information, making it easy for you to follow the workout program.
It will help you not only know how many sets and reps of each exercise to do, but how to maintain proper form, work out at the proper speed, rest the proper amount of time between each set, and avoid injury while kicking your fitness into high gear.
The F4X Diet
The beauty of the diet plan promoted by this book is that is so simple! You can learn how to eat right for weight loss without totally overhauling your diet, or cutting out your favorite foods altogether.
The diet section gives you a lot of information on proper nutrition. It takes on such issues as calorie consumption, nutrients, healthy fats and carbs, proteins and how to eat for maximum weight loss.
Once you get through the diet information, the book has a diet guide for you to follow–complete with meal plan and portion sizes. You’ll find that it’s easy to plan your weekly meals just by following the information in this book.
What We Think of Old School New Body
What’s the result of our Old School New Body reviews? In our opinion, what do we think of this program?
It’s worth the download, and you’ll love the simplicity of the book. It’s a program that will walk you through the complicated process of losing weight and getting in shape, but without all the fancy jargon that you usually read on bodybuilding websites. The program is meant for simple people like you and me, and you’ll find it’s very effective!
We’re Not Fond Of
The Layout
It can be a bit difficult to follow along with the book in digital form, as the layout is more oriented to a print book. You may find yourself struggling to follow the text, and there are some iffy graphics used.
Fluff
There’s a lot of information in the book that would have been better left out. It gives a lot of details into the personal lives and family of the authors, which wasn’t necessary and actually kind of detracts from the book.
We Love
The Illustrations
For newbies to weightlifting and fitness, the book comes with an illustrated guide to doing each exercise. Not only does it have a text walk-through, but it shows you the proper form to maintain as you do the exercises. This will ensure that your risk of injury is greatly reduced, and you’ll learn how to do the basic exercises easily.
The Versatility
The F4X workout program comes with workouts for anyone, no matter how basic or limited their experience. You can find barbell workouts to do at home or the gym, dumbbell workouts, cable machine workouts, and so on.
The workout routines are meant to be done in a simple home gym or in a professional gym with all the weights and machines you could want. It’s very versatile, making it easy to do no matter who you are.
The Detailed Information
With weight loss and diet being such a complex topic, it’s hard to know what you need to do to get in shape. Thankfully, this book breaks it down and makes it very easy to understand. There is a wealth of information that will help you understand everything you need to know about losing weight by following the F4X method.
Conclusion
Need a diet plan to help you achieve proper weight loss? The Old School New Body program offers everything you need to get you to the finish line! It’s worth checking out.
Overall rating: 3.5 out of 5
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