Suggested book for weightlifting for females?

[catsrgods]

Spezzy: Ha, let me clarify because I can see how my answers and statements may have been confusing. I have access to a gym and a membership at Crossfit. Crossfit is pretty intense for me at the level of fitness I currently have (I'm 33 and need to lose approx. 70lbs). So, I have committed to going at least once a week for the 6 week challenge and even went three times last week with no issue (hooray!) I went back to the regular gym last Saturday with a female friend and had the most inefficient experience ever!!! We just didn't know what the hell we were doing as far as which exercise to do on what day and how many reps. It also sucked because we both have totally different ideas of what we SHOULD be doing with our time. I was looking for a book that might help me 1) use my limited time at the gym efficiently and 2) give me some idea of how to progress properly to larger weights. You know, like a basic book on lifting weights that breaks down the moves without a lot of fluff. Your suggestion of Starting Strength is totally what I was looking for, actually, and I have read through most of it already.

My attempt at 3 days at Crossfit plus 3 days of weights is a little lofty of a goal because my schedule is inconsistent and I dislike the atmosphere at my local gym, generally. I admit that much of this is due to my own issues with self confidence that I am working to correct. Now that I think about it, perhaps getting into lifting separate of Crossfit isn't an idea I'd like to toy with right now. I have felt good after each workout there, aside from general soreness that was certainly not unexpected after so many years as a sedentary person, and after reading through much of the Starting Strength book I feel that I am being instructed properly on form during these classes.

I appreciate the info from everyone!

[spatzcat]

IMO, I LOVED the book, new rules of weightlifting for women. I found a lot of the exercises concentrated on core strength, and the workouts have a nice progression to move into heavier lifting. I've done the book several times before dropping it and moving into designing my own routines.

I go back to it sometimes, there are a few workouts in the book that I just loved.

I am actually do the final cut from the book right now, and just loving it. I had done the book 2 or 3 times, but never made it to the last pages....I stopped for awhile to do a 5x5, but I want to finish it, so I can say i did.

the final cut is very intense and works your shit out all over the place.

[Hermione Gainser]

Maybe my specific dataset is poor, but I have found working with people who have worked through new rules of weightlifting for women are generally more confused, have more questions, and their form isn't as good as the people I've worked with who have gone through other books.

I would agree with this. Not in that I've worked with people, in that, I tried NROLFW and I felt pretty confused. The discussion of form isn't great (specifically b/t deadlifts and squats other than bar placement) and my form didn't improve until I started looking at other sources. I stopped NR because I felt like there was a lot of unnecessary stuff in there. Once I started spending more time on here it became quite clear that the workout system was overcomplicated. The information in the book, in general, is good but I don't think it's anything you can't find here.