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When I started doing publicity for The New Rules of Lifting in January 2006, I was surprised by the question I was asked most often: "Can women do these workouts?" I got a different, more urgent version of that question from some female readers: "This is a terrific book. How come you wrote it for men?"

The answer to the first version of the question is "yes, of course women can do these workouts." The answer to the second is, "I didn't think women would be interested in this type of training."

Since The New Rules of Lifting for Women came out a year ago, all is forgiven, and a legion of female lifters have enjoyed the benefits of Alwyn Cosgrove's challenging but rewarding workouts. (Both books came out in paperback last week.)

But I can't help returning to the original question: Why didn't I think women would want to do these workouts? After all, Alwyn and his wife, Rachel, train at least as many women as men at their facility in Newhall, California. And in my travels as a fitness journalist, when I got a chance to visit facilities where elite athletes trained for high-level competition, I never saw men and women segregated into "his" and "hers" workouts. The women did the same things the men did, usually (but not always) with lighter weights, but never with less enthusiasm or intensity.

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A few weeks back, a friend of mine who's in his late 50s emailed to gloat about his success in the weight room. He'd finally abandoned barbell and dumbbell exercises, he told me, and was totally kicking butt on the machines. He even boasted about his ability to use the entire weight stack on the leg-adduction machine.

"Congratulations," I replied. "You're the strongest girl in the gym."

My friend is a gifted athlete who suffers from chronic back, knee, and foot problems. I've tried over the years to convince him that these injuries, in all likelihood, are systemic and related to each other. If my hunch is correct, that means there's a problem that can be addressed with physical therapy and dedicated rehab.

Most likely, such a problem would originate somewhere in his "core" - the chunk of the body that includes the abdominals, spinal erectors, gluteals, and all the other muscles that act on the hips and pelvis. These are the body's biggest, strongest, and, at times, most problematic muscles.

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The New Rules of Lifting, a book Avery released in paperback last week, is the product of a lifetime of mistakes.

I started lifting weights in 1970, to the best of my recollection, and it's entirely possible that I started off with the worst workout program ever designed.

I began lifting for the usual reason someone took up exercise back before it was fashionable, at a time when the cool kids started smoking at 12 and the first faint whiffs of second-hand cannabis smoke occasionally drifted over to our postage-stamp suburban outpost. Something was wrong with my physiology, and I wanted to set it right.

I was a skinny kid - painfully, remarkably skinny. And when I say "remarkable," I mean that literally; total strangers would feel compelled to comment on my extraordinary lack of contractile tissue. The weights were my path to normalcy, the tool that would help me become big enough, strong enough, and fast enough to play sports without embarrassment and remove my shirt at the pool without shame.

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Lou Schuler is one of our guest bloggers during the week of January 5th. If you have any questions for Lou Schuler, add a comment to any of his posts. Here is some more information about The New Rules of Lifting and The New Rules of Lifting for Women.

The New Rules of Lifting, Six Basic Moves for Maximum Muscle:

Ten unique programs for fat loss, muscle gain, and strength improvement for beginners and elite lifters.

Want to get more out of your workout and spend less time in the gym? Many guys devote so many hours to lifting weight yet end up with so little to show for it. In many cases, the problem is simple: They aren't doing exercises based on the movements their bodies were designed to do. Six basic movements-the squat, deadlift, lunge, push, pull, and twist-use all of the body's major muscles. And, more important, they use those muscles in coordinated action, the way they were designed to work.