The Year One Challenge for Women: Thinner, Leaner, and Stronger Than Ever in 12 Months (The Thinner Leaner Stronger Series) Paperback – 15 Jan. 2015

This is a massive book with a years worth of workouts and what to do everyday.Think there is a book before this about diet etc and probably need the two in order to do this one... Unless you have a great understanding of exercise. Mine is ok and I've been working out for over 2 years so this is a good book. Still think I need the one before itHowever buy this if you don't know what to do in the gym

I'd lost about a stone and a half in weight then realised that I'd actually lost a fair bit of muscle! After a hunt around the Web, I came across this program from Mike Matthews which seemed to tick all the boxes: 5 weekly workouts (or you can do 3 as he includes that option in the book) with free weights which don't take hours and hours. OK, there are a couple of exercises which require machines (leg press) but the beauty of this program is that Mike answers emails if you have any queries or want to swap one exercise for another: fantastic! I'm now in my 5th week and can see definite changes in body shape and musculature. I've set up a small gym in my garage with a bar, two dumbbells, an incline bench and a squat rack. It wasn't expensive and I find it easy to go out in the morning and train; the workouts vary between 45 and 65 minutes in length. I would have no hesitation in recommending this book if you're self-motivated and want to look good!

I cut the cover off because it's too awful to be seen with in the gym. But the take-home, here, is that I am being seen at the gym! I go five days a week for, maybe, 40 mins and, while I'm still using baby weights, I have noticed a distinct improvement in muscle tone in two weeks and have lost half a stone. And I eat like a horse. I love the precision of the programme (I bought the TLS book and spent a week going through it; recalibrating my macros according to Mike's regime has made a huge difference) and I can see my progression, week to week. I'd prefer that it was spiral-bound, hardcovered and A5 sized because it's getting destroyed in my gym bag and it's too bloody big. Nobody needs pages that huge. However, I'm motivated, I'm (dare I say it?) muscular and I'm holding my own amongst the massive men in the weights room. Who, I might add, are really sweet when it comes to removing all the heavy weights from the barbells.

Great book! I've been doing weight training for 6 or 7 years. I had been using personal trainers (£30/hour) but moved gyms to one with no p/t. Been training myself since using this book - currently on phase 5 week 6 and have followed consistently. I've had good gains though I have to confess my diet isn't perfect. That said, I did manage to drop 3% body fat in the first 6 weeks and have maintained that loss. Only 10 weeks to complete the book!If you're buying this, make sure you buy Thinner, Leaner, Stronger which provides the main information with regard to diet, exercise advice, etc. This book is only a journal with weekly programme, split over 6 x 8 week phases that you use to record your progress.As others have mentioned, you can e-mail Mike with any queries and he does respond.In my opinion, much better than the wildly overrated New Rules for Lifting for Women.

The book consists of pages and pages of workout schedules based on phases and weeks and some nutritional guidance. Good enough and I can work with that.The layout and quality of the print (printed by Amazon) let it down in my opinion. Very basic and it could all have been done by PDF or made available for kindle for a fraction of the price.

I have read all of mikes books - this one & thinner leaner stronger is my favourite. I’ve read thinner leaner stronger 4 times . If you want to gain strength and / or burn fat whilst still having a life this book is for you . I’ve tried every diet , fad & exercise class out there and this is the only thing that’s working for me . Also his podcasts & fb page is so helpful. Highly recommend this guy

Don’t get this until you’ve read the accompanying book by the same author and decided to commit to a year of frequent visits to the gym and heavy weight lifting! Would be really useful log of your workouts if you like the sound of the plan, but otherwise useless on its own. Be warned: you can’t do this at home....gym membership essential

After completing the Body Coaches 90 day SSS, I was looking for something to follow and saw this recommended many times on a Facebook group for SSS. I am 4 weeks in to this program, and although I have past experience of lifting free weights have found OYC extremely easy to follow. The book is laid out week to week, in either 3 or 5 day splits, with room to log your weights and reps, and plenty of space to leave other notes. I highly recommend this book to either starters or more experienced lifters who are after a more structured program. This book should be used alongside the Thinner Leaner Stronger book by Michael Matthews, which debunks many of the myths around lifting and diet, and explains the science behind his reasoning.