If you know someone who’s into weightlifting, you can ask them to show you. But I thought the directions in the book were pretty clear, so if you follow them carefully — and make sure that you pay attention to stuff like keeping your abs tight and not rounding your back or shoulders.

The two exercises in the first stage you really, really have to watch your form on are the squat and the deadlift, because if you don’t control the bar and make sure you’re engaging your core/keeping your back straight and your shoulder blades pinched back, you can hurt yourself. But you can always practice those with a body bar or dumbbells to make sure you have the form right before you start with the serious stuff.

And don’t discount the diet stuff, especially the part about getting enough calories and protein. I might just be a little freaked out about finding out that when my cat was sick with pancreatitis and hadn’t been eating, her body started stealing protein from her blood, but I want to make sure I have enough protein so something like that doesn’t happen.

It is really, really a shame that a modern guide would include stuff about how lifting weights won’t make you bulky and whatever. I thought that was (excuse me) fucking weird when I saw it in the XBX manuals from the 1960s (”This conditioning program won’t give you visible muscles!” et cetera), but now?! Bizarre.

Also, halfway full of shit for some people, at least. When I went back to lifting after quite a long hiatus, I went from being a flabby size 11 to a lean-and-mean 14. I’ve even got abdominal muscle definition showing up, and that’s never happened before, even when I was 19 and wore a size 9. Yes, weight lifting just might bulk you up. You may even find that you look slimmer and weigh more. Oh noes! My clothes also do look better, but they are, let’s face it, bigger clothes.

Also, am I the only woman in the world who’s really not freaked out by the idea of taking up space? I like being basically the same size as a lot of men are, and what I like even better about that is that on them, it reads as “slight” and on me, it reads as “burly.” I think that’s great. I like being physically intimidating. For one thing, it means that men seldom pull space-based domination routines on me (like the “you’re going to acknowledge my presence by moving for me on the sidewalk” thing). More strength, less aggro, what’s not to like about bulk?

About the only little muscles you should be worrying about are rotator cuffs, because they can gum up the whole works if they blow.

And the best thing about this workout is that you don’t spend forever and a day in the gym. I was in and out in less than an hour, and that included a good deal of stretching, waiting for some equipment and not knowing my way around this particular club.