Oxygen is Almost Perfect
Written: Jul 07 '00 (Updated May 27 '03)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great articles; geared toward women who weight train
Cons: Too much fitness competition information
The Bottom Line: Great magazine for women serious about fitness.
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| jo.com's Full Review: Oxygen Fitness Magazine |
As of 3/2002 I feel the same way about this magazine. Nothing in the review needs to be updated.
The May/June edition of Oxygen calls itself “serious fitness for serious women.” It is. Not quite in the Muscle and Fitness category; however, but certainly not for novices to the bodybuilding world.
I love this magazine. I waited a long time for it to be invented! It was sorely needed. Most/all of the magazines are geared toward men with a smattering of women inside. (Muscle and Fitness just came out with a woman's magazine. I have not seen it. One store got 4 copies of it and they were gone quickly.) None was totally geared toward women until Oxygen came along.
6 issues cost $19.95 by subscription or $3.99 per copy. If you like it, I suggest subscribing to it because when they come out, they go quickly – at least that’s been my experience. I like so much about this magazine..I’ll try to capture the essence.
The contributing editors are real people –including a female doctor and a male former high school coach.
The Body Watch section is in the style of Self magazine with bits of information rather than lengthy articles. I especially liked the fact they panned the SuperSlow method of weight training (a count of 10 on the up movement of an exercise and 5 on the down) of which I am not an advocate.
Another short bit of information is on Soy: The perfect protein source for women, which although short is informative.
There is the requisite 3 pages of Beauty Watch which I could take or leave, but it does enhance the magazine which otherwise might be too heavily fitness-only oriented.
In the future, based on letters from readers, there will be 12 pages of “hard, bronzed bodies” of men. The verdict will be out on this one for me until I see it.
I’m still looking for the perfect magazine for me. This comes close but with over 20 pages devoted to contests and competition, I don’t quite fit in here either.
In the Work in Progress section, we see a “Fitter Natalie Gaudun in 14 weeks” and she certainly has improved. The fact that she is only 28 and her husband is a personal trainer may have something to do with this!
There is an excellent 4-page article on how to warm up and cool down correctly as well as 10 more pages of pictures and a program which, in my opinion, is excellent for the average person. I really like Oxygen for adding these features and not keeping it totally hard core.
Another excellent article (and these are full-length, not blurbs) runs 5 pages and examines “Dieting Blues”, looking at Atkins, The Zone and others.
The contributing editor M.D. writes an article on Panic Disorder, which is terrific – even more so since she suffers from it! She also cites names of Panic Disorder associations that can be contacted if the reader suffers from panic disorder or the symptoms of it.
You must be very careful when reading this magazine. Look for the Special Reports – it states it is one at the bottom of the page. It reads just like an article but it is actually an advertisement for any number of products. One this month is Hydroxycut, one I am dead set against. This product contains Ephedrine and caffeine as well as other ingredients that can be deadly..watch for this and please don’t buy into it.
There are 3 pages of back routines much like what Muscle and Fitness gives us, with pictures but geared for women and the women in the pictures don’t appear synthetic (or as synthetic) as those in other hard core magazines.
I really like the 5 pages of Super Moms – moms who have managed to fit fitness into their lives. The oldest mom is 43 so that’s a refreshing change.
Also, you will find 5 pages discussing being a chocoholic including, believe it or not, healthy recipes.
In summary, this is an excellent magazine for women who weight train. I don’t think you have to be a bodybuilder to enjoy it. There is enough meat in it to satisfy me and I can skip whatever part of the competition photos I wish.
Other reviews you may be interested in:
Muscle & Fitness
Oxygen
Recommended:
Yes
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