As described in the NROLFW Overview (suggested prior reading), The New Rules of Weight Lifting for Women is a 6-month strengthening plan. The plan includes 7 Stages, with two Workouts (A and B) for each Stage.

Summaries of Past Stages
Stage 1
Stage 2

Stage 3 – like Stage 2 – is a three week stage. Instead of doing two sets of ten for every exercise though, you do three sets of 6. The goal is to be able to increase weight by decreasing reps. While Stage 2 was leg-heavy, Stage 3 has much more focus on the arms and incorporates a little bit of cross-fit style body weight exercises. Here’s my progress for each exercise:

Stage 3, Workout A (repeated 4 times)

One-armed Dumbbell Snatch
Workout 1: 15 pounds
Workout 4: 25 pounds

Dumbbell Single Leg Romanian Deadlift
Workout 1: 30 lbs in each hand
Workout 4: 35 lbs in each hand

Barbell Bent Over Rows
Workout 1: 15 pounds + bar
Workout 4: 35 pounds + bar

Dumbbell Single-arm Overhead Squat
Workout 1: 10 pounds overhead, 20 pounds in arm in front
Workout 4: 15 pounds overhead, 20 pounds in arm in front
This exercise was a bit unusual. You hold one arm over your head while the other arm is in front of you, slightly raised.

Dumbbell Incline Bench Press
Workout 1: 25 pounds per arm
Workout 4: 35 pounds per arm

Plank
Workout 1: 3  sets of 90 seconds
Workout 4: 3 sets of 90 seconds, feet on a bench and arms on a stability ball

Reverse Wood Chop
Workout 1: 27.5 pounds
Workout 4: 27.5 pounds

Body Weight Matrix
24 squats
12 lunges per leg
12 lunge jumps per leg
24 squat jumps
for time – complete once, rest for approx. twice as long as it took you and repeat
Workout 1: I completed one set in 3 minutes and 28 seconds and the other set in 2.54
Workout 4: I completed one set in 2.45 and the other set in 2.24

Stage 3, Workout B (repeated 4 times)

Barbell Romanian Deadlift/ Bend Over Row
Workout 1: 30 pounds + bar
Workout 4: 35 pounds + bar

Partial Single Leg Squat
Workout 1: 8 pounds per hand
Workout 4: 15 pounds per hand

Wide-grip Lat Pulldown
Workout 1: 90 pounds
Workout 4: 95 pounds

Back Extension
Workout 1: 15 pounds
Workout 4: 30 pounds

YTWL
Workout 1: 5 pounds per arm
Workout 2: 10 pounds per arm
The name of this exercise is weird, but basically it’s a series of shoulder exercises. The name is derived because you make your arms go in the shape of the letters ‘y, t, w, l.’

Swiss-ball Crunch
Workout 1: 10 reps holding a 6 lb. weight overhead
Workout 4: 15 reps holding a 10 lb. weight overhead

Hip Flexion
Workout 1: 10 reps
Workout 4: 12 reps

Lateral Flexion
Workout 1: 12 reps per side
Workout 4: 16 reps per side
During Stage 2 I did this exercise laying directly on the floor, I didn’t feel like I was really using any muscles. For Stage 3, I used a stability ball and felt like I was doing a lot more. 

Prone Cobra
Workout 1: three sets of 90 seconds
Workout 4: three sets of 90 seconds

Overall, Stage 3 went pretty quickly. I’ve decided that prone cobra is by far my least favorite exercise, but that might be because it always feels really difficult. I had to adjust to doing 3 sets of everything instead of only 2, but things stilled moved fast given that I was only doing 6 reps of each move. I enjoyed this stage a lot and am looking forward to Stage 4!

More NROLFW
Overview
Stage 1
Stage 2