sbhikes

Wow, those "good" numbers are really tough. I've been lifting a year and can't squat or deadlift that much at all, not even close. Oddly my press is in the very good column but I feel it's my suckiest lift by far.

I'm going to disagree with everyone about the ethnicity thing. I think there are a few populations on the planet that are especially unfortunate when it comes to the effects of modern processed foods on their health. People of the arctic are one group. Pacific Islanders are another. I think a good place to start as far as diet goes is to eat closer to what your ancestors might have eaten: a lot of seafood, coconuts and whatever else is native to that region or similar to it. After that, I think you will find strength training to be rewarding and satisfying. I know that I do and I have absolutely no gift for it.

I'm 48. I pop in here now and then.

I lift in a university gym. It turns out the employees there will spot you. You just have to ask and then remind them a million times DO NOT TOUCH THE BAR until I tell you to.

There's a flip-side to the whole women don't get bulky misconception. Based on all the stuff out there trying to reassure me it would be impossible, I have found that it's actually not impossible in the least to get very muscular even without being extraordinarly strong and even without being extraordinarily lean. The amount of muscle I have built in just a few months astonishes me. It pleases me greatly, too.

I'm not an expert but it sounds like you are unlucky. The guy should have shown you what you asked for. You could squat with a 20lb curl bar on your back and not hurt yourself. If you absolutely can't find anybody to help, you could just read a lot of form check posts, video yourself and ask for a form check. Perhaps someone will offer cues that will help you.

What someone suggested to me to lose weight is to pick 3 or 4 exercises and do them consecutively 3 or 4 times without any rest in between after I've done my heavy weight lifting. It should take about 5-7 minutes. Exercises to select from: 10 pushups 10 dips 10 dumbbell snatches 60 seconds of plank 15 situps 5-10 leg lunges 10 dumbbell squats 10 leg curls on a stability ball 10 squat presses 10 squat jumps Pick any 3 or 4 of these. Alternatively, do 8 sprints. I go to the track and sprint the straightaways and walk the curves. This takes about 15 or 20 minutes (guessing, I've never actually timed it). This is supposedly all the cardio you need.

I think I'm really weak on my hamstrings. I have been hellishly sore for a week now after doing RDLs. I think I will keep doing them.

I've found that barbells really do work the best for real strength. The best thing is to have a plan, to never walk into the gym without a plan. I keep a notebook and write down what I'm going to do before I go in, then I check it off while I'm there doing it. If I didn't do that, I'd never make any progress and I'd probably just wander around clueless wasting a lot of time just trying to decide what to do. I do use the lat pull machine. It feels like it is helpful since I'm way too weak to do an actual pullup. I might purchase some bands but so far I haven't done that yet. Other than the lat pull machine, I only use dumbbells, curl bars or barbells. My gym gets really busy so I just wait my turn. By doing barbells I don't have to do a lot of lifts to get the work done so even though it's pretty annoying, I can wait for my turn.

Just barbells are needed. If you aren't strong enough to lift just the bar, you might also need to use the curl bars for a while (the ones with the weight fixed to the bars). I had to start with the curl bars at first, especially for upper-body lifts. Sometimes gyms will have a lighter bar than the normal 45lb bar, but I think that's kind of rare. I've been doing the basic lifts in the Starting Strength program. It's a big challenge to do just those few lifts. I don't even do the power cleans and it's still really tough. I've built up some pretty decent strength considering where I started from and my body is a lot firmer now than it used to be, but not any thinner. My thighs are bigger actually, making my pants tight and uncomfortable in the thigh. Something to consider if that is going to bother you. It doesn't bother me.

I have found this to be true. My doctor claims he is a hiker and yet if I come with any complaints he tells me I shouldn't hike so much. GPs seem to want you to grow old and decrepit.

Don't respond at all. Also, don't wear a pony-tail. Mirrored sunglasses are helpful as well. If it persists, a threat to call the cops is useful. Take pictures, too. Age will cure this, thankfully.

I'm in my late 40s so I'm sure there's a lot going on to cause me various body changes. I managed to lose some weight with a paleo diet but I didn't get very thin. Just barely into the normal range. I've always relied on cardio to get weight off (although, again, I never got very thin, just barely into normal range), but cardio no longer works AT ALL. In October I started lifting weights. I've been kinda frustrated by it because it has not led to any reduction in my girth. If anything, I'm getting bigger. My fat pants are starting to feel tight in the thighs. Also, my ability to gain strength seems to be severly limited. I can get so far and that's as far as I go. (I want to ask a question about that but I can't seem to find the right way to phrase it. People just yell at me over on starting strength and call me stupid.) Anyway, recently I'm noticing that I've had quite a bit of hypertrophy. My wap-wap flabby arms are becoming rock hard. My thighs are boulders. My stomach is fairly flat and what I've considered to be love handles might actually just be those muscles on the sides that bulge out on some people, but disguised by that layer of fat I have that absolutely will not disappear. I pretty much feel different all over my body. I think I actually look better even though by the tape measure I am fatter. I found a place online where you can send your measurements in and they'll make a pair of jeans that fit. Imagine: Jeans with thighs to fit my boulders! I'm waiting for my jeans to come. If they fit, I will be so happy! (Look for Make Your Own Jeans.)

Another option that I have not tried but am considering is to use sand and duffel bags. You can get special sandbags for doing sandbag training. The duffels have extra handles all over so that you can do all kinds of barbell-like exercises. I'm seriously considering trying this since it would be relatively inexpensive (compared to a rack, bar and plates) and could be stored in a small space. I haven't tried it yet because it's a little expensive for the bag and because the barbell lifts I'm doing, some of them are heavier than what you can do with the sandbags. I'm still trying to find a good answer to whether or not lifting super heavy is better than just lifting something that is moderately heavy.

Do Romainian deadlifts really transfer? The other day I thought hey, I'll do some RDLs for fun. Despite now 3 months of deadlifting and getting up to more than my body weight, the light RDLs I did left me so sore I am having trouble bending over to tie my shoes. I, too, was really nervous about trying deadlifts without anyone to show me how. It turned out to be fairly intuitive. I studied Rip's form videos and then went for it. Sometimes I would stack plates to lift the barbell into better position, sometimes not. Stacking the plates meant sometimes when I set the barbell down it would roll off the plates and make an embarrassing clatter, so I started just picking the damn thing off the ground from whatever level it was at.